# Acana & Orijen Lawsuit



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

The more of these I read about the happier I am to cook for my dogs! I am sorry for the concerns this raises for those of you who use those brands.


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

I fed Frosty Orijen and Acana for his first year. I'm going to read about taking part in this lawsuit.


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## Bevvie (Jun 17, 2017)

Yikes! It’s so hard to try to make sense of much that’s “out there” these days. 

Thanks Viking Queen for sharing the info on the lawsuit. I tried to read thru the the lawsuit and follow the links they provided in it as evidence of the high levels of heavy metals in Orijen and Acana. One of those links was to Champion Petfoods and their explanation and findings of the heavy metal levels contained in their products. The first obstacle was converting ug (microgam) to mg (millogram) per kg to try and understand an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, the lawsuit says 1066 ug arsenic in the product which converts to 1.066 mg. Champion reports .89 mg in their average dog food. They also say that the FDA maximum tolerable limit of arsenic per mg is 12.5 per kg. 

This is the link that was provided in the lawsuit to Champion and their breakdown/explanation of heavy metals: 
http://www.championpetfoods.com/wp-...hampion-Petfoods-White-Paper-Heavy-Metals.pdf

Now a scientific mind I am not so by no means am I able to make sense of this. The numbers as stated in the lawsuit look incredibly horrible at first glance (because they’re ug). I suspect this lawsuit will require some high-level chemistry experts to tear it apart before all is said and done. 

In the meantime, I remain completely confused and, as Lily said, happy that I home-cook for Copper. I do offset his home cooking with a small amount of kibble as he seems to like it but not in preference to his home cooked food. Started out with Orijen puppy kibble (along with home cooking) but he went off it quite some time ago so switched to Weruva – which he seems to like as an occasional between meal nibbling.


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## galofpink (Mar 14, 2017)

Recalls are easy to understand. This news not so much. 

I'm currently feeding Acana, so have to do some reflection and consideration. Home-cooked certainly does keep edging its way into my mind; it's the time commitment to figuring it out and actually cooking it/packaging it that keeps holding me back. I think I'm a good cook, but I really don't like it.

Back to Champion: Are these levels generally safe? Where are the metal levels coming from? Is this a mountain out of molehills scenario? Are they legitimate claims? Or is this a lets try to get rich scheme?

The US food has tested as such, but does the Canadian line test the same? I don't know. We do have a different product line than what is available in the US. As far as I know, the US line is made in Kentucky and the Canadian line is made in Alberta. Does this change anything? Can I trust this food and company?

I'll have to do some serious digging before I can understand this all...


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

Well, this is disappointing. I just got a sample bag of Acana Lamb & Pear for Archie and he loves it.

Between this and the Blue Buffalo lawsuit, I'm really confused about lead and heavy metals in pet food and the implications for dogs (especially those of us who have smaller dogs). It's all very complicated and I hope we can get some clarity on it soon so I know what's safe. Even this article doesn't seem to know if the levels found in Champion Pet Foods are actually harmful or not.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Oh boy, I know these are popular brands that people trusted - until now.

I'm so glad I home cook Babykins food - all human grade. I used to feel a little upset that I had to prepare her food due to her allergies/ intolerances - but now I'm glad I do. I've also slowly figured out how to streamline my food making so it's less work - its still far more work than opening a can or measuring out kibble.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

galofpink, Skylar is right that you figure out ways to make home cooking more efficient as you go along. I will say that home cooking made me buy a freezer (which I never thought we needed for two people) and a vacuum sealer, but once you have a system organized it isn't all that complicated.


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

lily cd re said:


> galofpink, Skylar is right that you figure out ways to make home cooking more efficient as you go along. I will say that home cooking made me buy a freezer (which I never thought we needed for two people) and a vacuum sealer, but once you have a system organized it isn't all that complicated.


Complete nutrition is what I worry about the dog. He is a carnivore after all so it would have to be at least 70%? Meat. yesterday I made him a meal, it was lean ground pork with wild rice, some calf liver and just your run of the mill mixed veggies, all human grade. Ohh and I add 1 egg in it, now this will feed him about 3 meals. But I feel I am missing something. I do add some herring oil and a probiotic to it. I don't cook often for him but think I should. I have a giant freezer, cost wise will be puny but nutrition wise, I am not so sure, I salute you for feeding 3 large dogs!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

asuk said:


> Complete nutrition is what I worry about the dog. He is a carnivore after all so it would have to be at least 70%? Meat. yesterday I made him a meal, it was lean ground pork with wild rice, some calf liver and just your run of the mill mixed veggies, all human grade. Ohh and I add 1 egg in it, now this will feed him about 3 meals. But I feel I am missing something. I do add some herring oil and a probiotic to it. I don't cook often for him but think I should. I have a giant freezer, cost wise will be puny but nutrition wise, I am not so sure, I salute you for feeding 3 large dogs!


