Please, If You Have Any Animal Companions, Read This. And STOP USING IAMS!
Hey dudes....
I've been wanting to put this up for a while, but wanted to wait so I could figure out how to get pictures up here so you can see what this company is actaully putting these poor animals through. I havnt figured it out, but it can't wait. If you want to see for yourself, visit www.peta.org
All of this info is from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
Please, if you have any animals of your own, or know someone who does, urge them to stop using IAMS products so that they will get the message that we won't put up with this bullshit. Ask them to pass this information along to everyone they know so IAMS can finally put a stop to all of this.
Please cross-post this anywhere you can.
I know that this is a pretty long post, but please read through it all.
A PETA undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract animal-testing laboratory. At least 27 dogs were killed while others died of illnesses that went untreated, despite assurances from Iams that no animal in any Iams test would ever be deliberately killed. PETA’s investigator found the following:
• Dogs and cats confined to small, barren cages, some for up to six years
• Dogs’ vocal cords surgically cut out so that they couldn’t bark
• Workers’ reports of a live kitten who was washed down a drain
• Kennels that were extremely hot in the summer and near freezing in the winter
• Dogs being force-fed vegetable oil through tubes inserted down their throats
“For the love of dogs, boycott Iams!” declares Anna Nicole Smith, who just completed the first steps in a campaign protesting IAMS. “These tests are not required by law, and animals shouldn’t live in squalor and misery for the sake of Iams’ profits.”
Iams Helps Mush Sled Dog to Death!
To silence outrage from the humane community, Iams decided in 1994 to end its sponsorship support for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race-a cruel event that forces dogs to mush a grueling trek of more than 1,000 miles over unforgiving Alaskan terrain, usually in under 14 days (the fastest time being just under 9 days)! For nearly a decade, we’ve been under the impression that Iams was no longer involved with the Iditarod. However, we've recently uncovered the fact that Eukanuba-the so-called veterinary nutrition arm of Iams-has continued to be an official sponsor for "Team Norway" in Iditarod races, with deadly consequences for the dogs involved!
During the 2004 Iditarod race, Eukanuba sponsored Kjetil Backen of “Team Norway.” Focused on winning the race, Backen pushed his dogs beyond the point of exhaustion, so much so that Takk, Backen’s lead dog, “just sat down and died” a mile out of the checkpoint, according to race marshal Mark Nordman. Al Townshend, head veterinarian at the Unalakleet checkpoint, said, “Sudden death can occur in dogs for a number of reasons … including accidental trauma, ulcer or a dog inhaling [his or her] own vomit.”
Backen also dropped one of his dogs, named Blue, at the so-called “Cripple checkpoint” since she had developed tendonitis of the wrist resulting from the strenuous schedule of mushing day after day.
Even knowing for a fact that dogs are needlessly injured and killed in Iditarod races, Iams (Eukanuba) has refused to terminate its sponsorship!
In fact, Iams proudly sponsors other cruel events along with sled dog races. For instance, as a “major sponsor” of the fur-themed “Le Festival du Voyageur” (“The Festival of the Traveler”)-billed as Western Canada’s largest winter festival-Iams helps celebrate the “joie de vivre [joy of living] of the fur traders”! At this “celebration,” Iams hosts its own inhumane mushing event-the “Iams Voyageur International Sled Dog Classic.”
Worse yet, Eukanuba sponsored individual mushers from "Team Norway" (Robert Sorlie and Bjornar Andersen) again at the 2005 Iditarod race, yielding more disastrous results. Sorlie surrendered two dogs at Eagle Island checkpoint, "one with a sore leg and another [who] 'psyched out,' or didn't want to run any more." At the end of the race, Sorlie crossed the finish line with only eight dogs, "having dropped eight sick, sore, or tired dogs at checkpoints along the route."
Make no mistake about it-Eukanuba's sponsorship of "Team Norway" directly connects Iams to the deaths and injuries of these dogs and puts the company at fundamental odds with the humane majority who feel that the Iditarod is a cruel and outdated relic that needs to end.
Despite the barrage of consumer complaints regarding Iams' involvement in the Iditarod, Iams stubbornly refuses to withdraw support from "Team Norway"-with the bizarre rationalization that it suddenly has a new-found respect for "regional and cultural differences" regarding how dogs are treated. This, of course, is absurd. Cruelty to animals knows no boundaries, and neither should humane objections to it. The bottom line is that cruelty is cruelty, no matter where or by whom it is practiced.
Iams and Eukanuba are misleading the public by claiming that they no longer support the Iditarod despite their sponsorship of "Team Norway" in the 2004 and 2005 Iditarod races! In reality, they only care about marketing their names to the cruel dog-racing community, which only survives because of money donated from large companies like Iams.
Please don't let more dogs suffer needlessly. You can help countless numbers of animals by making the choice to boycott Iams. Your dollars are your voice in the world of business, and how you choose to spend them matters a great deal, especially with regard to the welfare of innocent animals. Knowing that you won’t buy while animals die, Iams will be forced to take humane stances-ending its sponsorship of Iditarod race participants and stopping all cruel laboratory tests on animals, which are not required by law.
