Our attempt to educate and encourage this celebrity to do the right thing.
In my pet food news feed today (7/24/20) was this notice: “Miranda Lambert is expanding MuttNation with a new food line. The “Bluebird” singer took to Instagram to announce that her animal-friendly nonprofit has added a line of food and treats for cats and dogs, called On the Farm. Available through Tractor Supply, On the Farm blends are made with farm-raised meat and high-quality grains and other ingredients.”
Looking at the pet food ingredients you can quickly see it is another pet feed with misleading images on the label. Another celebrity giving their name to a pet feed more than likely without having a clue of what the ingredients are within the product. So…I sent the following email to Miranda Lambert’s MuttNation today (7/24/20):
Your new pet food line displays images of grilled steak and grilled chicken on the label. Do these pet foods contain grilled steak and chicken? My guess is they do not. So my real question is why is the MuttNation Foundation/Miranda Lambert (perhaps unintentionally) misleading pet owners with these images on their pet food labels?
I am a pet food consumer advocate fighting for safe, legal, and honestly labeled pet foods. Some things you probably are not aware of about your pet food…
1. The first ingredient in your pet foods lists beef or chicken. Does your manufacturing facility have freezers to store the beef or chicken? My guess is no. Your manufacturer could be using dried powdered meat because they have no freezers to store fresh or frozen beef or chicken – the type of beef and chicken displayed on your labels. So again, going back to the images on your packaging – aren’t those images misleading pet owners? A grilled steak is nothing similar to dried, powdered beef.
2. Your pet foods include the ingredient “animal fat”. Are you aware that animal fat is a generic fat that is produced from rendering (cooking) of multiple species of animals and can include recycled used restaurant grease? Are you aware that your animal fat ingredient can be sourced from diseased animals and animals that have died otherwise than by slaughter? Are you aware that your animal fat ingredient can be sourced from condemned animal parts? Are you aware that FDA determined that the pet food ingredient animal fat was one of several pet food ingredients most likely to contain a euthanized animal?
3. Your pet foods are not ‘food’ – they are feed. Feed grade pet foods are allowed by FDA enforcement discretion to violate federal food safety laws. Our pet food consumer organization asked FDA to stop allowing pet foods to violate federal laws, FDA responded in April 2019 with “we do not believe that the use of diseased animals or animals that died otherwise than by slaughter to make animal food poses a safety concern and we intend to continue to exercise enforcement discretion.” You can verify this by reading our Citizen Petition to FDA, our Addendum, FDA’s response, and our Petition for Reconsideration here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FDA-2016-P-3578. Do you know if your pet foods contain any part of an illegal ingredient? Do you know if your pet foods contain any part of a diseased animal or animal that has died otherwise than by slaughter? Shouldn’t you know?
Please don’t add to the problem. Don’t be an animal rescue or another celebrity that unknowingly contributes to the problem of misleading pet owners with images of ingredients your products contain nothing similar to. Don’t be an animal rescue or another celebrity that unknowingly includes waste, illegal ingredients in their pet foods. Please properly educate yourself about the pet food you are producing, the pet food your name and cause is associated with.
I assume your organization has been thus far only guided by the pet food manufacturer, please look at the other side of the pet food industry. Should you wish to further understand the pet food industry, how you could make it better (not worse), myself and multiple other consumer advocates would be more than willing to assist.
Sincerely,
Susan Thixton
I encourage all pet owners to send Miranda Lambert and her rescue organization MuttNation a message, encourage her to produce a legal ingredient, honestly labeled pet food. Maybe we can collectively convince her to STOP contributing to the pet feed problem.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Nancy Lee Westrell
July 24, 2020 at 2:22 pm
It would be nice if you could get her on board!
Susan Thixton
July 24, 2020 at 3:36 pm
“We” – it would be nice if we can get her on board. It’s a team effort!
Kathy A Marmon
July 24, 2020 at 5:54 pm
Letter is very tactfully written and addressed the issues in a polite way. May we need to send also to Rachael Ray and Ellen??? Thanks bunches for all you do for the animals.
