Champion Show Dog Dies after Eating This Newly Purchased Dog Food

On August 8, a grand champion show dog named Zeus — a Scottish Deerhound who participated in dog shows around the country — ate a newly arrived shipment of dog food. Over the next couple of days, Zeus’s health badly deteriorated — and by August 10, he had passed away, leaving his pet parents searching for answers.

“By early Saturday morning, he was violently ill, and I called my veterinarian and rushed him in,” Karen Winter, Zeus’s pet parent, told CBS News. After hours of vomiting, Zeus required an emergency spleen removal.

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The rapid decline was bewildering; Zeus was given an annual physical only two weeks prior and had been found in perfect health. Winter told CBS News that Zeus had eaten his dog food, which was made by the company Kinetic, on August 8, but her other pups had smelled the food and left it. When she investigated the bag, she saw that it was two months past its expiration date, and claims this was the cause of her dog’s death..

“I wish I had checked that bag before I ever fed it, and I didn’t,” Winter told CBS News. “I missed that it was expired. I wish he hadn’t had to endure what he endured for 36 hours before he died. It’s a horrible, really horrible death.”

Kinetic produced the dog food in June 2024 with a use-by date of June 2025. The pet food company claims that the shipment went to a distributor, which brought it to the local supplier where Winter had purchased it.

Melissa Voll-Stouffer, Zeus’s veterinarian, told CBS News that she had heard of similar instances of illness from the same brand. Samples of the food have been sent to University of Missouri for testing.

In a statement sent to CBS News, Kinetic said it was the duty of the distributor and local supplier to destroy expired food. “As a result, we have terminated, effectively immediately, the relationship with both the distributor and the retailer,” Kinetic said. “We hold our partners to high standards and when those standards are not met, we act.”

For Winter, it’s not enough. She is hoping for a national recall, so there is no risk of anyone who has already purchased a bag making the same mistake. “I want them to find every out-of-date bag and get it off the market,” Winter told CBS News. “And I want people to know if they bought a Kinetic product and their dog is not eating it, immediately check that bag and the date on it. And do not feed it.”