By now, if you're a pet owner, you've probably read ChristieKeith's diary on the Rec List, FDA says pet food poison may be in dry food, too - and didn't rule out human food.
I own a cat. It concerns me when the cat food I purchase is tainted with rat poison and plastics. A lot. So what did I do when I first heard about this? I wrote the company whose cat food I purchase regularly--in my case, Iams, and voiced my concerns. When it comes to the potential death of my cat, and all the area pets in my neighborhood, I expect a thoughtful and serious answer.
What I got was a form letter that also doubled as an advertisement--and one, based on the information that I read today, that was full of lies. And those lies endanger the life of my cat. I'd post their response here in the interest of fairness, but as I have said, it's an advertisement filled with lies.
So what is my next step? I respond to their form letter with a personal letter of my own.
Dear Iams,
Thank you for your form letter. I heard in the news today that besides the rat poison that was found in pet food earlier in the week, the FDA has found toxic chemicals used to make linoleum and plastics in the pet foods. And not only in the wet foods which you claimed in your form letter to me, but also in the dry foods as well--which you assured me were safe. While it's technically true that the FDA refuses to release the name of the companies that may still be selling the dry variety of this lethal product, the only safe thing for me to do for my cat is to not take any more chances with Iams and assume you are involved.
I also heard on the news that a large number of animals died during testing of the product, i.e., eating the ingredients that go into your product, but the poisoned pet food was sold to consumers anyway. First of all--Animal testing? Secondly--why test on animals if when they all die, you sell the product anyway? Please send the explanation to me in your next form letter.
Have you heard of the company, "Pet Promise"? I'm switching to their pet food for my cat. Which means I won't be buying your pet food any more. I'm also notifying all of my friends and family members who own pets to switch. My plan is to actually put you out of business any way I can.
What you can do to stop me? Not much. But here's an idea--get together with a Democratic Congressperson, and get them to write and pass a bill for stricter guidelines for not only pet foods, but all foods. I'm tired of eating the garbage you grind together in your food mills, too. Trans-Fats? Monosodium Glutemate? Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone? High Fructose Corn Syrup? Oh, and stricter penalties for companies whose guidelines are so lax that they would withhold information from the public that their pet foods contain dangerous chemicals and rat poison. That's a good start. My vet recommended your product to me because he believed that it was a healthy product. Why don't you become what you've been pretending to be all these years?
Until then, consider me a vociferous anti-Iams customer.
Again, thanks for the form letter. That was classy.
Signed,
The Gryffin, aka The Guy You Really Don't Want To Piss Off
Etc, etc, etc.
I'll add this obligatory bullshit that, a) I don't work for Pet Promise, and b) I'm not receiving any money from Pet Promise. I only first heard about that product today in the comments from ChristieKeith's diary. And if anybody has any better recommendations for me or other Kossack pets concerning safe food, or other pet products, let me know in the comments.
I'm sure that I can come up with a T-shirt design blasting these two-legged intestinal Iams parasites.
UPDATE: I've just seen in VA2CA's diary, that deadly plastic-making chemicals weren't found in pet food with rat poison, it was just deadly plastic-making chemicals by itself. Well, that makes me feel better.