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Stupidest Act in Pet Food

It’s that time of year again. Time for the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award. This year, I thought I’d let readers decide who wins. You’ve got many stupidities to choose from (isn’t that sad).

It’s that time of year again.  Time for the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award.  This year, I thought I’d let readers decide who wins.  You’ve got many stupidities to choose from (isn’t that sad).

This year I’m doing things a bit differently with the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award.  Previous years, I selected the winner.  This year, I felt it should be the decision of the educated Pet Owners that follow this site.  As well, the winner will be officially notified of their ‘win’; notified by registered mail with the following letter and a suitable for framing certificate.  The following is the letter our winner will receive…

Dear _____,
I have some bad news, your actions this past year have won you an award; The 2010 Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award.  Fellow Pet Owners voted, and you won/lost (depending on how you look at it).

While this award might not please you (your company/organization), it is our hope that by receiving it you will listen to the loud voices of educated Pet Owners.  You received this award because of what we (Pet Owners) perceived as the stupidest act in pet food this year, we hope you don’t repeat this behavior; learn from your mistakes.

Please frame the enclosed certificate and place it on your desk.  Use it as a daily reminder that Pet Owners are closely watching all those involved in the manufacturing of pet food.  Not only do we watch the stupid acts, we watch those that are making choices that show their company/organization is of the highest integrity and has the health of pets in mind.

Sincerely,

Educated Pet Owners

The following are the nominees.  Detailed information about their stupidity is linked with each brief description.  It’s going to be difficult to choose – there were a lot of stupid acts this year.


Blue Buffalo Pet Food
After Blue Buffalo experienced a recall this year, it seems they refused to provide one retailer – Pet Food Express – with “satisfactory documentation” of the safety of their foods.  Pet Food Express wanted test results and procedural details from Blue regarding the resolve of the high Vitamin D October 2010 recall; Blue wouldn’t provide this information.  Pet Food Express decided to discontinue carrying Blue foods when they refused to provide testing information.  By Blue not talking, they lost a huge retailer and undoubtedbly some customers.

Vote for Blue Buffalo if you feel this is the stupidest act in pet food for 2010.

FDA
Not that we ever have a short list of stupid acts from the FDA…
In October 2010, the FDA added another stupid act to our list of potential award winners by telling animal food ingredient suppliers and animal food manufacturers they can determine if an ingredient is safe, the FDA doesn’t want to bother with it.  No kidding; any ingredient in a pet food/animal food can be added with “the firm’s own determination” to be safe.  No unbiased proof required.

FDA and USDA employee survey finding numerous instances of interference from elected officials ( Congress) and/or interference from FDA and USDA administration with food safety concerns.

Continued use of food dyes in pet food.  From Blue 2 to Red 40, common dyes used in pet foods and treats are scientifically linked to serious disease such as tumors and cancer.  Why do some pet food companies continue to use them?  Because they prefer to please the eye of the pet owner versus benefiting the health of the pet.  Stupid.

Office of Inspector General gave the FDA a failing grade in protecting consumers (and pets) from unsafe meat.  A March 25, 2010 report from The Office of Inspector General, several startling concerns were pointed out including (but not limited to) agencies not working together, risky drug and heavy metal residues allowed in meat, and lack of FDA science to protect consumers.  The worst stupidity…nothing – zero – zippo – nadda – has been done to correct this.

It took a legal battle to force the FDA to abide by Federal law.  Despite Federal law stating that health claims can be made on supplements backed by qualified scientific evidence, the FDA has a long history of shutting down companies that make such claims.  Alliance for Natural Health sued the FDA and won.  Yet the battle is on-going.  To this day, the FDA puts tremendous scrutiny on health promoting supplement companies – even those with more than clear scientific evidence to their benefit.  So you still are at risk of making the claim ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”  Stupid.

Margaret Hamburg.  In a half hearted attempt to make the FDA appear to care about the safety of food, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg notified 17 (human) food manufacturers they are in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  The stupidity comes in with pet food; FDA compliance policies give pet food permission to violate the very same Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  One industry gets nailed for minor labeling laws, yet pet food is allowed to include horrendous violations while lying about it to petsumers.

All of the above instances of stupidity should be taken into consideration for your vote.  Should you feel the FDA should (again) win the Stupidest Act in Pet Food, vote below for FDA.

Dr. Christopher Allen DVM
Dr. Christopher J. Allen DVM JD wrote some stupidity this year.  In an article published at DVM360.com Dr. Allen complained about patients that asked too many questions.  He even suggested these types of clients “need to be fired”.  Some quotes of his potential award winning stupidity are…
“Be concerned when taking on advanced or sophisticated treatments on behalf of clients who express serious dissatisfaction with their previous experience with a specialty practice or university teaching hospital.”

“Be concerned when a client asks you to repeat, with annoying specificity, the medications, surgical techniques or treatment approaches you intend to employ or have employed in working up a case.”

But the good news on the above story is one Pet Owner blasted Dr. Allen, and it was repeated by many of you reading the story.

Should you think Dr. Allen clearly committed the stupidest act in pet food (those his actions weren’t directly related to pet food), vote for Dr. Allen below.

 Delta Society and Therapet
Two animal assisted therapy organizations did something really stupid this year, they banned pets eating a raw meat diet from participating in organization activities.  Despite clinical science that has proven raw meat diets are of no more risk that kibble or can diets shedding bacteria – these two organizations decided they would listen to only one side of the story.  Plus the Delta Society ban of raw meat fed therapy dogs with a Purina executive sitting on their board of directors.
https://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/another-animal-assisted-therapy-organization-bans-raw-feeding.html
https://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/did-purina-executive-influence-delta-society%E2%80%99s-ban-of-raw-feeding.html
https://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/pet-food-police-coming-to-a-delta-society-near-you.html

Should this be the winning stupidest act in pet food, a Stupid Certificate will be mailed to both Therapet and Delta Society.  Their stupidity is so closely related, we might as well send them both an ‘award’.

