J.M. Smucker Co. is pulling back some of its shipments after a television news investigation found that some of the company’s dog food tested positive for a drug used for euthanasia.
The company is having shipments of wet canned Gravy Train, Kibble 'N Bits, Skippy and Ol' Roy foods returned to the the company, The Associated Press reported.
The move came after Washington, D.C.-based television station WJLA tested 15 cans of the Gravy Train brand and found 60 percent, or 9 out of the 15 cans, tested positive for the drug pentobarbital.
The station's investigation started after a woman said that shortly after feeding Evanger's pet food to her five dogs, they were falling over and convulsing in 2016. She sent the rest of the dogs' food and the remains of one of the dogs for testing, where the dog was found to have been poisoned by dog food and that the food contained pentobarbital, WJLA reported last week.
In 2017, Evanger's recalled a batch of its Hunk of Beef food because it was exposed to the drug.
Smucker's officials, which doesn't produce Evanger's, told WJLA that it was investigating the results of the station's investigation on its food and are working with suppliers.
Smucker’s officials said this week that the low amounts of the drug found in the station’s investigation is not a threat to pets.
WJLA reported that their test showed non-lethal levels but any amount of the drug is not permitted according to federal law.
"However, the presence of this substance at any level is not acceptable to us and not up to our quality of standards," Smucker's officials told the AP.
The company said it doesn't use meat from animals that were euthanized in its pet food products, the AP reported.
For more on the company's decision to return the products, click here for Gravy Train information and here for Kibble 'N Bits.
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