Pet Deaths Now Over 1,000

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Multiple sources are saying the final toll may be in the thousands.

The www.petconnections.com website now reports 1,000 have died:

I’m sad to say we’ve passed a milestone. We now have more than 1,000 pets reported as deceased into our PetConnection.com database.

Again, we must put things in perspective. These are self-reported numbers. We have asked everyone if they checked the brand against the recall list, and have also asked them to provide a veterinary reference. We felt that this would give us a better chance of having numbers that reflect reality. Most people both named their veterinarian and named the brand.

We have said from the first that we put the database up because we believed based on all the anecdotal evidence we were seeing — in our e-mail boxes, and on forums and blogs — that the number of dead pets was far greater than what the government was, and is, reporting.

FROM ABC NEWS:

Doctors Caution Thousands More Pet Deaths Expected. Kidney Failure Noted in Growing Number of Animals

March 22, 2007 — As investigators look for a cause behind the 15 confirmed pet food deaths, doctors at New York's Animal Medical Center suspect there will be a much larger rash of cases after learning of an additional 200 cases of kidney failure in animals.

Doctors at the hospital, which is considered the Mayo Clinic of veterinary medicine, say they noticed the kidney failure while studying sick animals from last Friday to Monday, and traced the cases back to the 60 million cans and pouches of recalled food from Menu Food.

"I was shocked and surprised, acute kidney failure is not a common problem," veterinarian Cathy Langston told ABC's David Kerley. "I've already heard about 200 cases, and so I bet that there are probably going to be thousands."

And it's a crisis, if the New York hospital is right, that will not end for weeks.
"I'm worried that there are more deaths to come from chronic renal failure over the next several months," Langston said. "It's not over."

Summarizing the gist of other internet info, it appears 1 out of every 7 animals who ate the food have died.
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