The title of this chart is actually “Not my dog.” This makes me very sad. I actually really like the blog this came from a lot — it’s called Indexed and if you don’t have it in your feed-reader you really should — it has lots of clever little charts that illustrate jokes. I mean, this one is hilarious. As is this one. And this one.
Anyway, and not to pick on Ms. Hagy too much — she has a wonderful blog and is probably a very nice person — I just find it disturbing that she feels that animal testing is a joke, that the cruelty she’s heard about is exaggerated, and that most animal testing involves taking many family pets, offering they different types of kibble, and seeing which ones they like the most. And then taking the pets for a run on the beach, and watching their glossy coats gleam in the sun before taking them home to their gigantic houses in the suburbs with 2.5 children and two parents who dote upon the. In reality, most pet food is never tested on animals at the kibble stage. If you think about it — most dog food is made up of things people and dogs have been eating for thousands of years. Exactly what animal testing would need to be done to prove this stuff is safe? Should we test pork to see if it’s okay to feed dogs? Corn meal, perhaps? Chicken? Rice? Wheat? Um, why? Seriously, we’ve spent thousands of years eating pork. There is no animal test that could provide us with better statistics than the past thousands of years of billions of people eating pork (and occasionally dying from eating pork — trichinosis is very, very bad). There is no animal testing required for dog food products — as long as they conform to the American Association of Feed Control Officials requirements, anyone can market a dog food. (The AAFCO’s stuff was originally horrifically tested on dogs and cats, if you’re still worried your pet food might kill your pet — I vaguely recall reading about it in Small Animal Clinical Nutrition — they would take different protein sources, feed them in the same amounts calorically to different lonely kennel-bound dogs, and see how much weight each dog gained. The protein sources that caused the dogs to gain the most weight were determined to be “high-quality” proteins, and the proteins that caused the dogs to not gain much weight were called “low-quality” proteins. And there was something about how bioavailable the proteins were as well. Then the dogs would probably be killed and autopsied to see how the proteins affected their internal organs. (It’s been a while since I’ve read this — if you have more detailed information on this, please drop me a line.) Anyway, I can only hypothesize the AAFCO kept tons of dogs locked in lonely kennels before euthanizing and autopsying them and checking out whether dogs survive on diets with low, medium, or high levels of all kinds of nutrients — so yes, dog food has a horrific past involving animal testing, in case you were wondering.)
The real face of animal testing on pet foods can be found at Iamscruelty.com. Iams needlessly tests these food products which we’ve been eating for thousands of years on numerous dogs and cats. Iamscruelty.com describes kennels of animals kept to test Iams pet foods (Science Diet) under a nine-month investigation revealed dogs and cats were “fed a steady diet of loneliness, suffering, and neglect in their laboratory cages.” I can’t believe Ms. Hagy would seriously support this — she wants to sacrifice other dogs to loneliness, suffering, and neglect just so her dog can eat food made from ingredients we’ve all been eating for thousands of years and have no need to be tested on animals? With nutrient compositions that have been tested on animals already by the AAFCO in this century? I assume Ms. Hagy is not a sadist, and is therefor just misinformed about the necessity of animal testing, but still, it makes me sad.
How sad. So many people like to poke fun at animal cruelty it’s pathetic.
Comment by Natasha — August 5, 2008 @ 4:06 am
I am a shelter worker at my local Humane Society (Volunteer) three days a week. I am very hard working about helping animals and buying products that never have been tested on animals. I would like to have the same passion at our shelter but I can’t. I just want all people to be aware that Science Diet donates food to many many animal shelters. So when people adopt an animal the first question is “What to feed my animal” and of course they want what the pet is used to. Of Course “Science Diet” who in partners with “Iams” cannot be boycotted because the Humane Society needs the free food and people don’t want get home and change the pets diet. So I don’t say anything. What can I say everything in life seems to have a protection against the very thing you feel strongly about. Almost all the vet’s around here recommend Science Diet because they make money on it. So while I’m working hard to help animals companies like Science Diet are working hard at making it impossable to dislike them or talk bad about them to the public. After all without them we don’t get the free food. The catch is you can only feed the animals Science Diet at the shelter. Trust me cleaning up after animals you don’t want to change their diets everyday that makes clean-up truly terriable. So I wouldn’t argue with the current situation because Science Diet is a good food and the animals almost never get sick on it. My cat’s at home throw up more than the shelter animals. My cat’s eat Purnia One and who knows what that company does about animal testing. I called them and they said they don’t but I don’t belive it. My cat’s were eating Iam’s (for years) but I took it away from them after the Peta Video.
Comment by Bobbie — August 28, 2008 @ 5:26 pm
Dear Bobbie,
You have NO IDEA the warm and fuzzy feeling I have after reading your post — I’m SO GLAD there are people out there in the world like you, who are torn by the complex decisions that have to be made to help animals. I feel your pain — for years I used to buy Science Diet because my veterinarian sold it to me. I didn’t even think about it — Iams made a mint off of me, and now I feel manipulated and betrayed by Iams.
So anyway, I’ve been thinking about your problem, and I’ve been trying to come up with a solution. It would make me feel sick to take that food and accept its inherent promotion of Science Diet to people who take in shelter animals. Hmm. So, the only real semi-solution I could come up with was that there is a list of PETA-approved cruelty-free pet foods out there —
http://www.iamscruelty.com/notTested.asp
(I think I’ve seen these ones in stores:
Natural Balance Pet Foods
Natural Life Pet Products
Newman’s Own Organics
http://www.newmansownorganics.com
Though I could be wrong about the Natural ones — I get them confused with all the other Natural pet foods out there. Since I make homemade food for my dog, I’m not very aware of commercial pet foods any more.)
Maybe you could find a pet food you like on the cruelty-free list and start recommending it to customers at the shelter? Or just your fellow volunteers at the shelter? I wouldn’t recommend badgering customers about the details of animal testing since most of them just won’t understand (though your fellow volunteers might be more understanding), but if someone asked you specifically you could say you’d really recommend Cruelty-Free-Pet-Food-X even though it may require an adjustment period from Science Diet, and they should slowly mix Science Diet with the new pet food over a week’s time.
Or you could maybe mention that the shelter recommends Science Diet, but you personally don’t, for ethical reasons. And if questioned further, you could explain that Iams tests on animals and you don’t want to support that. I think that would be very professional — as long as you make it clear it’s your personal belief, and don’t go into the gory details — tell people they can go to that iamscruelty website if they don’t believe you, but don’t describe the horrors of animal testing. Also, be sure not to cross the line of proclaiming that customers absolutely must buy some pet food brand, or claim that cruelty-free-pet-food-brand-x has any scientific evidence of being better, or that the shelter supports your views in any way. Personally, whenever I take my dog to the veterinarian, the veterinary technicians are always recommending all kinds of foods/practices/etc. to me, and it’s quite clear to me it’s their personal opinion, and the manager/owner always finds this a little annoying, but won’t argue against it as long as the techs make it clear it’s their personal opinions, and not the recommendation of the hospital.
Gosh, well that was kind of a rambly response on my part, but I was so excited to hear from another anti-Iams person — thanks again for writing in! I think I may devote a post to this in the future.
Regards,
Comment by Emily — September 12, 2008 @ 5:28 pm