The main thing that stands out as missing is calcium.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

asuk, here is my recipe and yes as Skylar noted you need a good amount of calcium (I use bone meal). However dogs are not obligate carnivores (cats are) so it isn't just a big bowl of meat. I know this recipe is nutritionally complete since it was complied using a computer program (that I don't have since it isn't available for Macintosh) by PF member Firestorm.


FOR A 45 POUND DOG PER DAY (divide into two portions)

8 oz chicken (I use boneless, skinless legs and thighs from Costco and sometimes add chicken hearts)
0.75 cup macaroni (I use whole grain rotini or penne) 
4 chicken livers
3 teaspoons bone meal
2 scoops (scoop being 1/8 tsp.) kelp powder
3 cups spinach (I use bagged organic mixed spinach, kale and chards from Costco and grind it with water in a nutribullet_
0.5 teaspoon canola oil
0.5 tsp cod liver oil (I use mega red krill oil)

For changes, if you eliminate the cod liver oil, the recipe provides 0% of the daily recommended serving of Vitamin D. You could replace it with a vitamin D supplement. This is what I have done.

Eliminating the liver and replacing it with chicken meat makes the recipe low in Copper, Zinc, Selenium, B5, B12, and Choline. I have not found a replacement yet, but you might be able to.

Of course, you can replace the fish oil with another omega 3 source.

The recipe is for 1083 calories of food, it's one day’s food for a hypothetical 45lb dog.

The kelp powder, a scoop is 1/8 teaspoon, so it's really tiny. If you are substituting Vitamin D for the cod liver oil, you'd need 200 IU per day for that amount of food.


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

@catherine, bone meal? Specifically for pets? I do give him crushed egg shells, won't this count as calcium? I figured if I feed him raw bones every 2nd day, won't he be good for calcium? I tried giving him raw bones daily but he is straining to poo a bit when I do.


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

> Is this a mountain out of molehills scenario? Are they legitimate claims? Or is this a lets try to get rich scheme?


Unless there is a LOT more to what I have read, or a local manufacturing facility based in the USA that has dropped the ball, this is yet another waste of the courts time, created by greedy lawyer$ and/or some folks looking for a hand out. Often it's just a case of people being badly informed, or terribly misguided. This seems to be quite common in the pet food world. 



> One of those links was to Champion Petfoods and their explanation and findings of the heavy metal levels contained in their products. The first obstacle was converting ug (microgam) to mg (millogram) per kg to try and understand an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, the lawsuit says 1066 ug arsenic in the product which converts to 1.066 mg. Champion reports .89 mg in their average dog food. They also say that the FDA maximum tolerable limit of arsenic per mg is 12.5 per kg.


Bingo! 

Before anyone gets all excited over this info, you really ought to read the info posted previously, in the following link. 

http://www.championpetfoods.com/wp-...hampion-Petfoods-White-Paper-Heavy-Metals.pdf



> All heavy metals in ORIJEN and ACANA are from natural sources and not from artificial or industrial sources. All heavy metal results for ORIJEN and ACANA are well below the maximum tolerable limits set by the NRC Committee on Mineral and Toxic Substances in Diets and Water for Animals.
> 
> In conclusion, the heavy metals reported in ORIJEN and ACANA foods do not lead to adverse effects or food safety concerns for dogs and cats, and results are reinforced by Champion’s 25 years of excellence and international leadership in companion animal nutrition.



Human grade food is no different, fresh fish pulled right out of the ocean, typically contain some heavy metals. This is why pregnant and/or breast feeding women should restrict the quantity of fish they consume, and also avoid those species of fish that are known to be high in mercury. That doesn't mean that fresh fish is bad for humans, quite the opposite!

Our local water supply is pulled from a river that flows through our city, and that starts in the high country of the Rocky Mountains. It contains low level (trace) amounts of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper, etc. I suspect that most if not all of you gasping at this news, have the same trace elements in your drinking water, as they are all very common in natural bodies of water. And just for the record I have owned long-lived healthy dogs that lived close to 20 yrs, drinking this water daily. 

