Today – 9/24/21 – the FDA hosted a virtual listening session for stakeholders of pet food. The following are slides I was required to send to FDA a week in advance of the webinar. FDA states the full transcript and recording of today’s listening session will be posted on the FDA website soon.
Below is what I shared during my allotted six minutes. First the slides I presented, and under each slide is the script I read to them.
“My name is Susan Thixton, I am speaking on behalf of pet food consumer members of Association for Truth in Pet Food and TruthaboutPetFood.com.”
(We were required to introduce ourselves and state our affiliation.)
“We surveyed our members asking them multiple questions about the regulation of pet food and the challenges they face when selecting a pet food.
100% of our pet owners stated they did not believe regulatory authorities have their pet’s best interest in mind when regulating pet food.”
“When asked about their most important concern in pet food, our pet owners were split between 3 issues. 51% felt regulatory authorities allowing pet food to violate federal and state law was their biggest concern. 27% felt the lack of disclosure to the quality of ingredients on the pet food label was their biggest concern. And 21% felt poor regulatory monitoring of known pet food contaminants such as mycotoxins and pentobarbital was their biggest concern.”
“95% of our pet owners felt pet products should be labeled as feed – dog feed, cat feed – if they do not meet the legal standards of food.
100% of our pet owners did not believe the pet food label provides them with sufficient information.
78% of our pet owners stated their biggest concern with current pet food labels is no disclosure to quality of ingredients.”
“Pet owners don’t believe FDA has any understanding of how difficult things are for them. So…we ask you to walk in our shoes for just a moment. To set the stage for this I provide you with the following analogy.”
“There are many different types of pie – apple pie, cherry pie, pizza pie, and cow pie.”
“Now…imagine if you fed your family pie every day. Imagine that the pies all looked similar, and imagine if there was no way for you to tell what type of pie you were buying and feeding your family by reading the label. You wouldn’t intentionally give your family cow pie for dinner, but you aren’t told what type of pie it is – pie authorities don’t require pie manufacturers to disclose the type of pie it is. And even though cow pie is not allowed to be sold as food per federal law, pie authorities allow it through selective enforcement believing properly processed cow pies do not pose a safety concern.”
“How would that make YOU feel? How worried would you be – wondering if you were giving your family the right pie or the wrong pie.”
“This is what it’s like for pet owners. Directly because of regulatory decisions made without consumer input, pet owners are put into a position to blindly buy and feed to their pets unclassified ingredient pet foods. They worry – is it edible or inedible? Is it inspected and passed or is it illegal diseased animals and animals that have died other than by slaughter allowed by FDA enforcement discretion?
We ALL deserve to be provided with full transparency to what we are feeding our families – whether it’s pie or pet food.
Pet owners are the largest stakeholder in pet food. Yet we are the most ignored stakeholder. Pet food safety laws promised to us in 2007 were never implemented and then deleted without a second thought of consumer opinion. FDA regularly speaks to industry, but has not provided pet owners equal time. Instead of being excluded, pet owners deserve to be acknowledged and treated as a valuable stakeholder. We hope we can move forward towards that goal from today on.”
“I close with 3 quotes from pet owners when asked what they would like the FDA to know:
I don’t trust your organization to tell me the truth about what’s in pet food. You cater to the big companies rather than protect the consumer.
If the FDA is going to ignore regulations and violations and just consider pet food as “feed” for livestock, I would like their jurisdiction over pet food ended and transferred to the authority of the USDA. My dog is not livestock to be kept alive just long enough to be slaughtered to enter the food chain. My dogs are members of my family and I am trying to optimize their health so that they can live the longest, healthiest lives possible. I do not believe the FDA has the same goals in mind.
I’m guessing that most people in the FDA don’t have animals as family members because if they did they would understand.
Thank you.“
FDA made no comment on our presentation or any presentation. The recordings of all presentations will be posted soon on the FDA website. When that is posted, we’ll share.
Thanks to all pet owners that provided us input!
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 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.
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 5,000 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Click Here to preview Petsumer Report. www.PetsumerReport.com
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
The 2021 List
Susan’s List of pet foods trusted to give her own pets. Click Here to learn more.
Mary Blemler
September 24, 2021 at 5:45 pm
A very eloquent and to the point presentation.
I don’t trust the FDA at all and most of the pet food companies, I am currently feeding a human grade dog food from your List.
Audree Berg
September 24, 2021 at 5:52 pm
Outstanding presentation, Susan! Thanks.
Sally
September 24, 2021 at 5:54 pm
Clever presentation, and well done. Wish I felt hopeful.
Kathi Kruse
September 24, 2021 at 5:55 pm
Thank you for standing up for the large majority of pet owners who just want to know what’s in their pet’s food. And for the many who do not have access to higher quality food for their pets.
