Raw Pet Food Scaremongering – Truth about Pet Food

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a scaremonger as: “one inclined to raise or excite alarms especially needlessly“.

The CDC and the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) definitely use scaremonger tactics regarding raw pet food; especially needlessly causing fear regarding one specific style of pet food. As example, the FDA CVM recently retweeted a CDC warning about raw pet food.

The FDA CVM and CDC specifically warns pet owners about one (and only one) style of pet food stating “Raw pet foods can make pets and people sick.” These federal agencies also directly advises pet owners: “Don’t feed pets raw pet food or uncooked meat“.

Instead of scaremongering, let’s examine documented history of pet food risks with harmful bacteria…

Per data from FDA Enforcement Reports, from January 1, 2012 through September 12, 2022 – of all pet food recalls due to pathogenic bacteria contamination:

• 157,520,659 pounds were kibble pet food
• 2,390,937 pounds were treats
• 1,979,445 pounds were raw pet food
• 224,328 pounds were dehydrated or cooked pet food

To restate this documented data in another way, from January 1, 2012 through September 12, 2022 – of all pet food recalls due to pathogenic bacteria contamination:

• 97% was kibble style pet food
• 1.4% was treats
• 1.1% was raw style pet food
• 0.1% was dehydrated or cooked style pet food

The CDC website provides documentation of human illness linked to pet products. We found the following documentation:

• 154 human illnesses linked to pig ear dog treats in 2019
• 62 human illnesses linked to kibble dog food in 2007
• 49 human illnesses linked to kibble dog food in 2012

BUT…the CDC website provides no reports of human illness linked to raw pet food (at least we could not find any documented cases on the agency website).

Why do these federal agencies continue to scaremonger pet food consumers against raw pet food when all of the documented evidence does NOT support their ‘scare’? Why do federal agencies ignore the documented risks of other styles of pet food?

We can’t answer those questions, but we did file a Freedom of Information Act request with CDC asking for the scientific evidence to validate their direct warning against one style of pet food.

When a response is received, it will be shared.

Wishing you and your pet the best –

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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