AVMA Salmonella Prevention
The video provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association and hosted by CEO Dr. Ron DeHaven, DVM is, in my opinion, clearly stupid.  Not only does the AVMA encourage pet owners to feed and store pet food “as far away from the human food preparation area as you can” the video also says to “keep pets off countertops”.  Clearly the AVMA has lost the understand of pets (and cats).  They are part of the family and should never be banished into the back yard to eat.  Stupid.

This one’s a big stupid act in my book.  C’mon doc!  Have you been a veterinarian so long that you’ve forgotten what its like to be a pet owner?  Do you have a cat?  Vote below for AVMA if you feel this is the stupidest act in pet food.

Iam’s oops 

Posted as a comment on the TruthaboutPetFood.com notice of an Iams Recall this year, Iams employee shared something that showed how clueless corporate pet food is to Pet Owner feelings.  “We would have preferred to have all of our ducks in a row, but instead we are playing catch up.”  This was the Iams employee saying they wanted to not make the recall announcement until they had ‘things’ in order.  Very stupid.

Vote below for Iams if you feel this is the stupidest act in pet food this year.

Petfood-Connection.com
From Petfood-Connection.com, blogger Debbie Phillips-Donaldson posted a complaint about increased salmonella inspections by the FDA.  Yep, pretty stupid.  She couldn’t see the forest for the trees…blaming increased inspections and the bad guy instead of encouraging pet food to clean up their bacteria.  Perhaps Ms. Phillips-Donaldson should be more concerned about the risks of Salmonella instead of complaining about inspections.

Vote below for Petfood-Connection.com if you feel this is the stupidest act in pet food this year.

Menu Foods
Menu Foods financial results for the first quarter of 2010.  The press release announcement stated “Not for release over US newswire services.”  In other words, Menu Foods didn’t want grieving Pet Owners in the US to know they were still making boat loads of money.  Stupid.

If you feel Menu Foods actions earn the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award, vote below.

Proctor & Gamble/Natura
Proctor & Gamble purchasing Natura Pet Products.  Whether you think it was stupid for P&G to purchase Natura with the hopes the company would remain a leader in higher end commercial pet foods or if you think it was stupid for Natura Owners to sell to corporate giant P&G…was this the stupidest act in pet food this year?

If you feel the sale of Natura Pet Products to P&G was the stupidest act in pet food for 2010, vote below for Natura/P&G.

Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to Iams and Frontline
I personally felt stupid when I learned that the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval was nothing more than a bought and paid for advertising game; how in the world could I have believed for so many years this was an honest review?  Then, this year the GH Seal of Approval was given to a pet food line that contains an ingredient (Animal Fat) the FDA determined to be the most likely pet food ingredient at risk to contain pentobarbital and a euthanized animal.  Stupid.

Another one that tops my list.  Vote for Good Housekeeping below if this is your choice for the Stupidest Act in Pet Food Award.

Purina Pet Food
Purina Blog telling Pet Owners junk food – while alluding to human food – is bad for dogs.  While this Purina Blog didn’t outright say all human food is bad for pets (yes – some human foods are), it was the underlying message from the post (in my opinion).  When you consider that Purina pet foods often include rendered ingredients such as Meat and Bone Meal and Animal Fat – both ingredients the FDA determined to be likely to contain pentobarbital and a euthanized animal – their article was stupid and ‘hard to swallow’.

Vote for Purina below if you feel this is the winner.

Evangers
Evangers Pet Food Owners accused of stealing $2 M in electric and gas.  While the case has yet to go to trial, the evidence is quite shocking.  From ChicagoBreakingNews.com the Shere’s (owners of Evangers Pet Food) “not only tampered with a Nicor meter but built a separate pipe to divert the flow of gas prior to reaching the meter.”  “A two-way valve was inserted so that the gas flow could be redirected to the meter when inspections occurred by Nicor.”

If you feel the Sher’s of Evangers committed the Stupidest Act in Pet food, vote for Evangers below.

Chem Nutra

Stephen and Sally Miller, the owners of ChemNutra – the company that knowingly imported more than 800 metric tons of melamine poisoned vegetable proteins – responsible for the deadliest pet food recall in history – was ONLY sentenced to three years probation and fined only $35,000.  (This might fall into the most sickening act in pet food instead of stupid)

While the ‘award’ should be sent to the Judge that handed the Millers such a nice sentence, should you the Millers/ChemNutra win, the ‘award’ will be mailed to the Millers (and their new importing company).  Vote for ChemNutra below if you feel they deserve to win.

Pet Food Institute tells FDA Pet Owners are incompetent
Providing input to FDA regarding a pet food safety reporting system, the Pet Food Institute – a lobby organization representing Big Pet Food – told the FDA Pet Owners should report all pet food concerns to pet food (not necessarily reporting a problem to FDA), emphasizing that Pet Owners might be overreacting when reporting, and on and on.  Clearly trying to sway the FDA into not listening to Pet Owner complaints.  Stupid.

If the Pet Food Institute is your winner for Stupidest Act in Pet Food this year, vote below.

The winner will be announced in the January 2011 Newsletter.  Happy voting (though the decision will be a tough one – lots of stupidity this year)!

 

 

NOTE:  Voting has closed.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com

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