After proof was provided that the FDA allows Federal law to be violated, pet owners all across the United States wrote their Representatives in Congress. We were all disappointed when Congress didn’t even bother to read our message; not one Representative in Congress did anything about the FDA.
I have escalated the issue to the Inspector General’s Office in Washington, D.C. In mid December I phoned the Inspector General’s office and was instructed to write the details to Daniel R. Levinson (top dog). Earlier this week I called the office to learn that nothing much has been done; I was informed that this office has forwarded my complaint to the FDA and they were awaiting the FDA’s response (that should be interesting). I will be sent the FDA’s response, which of course I will post on the website when it is received.
I turned next to the Florida Department of Agriculture. I spoke with George Haysli who is in charge of animal feeds in Florida. He was very familiar with the FDA pages that I quoted, and his initial response was similar to what I’ve heard many times before…’but there are no known health risks from this is there?’ My reply was ‘health risks’ are beside the point, the point is that the FDA is ignoring Federal law and this must be stopped. Much to my surprise, he agreed. As our conversation continued, Mr. Haysli told me that I was right, that this is something that needs to be investigated and corrected. He assured me he would begin an investigation on his end, and asked me to also email the complete story to the Commission of Agriculture of Florida (completed). His only concern was the expense to the State of testing pet foods within Florida.
I sent him the following suggestion. Instead of the State of Florida incurring the expense to test pet foods that contain known risk ingredients of diseased animals or euthanized animals (animal fat, meat and bone meal, meat meal, by-product meal, animal digest), each manufacturer of these foods could be required to provide the Florida Department of Agriculture with certified clinical testing results of such.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens. I will keep you posted.
For those of you that wish to continue this fight, you can as well write your state’s Commissioner of Agriculture. A Google search will provide you with your state’s Agriculture Department website. You can use the same letter that we used to send to Congress (or similar), the link for that letter is: https://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/143/1/Example-letter-to-Congress-/Page1.html Be sure to include the suggestion that your State does not have to incur the cost of testing pet foods, your State can require manufacturers to provide this. As I told the Florida Agriculture Department, the first State that does this will be celebrated by pet owners all over the U.S. And every other State will follow. We just have to get the first one.
One more thing…I received an email this week from Carl R. Nielsen who is the former FDA Chief of Imports; he retired in 2005. He read my article regarding the FDA being awarded the 2008 Stupidest Act in Pet Food and was sending me his comments; he agreed! Mr. Nielsen is now a consultant to the Import Industry. The best news is that he speaks out against the inadequacies of the FDA and has agreed to speak with me (and you) in an interview on Blog Talk Radio (Internet Radio). I’m looking forward to speaking with him, this should give us all a great deal of insight into our friends at the FDA. The interview will be soon, within the next couple of weeks. I will send out a notice when it is scheduled. I will also be talking with a representative of Honest Kitchen Pet Foods, and Nature’s Logic Pet Food (all others will be invited as we go along). You will have the opportunity to call in and ask questions to all of the guests. Soon.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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