Bella, 3 year old, Hospitalized With Kidney Damage September 07
Sonja Fishel, New York, NY

Bella became suddenly ill, and now hospitalized with a damaged kidney her life threatened, due to Smoke House Chicken Tenders.

This was the first time I bought the Smoke House treats. Having read the label, it was listed as all natural, no additives, dyes etc. The treats were purchased on or about August 17. She loved them and I was happy because she typically only likes one treat. By August 23 she vomited bile, and again on August 24. Her personality began to change becoming lethargic, wanting to stay in her bed, loss of appetite. Excessive drinking, urinating frequently in excessive amounts. Urine became orange like in color. By August 28 she was severely dehydrated and lost one of her three pounds.

Ali, sickened August 2007
Jennifer Boemmel, York, PA

My name is Jennifer Boemmel and I live in York, PA. I bought a bag of the Bestro Chicken Jerky Treats from Walmart and fed them to my healthy four year old Italian Greyhound, Ali. She had a very large(grand mal) seizure after eating a decent amount of these treats one day. Normally she doesn't eat more than one or two per day however, my three year old nephew was over and gave her some to be nice to her. I took her to the emergency room and after a lot of ruling out other options and bloodwork, they couldn't determine the cause of her seizure and decided it must be epilepsy.They gave me a prescription for valium in case more seizures occurred. I was devastated by the news as a few years ago I had an Italian Greyhound puppy who at ten months died of epilepsy. I also noted to the vet that the only thing different for Ali were these Bestro treats from Wal-Mart. They were a brand I had never purchased before. The vet assured me that chicken strips couldn't cause seizures. Of course, at that time no one knew they were contaminated.

A few days went by where Ali acted completely normal. I fed her another chicken jerky strip another seizure followed. I stopped feeding her the treats since I was a veterinary technician of nine years and decided she must be having some sort of reaction to these treats. Time has gone on and now I find out about the melamine in these treats. I have copies of all of her vet bills, all of her bloodwork, and also the bag with remaining chicken jerky treats in it.

I had tried to find out what I could do especially because I believe Walmart knew these treats were tainted and continued to sell them anyway. Who knows how many pets out there suffered like Ali or worse, died?

Lucky for me, the day I stopped feeding her the treats, the seizures have stopped. That was August of 2007 and Ali is doing great 9 months later. My heart goes out to those that lost their pets!