After about a solid week of obsessing over my suspicion that Nikko was poisoned by evil corporatists, I recieved a shocking blow from, of all people, the vet who treated, diagnosed and eventually euthenized my beloved akita. This, more than anything accounts for my lack of updating here, but I'll try to summarize events of the last week as best I can.
Later in the morning of Thursday, Mar. 29, I made several attempts to contact Angerla Edwards at the FDA, to no avail. I had read here that as well as filing a complaint myself, I should ask my vet to file a report with the 'State Veterinarian's Office' (it says in a later edit that the AMVA has since reversed that recommendation).
So I called the animal hospital, Arboretum View in Lisle Il., to see if they knew anything about that. I spoke to a manager there, Michelle, who kindly spent a great deal of time with me discussing the issue. She told me that our vet was in, but busy, and she would ask the doctor to call me back later.
I tried to stay awake as long as I could to try to take the call. I was unsuccessful, but I did recieve a call from another source on the subject at 01:15 that afternoon.
It showed up as 'PRIVATE' on the called ID, but as I had so many irons in the fire I took it. It was Roger Clark of Nutro! And boy was he bending over backwards to tell me how everyone at Nutro and all of their brothers and their sisters and their cousins were just devestated and heartbroken and shocked and most of all blindsided by this horrible tragedy. To be honest, I had forgotten that I had sent details of Nikko's demise to Nutro via a contact form on their website, before I had decided to go right at Menu Foods themselves, and Roger was calling in response to that.
I hate to sound like I'm being cynical in making Mr. Clark out to sound like some glad-handing politician, because he had a thankless task to perform, and he was doing it as best he could. I can't imagine that he didn't come in for quite a bit of abuse from bereaved pet owners in more than a few of the calls. He did take a good deal of time with me, though he was, I believe, semi-scripted.
He did ask me for details of the products we had fed Nikko, and then he asked if I had any left. I told him I did. He then asked if I would send it to him, and when I laughed he indicated that he "had to ask".
He also informed me that I would be hearing from The Hartford Insurance company in regards to any claims (though more than a week later that hasn't happened, nor have I heard a peep from Crawford & Co.)
After doing his diligence, we then took some time to discuss the situation generally, because, well, we're 'family' to them... I told him that from what I'd seen on the internets Nutro would probably like to get off the lists of companies that do business with Menu Foods ASAP. While he couldn't speak to that officially, due to contractural issues, he did indicate that it was in the air.
He showered me with adequate sympathy, and empathized via the old salesman's game of "I have this same model at home". Why, he found cases of the recalled products right in his own pantry! The outrage!
Honestly, kudos to Nutro for actually reaching out... when I did eventually speak to Angela from the FDA and mentioned the call, she informed me that I was the first person she'd spoken to to have actually been contacted by any of the 'responsible'parties.
So enough about that- I finally turned in, and woke up at about 07:30pm. My wife told me that the vet had called back and left a message which said, essentially, that she felt confident in her diagnosis that cause of death was liver cancer, and not from the recalled food. And I'm not a vet and I can't argue with that, and you can be sure that any and all claims will be denied on that basis alone.
But I'm going to go forward anyways, and let the chips fall where they may.
