I believe this is what “they” want….I have seen nothing in my newspaper & little blurbs now & then on tv….but that’s it. If it weren’t for all of you & the above mentioned websites (along with some others), I wouldn’t have a clue either. Thanks thanks thanks.

Did anyone happen to catch the thread on somebody’s contact with Fromms that was posted at Itchmo? (At least I think it was but at this point, not sure.) They were asking about a certain ingredient that was on the bag & was told that that ingredient had been removed a year & a half before but it was too expensive to redo the bags or labels, not sure which. Now that really gives me confidence to read the ingredients in deciding which food is ok to feed my dog. They can obviously change what they add or remove without changing labels (six months is bad enough but a year & a half????)

I just want to know why these pet food companies can do anything they please…..or so it seems. And exactly where does that leave us when we are trying to choose which product is free of glutens & Lord knows what else.

Actually it was not me who said:
mal said: a lot has changed in vet medicine in the last 10yrs, and pet owners are also wiser and more informed

Someone was replying to an earlier post of mine.

Also more interesting tidbits on conflict of interest:

New FDA rules aim to limit conflict of interest
Financial ties to drug companies may bar experts from advising agency

The conflict-of-interest guidelines would allow scientific experts who accept less than $50,000 in corporate grants, contracts and consulting fees — or hold less than that amount in company stock — to still serve on the FDA’s advisory committees. But that could happen only if the need for their services outweighed the potential conflict, and only if they were nonvoting members, according to the draft.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17722620/

I am “glad” to see that the FDA is going to “limit conflict of interest” to less than $50,000 from companies/agencies with a vested interest. (Much sarcasm intended)

MAYBE, MAYBE NOT:
http://www.geocities.com/~krem....._2004.html
Controversy, Confusion Continue To Surround Vaccine Guidelines JAVMA September 15, 2004: the one-year revaccination frequency recommendation found on many vaccine labels is based on historical precedent, not scientific data.
He points out that veterinarians practicing in the United States can no longer report adverse vaccine events to the U.S. Pharmacopeia’s Veterinary Practitioners’ Reporting Program. Funding was discontinued last year and the program ended in April 2003. “Today, there is no national database through which veterinarians can both report adverse drug/vaccine reactions and obtain adverse event information pertinent to a particular product,” Dr. Ford said.
While veterinarians should report adverse events to the manufacturer or the Department of Agriculture’s Center for Veterinary Biologics, there is no database of information that can be used for an epidemiologic study. This is unsettling for researchers studying vaccine adverse events such as vaccine-associated sarcomas, which Dr. Ford says occur in somewhere between one in 10,000 and one in 1,000 vaccinated cats. Either is unacceptable.
“This could be a train wreck for our profession,” Dr. Ford commented. “For over 10 years, we have known there is a cause-and-effect relationship between vaccination and fibrosarcoma in some cats. There is no evidence today that, in the past 10 years, we have succeeded in decreasing the incidence.”

Why did AVMA cut off funding for the Feline Vacc. Assoc. Sarcoma Task Force?

Bonnie - don’t worry about nutrition ideas conflicting each other. There’s more than one way to feed a dog. What matters is how your pet does on it. That’s the lie the commercial companies have propagated - that only they know how to feed your pet. Just make sure there’s calcium in the recipe.

http://tinyurl.com/yr9mrm

People don’t want to think about facts like these:

The average American eats 260 pounds of imported food. The FDA inspects 1.3% of it.

And, of course, in their inspections the FDA looks only for the common contaminants, like molds and pesticides, and not for something deadly that has been added intentionally.

So much for homeland security.

well the article is 10yrs old. a lot has changed since then in pet food. SD and Iams are now in the grocery stores and are a some what better option than some of the other store brands. and while there may be some vets that mark it up 40%, i really doubt most do. they really aren’t in the business of selling pet foods (maybe some of the larger vet clinics are, but most of the smaller ones aren’t). and yes, they do fund lots of studies, but you’ll find that everywhere. who else is doing it/going to do it? they were the only ones anlong with purina that did do longer term research and specialized diets and they still work well for many pets.

all that said, i don’t think my vet is required to push SD/Euk/Iams, and if they are, OOPS! they don’t. a lot has changed in vet medicine in the last 10yrs, and pet owners are also wiser and more informed. and we luckily have more choices in commercial foods on the premium end including raw. i’m waiting for SD and Co to bring on their ultra premium no grain diets ;)

*please note, I don’t work for/feed/or promote these diets. just see these statements getting thrown around a lot . . . I did feed them 18-20yrs ago though. I think they were one of the few you could get with out all those funny colors added :-P lol!~

It’s like the medical clinics giving business to the laboratories that they own, without stating it. Isn’t there legislation up right now on that that they have to state it? It could be used as an example.