A ‘study’ just announced by the FDA found raw pet food to be a risk to consumers and their pets, but dry kibble foods were perfectly safe. Something smells…and it’s not the raw pet food.
The FDA released today “Get the Facts! Raw Pet Food Diets can be Dangerous to You and Your Pet”. The FDA states their ‘study’ of pet food found 15 raw pet foods tested positive for Salmonella and 32 raw pet food tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. The FDA also stated they found zero contamination in semi-moist dog and cat foods, and zero contamination in dry dog food. One case of Salmonella was found in dry cat food. From the FDA website…
Something doesn’t make sense.
The FDA has a zero tolerance for Salmonella in pet foods. If they actually found 15 raw pet foods that tested positive for Salmonella, don’t you think the FDA would have insisted these companies recall the pet foods?
I looked. The FDA stated they tested raw pet foods from “October 2011 through July 2012″. Guess how many recalls of raw pet food happed during this time frame?
Zero. None. Zippo.
And you know what else doesn’t make sense? During this same time frame – October 2011 through July 2012 – when according to the FDA “quite a large percentage of raw foods for pets” were found to be contaminated with Salmonella, the US experienced one of the largest recalls of KIBBLE pet foods due to Salmonella it has ever experienced. All manufactured at one Diamond Pet Food manufacturing facility. During this October 2011 through July 2012 time frame all of the following pet foods were recalled due to Salmonella contamination…
Diamond Dog and Cat Food, Chicken Soup for the Soul Dog and Cat Food, Canidae Dog Food, Felidae Cat Food, Natural Balance Dog and Cat Food, Taste of the Wild Dog and Cat Food, Wellness Dog Food, Country Value Dog and Cat Food, Professional Dog and Cat Food, 4Health Dog and Cat Food.
I guess FDA didn’t test any of these pet foods during their ‘study’.
So what is going on? Is the FDA suffering from some type of pet food regulatory dementia? Did they forget the agency has a zero tolerance for Salmonella in pet foods? Did they actually forget to investigate those 15 raw pet food manufacturers selling contaminated product?
It’s perplexing. How can the FDA tell consumers “the single best thing you can do to prevent infection is to not feed your pet a raw diet”…but in seven years of investigating hundreds of pet deaths and thousands of pet illnesses relating to Chinese jerky treats the agency never once warned the consumer ‘the single best thing you can do to prevent your pet from dying is to not feed your pet a Chinese jerky treat’.
It’s perplexing how the FDA can tell consumers to “not feed your pet a raw diet” but it is acceptable to the agency for euthanized animal remains or animals that have died in the field – lying in the sun decomposing for days – to be cooked into a slurry or powder and dumped into dog and cat food. Raw pet food made from USDA inspected and approved meats are dangerous for your pet and you – but decomposing, diseased animals are “suitable for use in animal food” and perfectly safe for you to handle.
The FDA cannot see they just discredit themselves with each ‘announcement’ like this. They lose more and more respect from the public. How sad. This raw pet food witch hunt needs to stop. The outright FDA permission for pet food to violate federal law needs to stop. Who is the FDA really protecting?
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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