In 2008 TruthaboutPetFood.com began the yearly Stupidest Act in Pet Food award. And six years in a row, the FDA has won this not so prestigious award. Who will win in 2014? Your voting decides.
The nominees are…
Purina Pet Food/Blue Buffalo Pet Food Fight
It was hard to separate these two pet foods into separate nominations – because of the madness of the situation. Blue Buffalo for years has touted their foods contain no by-products, yet the company obviously did little quality control investigation of their suppliers to assure their claims were true. It was found that a supplier to Blue had indeed shipped by-product meal instead of chicken meal. Blue did not recall any pet foods.
Purina opened the can of worms by testing Blue’s pet food and subsequently filing a lawsuit against its competitor. Purina’s attack on Blue was very well scripted in advance of the lawsuit announcement – Purina built a full website petfoodhonesty.com and includes more ‘honesty in pet food’ information on each of their brands website.
So for your voting consideration (below) you can select the messy lawsuit which is a vote that includes both Purina and Blue or you can vote for either pet food individually.
For more information on this lawsuit, click on any of the following links:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/the-plot-thickens-between-purina-and-blue-buffalo/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/surprising-statement-from-blue-buffalo-pet-food/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/did-purina-open-the-pet-food-pandoras-box/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/blue-buffalo-files-countersuit-against-purina/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/purina-sues-blue-buffalo/
FDA
The FDA is solely responsible for allowing some pet foods to violate federal food safety law. FDA provides the pet food industry with legal loopholes through what is known as Compliance Policies. FDA Compliance Policies allow diseased animal tissue, animals that have been euthanized or have died in the field, pesticide and chemical contaminated ingredients to be used in pet food. And worse yet, the FDA does not require any pet food to disclose to the consumer if the pet food is made with feed grade ingredients or food grade ingredients (laws governing ‘food’ would not allow diseased animal tissue or chemical contaminated ingredients).
Over the past two years, numerous complaints have been sent to FDA alerting them to pet foods that make misleading claims on their labels and websites. Not one enforcement action has been taken to protect consumers.
And one more – we are almost at 8 years into an FDA investigation of thousands of pet deaths and illnesses linked to jerky treats imported from China. FDA has not provided consumers a reason why to date.
To read more on FDA’s lack of action to protect pet food consumers over the past year, click on any of the following links:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/it-shall-be-suitable-for-use-in-animal-food/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/whats-in-the-bowl/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/four-years-later-fda-rejection-letter-to-consumers/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/the-romance-is-over/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/if-it-sells-pet-food-and-nobody-stops-you/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/is-the-petsumer-getting-burned-with-grilled-2/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/another-jerky-update-no-answers/
AAFCO
AAFCO stands for American Association of Feed Control Officials. Note the word ‘feed’. AAFCO is responsible for developing all state laws that govern pet food, all pet food ingredient definitions, and the nutrient requirements of all animal foods/feed. AAFCO members consist of State Department of Agriculture members and a few representatives from FDA.
In 2014, AAFCO remained steadfast in their support of FDA Compliance policies allowing pet food to violate federal food safety laws, approved an ingredient for use in pet food that is used to clean mold from roofs (zinc supplement), and refused to remove from the AAFCO website links for consumers to learn more that direct them to the Pet Food Institute – the lobby organization of Big Pet Food.
To learn more about AAFCO’s lack of consumer protection this year, click on any of the following links:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/it-shall-be-suitable-for-use-in-animal-food/sludge in pet food
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/poultry-sludge-pet-food/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/how-balanced-is-pet-food/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/aafco-says-no/
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/bamboozled-and-lead-day-2-at-aafco-july-2014/
USDA
During 2014, we learned that the USDA gave the lobby organization that represents Big Pet food more than $1.3 million dollars. This money – tax payer money – is given “to market and promote U.S. agricultural commodities and products worldwide.” In other words, the powerful trade association that represents the largest manufacturers in the world was given more than $1.3 million dollars of tax payer money to help promote their pet foods worldwide.
To read about this USDA donation program, click on this link:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/usda-gives-pfi-1-3-million-in-2014/
Canadian Food Safety System
For Canadian voters, we have to include in the nominees the Canadian Food Safety System. Currently, Canada provides no assistance to Canadian pet food consumers should there be a pet death or illness linked to a pet food made in Canada. Nothing. Canada charges a sales tax on each pet food sale, but not one dime of this government revenue is used to protect Canadian consumers.
To read more about the lack of protection for Canadian pet food consumers, click on this link:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/no-pet-food-reporting-system-in-canada/
Pet Food Institute
Last but not least is the Pet Food Institute – the trade association representing the largest manufacturers of pet food in the world. This year we learned of a PFI effort trying to mislead consumers into believing that pet food has more regulations governing it than human food.
To read more about this PFI effort, click on this link:
https://truthaboutpetfood.com/the-truth-pet-food-vs-human-food/
Voting will close on December 30, 2014. Everyone can vote 3 times. Results will be published in the January 2015 Newsletter. Tick the box next to your vote, then click on ‘Vote’.
[yop_poll id=”1″]
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
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 2500 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. www.PetsumerReport.com
The 2015 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here
Have you read Buyer Beware? Click Here
Cooking for pets made easy, Dinner PAWsible
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
Duncan Ness
December 1, 2014 at 4:22 pm
I voted for Purina for its sheer stupidity in bringing attention to its poor quality ingredients. Instead of saying something like “we’re every bit as good as Blue Buffalo,” this silly marketing department stated that Blue Buffalo is as BAD as Purina.
Debra
December 2, 2014 at 9:58 am
I don’t care WHO brought this negligence to light. I’m just glad to have the information that Blue Buffalo food is as suspect as many of the others.
SarahB
December 1, 2014 at 5:34 pm
It is nice to see a much shorter list this year compares to years previous. PFI, AAFCO, USDA, and the FDA always make the list, but usually there are many more others (and more specific digressions by those 4).
I am surprised to see more people have voted for Purina than Blue.
Pingback: The Stupidest Act in Pet Food 2014 Nominees | dogosearch.com
Maxine Schmidt
December 2, 2014 at 1:49 pm
All of the above except for Susan Thixton.
Ellie
December 4, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Although all the nominees are worthy of such a prestigious award I had to vote for the FDA since they are ultimately responsible, in the US, for what the other nominees do. The FDA is charged with the task of making sure that the foods and drugs in this country are safe for the citizens. Sadly, the FDA has become nothing but a waste of tax payer money and has actually become a gateway for the food industry (both human and pet) to put profit before the health and welfare of the consumer.