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Pet Food Regulations

“FDA must issue…” – But They Never Did

A government website proves FDA pretended to abide by law year after year, when they actually NEVER did.

A government website proves FDA pretended to abide by law year after year, when they actually NEVER did.

Signed into law in September 2007, Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food was supposed to improve pet food safety protecting our pets. The first notice of FDA’s federal law pet food responsibility was posted in the spring of 2008 on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website:

Per an Executive Order, federal agencies are required to post pending rules such as this pet food safety rule every six months as the rule progresses into implementation on the RegInfo website. The above notification was FDA’s requirement to notify the public of their legal responsibility per the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (the laws written after thousands of pets died in 2007). This was the initial notice on the government website, but many notices followed.

Waiting implementation, the pet food safety rules were posted again in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009. A year and a half later – “Fall 2009” – was the official deadline FDA was to complete this pet food safety work. But, the FDA notice on the government Unified Agenda website remained unchanged. In other words, FDA had NOT issued the updated standards for pet food labels as federal law required the agency to do.

These official notices from FDA continued with Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, and Fall 2011. With each notice the FDA declared on an official government website they are required by federal law to update pet food labels to include “nutritional and ingredient information“. Each of these notices also declared the deadline for FDA to complete this work, September 27, 2009.

In 2013, the official notices changed a little with FDA declaring why these new rules were so important…

But…no implementation of law was ever done. The only action seen was FDA continuing to tell the public the agency intended to complete the work. The official notices from FDA continued in Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, and Spring 2017.

And then in the Fall of 2017, the FDA “action to provide pet owners and animal health professionals more complete and useful information about the nutrient content and ingredient composition of pet food products” was “Withdrawn“.

What “The President signed into law” in 2007 – the FDA officially withdrew ten years later. Year, after year, after year, FDA ignored law. Then in 2017, after nine long years of broken promises made on a government website, FDA defiantly withdrew their legal responsibility.

And it gets worse. Instead of explaining to the public why FDA withdrew from their legal responsibility, the agency directly lied to the public on another government website. Published in the Federal Register on January 12, 2018 the FDA tells U.S. Citizens the “Updated Standards for Labeling of Pet Food” was “Completed“.

No, the FDA did NOT “complete” this required work. The agency talked about completing it for 9+ years (at tax payer expense). But without a shadow of doubt, the FDA NEVER completed pet food labeling updates as federal law required them to do.

How can a federal agency can defiantly ignore law and directly lie to the public in the Federal Register?

Send your emails of concern to FDA at AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov.

And by the way, the FDA neatly (and secretively) erased any future possibility of updated standards for labeling of pet food by enlisting the help of Senator Rand Paul to submit an addendum to an unrelated bill to completely delete the federal laws that FDA ignored for 9+ years.



Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

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

8 Comments

  1. Cannoliamo

    April 14, 2019 at 8:54 am

    Time to call FDA / CVM what they really are ….. a “pseudo-agency” doing nothing to help pet food consumers and everything to service their corporate lobbyist clients. Their regulatory implementation status has degenerated to that of EPA’s enforcement of Clean Air and Drinking Water Standards ….. NOTHING BUT WORDS.

    • Peter

      April 16, 2019 at 8:14 am

      Yes, that is known as “regulatory capture,” wherein a body is created as a state regulatory agency to act in the public interest, but instead is advancing commercial or special interests that dominated the industries it was charged with regulating. As a “failure of government,” regulatory capture ultimately encourages a business model wherein large firms impart negative economic and moral social costs on consumers (the third party in the relationship).

  2. Marley Rowelyn

    April 14, 2019 at 10:29 am

    It should apparent to anyone that our government has reached a new and shocking level of corruption.

  3. ~Pet Owner~

    April 14, 2019 at 12:38 pm

    Let’s face it. If people in this country can’t treat each other with decency … what chance do animals have.

    Very depressing.

  4. Debi Cohen

    April 14, 2019 at 2:02 pm

    Be your animals own overseer and don’t feed them this un-regulated garbage

  5. Gdoggie

    April 14, 2019 at 7:55 pm

    Can’t we go over the heads of the local FDA people? I just looked something up, don’t know if it will do any good, but: FDA Organization Overview
    SHARE
    TWEET
    LINKEDIN
    PIN IT
    EMAIL
    PRINT
    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the process of implementing an agency-wide reorganization. This chart provides an overview of the structures. Additional charts will be posted once available and previous charts have been archived.

    Please contact Jacqueline (Jacquie) Vega with any questions concerning this reorganization.
    Contact Information:
    Office: 240.402.4713; email: Jacqueline.Vega@fda.hhs.gov

    Or, can’t we complain to our local congress people?

  6. ~Food For Though~

    April 14, 2019 at 11:16 pm

    In terms of never giving up here’s yet another idea for File Thirteen ?

    QUESTION: “How can a federal agency defiantly ignore law and directly lie to the public in the Federal Register?

    88 TAPF readers responded to this Post: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/is-it-any-wonder-pet-owners-are-suspicious/ regarding the inconclusive connection between (suspected) diet-related DCM and PF. That 4 major PF companies (Hills, RC, Eukanuba and Purina) are still being recommended by Vets (WSAVA) without the assurance that true independent objective third party research is taking place.

    Yet only 30 TAPF readers responded to this Post: https://truthaboutpetfood.com/senator-rand-paul-destroyed-pet-food-safety/ that reported “signed into law in September 2007, Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food was supposed to improve pet food safety” and concludes with “the FDA neatly (and secretively) erased any future possibility of updated standards for labeling of pet food by enlisting the help of Senator Rand Paul to submit an addendum to an unrelated bill to completely delete the federal laws that FDA ignored.

    ANSWER PROVIDED

    Thousands of pets died because of the 2007. People were so outraged that Congress was forced to act. But in 10 years time people have forgotten so there’s no media attention. Nobody cares because (1) people can’t grasp the truth and (2) believers avoid PF. So nothing is accomplished in the absence of attention and consequence. And it certainly won’t be now that the law (regulation) is eliminated. Nothing will change until accountable people are exposed because only those who have something to lose will act!

    SUGGESTION:

    Collect anecdotes from everyone who has lost (or suffered with) a pet BECAUSE of PF. It should be about “I fed this PF and my dog nearly died. I stopped using it and he/she is fine.” Individual heartfelt experience makes the real point. This movement isn’t about the numbers (like only 300 pets out of 70,000 are affected). This about one pet who’s suffering could’ve been prevented if only the right thing was done. Like testing to prevent a Vitamin D premix error.

    Make a collection out of all these reports, copy whoever is responsible in the FDA, the person’s superior, Congress, especially Rand Paul, and the appropriate media outlets. I believe making a personal connection can warn unsuspecting pet owners and expose guilty people!

  7. Carol Rach

    April 22, 2019 at 2:21 pm

    Tell us what to do. Give us names to notify, let’s get it done!

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