Iams and Eukanuba Employees Publish Open Letter April 3rd To Reassure Pet Owners

Ad Appears in 59 Newspapers Throughout North America

NEWS RELEASE

DAYTON, OHIO, April 3, 2007 – Iams and Eukanuba employees and P&G Pet Care, maker of the leading Iams and Eukanuba pet food brands, have published an open letter to its customers. Full page ads are appearing in 59 major North American newspapers Tuesday and Wednesday, in an effort to help address growing confusion and anxiety among pet owners in the wake of Menu Food’s widespread recall of wet-style pet food affecting more than 90 brands including Iams and Eukanuba.

“We share the concerns and sorrow that the Menu Foods recall has caused pet owners,” said Dan Rajczak, General Manager for the Iams and Eukanuba brands in North America. “We know many people are confused and uncertain about which products are safe. We want to assure our customers that they can feel completely safe feeding any of the Iams and Eukanuba products now on store shelves, both wet and dry.”

As the letter details, P&G Pet Care has taken important steps to address the situation, including:

· Working with retailers to remove all affected wet can and pouch products from store shelves.
· Suspending production of all our foods manufactured at the affected Menu Foods Plant. Our production remains suspended.
· Sharing all our data and cooperating fully with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which is leading this important investigation.
· Convening a task force of prominent North American veterinary healthcare experts to review the recall.
· Establishing a council of leading veterinarians and healthcare professionals to provide the most up-to-date learning on how we can continue to enhance all pets’ quality of life and disease prevention.

Following last week’s announcement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that a new contaminant known as melamine had been found in recalled pet food products, “We are pet owners ourselves, and felt that it was important for Iams and Eukanuba employees to communicate directly to pet owners and be as helpful as we can in explaining what’s really happening,” Rajczak said. “This is a very confusing situation, and we intend to do our very best to inform our customers and personally contact each and every one of those who call us.”

Iams and Eukanuba branded dry foods were not part of the recall. “Pet owners, veterinarians, and breeders should feel safe about feeding our cat and dog dry foods. They do not contain melamine and are not made with wheat gluten,” Rajczak said.

P&G Pet Care, like many other manufacturers, voluntarily removed from store shelves Iams and Eukanuba branded wet pouch and canned pet food products under specific lot numbers in response to the March 16, 2007 recall by Menu Foods, which made these products for P&G.

For more than 60 years, Iams has delivered premium quality pet foods to pet owners and veterinarians. In response to the Menu Foods wet pet food recall, Iams and Eukanuba convened a quality assurance task force of seven distinguished veterinary health professionals in Dayton, Ohio, on March 26 and 27, to evaluate the brands’ voluntary participation in this recall and associated quality assurance programs.

That task force commended P&G Pet Care and the Iams and Eukanuba brands for its rapid voluntary participation in the Menu Foods wet pet food recall and sharing of information with regulatory authorities, veterinarians, and consumers on an unusual renal failure syndrome in pets. The resulting task force consensus statement was this: “Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods and wet food products not involved in this recall.” The full report of the special task force can be found at http://www.iams.com.

About P&G Pet Care

For nearly 60 years, Iams and Eukanuba, P&G Pet Care brands, have enhanced the well-being of dogs and cats by providing world-class quality foods and pet care products. To learn more about Iams®, Eukanuba® or general pet care and nutrition information, call P&G Pet Care at (800) 446-3075. You also can visit Iams and Eukanuba on the Web at http://www.iams.com and http://www.eukanuba.com.

About Procter & Gamble [NYSE:PG]

Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Pringles®, Folgers®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Actonel®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella, Gillette®, and Braun. The P&G community consists of over 135,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

Kurt Iverson
External Relations Manager
Iams/Eukanuba
7250 Poe Avenue
Dayton, Ohio 45414
Direct: 937.264.7436
Cell: 937.830.6464
Fax: 513.945.3509

Here is the Ad that will Appear in 59 Newspapers Throughout North America

Dear Concerned Pet Owner:

As Iams and Eukanuba employees, we feel deeply for everyone affected by the Menu Foods wet food recall involving 95 brands, including our own. We are heartsick that any of our Iams and Eukanuba products were involved. We have added more customer service support people to respond to our call lines and have added a dedicated veterinarian hotline to address further questions. Our commitment is to respond personally to everyone who contacts us.

In our efforts to keep you informed, we want you to know that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has recently announced that they have found a substance called melamine in the wheat gluten of recalled products, and not aminopterin, as earlier suspected by the New York State Foods Laboratory.

We can reassure you:

There is no melamine or aminopterin in any of our Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods.

In fact, Iams and Eukanuba dry dog and cat foods DO NOT contain wheat gluten. They are made exclusively in our own manufacturing plants in Ohio, Nebraska and North Carolina, and not by Menu Foods. You can feel safe and confident in feeding all Iams and Eukanuba dry foods, as well as any wet foods that are not on the Menu Foods recall list. You can go to Iams.com or Eukanuba.com to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.

In addition, we want to keep you updated on the key actions we’ve taken.

Our immediate response priorities included:

• Working with retailers to remove all affected wet can and pouch products from store shelves.
• Suspending production of all our foods manufactured at the affected Menu Foods plant. Our production remains suspended.
• Sharing all our data and cooperating fully with the U. S. Food & Drug Administration, which is leading this important investigation.

As part of our ongoing, additional efforts:

• We convened a task force of prominent North American veterinary healthcare experts to review the recall. They recently agreed: “Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods.”
• We have established a council of leading veterinarians and healthcare professionals to provide the most up-to-date learning on how we can continue to enhance all pets’ quality of life and disease prevention.

We again want to assure you that Iams and Eukanuba dry foods were not affected by this recall and continue to be endorsed by veterinarians as the highest-quality nutrition for cats and dogs. We make our own dry dog and cat foods using high-quality animal-based protein and they do not contain wheat gluten.

We want to reassure you that you can feed Iams and Eukanuba dry foods, as well as any wet foods that are not on the Menu Foods recall list with complete confidence.

Pets are an important part of all our families. We share your concerns and are firmly committed to you and the health of your pet. If we can answer further questions, please call us at 1-800-882-1591.

Sincerely,

The Employees of Iams and Eukanuba Pet Foods

Please follow and like us: