Big Heart Pet Brands is an American company that manufacturers, distributes and markets branded
pet food and other products for the U.S. retail market. Now a subsidiary of
The J.M. Smucker Company, it is headquartered at the
One Maritime Plaza in
San Francisco.
Big Heart Pet Brands was previously the pet food
division of
Del Monte Foods prior to their 2014 sale to Del Monte Pacific Limited.
They generated approximately $2.0 billion in net sales in fiscal 2013. Their brands included
Meow Mix,
Kibbles 'n Bits,
Milk-Bone,
9Lives,
Gravy Train, Nature's Recipe, Canine Carry Outs, Pup-Peroni, and Milo's Kitchen, among others. Big Heart Pet Brands also produces and distributes private label pet products.
On February 3, 2015, it was announced
The J.M. Smucker Company would acquire Big Heart Pet Brands for $5.8 billion. J.M. Smucker took over the former Big Heart's brands, marketing under its name.
Pentobarbital detection in Gravy Train dog food in 2018
After
pentobarbital—a
barbiturate
Barbiturates are a class of depressant drugs that are chemically derived from barbituric acid. They are effective when used medically as anxiolytics, hypnotics, and anticonvulsants, but have physical and psychological addiction potential as we ...
used for euthanasia of dogs, cats and horses—caused the death of a dog on New Year's Eve of 2016, a wide range of pet food brands were tested by
WJLA-TV of
Washington, D.C., partnered with Ellipse Analytics. The brand that most consistently was found to contain pentobarbital was Big Heart Pet Brands' Gravy Train dog food.
Out of 15 cans of the company's Gravy Train dog food that were tested, 60% tested positive for pentobarbital. The source was identified as likely to be that animals that had been
euthanized
Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from el, εὐθανασία; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditio ...
with pentobarbital had been used for making the dog food. While the levels detected were not considered lethal, the drug is not legally permitted at any concentration in pet food. After declining an on-camera interview, the
FDA stated that it would "investigate the matter and take appropriate enforcement action".
References
External links
Official website(archived, 24 Mar 2014)
WGME-TV investigation of dog food deaths
{{Smucker's
Companies based in San Francisco
Animal food manufacturers
2015 mergers and acquisitions
The J.M. Smucker Co. brands