A fellow pet food safety advocate in Spain sent me a disturbing email this morning. She shared she was threatened with lawsuit (attorney for pet food importer in Spain) if she didn’t remove the posts on her blog mentioning the Taste of the Wild pet food recall.
Phyllis Entis, aka The Food Bug Lady, has writtenabout the concern of recalled Diamond Pet Foods entering the international market several times. From a May 19, 2012 post “One of the most important unanswered questions regarding the Diamond Pet Foods recalls is where in the world – other than the USA, Puerto Rico and Canada – these products were sold.” From a June 8, 2012 post “More than two months after its initial recall announcement, and more than one month after announcing its expanded recall of dry pet food manufactured in Gaston, South Carolina, Diamond Pet Foods still has not provided international consumers with a list of countries (other than the USA and Canada) that are affected by its product recalls.”
Friend Mollie Morrissette of PoisonedPets.com was provided with images of Taste of The Wild ‘unusual labels’ by a pet owner in Malaysia.
“When he peeled the label off of the bag, he discovered that the dry dog food he purchased from his local supplier was actually included in the list of recalled production codes and bore a Best before date of 19/Jan/2013.”
From efoodalert.net “I was able to determine that this stick-on label was NOT affixed by Diamond Pet Foods. ”Diamond Pet Foods,” I was told in an email, “does not use a sticker for production codes or date codes. Our production and date codes are printed on the packaging inline after the bag is filled and sealed. Countries may use different date formats depending on the regulation of the importing country.” The company’s reply did not address the alteration in the Expiry date.”
And now, a blogger in Spain – attempting to warn pet owners in her country of the potential of pet and human illness associated with these pet foods is being threatened with lawsuit; she removed the recall notices from her website. Her email to me stated “it’s sad but I have fear and I will wait a while without posting anything, I am a coward … I know .. but I have no money to afford a lawyer.”
No, she is by no means a coward. I have been threatened myself many times and I can share that it is very scary experience, especially when you consider you are a little dog fighting trained professional Big Dogs. There is one pet food company in the U.S. that actually has quite the reputation of being a lawsuit threatening bully – so much so that federal authorities are aware of their behavior and are monitoring their threats.
MarketResearch.com stated in 2011 that “Pet food manufacturing is capital-intensive; average annual revenue per employee is nearly $850,000.”
‘They’ actively defend their capital-intensive turf, all over the world.
There is no excuse for a pet food manufactured in the U.S. not to officially warn pet owners of recall in every country the product was shipped to. There is no excuse. This is the responsibility of the manufacturer. Everyone is capable of a mistake – pet food manufacturers included. But it is how that mistake is handled that truly tells the story.
To this pet food safety advocate in Spain, please keep yourself safe. You can do no good to help the pets in your country with lawyers swarming around you. To that pet food distributor in Spain, how can you sleep at night?
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com
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