I've also been feeding both Acana and Orijen for over a decade.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

VikingQueen, I am so grateful you posted this and started the thread!


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

Thanks for sharing this perspective. This headline is quite alarming as my family dog Belle has been eating Acana for over 7 years. I am quite proud to feed an Alberta-made kibble and am planning to feed Acana to my future mpoo.


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## Charleeann67:) (Nov 6, 2017)

Lily, Skylar and anyone else feeding home cooked, could you share some of your "recipes"?
Of course, I just transitioned Rudy to Orijen puppy and bought a 2nd bag!


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

Spicandspan - it is meant to be alarming. That's how these groups work, knee jerk reactions often founded on non-scientific hyperbole. For all anyone here knows this could have been started by someone associated with another dog/cat food manufacturer. It's not like that sort of thing has never happened before. 

Homemade foods made from human grade seafood based raw ingredients contain these same elements, as do many other raw ingredients, including those grown in ones own garden. 

Sometimes one just has to put things into perspective. A manufacturer that uses natural raw ingredients, such as fresh fish, can only guarantee minimum/maximum levels, as these natural elements can and do vary from season to season. A fish taken during the end of spawning season will have less fat on and in its flesh than one taken prior to spawning, which will have direct impact on the quantity of heavy metals such as mercury. As long as they are within safe limits that have been set forth by associations such as the NRC, I am personally fine with that. The NRC et al always tend to err on the side of caution.


I currently work with a gent who spent almost 25 yrs working at a local Ralston Purina plant, they had govt agents (CFIA) inspecting and analysing their facility and samples on a weekly basis. According to him the health and safety regulations were uber aggressive, far more so than the human grade fish oil gel-cap plant that he later worked at. He told me that he would eat the Purina kibble to show people how clean & safe it was, but after what he saw at the fish oil gel cap plant he will never swallow another gel cap for as long as he lives. Human grade ..... meh. lol


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

BTW - Champion petfoods has already filed a motion to dismiss this class action lawsuit, and from what I have seen thus far I expect they will be successful. 

Not far west of where I am sitting the wolves still run free. Outside my office window I can see coyotes, foxes, deer, and occasionally moose. All of these wild animals, including the wolves found further west of us, are exposed to the same heavy metals that referenced to in this lawsuit. These heavy metals are found in the air, water, and the dirt beneath their paws. My guess is the folks behind this lawsuit have probably never seen a wild dog.


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

IMO a more accurate spin on this lawsuit, and the "testing" company behind the lab report numbers in this lawsuit. Some interesting info ......

https://humboldtpetsupply.com/blogs/news/our-look-into-the-champion-petfoods-lawsuit


More on the Clean Label Project, where Ol Roy received a 5/5 star rating, and Fromm got a 1. 

https://www.petfoodindustry.com/blo...-rating-site-misleading-to-pet-food-consumers

https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/b...ses-of-a-Dog-Food-Review-Project-21790-1.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kavins...are-us-about-our-childrens-food/#61bb365f71e9



The only lawsuit that I'd like to see come out of all of this, is where a company such as Clean Label gets taken to the cleaners by some of the manufacturers that they are rating. Perhaps toss a few ignorant lawsuit happy consumers into the mix just to make a point. Many of the "truth about" type blogs are nothing more than fear mongering groups spreading misinformation, with often little to no fact checking. Unfortunately, as seen on this forum and others, many people read that misinformation, lose all common sense, and in the end the real losers are their pets.


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## Bevvie (Jun 17, 2017)

Thanks for posting the links RD. Just as much as there information, there is also mis-information out there. Very difficult to navigate at times. 

With respect to Arcana, I found the lawsuit to be extremely misleading - intentionally using eye-popping measurements to instil fear in pet owners. Dubious tactics that always require further research. 

There has never been a recall of either Arcana or Orijen products, they have 100% control over their mftg process and do not produce pet food for any other brand, company, or private label. I've heard of quality breeders who are invited to tour their facilities and come away quite impressed.

I understand they are building another plant in Alberta ready for 2019. Given the close proximity to that famous Alberta beef, I'm sure this will be on the menu. 
https://globalnews.ca/news/3458509/...o-create-hundreds-of-jobs-in-parkland-county/


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

Thanks for the link, I live just a couple hrs south of their current facility and I have heard similar comments from those that have toured the facility. I hate seeing a company with such high standards getting smeared like this.

It appears that some of those from the "raw" community have asked the same questions about the validity of data from the Clean Label Project. Interesting.

https://therawfeedingcommunity.com/...label-project-listen-to-concerned-pet-owners/



.


