Wysong responds to online critics on dog-food recall

Midland, Mich.

-- Responding to angry comments from pet owners on Internet blogs and message boards about a recent dog-food recall, natural pet-food manufacturer Wysong Corp. updated its recall notice with responses to criticism, giving details of how the recall was announced and why.

Wysong says it contacted distributors, retailers and the Food and Drug Administration, and tried to contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sept. 29 immediately after finding mold in select batches of Maintenance and Senior dry dog food. Stores were urged to throw away the food, and Wysong removed its in-house inventory of the lot.

A recall notice appeared on Wysong’s Web site at roughly the same time, the company says. But it acknowledges that some visitors to the site might have missed the notice because it appeared, not on the first page, but after clicking on the “dry dog food” tab.

“Much of the criticism has focused on our purportedly not publicizing the recall enough, or that we are attempting to downplay or hide the recall,” the firm says in the notice. “When we determined a recall was necessary, we put our focus into alerting those that actually received the products, not those who had no reasonable chance of acquiring the affected products.”

Wysong received reports of possible health effects to dogs who ate the dry food, but “cannot confirm as cause/effect,” according to the recall notice. The notice explains that the mold was likely caused by a faulty moisture-checking device and high heat and humidity during manufacturing in June and July.

The affected lot numbers are Wysong Maintenance 090617, 090624, 090706, and 090720 and Wysong Senior 090623.

The full recall notice can be found here.