There are a few stories making the rounds about two Chinese brands of dog treats being sold at Wal-Mart that have allegedly led to some severe problems for dogs eating them.

Wal-Mart quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets. But as of now, there has been no official recall. If you happen to have either of these products at home, you can return them to Wal-Mart for a refund.

Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up, and remind you that all of our pet food info is here.

This is actually really incredible, and it's been a long time coming. A couple of months ago, I wrote about a lab Iams was using to test its food that was under investigation by the USDA. Well, I just found out that the lab just agreed to a $33,000 civil penalty after federal investigators alleged the company committed nearly 40 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Some of the violations found by USDA inspectors were failing to provide sheep with appropriate pain relief during surgery, inadequate training of employees for animal handling and care, failure to vaccinate dogs and cats used for research, and keeping animals in cages smaller than the legal limits. You can read the full story here.

Of course, this is just one small step forward in our campaign to stop companies from lab-testing pet food. While Iams may have stopped using this lab after our investigation, the company needs to stop lab-testing its food altogether. You can help persuade them to do just that by only feeding your animals cruelty-free pet food, and by clicking here to let Iams know that you won’t buy their food until they stop testing on animals.

We’re getting tons of calls from people who are concerned about the Iams recall, and PETA’s been a flurry of Iams-related activity this morning, so I figured I’d fill you in on all the new information. Just on the offchance that you haven't heard this story yet, here's a quick recap: After an unknown number of cats and dogs died of kidney failure from eating tainted pet food, Menu Foods, a contract manufacturer for Proctor & Gamble's Iams and Eukanuba brands, has recalled 60 million cans of pet food from stores nationwide. If you're worried about your own animals, click here for the full information about the recall on Menu Foods' site, or you can call them at 1-866-463-6738 and 1-866-895-2708. Not to cause too much alarm and despondency here, but if you do suspect that your animal has become seriously ill, the best thing to do (as always in such cases) is gently carry them to the car and rush to the nearest veterinarian.

There have been some murmurings about class action suits being filed against the company, and CBS has reported on someone in Chicago who is suing. We've also written a letter to Proctor & Gamble about this issue, which you can read here, and we're calling on prosecutors to investigate whether cruelty charges should be filed against Menu Canada, Menu Foods, and Iams for alleged failure to warn consumers about the tainted food as soon as they had the information and—just as disturbingly—apparently feeding the tainted food to cats and dogs in order to test it.

As our letter to Iams points out, this isn't the first time Proctor & Gamble have been responsible for dog deaths: Our investigation into the company a few years ago caught them cutting out huge chunks of muscle from their test subjects' legs and leaving them to suffer for days. I've posted footage of that investigation below, and you can find a list of pet-food companies that don't test on animals here.

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This incident should serve as a wake-up call to Iams that it's time to abandon all laboratory testing on animals. Click here to let Iams know that you won't buy while animals die, and click here to contact Menu Foods to demand answers and an end to all their laboratory tests on animals.

The massive Iams pet food recall has been all over the news lately, and I've been hearing a lot about it from people who are concerned about their own animals. Anyway, I thought you’d like to see the letter we sent to Iams about it all. You can click here to read it, and I'll let you know if we get any more news. In the meantime, just in case there's any confusion about this: Please don't buy Iams until they get their act together and stop testing on animals.

Back in 02/03, PETA conducted a 9-month investigation into a lab used by the Iams pet food company to "test" its food. During the investigation, we uncovered horrible abuse, including dogs gone crazy from intense confinement; dogs left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs; dogs surgically debarked; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no vet care.

Well, we’ve continued to work on the case and have just received very good news in a report from the USDA. The report confirms Animal Welfare Act violations that we found during our investigation, including:

• Untrained personnel performing animal experiments
• Failure to provide veterinary care and observe animals on a daily basis
• Caging facilities for dogs and cats so stifling that staff were unable to endure the ammonia levels
• Failure to provide animals with the minimum required space

The lab can now either admit to its wrongdoing and settle with the government or go through an Administrative Court proceeding.

I’ll keep you posted, as details become available, but in the meantime, remember to join these folks in the Iams boycott and only feed your dogs and cats food from cruelty-free companies.