CatCentric

You remember the 2007 pet food poisoning? The largest recall in American history? How about all the publicity surrounding the passage of new legislation – “Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food”- that was intended to make manufactured pet food products safer? Yes?

Two months ago, a line item was quietly slipped into separate legislation that was passed and – POOF – just like that, the pet food ingredient safeguards were erased as if they’d never been.

Here is Susan Thixton’s detailed account of the FDA’s action: A Pet Food Betrayal Like None Other. I highly recommend reading her account, ‘though it may make your blood boil.

And here’s a Pet Food Industry blog article that highlights their take on this action: FDA’s Big Yet Sly Pet Food Ingredient Announcement. (You might need to register with them to view their blog, but registration is free and you will have access to articles and topics written by and for the Pet Food Industry, giving you a valuable look into their mindset.)

This is deeply irresponsible and entirely unacceptable. Our pets deserve to be protected, and it should go without saying that pet owners should not have to fear a pet’s sickness or death from a manufactured food product.

We cannot allow this to pass uncontested! Please write to your Congressional Representatives. You can write your own email/letter, or you can copy/paste the below letter (thanks to Susan Thixton for pulling much of this together):

Dear Senator or Congressman/woman,

In 2007, Congress made me and millions of other pet owners a promise: that a law entitled “Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food” would protect us and our pets from another deadly pet food disaster. But now Congress has eliminated the “Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food” law. Thousands of pets died for this law, and now it’s gone.

Hidden within a bill that otherwise had nothing to do with pet food – HR 5554 Animal Drug and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2018 – was this provision:

“Section 306 Food Additives Intended For Use In Animal Food.” Item (b) of this section of HR 5554 states: 
“Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food. — Section 1002(a) of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (21 U.S.C. 2102(a)) is amended – By striking paragraph (1); and By redesignating paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively.”

Below are the exact laws that Congress wrote in 2007 to protect our family pets:

“SEC. 1002. <<NOTE: 21 USC 2102.>> ENSURING THE SAFETY OF PET FOOD.
(a) Processing and <<NOTE: Deadline. Regulations.>> Ingredient Standards.–Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred to in this title as the “Secretary”), in consultation with the Association of American Feed Control Officials and other relevant stakeholder groups, including veterinary medical associations, animal health organizations, and pet food manufacturers, shall by regulation establish–
(1) ingredient standards and definitions with respect to pet food;
(2) processing standards for pet food; and
(3) updated standards for the labeling of pet food that include nutritional and ingredient information.”

With the passing of HR 5554, Congress eliminated the very laws they provided us in 2007. The laws that were titled “Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food” are now gone. I ask you: exactly how is the safety of pet food assured to pet owners when the laws have been eliminated?

It’s possible these pet food safety laws would not have been so easily dismissed by Congress had FDA ever actually completed the work as required by the official deadline. But the pet food ingredient standards and definitions, the processing standards and the updated pet food labeling requirements of FDAAA Section 1002 (a) were never completed by FDA. The September 27, 2009 deadline has been ignored by FDA for 9+ years.

Pet owners have waited and waited and waited for assurance pet food is safe. And the FDA has repeatedly promised they would complete the pet food safety work:

2008: “Within 2 years, FDA will issue new regulations to: Establish ingredient standards, definitions, and processing standards for pet food [animal feed].” and FDA announced a survey “to establish baseline information about consumer use and understanding of pet food labels.”

2009: “FDA continues to implement FDAAA as part of its public health mission. FDA has held numerous public hearings and meetings to address patient, consumer, health professional, and industry questions about implementation of specific provisions, particularly Title IX and Title X.” (Title X held Section 1002 (a)).

2015: FDA announced a “strategy to establish ingredient definitions and standards”.

2016: FDA stated the provisions in FDAAA Section 1002 (a) were written and important BECAUSE so many pets died in 2007. ”Overview of FDA’s Feed Safety System” “FDAAA: Title X of the Act has several provisions that apply to animal food safety that were in response to the dog and cat illness and deaths in the United States from pet food imported from China that contained melamine, cyanuric acid, and related compounds. Current Project Work Project A1. As required by the FDAAA, FDA will be establishing feed ingredient standards and definitions through the comment and rulemaking process. FDA is drafting a regulation to fulfill the mandate to establish standards and definitions.”

It is simply unacceptable for FDA to mislead pet owners for years. Further, had FDA completed the work of FDAAA Section 1002 (a) by the deadline required, many more pet lives could have been saved…

In March of 2015, Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein wrote FDA regarding numerous consumer complaints of Beneful Dog Food. Quoting this letter to FDA: “In 2007, Congress passed legislation in response to tainted pet food associated with the death of thousands of dogs and cats in the United States. This law requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take several steps to improve the regulatory regime for pet food safety, including a requirement that pet food companies report to the FDA within 24 hours when they determine they have an adulterated product in their supply chain. We appreciate that FDA has implemented an online database to inform consumers of pet food recalls. However, eight years later, most provisions of the pet food safety law have not been implemented and protections Congress enacted are not in place, amid allegations of contaminated Beneful dry kibble.”

More than 1,400 dogs that became ill and or died were linked to the above Beneful Pet Food situation. Experts estimate the majority of the pet food recalls from September 28, 2009 (day after FDAAA Section 1002 (a) was required to be completed) to present day could have been prevented if FDA had completed FDAAA Section 1002 (a) per the required date. We have no estimate of the number of pets who have become ill or died due to FDA’s failure to complete this pet food safety requirement of FDAAA, though we are certain the number is significant.

Even today there is a serious pet food issue that most certainly could be the result of FDA’s failure to complete the requirements of FDAAA. FDA is investigating a link between canine heart disease and grain-free pet foods. FDA warned pet owners on July 12, 2018: “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting pet owners and veterinary professionals about reports of canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs eating certain pet foods containing peas, lentils, other legume seeds, or potatoes as main ingredients.” Could this serious pet health issue be the result of FDA never developing ingredients standards for the ingredients in question (“peas, lentils, other legume seeds, or potatoes”)? It absolutely could be.

In 2007, Congress clearly cared enough about our pets to write FDAAA. In 2018 Congress passed a bill that included a hidden retraction of those 2007 laws. I am asking you as my Representative to take action for the millions of pet owners in the US. I ask you to take the steps necessary to reinstate FDAAA Section 1002 (a) in a new bill with the requirement FDA complete this work within 6 months. HR 5554 was introduced into the House and signed into law within 4 months. Pet food safety deserves the same prompt attention from Congress.

[Your Signature]

Some Congressional websites have a word count limit with their contact forms. If the above is too lengthy for the website to accept – PLEASE call their office and ask for an email address instead.

The pets that died in 2007 must not be forgotten. Today’s pets must be protected. The laws Congress eliminated must be restored. Write your Congressional Representatives, send emails, make phone calls. Share your tweets, Instagram photos and Facebook posts. Encourage all your pet loving friends to do the same.

Remember those that died and protect those that live by demanding these pet food safety laws be restored and enforced.

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