Read our letter to Procter & Gamble (Iams' parent company) regarding this important issue. Please e-mail Iams (customer.service@iams.com) or write to the president of the company at the address shown below and let him know that the humane treatment of animals is not for sale and that the company must act humanely or risk losing a great deal of business
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
PETA to Iams: Stop Killing Sweet Chicks
Leave it to Iams to use the cruelest research method available for completing the simplest of tasks--namely, testing the digestibility of protein in its pet foods by subjecting 1-week-old baby chicks to severely growth-retarding “protein efficiency ratio” (PER) studies.
Iams brags that it conducts “extensive live animal testing” in its PER chick tests to “assure consistent protein quality.” Yet, two of Iams’ largest competitors, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, feel that these animal experiments are completely unnecessary and unreliable. Hill’s uses a high-tech computer program instead that provides “very accurate results,” and Purina refuses to conduct PER tests at all. Iams is truly behind the times--its continued use of the PER chick test flies in the face of objections raised by leading experts who have publicly condemned the PER test as being inhumane and ineffective.
TNO Nutrition and Food Research (an internationally recognized authority in nutrition research), notes the following in issue 27 (December 2004) of Leads in Life Sciences: “[T]hese [PER] experiments are extremely slow and give no insight into the availability of the amino acids that are responsible for growth limitation. The test may also result in strong growth retardation due to amino acid deficiencies and therefore has ethical drawbacks. Moreover, this method determines the [protein] requirements of rats and [chickens], not of humans or dogs.”
Iams actually funded a study that was published in a 2000 issue of the Journal of Microbiological Methods, in which the authors lamented that PER chick tests “take from 2 to 4 weeks and require special facilities and large amounts of raw materials,” making it a “labor intensive, time-consuming and variable” procedure.
Clearly, whether judging by ethical, scientific, or economic criteria, the PER test is a miserable failure. Even basic common sense says that using a baby chick to model the digestive processes of a dog is crazy, not to mention lazy!
Several companies have created humane alternatives that address all of these concerns. For instance, TNO developed a computerized non-animal model called FIDO (functional gastro-intestinal dog model) that has been scientifically validated for use as an alternative to the PER test.
But, as is usually the case, Iams ignored the existence of FIDO, preferring instead to remain set in its ways and to continue harming baby chicks.
Refusing to back down, PETA persisted in pressing Iams to join the company’s major competitors in abandoning the use of chicks in PER tests. And, on February 7, 2005, Iams confirmed that it was looking into another alternative test method called IDEA (Immobilized Digestive Enzyme Assay) to replace the use of chicks. But Iams will be slow to implement this test method as it claims it must “validate” the method against the chick test. Validating a high-tech test against an inappropriate and inaccurate low-tech animal test is never a good idea, for obvious reasons.
You Can Help
E-Mail Iams or write to the address below. Please ask the company to immediately end its live animal PER experiments in favor of the more compassionate and accurate FIDO system or accept validation data from the IDEA manufacturer (Novus International) and start using that test method immediately:
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
Learn more about our feathered friends and why they are worth fighting for.
The Rotten Truth Behind Iams’ “Dental Defense” Diets
Iams should change the name of its “Dental Defense” diets to “Dental Destruction,” judging by the bloody gingivitis experiments on dogs that the company is currently funding to study its food formulas.
As far back as June 2002, Iams promised that it would “not contract for, nor conduct, any study involving surgeries to create or mimic diseases …; nor w[ould] the company use non-surgical methods to induce or simulate diseases that are not acceptable in nutritional or medical research on humans; nor w[ould] the company fund any university positions that may be involved in such activities for the study of cat and dog nutrition.”
But, none of this is true, since, according to new publicly available documents that PETA obtained from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), Iams has committed funds from November 2002 through October 2005 for an experiment conducted by Dr. Roger B. Johnson (which is a follow-up to his similar 1999 Iams-funded study) that involves inducing gingivitis-a painful stage of periodontal disease-in 21 beagles by cutting and suturing their gums.
To make matters worse, and as more proof that Iams lies through its teeth, Dr. Johnson states in item 19 of his “Animal Activity Protocol” that “[a]t the end of the experiments, the animals will be sold and transferred to another research facility.” This is precisely how Iams operates-keeping dogs in cramped cages and conducting invasive tests on them for years on end, and then “adopting” them out to other testing laboratories rather than into loving homes. No wonder Iams has never revealed the location of its “retirement center.”
There is no reason why Iams should be violating its research policy and purposely inducing gingivitis in healthy dogs! Please e-mail Iams or write to the address shown below and demand that the company immediately end this experiment, release the dogs to the Mississippi Animal Rescue League, and use humane testing alternatives such as collaborative veterinary clinic studies (in which dogs who have naturally developed gingivitis are volunteered to participate in the study by their human caretakers).
