A Washington Department of Agriculture “situation report” discloses that a Petco in Seattle Washington refused to cooperate with regulatory authorities in a serious pet food investigation.
Per multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) acquired documents (requested by myself and also requested by Kohl Harrington, producer of Pet Fooled), we learned that Hill’s Science Diet was linked to “five E. coli O157:H7 human illness cases within WA” in September 2023.
Through the Washington State Department of Health investigation (interviews of four individuals that were sickened), the agency discovered “two food varieties are connected: Food Sensitivities z/d for dogs and Sensitive Skin and Stomach for dogs and cats.”
Documents acquired also stated: “Two of the cases identified Interbay Petco, Seattle, WA for their purchase location.”
After four of the five E. coli cases were interviewed and the potential link was determined to be the Hill’s Science Diet pet food – (we assume out of caution to prevent other illnesses) a Washington State Department of Agriculture staff member called the Petco pet store where two of the human illness victims purchased the pet food and “requested suspected product be temporarily removed from shelves“.
Unfortunately…Petco refused to cooperate; “manager denied request.”
Ultimately, there was no recall issued for Hill’s Science Diet pet food due to E. coli contamination (we are waiting on more FOIA documents, test results of the pet food). But, at the time when Petco was asked to temporarily remove suspect pet foods, regulatory authorities were in the midst of a concerning investigation. Authorities stated the human illnesses “are highly related by WGS” (whole genome sequencing) and four of the five illnesses were linked to two brands of Hill’s Science Diet.
Why wouldn’t this Petco manager cooperate with regulatory authorities?
Click Here to view the FOIA acquired document.
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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