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## Bevvie (Jun 17, 2017)

Thx RD. Definitely appreciate your pov on this. Especially when the lawsuit "data" is supplied by a very dubious entity called Clean Label and Ellipse Analytics (both one and the same).


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## MatildaTux (Jun 1, 2018)

Definitely interesting. I will certainly be following the lawsuit. We feed our beagle mix Orijen and then Acana. He passed away in February of urethra cancer. I wonder if there is a connection. At this point I will reserve judgement although I am pleased we decided to feed our Spoo something different.


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

> He passed away in February of urethra cancer. I wonder if there is a connection.


I'm sorry to hear that. 

I honestly don't know how anyone that has read the (cough-cough) evidence provided thus far, could even consider that there could be a potential health connection to a dog that has become sick, and/or died, while eating this food. 
The facts thus far is there is no evidence, zero, zilch. There also hasn't be any kind of recall. Nothing. 

The reality is that thousands of dogs across North America die every day, from a myriad of health reasons, all while eating some form of food, be it raw, kibble, or homemade. 


Our last poodle that passed away was 17 yrs old, and lived a full life up to the bitter end (died from heart failure) and ate Acana for the last decade or so. Should I blame the food too? Maybe start a class action here in Canada? 

Sheesh


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## MatildaTux (Jun 1, 2018)

RD. said:


> I'm sorry to hear that.
> 
> I honestly don't know how anyone that has read the (cough-cough) evidence provided thus far, could even consider that there could be a potential health connection to a dog that has become sick, and/or died, while eating this food.
> The facts thus far is there is no evidence, zero, zilch. There also hasn't be any kind of recall. Nothing.
> ...


I don't disagree with you one bit. I've read a little more and it seems very week. The "evidence" from the Clean Label Project, which rated Orijen as a 1 star and Alpo as a 5 stars. Doesn't seem like a trusted source to me. I'm certainly interested to see the outcome.

American society tends to be more litigious than us Canadians and if a lawsuit came here, I can't see myself joining in.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Another recall ... another reason I feed my spoo a large variety of human grade and mostly raw food. This is very sad. Although there may not be a lot of evidence yet .... do people get refunds when they return the food to the store? And then do the stores get a refund also? What a hassle for them to have to deal with.

Hoping all of your babies are well.


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## RD. (Jul 19, 2016)

There is NO RECALL from this company. None, zero, zilch, nada. 



FYI - _human grade food_ is recalled all the time, a voluntary recall or government triggered recall takes place somewhere in North America pretty much every week. As an example, just look at the past few months in Canada.

*Food Recall Warnings and Allergy Alerts
*
Food Recall Warnings - High Risk - Canadian Food Inspection Agency


The USA is no different.

*FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts
*
https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls/




I'm all for consumer groups sniffing out dog food companies that need to have their chain yanked, but honestly some of you need to get more educated on the subject of dog nutrition, and overall food safety. Human grade is no different than the vast majority of raw ingredients being used by Champion foods.


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## Viking Queen (Nov 12, 2014)

kontiki said:


> Another recall ... another reason I feed my spoo a large variety of human grade and mostly raw food. This is very sad. Although there may not be a lot of evidence yet .... do people get refunds when they return the food to the store? And then do the stores get a refund also? What a hassle for them to have to deal with.
> 
> Hoping all of your babies are well.


Having worked in a locally owned pet store I can answer a couple of questions. Any time food is returned, for whatever reason, the store issues a refund to the consumer. In turn, the manufacturer issues a refund to the store. This is regardless of the reason for the return, if the dog won't eat it, if it makes the pet sick, and of course, if it is buggy or spoiled when opened, yes that does happen. When perfectly good food was returned in it's original packaging, after we received a refund, then we donated the food to the local food bank. Pallet loads were donated each month. This allows people who are having a hard time making ends meet keep their pets.

Sometimes if there is a recall we were required to return all of the recalled food to the manufacturer, other times they wanted it destroyed. When we destroyed it we did so in a manner which prevented it from ever being used, so that dumpster divers could not use or resell the food......it was completely taken out of the food chain.

It is a HUGE hassel for stores to deal with. The worst was a recall on a major manufacturer of frozen pet food. It was really a mess to deal with disposing of that! Hundreds and hundreds of pounds of that. We had to hold it in locked freezers until the manufacturers rep. Could verify what we had and issue the credits then we actually had to time disposal in our dumpsters until immediately before the trash company did their pickup. It was a mess.


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