Kenneth Robinson
September 24, 2021 at 5:56 pm
I am a member and support your efforts to make the regulators and industry accountable. But, at this point, there is no accountability. So, of necessity, I make our pet food from human consumption grade proteins. I simply don’t trust any food produced by the industry.
Sami Swan Thompson
September 24, 2021 at 6:03 pm
Hi, Susan,
The comparison with pies was brilliant, really brilliant! If your entire presentation doesn’t end up on the website, rest assured that I have no problem writing and asking where it is. There will be plenty of people squirming in discomfort over the message you presented, because (a) it was true, and (b) you presented it in a deceptively soft voice that carried an enormous punch (truth often does that).
Regardless of the outcome of this effort, I’m so proud of you and everyone involved. It’s easy to talk about doing something like this, but difficult to pull everything together to actually DO it.
As always, you have my admiration and gratitude.
jan blanco
September 24, 2021 at 6:13 pm
OMG that was AWESOME! and done in 6 minutes……….you sure did hit the high spots, Susan – THANK YOU!
Donna
September 24, 2021 at 6:17 pm
i have followed your work for a few years. I salute and treasure that you are here representing so potently and thoroughly and righteously my concerns and worries about caring for my pets. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Susan Mael
September 24, 2021 at 7:01 pm
Great presentation- Thanks!
Susan Eda
September 24, 2021 at 7:19 pm
Thank you for representing pet owners and sharing our concerns at this important meeting. It would be great if we could get some of this information published in national magazines so more pet owners could learn how poorly our pet food manufacturing is actually supervised and possibly more people could then apply more political pressure to get things changed if the articles explained how to do so. While online is good, many older people do not use it.
T Allen
September 24, 2021 at 7:54 pm
Susan, you are my hero! That is the absolute PERFECT 6 minute explanation of the situation we are in. I hope this gets spread far and wide because we know the FDA isn’t going to do anything until there is a class action lawsuit. Our only hope is to educate enough consumers to make changes so Pet Food companies loose money and maybe then they’ll make changes. I’m not counting on it though so I’ll just continue to spread the word and feed my animals “real” food. Thank you so much for all you do for us!
Bob
September 24, 2021 at 9:09 pm
Well put, Susan.
Gee
September 24, 2021 at 9:15 pm
Blessings for your excellent work your voice is my voice. Thank you for your dedication and enduring hard work to be our present day animal guardian!
Laurie Matson
September 24, 2021 at 9:48 pm
They don’t want to improve pet food because they are greedy and it cuts into there bottom lines and incomes. Greed rules everything today.
Wendy
September 25, 2021 at 1:40 am
BRAVO Miss Susan!!!
You remain our Shero and thank you for your continued dedication to protecting our furkids ❤️🐾😊
Sundi
September 25, 2021 at 2:13 am
Great presentation. Thank you !
Debby Bradford
September 25, 2021 at 2:38 am
Thank you, Susan!
Jackie Miller
September 25, 2021 at 8:40 am
Thank you for speaking out for all of us pet owners. You did an AWESOME job and we so appreciate you. THANK YOU!
Frances Tarrant
September 25, 2021 at 8:52 am
Susan, thank you so much for the work you do. Perfect presentation!
Kohl Harrington
September 25, 2021 at 9:18 am
Very well spoken. So cool, calm, collected. Keep going!
Cheri
September 25, 2021 at 10:13 am
Thank you Susan. Well done!
Jamie Kay
September 25, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Thank you so much. Loved the comparisons and hope the “good” people in the FDA take note and DO something.
Krista Karpowich
September 25, 2021 at 2:05 pm
Great, great presentation Susan! Thanks so much for fighting the fight and for being the voice for dogs and dog lovers. Know that you are appreciated 🙂
Pamela Norris
September 25, 2021 at 4:06 pm
Thank you Susan for all your hard work and love of all fur babies. Excellent presentation, now if they would just listen!
Irene
September 25, 2021 at 9:47 pm
Thank you Susan for all you do! Great presentation!
Lynda
September 26, 2021 at 6:33 pm
This was great!! Thank you.
Sue
September 27, 2021 at 5:49 am
Excellent presentation Susan. Thanks so much for continuing to fight for our pets. I think it’s going to take a miracle for anything to change though.
DONNA F DEBONIS
September 29, 2021 at 12:29 pm
I watched all the presentations in realtime, and I thought yours was right on point with providing exactly what the stakeholders (Pet owners) are saying. As a veterinarian for 38 years, Army Veterinarian for 12 years, and with a Masters in Food Safety, I have now opened the first Pet Food Safety Veterinary Lab that does pet food testing for unsafe ingredients (Thyroid hormone, Vitamin D, Euthanasia solution). We even DNA test pet food for species –is your protein REALLY only kangaroo, or is it mixed with horsemeat). Thanks to your efforts, Susan, I am able to get the word out that many pet foods are unsafe to feed our pets.