Dear Criss,

Let me help you ensure the safety of the animals in your own home in light of the Menu Foods dog and cat food recall and tell you what PETA is doing to hold the dog and cat food industry accountable.

You must know that dog and cat food manufacturer Menu Foods is recalling some 90 name brands of canned wet food, including Iams and Eukanuba, that have been linked to renal failure and more than a dozen animal deaths.

How to Keep Your Animals Safe

Make sure you are not feeding your animal companion any of the recalled foods. You can find the full list of products that are being recalled by Menu Foods here.

If you believe that your animal companion has fallen ill from eating a product manufactured by Menu Foods, immediately take the animal to your veterinarian. Symptoms of kidney failure include lack of appetite, listlessness, increased thirst, increased urination, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Please also report any animal illness or death to Menu Foods at 866-895-2708 and to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at 888-463-6332.

What PETA Is Doing

The fact that animals are dying from tainted Menu Foods products is horrific. To make matters worse, the company's response is stupefying and infuriating.

It's our understanding that Menu Foods learned of animal deaths as early as February 20 but didn't issue a recall for almost a month.

PETA is urging government authorities in Canada and the U.S. to investigate Menu Foods and file criminal charges if the company is found to have violated laws by waiting nearly a month before recalling contaminated food and intentionally feeding it to healthy dogs and cats in laboratories, killing several of them.

We know from experience that Menu Foods has never put the interests of animals ahead of its profits. Do you remember when a PETA investigator went undercover at a contract testing laboratory in Missouri that conducted cruel experiments on animals for Menu Foods and Iams? What PETA's investigator uncovered there was shocking; some dogs had huge chunks of muscle removed from their legs and were left to suffer for days. You can read more about the investigation here. We took action then and changes were made, but now ... this!

What You Can Do to Keep Animals Safe in the Future

Each of us, as loving companions to the cats and dogs in our care, must stand up to corporations like Menu Foods and Iams and hold them accountable for the food they are selling. Please take immediate action:

Buy pet food only from companies that test their foods in modern ways, not by experimenting on animals. The list of cruelty-free companies includes PetGuard, Evolution, and V-dog. One of the surest ways to stop corporations like Iams and Menu Foods is by not purchasing their products until they are proved to be safe and cruelty-free. For a list of manufacturers that do not test on animals, click here.

Demand that Menu Foods take full responsibility for these animal deaths from tainted food and the company's slow response in letting people know. Insist that the company take measures to ensure that this will never happen again, and ask Menu Foods to end its cruel and old-fashioned experiments on dogs and cats.

Demand that Iams (Menu Foods manufactured the recalled Iams food) immediately end all laboratory tests on animals.