AMAZING what these people (AVMA) try and sneak through without regard to pet parents opinions! As this article states in the last paragraph: “When/If a national veterinary organization takes the public stance raw pet foods are dangerous, lobby organizations (such as PFI representing all the big kibble manufacturers) could take this ‘opinion’ to law makers. Their GOAL could be the future BAN OF ALL RAW PET FOODS. Law makers, not knowing the truth about raw pet foods, would look solely at the opinion of AVMA and things could get out of hand quickly.”
That could mean that people who purchase commercially prepared raw pet products would no longer have a choice and be forced to change to a completely different food! How could they tell us that we’re not ALLOWED to purchase an item of our choice and FORCE us to purchase what we don’t choose to feed our pets, and WE didn’t even get the chance to vote on it???? This COULD really happen! Even if you don’t feed raw….who knows? There may come a time in your pet’s life that you change your mind!;)
Please help!
7-18-12 By Susan Thixton: Attention anyone that feeds raw meat pet food or manufacturers of raw meat pet foods…the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is about to vote on a policy against the feeding of raw meat pet food. If you want to protect your rights to feed a raw meat pet food, I suggest you take action before this gets approved.
Dr. Amy Nesselrodt veterinarian – first alerted me to this serious situation. She shared that at an upcoming meeting (August 2 or 3, 2012) the AVMA Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine will vote to create a policy to “discourage the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans.”
Why would the AVMA initiate an official policy discouraging the feeding of raw pet food? What is this action based on?
It took two phone calls, but I eventually spoke with AVMA media relations Assistant Director Sharon Curtis Granskog (early Friday July 13, 2012). She explained the policy would be voted on by the board during the early August meeting. I asked if any veterinarian that works for Big Pet Food is on that board; not to her knowledge. I asked for a list of name of those voting (to confirm no veterinarian of Big Pet Food was on this board). I asked for the contact information of someone for pet owners to write to in order to express their opinion on this proposed policy. She promised to provide that information to me by end of day (Friday July 13). No information. No information Monday July 17. I left another voice mail message with Ms. Granskog on Tuesday 7/18. No return call, no email.
It certainly appears that the AVMA does not want pet owners involved in this decision.
Since the AVMA didn’t bother to provide contact information for pet owners to reply to – as they promised – the following is contact information taken from the AVMA website. If you would like to contact the AVMA and express your opinion on the proposed policy against the feeding of raw meat pet foods –
Headquarters:
1931 North Meacham Road, Suite 100
Schaumburg, IL 60173-4360
Phone: 800.248.2862 Fax: 847.925.1329
Governmental Relations Division:
1910 Sunderland Place, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1642
Phone: 800.321.1473, Fax: 202.842.4360
General Email: avmainfo@avma.org (type in the subject line: AVMA Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine)
My opinion…(and my message sent to AVMA)
AVMA, all meat is dangerous. We, pet owners – and you, the voting delegates of AVMA – take a risk each time you pick up a package of ground beef or chicken legs at the grocery. Raw pet food is NO more dangerous than any trip to the meat department of any grocery across the country.
However, there is one significant difference…most all pet owners that feed a raw meat pet food are fully aware of the risk. They are educated pet food consumers and they understand the need to handle the food properly. Perhaps this is reason why there has never been an incident of human illness linked to a raw meat pet food. But to the contrary of raw meat pet food, there HAS been numerous cases of human illness linked to a kibble pet food (in the U.S. and in Canada). If your true basis of this policy is concern of human or pet illness, the AVMA would not be taking a stance solely against raw meat pet foods. There is no medical evidence, and further, science proves raw meat in the grocery, rare meat on the grill, raw meat pet food, and kibble pet food ALL pose a similar risk to humans and pets.
Should you decide to pass the policy against raw meat pet foods, we (pet owners) will know why. It will be crystal clear. We’ll know that Big Pet Food has bought and paid for this policy and your vote. Won’t it be a sad day when a national veterinary organization proves they actually work for Big Pet Food instead of working to protect the health of animals.
Added after original post: Here is the concern…When/if a national veterinary organization takes the public stance raw pet foods are dangerous, lobby organizations (such as PFI representing all the big kibble manufacturers) could take this ‘opinion’ to law makers. Their goal could be the future ban of all raw pet foods. Law makers, not knowing the truth about raw pet foods, would look solely at the opinion of AVMA and things could get out of hand quickly. Because there is no scientific foundation to base this policy on, and as well because the AVMA is seemingly trying to get this accomplished without much notice from pet owners (not responding to my queries) – I am very concerned there is more than meets the eye behind this policy.
