Save our Pets from Onerous Taxes is a campaign initiated by the lobby organization for Big Pet Food, the Pet Food Institute. Although these campaigns appear to be consumer driven (“Save Our Pets…”), they are clearly corporate driven. Carefully crafted efforts protecting the interests of Big Pet Food.
One of you great animal lovers out there alerted me to this new effort from the Pet Food Institute (Thank you!). From the No Kill Allegany County (Maryland) website “There are indications that the pet food Industry is rearing it’s ugly head in the State of Maryland. It seems the Pet Food Institute, which is the voice of the pet food industry, has hired a lobbying and communication company for a large scale defamation campaign in order to stop the spay & neuter program in the State of Maryland. The lobbying company, Hubbell Communications, has done the same before in the State of Oregon and also tried in the State of West Virginia. They have created a Facebook page called SPOT Maryland.”
So what was the PFI fighting against in Maryland? An annual surcharge of $100 per each commercial pet food that would support the state’s Spay/Neuter Fund.
This was not a tax on “our pets” as the SPOT Campaign implies, it was a tax on pet food manufacturers. A tax needed to fund life saving spay/neuter programs in the state.
Seriously PFI? Seriously Big Pet Food? You oppose paying a mere $100 annual fee for each pet food you sell in Maryland that would help prevent the useless euthanasia of thousands of homeless pets?
Thank goodness, the PFI’s mission in Maryland didn’t get too far. The SPOT Maryland Facebook page only achieved 1,105 Likes and the bill was passed in mid-April 2013.
A website in support of the pet food manufacturer tax stated “Maryland shelters euthanize 45,000 cats and dogs every year at a cost of $8-9 million dollars to Maryland taxpayers.” Maryland Speaker of the House, Michael Busch, stated “Once Maryland Votes For Animal’s members explained to me the severity of Maryland’s homeless cat and dog problem, and how successful other states have been in reducing that problem and saving money by implementing a low cost spay/neuter program, I was convinced that it was something that we should be doing, and I wanted to help move it forward in our General Assembly.”
The bill will become law in Maryland in October 2013.
Pet Food Institute, it is time you think of the greater good instead of the profits of your pet food manufacturer members. Your members SHOULD pay up and help prevent the euthanasia of hundreds of thousands of homeless pets. There is no excuse.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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Tom
May 14, 2013 at 2:17 pm
Soooo…who are these companies behind SPOT? Name names!
Susan Thixton
May 14, 2013 at 2:21 pm
It would be any member of the Pet Food Institute – and unfortunately PFI doesn’t name names. You can safely assume any of the large pet food manufacturers.
Maddison
May 14, 2013 at 4:20 pm
who are the companies – go to the PFI website for that answer
” PFI active members account for 98% of the commercial cat and dog food made in the United States. “
Mary Anne Latham Kennard
May 14, 2013 at 4:40 pm
Question, what happened with this group in Oregon? I live there and we have a tremendous problem with dogs and cats (especially) cats not being dpayed and neutered. We have pet cats running around all over the place! It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.
Thank you.
Ellie
May 14, 2013 at 5:34 pm
Just another clue, folks! The big pet food companies do not care about your pets! It’s the dollars they can make that matters.
Allison
May 14, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Makes sense to me. Why would big pet food companies want to fund spaying and neutering? They want there to be an excess of pets so people will buy more food. I remember Iams telling our local humane society they would be cutting back on the amount of food they could donate so we should be feeding the pets less…all they care about is money. They really don’t care at all about the welfare of our pets. Boycott them all make your own food!! 😀
Peter Osroff
May 15, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Why are pet food companies responsible to pay for spay/neuter programs? Why not tax veterinarians? How about pet stores? Or wee wee pad makers? Or, vaccine manufacturers?
It seems to me that we should not arbitrarily single out any business to pay for a government service that should be covered from general revenue. Pet food manufacturers are no more responsible to pay for the spaying of feral cats and dogs than any other business in the state. Also, additional taxes will simply be passed on to consumers anyway — this would only make pet food more expensive.
Truth about Pet Food should stay focused on what goes into pet food rather than getting off-track with politics outside its core agenda area.
Karla
May 31, 2013 at 11:09 pm
This campaign was initiated by the PET FOOD INSTITUTE and thus the topic is perfectly appropriate for this forum. The ethics, motives, and activities of the PFI are very much in question, and very much of interest to this reader! Thank you, Susan, for bringing this to our attention. Unfortunately for our dogs and cats, pet food = politics and that’s exactly what needs to change.