Sharon Testa
July 26, 2020 at 10:35 am
Don’t waste your time they do not care they are making $$$$$ I totally think ALL these fake so called celebs are worthless I never by any pet food endorsed by any of them I make 75% of my 6 cats food and cheat with decent commercial
marspolarlander
July 24, 2020 at 2:52 pm
Fantastic letter!
Susan Thixton
July 24, 2020 at 3:36 pm
Thank you.
Merry
July 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm
Susan, may I share your letter, along with my support, on my Instagram page and MuttNation and Miranda Lambert pages?
Susan Thixton
July 24, 2020 at 4:52 pm
Yes – no problem.
chris
July 24, 2020 at 6:23 pm
I also tried with the pioneer woman Ree Drummond when she came out with dog treats made from Purina but she will not answer me. I told her that people will buy it because of her name and that Purina does not make anything with real meat (like her treats advertise). How sad.
Regina
July 25, 2020 at 1:46 pm
Just another celebrity seling out and letting “whover” to slap their name onto a product. Was Miranda even involved in creating this feed, or she just sell her name?
Otto
July 24, 2020 at 7:28 pm
Well, we could start with: what exactly does “farm-raised” mean? Where else would one raise livestock? Sure, there are backyard poultry, but I doubt there are enough of them to mass produce enough feed to supply all Tractor Supply Stores.
Sadly, another well-meaning ignoramus unintentionally hurting countless animals and ripping off equally ignorant pet parents.
Perhaps she could be encouraged to personally visit the entire supply chain from start to finish?
Dawn
July 25, 2020 at 11:32 am
I remember a while ago a new Campbell’s soup had “farm raised vegetables” printed on the can. Of course you bunch of lemmings!! Where the hell else would they be grown??
Melissa Moon
July 24, 2020 at 7:51 pm
Great letter. I looked up the Beef & Veggie blend and #3 is ground sorghum. Is this fairly new? I don’t recall seeing that before. #4 & #5 are barley and soybean meal. Yuck.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/muttnation-fueled-by-miranda-lambert-beef-vegetable-dog-food-30lb-bag-1525548
Susan Hayes
July 24, 2020 at 8:20 pm
Thank you for this, Susan — and everything else you do!
Regina
July 25, 2020 at 1:54 pm
I went to Tractor Supply and looked at the products (Susan, I didn’t even read your whole post, just knew it was bad news!!!)
I posted reviews on her products. I only did the large bags, just hoping that folks would at least read those reviews. I did comment about the ingredients. We should all do that, in addition to contacting Miranda herself. If the average person sees my comments, and hopefully more of our comments, some of the less informed shoppers out there will have second thoughts.
and the one that says “ancient grains” one the front of bag, I commented, calling out the lack of ancient grains.And because it was cat food, I also mentioned how bad the food was for carnivores.
We really should just inundate their website with reviews. (I actually checked the “no” question that asked if I had read any reviews online. I just was commenting on ingredients as someone just checking the food out.
Regina
July 25, 2020 at 2:02 pm
I just read further down her list of ingredients. Iron Oxide, that made me think of “rust” rain would make our old out-door iron furniture rust. Well, look at what Wikipedia has to say about this inexpensive colorant
Search Results
Web results
Iron oxide – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › Iron_oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. There are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides, the best known of which is rust, a form of iron(III) oxide. … Iron oxides are inexpensive and durable pigments in paints, coatings and colored concretes.
Rust · Iron oxide pigments · Iron(II) oxide · Iron oxide nanoparticle
Blech, doesn’t sound like anything I would want my pet to eat. We never saw animal lick it off “in the wild” as a natural ingredient.
Dawn
July 26, 2020 at 11:24 am
Aldi’s “Heart to Tail” canned cat feed contains “animal liver”. I can’t even imagine the background to that ingredient. Terrifying and sickening.