AAFCO threw the first stone, attacking innocent pet owners and consumer advocates without cause. Then, AAFCO’s lawyer made a bad situation worse.
The first attack against pet owners was sent out through the following email – sent to Association for Truth in Pet Food and to 3 different pet owners that previously attended AAFCO meetings:
As directed by legal counsel and the board of directors, your access to AAFCO resources is restricted until the resolution of the federal lawsuit, Lsytn LLC v. Food and Drug Administration, No. 19-cv-01943-PAB-KLM (D. Colo). Except for the print OP subscription being available to you, the AAFCO resources not accessible to you during this period include AAFCO meetings, the Feed BIN, AAFCO committees and work groups participation, and any other AAFCO resources not specifically identified here.
You are officially removed from any position as an AAFCO adviser, committee member, work group participant, claims of any representation of your interests or organization with AAFCO, involvement during AAFCO meetings, which are now unavailable to you, including by conference line, and any other claim of expert assistance to AAFCO.
Any reference to you and your company as an AAFCO adviser and your contact information are removed from the 2020 OP and future issues of the OP and the BIN until the lawsuit is resolved.
Please remove any claim that you are an AAFCO adviser from your email signature and from your website or social media sites. For the duration of the lawsuit, this is not accurate. At the resolution of the lawsuit, you may apply to AAFCO for consideration to be allowed to access AAFCO resources. We do not guarantee that you will be reinstated access to AAFCO resources.
Sue Hays CBC
AAFCO Executive Director
Email: exec@aafco.org
Then, AAFCO lawyer John Dillard of OFWlaw.com defended AAFCO’s attack on pet owners by claiming it is “AAFCO’s right” to ban anyone they choose from meetings. Responding to a pet owner complaint to the AAFCO Board of Directors regarding the pet owner ban from meetings, Mr. Dillard stated:
AAFCO has been named as a party in a federal lawsuit in Colorado. AAFCO was named in error, and we are in the process of getting the case dismissed. In the meantime, there have been a couple intervenor parties. I have observed exhibits proffered by both the plaintiff and intervenors that were obtained by non-members through access to the AAFCO website and AAFCO meetings. AAFCO is not a government agency and is under no obligation to allow the participation of non-members that are either intentionally or unintentionally harming the organization by requiring it to devote resources to defend against frivolous lawsuits. I have advised AAFCO to temporarily remove folks that are parties, proposed intervenors, or that have provided or are believed to be providing assistance to the parties or intervenors. This is AAFCO’s right.
Let’s be very clear…it is NOT AAFCO’s right to ban consumer advocates or consumers from attending public AAFCO meetings.
We must dismantle AAFCO.
Chances are, your tax dollars are helping to pay the salary of one or more AAFCO members that openly discriminated against pet owners. If you live in Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Washington, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Colorado – the states that the AAFCO Board of Directors work for – your tax dollars are paying the salaries of the very people that voted yes to banning pet owners.
How can we stop the discrimination? By demanding our home state resign from AAFCO. When states are forced to resign from participating in AAFCO – participating in openly discriminating against pet owners – AAFCO crumbles and the bigotry stops.
Please send an email to your Governor and other state officials demanding that your tax dollars NOT be spent supporting bigoted activities of government. Ask your state to immediately resign from participating in AAFCO. Example email:
[your state – example: Florida] participates in the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) organization. State tax dollars send multiple state employees to AAFCO meetings each year. My state’s participation in AAFCO must immediately stop as this organization has recently openly discriminated against pet owners, prohibiting pet owners from participating in the regulatory process, attending any public meeting or even purchasing the online pet food regulations. For [your state] to send representatives to AAFCO, participate in any manner in the AAFCO process – [your state] would be complicit with AAFCO’s bigotry against pet owners. I expect you to take immediate action and withdraw [your state] from AAFCO membership.
PLEASE – send your emails. Ask your neighbors, family, friends to send the email. If we don’t take a strong stance – right now – we may never have a voice in the pet food regulatory process again. By dismantling AAFCO – bigoted AAFCO – a replacement organization can be developed that will welcome pet owner input (instead of hating pet owners), one that writes laws for the benefit of pet health (instead of industry profit).
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
Become a member of our pet food consumer Association. Association for Truth in Pet Food is a a stakeholder organization representing the voice of pet food consumers at AAFCO and with FDA. Your membership helps representatives attend meetings and voice consumer concerns with regulatory authorities. Click Here to learn more.
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moviezombie
November 7, 2019 at 5:32 pm
I live in California and I do not see this state as using my tax $ to support the renegade AAFCO. I hope each and every person reading this that lives in a state listed by Susan does send an email to their governor.
Susan Thixton
November 7, 2019 at 5:47 pm
California does send representatives to AAFCO through California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Amy
November 7, 2019 at 6:19 pm
In fact, California even hosted an AAFCO meeting in January 2018.
Cannoliamo
November 7, 2019 at 6:06 pm
… copied from the AAFCO website …
https://www.aafco.org/Consumers
Consumer and Industry Involvement
“The most important aspect of feed regulation is to provide protection for the consumer as well as the regulated industry. A major function of feed regulations is to safeguard the health of man and animals. Another important function of feed regulation is to provide a structure for orderly commerce.”
– Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Official Publication
Anyone can register for and attend an AAFCO midyear or annual meeting.
~Pet Owner~
November 7, 2019 at 7:44 pm
This is very confusing at this point. Your comment says anyone can register and attend. AAFCO is preventing some from doing so. Others are calling it a public meeting. Legal representation is defending the right to restrict attendance. How can the public write any kind of complaint (or letter) if it’s not even clear about what’s going on.
Please clear this up. Thanks!
Cannoliamo
November 8, 2019 at 8:38 am
The quote I posted was a QUOTE from the AAFCO web site. I posted the link …
https://talkspetfood.aafco.org/roleofaafco
If you CLICK on the link and go to the AAFCO website, you will find the following statement
“𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐀𝐅𝐂𝐎 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠.”
This is a statement by AAFCO that is on the AAFCO website.
Dianne & Pets
November 8, 2019 at 1:07 pm
The end of the web page has this “Although AAFCO promotes the inclusion of consumer advocates as committee advisors, industry representatives still far outnumber consumer advocates. Consumers who wish to become advocates should contact: AAFCO Headquarters by phone at 217-356-4221 or by email at aafco@aafco.org Although AAFCO promotes the inclusion of consumer advocates as committee advisors, industry representatives still far outnumber consumer advocates. Consumers who wish to become advocates should contact: AAFCO Headquarters by phone at 217-356-4221 or by email at aafco@aafco.org” Pretty much an old boys club.
Pat Williams
November 7, 2019 at 6:25 pm
Since it seems the FDA, which definitely is a tax paid government entity, is in bed with the AAFCO, that should give pet parents (aka taxpayers) the right to be included in any meetings. It makes me wonder how trustworthy the FDA is when it involves human food since they think it’s fine for dogs to eat garbage and non-food items; someone has to be profiting from their participation with the AAFCO. I don’t at all trust the AAFCO’s statements concerning the nutrient needs for healthy dogs since they possibly are being paid by manufacturers and growers to include their products in the required nutrient list. It all boils down to money – mercenary people who don’t care at all about the welfare of the animals that are the basis of their income – which I consider illegal income since their motivation is themselves and not the health and well-being of our precious pets, and our government is unethical enough to go along with them. I have no faith at all in the USDA, FDA, AAFCO, PIJAC, NAIA, PNA, or even WSAVA in having the best interest of animals – and it’s for sure PFI (the pet food industry) doesn’t care.
Why hasn’t all this become major news information on any of the main tv networks? Are they being paid to keep quiet? How many people are aware that when we have major disasters where thousands of animals drown, etc., such as the chickens that lay rotting for weeks after Hurricane Matthew in 2018, those animals are picked up in dump trucks and sprayed with insecticide and then burned to a crisp and manufactured into dog food by adding huge bags of vitamins and minerals from China for the so-called nutrients required by the AAFCO – and all this with the blessing of state and federal government as a means to get rid of “garbage.”
I’m so ashamed of our government for letting all this happen. The political scene these days is a big enough embarrassment, but what we let dog food manufacturers get away with is outright criminal, and they seem to have the blessing of our government to do it.
Reader
November 7, 2019 at 7:47 pm
Given the absolute insanity that is currently filling up every second of media coverage, where exactly would a story like this be fit in?
At this point do you think the best interests of the voting public are being held in kind of regard? And sadly so much less regarding the health and safety of our companion pets?
Don’t look for any of this to be cleared up. This is now the status of how government works. Purely distracting endeavors, exactly to keep the public’s attention away from issues that might really matter.
Faith Jones
November 7, 2019 at 6:49 pm
Susan, I wrote all the AAFCO directors about the discrimination. I live in NJ which unfortunately, is mostly run by a sorry group. Animal rightest run one of the top. You were in on the illegal pet goat milk seizure last spring. I don’t understand how a private organization can be run by state and government individuals. Most consumers need to read their wesite.
Tina
November 7, 2019 at 7:11 pm
Thanks for posting the email & the lawyer’s statement Susan. This is pretty infuriating. I guess on both sides.
Dianne & Pets
November 7, 2019 at 7:55 pm
If AAFCO is not a government organization, then they should cease acting like one. The titles and other information that was to be removed should just put formerly in front of it. That is the truth,
chris
November 7, 2019 at 8:21 pm
Everytime I write my state Montana about anything, they give me a generic letter stating that they will do what is best for the state (in other words who will pay them more as groups).
T Allen
November 8, 2019 at 7:18 am
This is just CYA from a group that knows they are in trouble and trying to prevent any further “leaks”, statements that can be used against them in the lawsuit. Since we know there is plenty of info to use against them this is to be expected. The good news is, they are worried, and we should keep this info circulating!
Darlene Sumner
November 8, 2019 at 9:40 am
Looks like we all need to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico and stage a protest!!! Yup, sounds good to me!!!!!
KH
November 14, 2019 at 9:58 pm
More and more pet owners are uniting and fighting back against corruption that has gone unchecked for so long. It is making FDA and AAFCO crack. More and more exposure surrounding their relationships will continue to be exposed. Keep going!
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