A pet food manufacturer that has recalled contaminated products up to now is accused of causing illness in tons of of animals – and the recent death of a beloved Pekingese, The Post has learned.
The DreamBone line of chew toys, made by the $3 billion conglomerate Spectrum Brands Holdings, has come under fire from pet owners on message boards and from food and safety watchdogs.
One bereaved owner, Liz Brannen, blames DreamBone Twists for causing her Pekingese Boogie to suffer a painful death on December 11.
Boogie began vomiting and had bloody diarrhea shortly after eating the treat. Inside 24 hours it was gone, the tearful owner told The Post.
“She was screaming and in quite a lot of pain towards the top, but she was completely normal the day before,” Brannen said. “It really bothers me that an organization is selling something that may kill dogs.”
The Bellville, Texas resident soon learned she wasn’t the one distraught pet owner to have issues with DreamBone chew toys, that are sold by major retailers including Walmart, Goal and Chewy.
![Boggie spread out on the carpet.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/dog-killed-by-chew-treat-04-Boogie.jpg?w=1024)
Complaints about DreamBone span almost a decade, but have began to grow exponentially in the previous few months Safelyhq.coman internet site that tracks consumer health and questions of safety.
This yr alone, there have been 70 DreamBone complaints on the positioning, almost double the number in 2021, with the bulk arriving since October.
“The recent increase in reports mentioning DreamBone dog treats is of particular concern to us,” Safetyhq founder Patrick Quade told The Post. “This can be a huge outlier in our data by way of the variety of reports and the severity of the damage done.”
The Food and Drug Administration can also be collecting reports from concerned pet owners, The Post reported.
“The FDA has received dozens of complaints related to DreamBone,” the spokesperson said in a press release. “We proceed to research these complaints but cannot reply to each individual case.”
Last yr, the agency sent approx warning letter to Midwestern Pet Foods after the corporate’s product was linked to 130 dog deaths and tons of of sick dogs. In 2020, the agency recalled one other brand of pet food made by Midwestern Pet Foods, called Sportmix, after at the very least 28 dogs died from products with high levels of toxic mold. Spectrum Brands is just not affiliated with Midwestern Pet Foods.
DreamBone is mentioned in tons of of posts on web sites including Amazon, blogs and social media platforms like Reddit from distraught customers whose dogs allegedly became in poor health or died after receiving the treat.
![Boggie and Liz Brannen.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/dog-killed-by-chew-treat-03-Boogie-and-Liz.jpg?w=782)
Middletown, Wis. company. owns brands as diverse as Cutter insect repellent, Remington grooming products and Black + Decker appliances, but most of its product recall belong to the department of animal care.
Spectrum Brands’ public firms didn’t reply to quite a few emails and phone calls to senior executives.
Spectrum Brands recalled rawhide dog chew products in 2017 after discovering a supplier in Brazil used the chemical “ammonium compound” which is “approved for cleansing food processing equipment” in its products with rawhide, based on the corporate’s website.
Spectrum acknowledged that dogs may experience “stomach irritation, including diarrhea and vomiting” after eating raw hides – including brands comparable to Digest-eeze and Healthy Hide – and may require treatment by a veterinarian “depending on the severity”.
The corporate acquired the troubled DreamBone brand in 2017 from Latest Jersey-based Petmatrix. The teethers are manufactured overseas in Vietnam, Mexico and China and are marketed as “rawhide free” and “highly digestible”.
![DreamBone Twists Bundle.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/dog-killed-by-chew-treat-01-Twist-pkg.jpg?w=795)
A yr before the acquisition, Petmatrix was slapped with a proposed class motion lawsuit from the owner of a dog whose dog needed surgery after eating DreamBone. The grievance alleged that its ingredients were “indigestible” and contained a “high amount” of Soribtol, which is “widely characterised and classified, including by the FDA, as an indigestible sugar alcohol and is used as a laxative.”
After the plaintiff’s dog, Maxie, was given DreamBone, he began vomiting and had “bloody rectal discharge,” based on the grievance. Maxie underwent surgery to remove “a big piece of a dog chew that matched DreamBone’s description,” the grievance reads.
The veterinarian said “Maxie would have died” had it not been for the surgery, based on the lawsuit, which was eventually settled, based on court records.
Other pet owners have also considered legal motion, including Stacy Carlyle of Atlanta, whose Bijon-Shih Tzu mix, Bella, died in September 2020.
“The vet found pieces of DreamBone in her digestive tract,” Carlyle told The Post. “It would not dissolve.”
Spectrum offered a settlement, “giving me and [another dog owner who was part of the proposed litigation] about $5,000 each,” said Carlyle. But she declined the offer and as an alternative took her story to local news station warn other pet owners.
![The back side of the DreamBone packaging.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/dog-killed-by-chew-treat-02-back-of-pkg.jpg?w=801)
Spectrum Brands issued a press release to the news station on the time: “The health and safety of all dogs who enjoy our DreamBone products is our top priority. We consider these allegations are unfounded and stand by the standard and safety of our DreamBone products.”
Logan Rothstein, who believes his 8-yr-old Chihuahua Hercules died in 2019 from DreamBone, has been campaigning for 3 years – reaching out to the FDA, retailers and the media – to lift awareness of the variety of DreamBone complaints.
“I do not think Spectrum is a consistently bad product,” said Rothstein. Nonetheless, he believes that since the product is made overseas, it likely has “little or no quality control”.