Our Six Minutes – Truth about Pet Food

September 24, 2021 Kar-Bay-Inc 0 Comments

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.

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