This is the fifth year TruthaboutPetFood.com has provided the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Awards. For your voting consideration (vote below), the 2013 nominees are…(in alphabetical order)…
AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials)
For your voting consideration, in 2013 AAFCO – a independent organization responsible for the laws each state enforces in pet food – gifted (gave, no charge, free) expensive, valuable meeting space to pet food industry lobby groups. This gifted meeting space would have otherwise cost these pet food lobby groups thousands of dollars – but instead AAFCO said ‘No Charge’. The problem is not the meeting space. The problem is that AAFCO doesn’t understand this ‘gifting’ is inappropriate and unethical.
Because of AAFCO nondescript pet food ingredient definitions (and FDA Compliance Policies), pet food is allowed to include waste food into ingredients without consumer knowledge.
Evangers Pet Food
In 2013, Evangers Pet Food owner Joel Sher was arrested. “A Lincolnwood man who is facing charges of illegally diverting gas and power to his pet food company was hit with more charges of trying to bribe a witness in the case, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday. Joel Sher, 56, allegedly offered $5,000 to a witness in exchange for changing testimony in a case from 2010 where he is accused of ordering his company employees to divert nearly $2 million worth gas and power lines to his store.”
Also in 2013 Evangers posted a press release stating FDA cleared them of all charges. Evangers press release stated “Evanger’s clears its name after a thorough investigation proves no wrongdoing”. However the FDA said “Based on our evaluation, it appears that you have addressed the violation(s) contained in this Warning Letter. Future FDA inspections and regulatory activities will further assess the adequacy and sustainability of these corrections.” To be clear, FDA did not “clear” Evangers of all charges as their press release stated. The FDA did find that Evangers properly addressed the violations.
FDA
In no particular order…
- Dog DNA was found in Spain in a pet food. Thanks to FDA Compliance Policies this would be allowed in U.S. pet food.
- Two jerky treat manufacturers in China were in violation of the Bioterrorism Act and yet FDA continued to allow treats into the U.S.
- Selective enforcement; in 2013 FDA publicly chastised a U.S. jerky treat manufacturer (responsible for not one pet death) while they allowed Chinese jerky manufacturers to control the plant inspections in China.
- When two cats died from what is believed to be linked to Royal Canin pet food, the FDA investigator told the pet owner Dr. Renate Reimschuessel told this grieving pet owner…“there was nothing the FDA could do, they wouldn’t know what to test the pet food for”, and “but if your other two cats die, send us their bodies – FDA will pay for shipping”.
- October announced a Jerky Treat Investigation Progress Report that was no real progress. Almost a seven year investigation unresolved and pets continue to die.
- FDA Compliance Policies that allow waste into pet food ingredients.
- In 2013 the FDA announced they had performed a ‘study’ on raw pet food stating they found 15 raw pet foods to be contaminated with Salmonella. Oh…but there was no recall.
Iams
In 2013, Iams Pet Food did a little name changing. The company changed some of their foods to Iams So Good! and added a website promoting the foods telling consumers how ‘So Good’ their foods are. However we found they fell a bit short of proving that. Ingredients in the Iams foods compared to others were just about the same.
Jerky Treats imported from China
No particular company – the entire jerky treat industry in China – and every U.S. importer selling these treats. For seven years pets have been sickened and killed by these treats. For seven years importers and retailers have ignored thousands upon thousands of consumer please to remove them from store shelves. We (Association for Truth in Pet Food) even provided FDA and each State Department of Agriculture with import documents proving the very same Chinese suppliers that sold to recalled Waggin Train and Milo’s Kitchen were selling to many other brands (and were very likely to contain the same illegal drugs). No one listened.
Pet Food Advertising
In 2013 we brought attention to a common term in pet food – ‘Real Meat’. And the crazy things many of them told me what ‘real’ means. https://www.truthaboutpetfood2.com/real-meat
Pet Food Institute
The Pet Food Institue is the lobby organization representing the interests of Big Pet Food. During 2013 the PFI…Purchased the domain name TruthaboutPetFood.org and TruthaboutPetFood.net. And then forwarded these almost identical to this domain name to their own website. Which by the way violates the “Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act”. In August 2013 (at the AAFCO meeting) I asked the PFI representative to remove these domains. I shared with PFI what they are doing – redirecting a VERY similar domain name to a competing website (theirs) is a violation of law. Seems they don’t care. They never removed the domains.
Also in 2013, the PFI hired lobbyists to stop a pet food manufacturer tax that would support Spay/Neuter programs in states.
And we learned this year that PFI partially funded the National Research Council‘s nutritional requirements for Dogs and Cats – which allowed them certain privileges (such as influence to the scientists developing the research). The NRC study is the foundation of legal requirements for pet food.
Purina Pet Food
During 2013 Purina Pet Food told consumers that the ingredient ‘animal digest’ was a quality ingredient. In their post “Nutrition Myth” Purina says “this is because the word ‘digest’ is mistakenly thought to describe the contents of the digestive tract.” Purina neglected to mention FDA testing found ‘animal digest’ to be one of several pet food ingredients likely to contain a euthanized animal.
Royal Canin Pet Food
In 2013 Royal Canin Pet Food announced the benefits of a new pet food ingredient…feather meal (yes – a pet food ingredient of feathers). Royal Canin said “Feathers are broken down to an amino acid level and don’t have much of a taste. Then we add palatizers for taste.”
UC Davis
In 2013 UC Davis released a study that found many recipes for home prepared pet foods were lacking in nutrients. But what the UC Davis study didn’t tell consumers was the university pet nutritionists compared whole food diets to highly processed kibble diets – which simply can’t be done (worse than comparing apples to oranges – and they should have known that).
Whole Foods
Whole Foods is known to many as a source for premium foods, however the company did not respond to all the questions sent to them about their new pet food line Whole Paws. Puzzling how Whole Foods caters to an educated consumer but doesn’t realize educated pet food consumers deserve answers too.
Wysong Pet Food
In 2013, Wysong told a pet food consumer they would not sign our Pledge to Quality and Origin, they felt such Pledges were nonsense – and signing such a pledge is ” It’s kind of like being asked if you have stopped beating up on your grandmother yet.”
Ready to vote?
2013 Stupidest Act in Pet Food
AAFCO
Evangers Pet Food
FDA
Iams
Jerky Treats imported from China
Pet Food Advertising
Pet Food Institute
Purina Pet Food
Royal Canin Pet Food
UC Davis
Whole Foods
Wysong Pet Food
Vote
Polldaddy.com
Results will be shared at month’s end.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 2500 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. www.PetsumerReport.com
2014 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here
Have you read Buyer Beware? Click Here
Cooking for pets made easy, Dinner PAWsible
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
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