This makes me so mad. How many processed dog foods and treats have been recalled for making our pets sick, some fatally? Dozens, at least, and probably over 100.
How many raw food brands have been recalled? To my knowledge, zero.
What right do these people have to tell pet owners how to feed their dogs, threatening to reduce consumer choice in the process? What a bunch of buffoons.
Also, if AVMA really cared about the facts, why don’t they warn people against feeding their dogs euthanized pets and bleach-drenched roadkill? Pretty sure “meat by-product” in its original form would sicken pet owners a lot more than an uncooked chicken wing.
You are so right, Jennie! Perhaps you should draft a model letter for all of us to use.
Here HERE!!! I Second the motion!!! 🙂
Great idea!! Go Ninja!!!
This is why it is so important who we vote for and who our lawmakers are. One more example, potentially, of how government controls our lives and erodes our freedoms. They think they know better than us. They want to tell us what lightbulbs to use, how to flush our toilets, what we should eat, now maybe what our dogs should eat, put a tax on Coke. And hey, Bill Gates, out in your garage all those years ago, didn’t you hear? If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. This from somebody, in the words of Mark Levine, that “never ran so much as a cash register at a convenience store”. We need to wake up!
Bravo!!!
Spot on Scarlett!
Sounds like I should order a ten-year supply of Honest Kitchen before I lose the freedom to feed my own dog. We have all studied and read volumes on this topic, shared research (thank you, Karen), and applied our conclusions to the meticulously prepared diets we feed our pets. Sadly, I doubt our legislators will make any effort to study this issue, rather, I believe they will probably simply fall in line with the stance taken by the AVMA.
It seems we all agree: every day we have fewer and fewer choices, as government dictates how we should live our lives through myopic legislation pushed by lobbyists and their corporate interests.
Let me know what I can do before the votes are cast.
Exactly. This is not American.
Guess what?
The information they are using is from 2001 to 2006…REALLY????
AND….this all stemmed from “The Delta Society”!!!
Remember last year when they said that service dogs could not eat raw food?
This is incredible! Some people are saying we are jumping the gun by getting excited over this…..I say…..they better put on their thinking caps! A lot of things start small and innocently….then SNOWBALL in time! The BIG dog food companies could put their money behind this to push it to higher levels! :-0
Here is the resolution: http://atwork.avma.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Resolution_5_raw-food.pdf
For those of you interested, here is a link to the article written by Susan Thixton, author of “Buyer Beware: The Crimes, Lies and Truth about Pet Food”.
http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/very-bad-news-for-raw-feeders.html
There is some good discussion in the comments below the article as well.
It is never too early to jump the gun. In fact the best way to protect your rights is to build a relationship with your legislators before there is an issue. Get involved at a local level and help local legislators solve pet/breeding issues before they come to a head and are an emotional trigger. Educate your legislators and your community. Become the respected, local expert that your local and state legislators rely on for information. Put together”press packets”. Do the research for them. Give them enough information and back-up that they can take your “packet” and turn around and present it. This is what the animal rights groups do and it is very effective. We need to do the same. There are pet law lists for every state that are a great way to network with other like minded people. We need to speak out and organize.
After pouring through more comments from this article that was written by Susan Thixton, some things have come to light. Some people have noted that there is a very lucrative monetary relationship between Hill’s (makes of Science Diet, one of the worst foods you can feed your pet) and the universities that employ the authors of these “research” articles cited in the study. (Ohio State University, Ontario Veterinary College, Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine)
Also, the author of the first “study” (Dr. Danny Joffe) seems to be a paid speaker by… Hill’s again. Here is a link to one of the events he spoke at on behalf of Hill’s:
http://www.cvbc.ca/cfm/index.cfm?It=105&Id=229
This is just some information I gleaned from reading through the comments. I haven’t done this research myself.
There is also a petition you can sign by following this link on Change.org to protect your rights as well as point out how absurd the AVMA “studies” are:
http://www.change.org/petitions/american-veterinary-medical-association-avma-protect-pet-owners-rights-to-feed-a-raw-meat-pet-food
The petition has lots of DVMs signing it including Jean Dodds. They also have a sample letter.
Here is another article posted today by Susan Thixton with a little more detail:
http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/the-domino-effect.html
It’s like feeding your dogs McDonald’s everyday versus home prepared fresh food.
Speaking of …..
I wonder if Michelle Obama has anything to do with this since she’s apparently has a say now with I feed my kid. If I want to eat at McDonalds, I want my dang fries not some funky tasting apple slices.
I’m with you, Josie–were I to decide that I want a truckload-sized order of fries and/or enough pop to be able to float our 14′ fishing boat in, that would be MY DECISION, not the government’s.