One of our reps came home yesterday to find her two dogs had eaten an entire bag of chicken jerkey. Charlie Blue began to go downhill fast, so she rushed him to the ER. He died shortly after getting there. The vets feel sure that it was not the jerkey, but rather that he had ingested the freshness packs that were in the package.

We try so hard to keep them safe and I don’t think any of us would have given that a second thought, (at least I wouldn’t have).So let’s let this tragedy serve as a warning to each of us and not let Charlie’s death be in vain.

OMG! That is terrible ;-( Speaking of chicken jerky….the other nite my mom said she was giving Phoebe & Zeke their snack. Chicken strips from Costco. She said Kingdom Pets, CA, makes them. I said look above the UPC code on that bag ~ Made in China ;-O

Does anyone know what is in those freshness packs?

No idea. I might ask when I call her though, depending upon how she is doing….

Usually silica is in them. I’ll ask the holistic co, what is in our treat packs. It just says oxygen-absorber, DO NOT INGEST.

You know if it says do not ingest, is that not a product liability problem? Dogs don’t read the labels. Everyone I have told about this has just been shocked that there is something in a bag of treats that can kill. I am sure almost all of us have had our pets get into something when we are not looking or are away.

Ok, here’s something we all can do. When you buy treats with these packets, TOSS the packet, immediately. Chances are, we are going to use the treats up. No use in taking a chance on the dog eating the packet!!!

YEs, toss the freshness packet right away. Also, be careful when mail order chicken jerkey. Some I ordered before looked and smelled very “plastic”. When I was examing them Echo stole one piece. He has quite strong teeth but he got choked and cough out blood. I believe the texture of it was too hard to chew so he tried to just swallowed the whole piece instead. He was okay afterwards but it scared me to death. I’d rather pay a few bucks more in pet store but see the real meat texture myself.

It appears that it was silica gel. When Rachael arrived home she found one packet that seemed undisturbed, so she thought the dog(s) were sick from eating all of the jerkey. After Charlie went into system failure and died, the vet speculated that he had ingested a packet of gel (obviously there was more than one) it sent him into total organ failure, similar to what would happen if he’d got into antifreeze. It’s even more sad that she had not bought the jerkey. It was a gift from a volunteer and was supposed to go along with a puppy adoption, but Rachael forgot it on the table…

I suggested she write and let the manufacturer know. I also suggested maybe we could get some legislation to prevent them from further use of these packets and to see if there is something safer they could use.

Rachael is naturally devastated by this sudden loss, and to top it off she also lost her cat this week to liver cancer…

I absolutely agree. You never know where these things are made and why should the manufacturers be able to get away with putting something this toxic in treats. Do we open a bag of chips and have to look through them to find the poison first and toss it out. our pets deserve better than this. We need to start writting and making some noise about this. Rachael should not have lost this beautiful, vibrant dog to something totally needless.

I USED to get the chicken jerky from my home away from home (aka Costco). 100% organic dried chicken ~ and yes, they LOVED it. One day, I was looking at the bag, and saw. right about the UPC code : Made in China (bird flu). My dogs would NEVER eat another one of them, again!

This is so heartbreaking to read. My condolences to Rachel on her huge loss.

It reinforces my decision to keep my “kids” crated when I’m not home, as well. My cats do get on top of counters, tables, desk, etc. and could easily push something onto the floor where my dogs could ingest it.

My condolences go out as well. We can all do something to keep Our Kids abit more healthy, don’t buy anything from “CHINA” What else are they going to do to us? How many tainted things do we need to “discover”? Please read package labels, then go to a different store and read more labels. Call the “so called manufacturer” and ask about there product, be informed or become heart broken. Best of Wishes

Gosh, I just was looking on the forums, about the chicken jerky! AND IT SAYS MADE IN CHINA! What do I do, I have 2 – 2lbs bags of the stuff! Beefeaters Chicken Filets!