When someone believes a government agency has been less than truthful with the public, one option is to request from that government agency – through a Freedom of Information Act request – documents regarding the ‘less than truthful’ incident. Well…here are our Freedom of Information Act Request documents that clearly shows the FDA was less than truthful with the public regarding test results of the toxic jerky treats. The remaining question is why?
Over many years now, fellow pet food safety advocate Mollie Morrissette and I have spent many hours reading about, talking about, and trying to figure out what to do about the Chinese jerky treat problem. Pets to this day continue to get sick and die from these imported treats. In October 2013, when the FDA released a slew of information (update) on their jerky treat investigation…something didn’t look right to us.
So – we (through Association of Truth in Pet Food) made a Freedom of Information Act request – two actually. One to FDA – asking for all correspondence FDA received from NY Department of Agriculture regarding jerky treat testing during December 2012 and January 2013. The other to NY Department of Agriculture asking for all correspondence NY sent to FDA regarding jerky treat testing during the same time frame.
Our goal…
• Was to see exactly what NY sent to FDA,
• See if FDA and NY provide us with the same information,
• Compare the actual test results to the data FDA told the public in October 2013.
By federal law, a government agency is required to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request within 20 business days. FDA acknowledged receipt of this request on November 4, 2013 (Confirmation # FDA1307738) – to date, FDA has not responded.
But the NY Department of Agriculture did respond. And remember, the documents they provided were exactly what they provided FDA. Quoting the “transmittal letter” received from NY: “This is in response to your Freedom of Information Law request for “correspondence provided to FDA regarding the NY Dep of Agriculture testing of Chinese jerky dog treats. Test results and all correspondence to FDA (fax, email, or other) relating to this testing during December 2012 and January 2013.”
So there is no way around it – this is the information that FDA was provided by NY Dept of Agriculture. Which makes the information the FDA told the public (see page 8)…less than truthful.
NYFDA
Why this is so significantly important is that we believe – Association for Truth in Pet Food – these sulfa drugs NY Department of Agriculture found in the treats are the cause of pet illness and death linked to the Chinese jerky treats. We provided the FDA with science to prove this one year ago (January 2013). The simple of it – just as some people are sensitive to sulfa drugs – so are some pets. With dogs, sulfa drug hypersensitivity results in kidney failure.
Per the test results of Waggin Train provided by NY Department of Agriculture…
85 treats tested – 39 marked adulterated due to illegal drugs or illegal levels of drugs – 1 of 2 treats tested were adulterated.
Per the test results of Milo’s Kitchen provided by NY Department of Agriculture…
63 treats tested – 40 found to be adulterated due to illegal drugs or illegal levels of drugs – 2 out of 3 treats tested were adulterated.
Per the test results of Cadet provided by NY Department of Agriculture…
30 treats tested – 11 found to be adulterated due to illegal drugs or illegal levels of drugs – 1 out of 3 treats tested were adulterated.
On average – half of the Chinese jerky treats tested by NY Department of Agriculture during December 2012 and January 2013 were adulterated.
Why didn’t FDA explain this to the public in October 2013? Why didn’t the FDA tell the public that 50% of the Chinese treats NY Department of Agriculture tested were found to be adulterated?
We don’t know why. All we know is that half of the treats tested were found to contain illegal sulfa drugs or illegal levels of sulfa drugs. That’s significant. And worrisome. Many more Chinese jerky treats remain on store shelves. We can safely assume many of those treats contain the very same illegal drugs or illegal levels of drugs too. And we can safely assume pets will continue to die (due to hypersensitivity to the sulfa drugs) until someone of authority stops the sale of these treats.
On a similar note – this recall notice was just posted on the FDA website – from May 2013…
Everpet Real Chicken Chicken Chips Dog Treats, packaged in flexible plastic bags, 3.5 oz. per bag, MADE IN CHINA DISTRIBUTED BY DOLGENCORP, INC. 100 MISSION RIDGE GOODLETTSVILLE, TN 37072
UPC 8 10633 01177 5
Product was shipped to the following states: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NE, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI & WV.
Reason for recall: The New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets (NYSDAM) found trace amounts of non-approved antibiotic residue in some of the dog treat samples that they tested.
Read the fine print very closely of any treat you provide your pet. Call the manufacturer and ask country of origin of ALL ingredients. This is not something you want to learn the hard way.
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
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