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
Iams has gotten away with murder for long enough!
Read our letter to Procter & Gamble (Iams’ parent company) regarding this bloody experiment and other troubling issues.
Important Update! Iams Funds Cruel Researcher From Wright State University
Update
Iams is scrambling to put a positive spin on the inhumane Iams-funded study that is currently being conducted by Dr. Larry Arlian at Wright State University (WSU). But the evidence doesn’t lie!
Iams’ claim #1: “We … currently have studies [at Wright State University] relating to allergens in pet food that do not involve animals” (our emphasis).
This is completely false. In Arlian’s current research protocol (which has Iams’ funding through November 30, 2005), Arlian states the following on page 7: “Tyrophagus putrescentiae (TP) (the most common stored product mite) and either Acarus siro (AS) or Lepidoglyphus destructor (LD) antisera will be produced in rabbits by [WSU’s] standard methods in place in [WSU’s] Laboratory Animal Resources facility” (our emphasis).
The last time we checked, rabbits are animals! As far back as 1992, Arlian conducted a similar experiment, in which he grew scabies mites in rabbits (and dogs), causing these animals to suffer in immense pain needlessly.
Iams’ claim #2: “Dr. Arlian … has never been sanctioned by the USDA and was not involved in the 1992 studies cited by PETA.”
Again, Iams is blatantly lying here. On July 12, 1993, the USDA filed a formal complaint against WSU citing Dr. Arlian by name, charging WSU with willful violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
Item number 9 of the USDA’s complaint states: “From approximately May 1990 through July 2, 1990, respondent Wright State, through its employee Dr. Larry Arlian, willfully violated section 2.31(d) (8) of the Regulations, 9 C.F.R. § 2.31(d) (8), by engaging in activities involving the care and use of animals before the [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee] had approved those activities” (our emphasis).
Arlian was able to escape formal “sanctions” by the USDA because in March 1995, WSU paid a fine of $25,000 to avoid going to court.
Furthermore, references to Arlian’s scabies experiments are frequently cited in the USDA’s complaint, proving that Arlian was indeed involved with these cruel 1992 studies.
Clearly, Iams’ response to Arlian’s current experiment is full of blatant lies! Please e-mail Iams, inform the company of this evidence, and demand that this cruel study be stopped immediately.
What’s the Big Deal?
What’s the problem with Iams’ using dogs and cats in laboratory-controlled food testing if it has agreed to do the following:
1. Stop killing the dogs and cats it uses
2. Stop intentionally inducing diseases and injuries in animals
3. Stop using outside contract laboratories (by October 2006), such as the horrendous one that PETA investigated in 2003
Here’s the Big Deal
1. Through its purchase of entire litters of animals from breeders and dealers, Iams fattens the wallets of those who stock pet stores, thus exacerbating the deadly pet overpopulation crisis. Iams also buys "purebred" litters, thus encouraging the breeding of purebreds, despite the fact that such dogs and cats are more prone to suffer health problems. Instead, Iams can and should conduct in-home or collaborative veterinary clinic studies using animals who already require treatment for diseases or specific conditions of interest to the company.
2. By building a new facility, Iams is making an investment that will ensure the continued use of caged and kenneled animals to test its foods. Iams also continues to kill animals other than dogs and cats in unnecessary laboratory experiments.
3. Iams didn’t even know the number and nature of the USDA violations that took place at its 30 or so contract laboratories until PETA gave the company a complete report. Iams either didn’t care what the conditions were like inside its outside labs and/or failed to oversee them adequately. An end to the use of these labs is a good thing indeed. But once Iams brings all its testing in-house, the ability to scrutinize the company’s treatment of animals is greatly diminished.
4. Tests on dog and cat food don’t do a thing to improve animal health as long as commercial companion animal food companies like Iams use diseased, decayed, and discarded animal parts from rendering plants.
Support Brands That Do Not Test on Animals
PETA has contacted hundreds of companion-animal food companies, asking if they conduct laboratory tests on animals. Numerous companies responded to let us know that they do not. We have compiled a list of those companies below.
View the first letter, follow-up letter, and survey sent to companion-animal food companies.
Companies that are not on this list either responded to let us know that they do conduct laboratory experiments on animals or failed to respond to our numerous inquiries and are assumed to conduct laboratory experiments on animals.
If you are concerned about animals in laboratory tests, you should purchase companion-animal food exclusively from the following companies:
(Click here for the U.K. version of this list.)
Active Life Pet Products
1-877-291-2913
www.activelifepp.com
Amoré Pet Services, Inc.
1-866-572-6673
www.amorepetfoods.com
Animal Food Services
1-800-743-0322
www.animalfood.com
Artemis Pet Food-NEW
1-800-282-5876
www.artemiscompany.com
Azmira Holistic Animal Care
1-800-497-5665
www.azmira.com
Burns Pet Nutrition
1-877-983-9651
www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk
Canusa International
519-624-5697
www.canusaint.com
CountryPet Pet Food
1-800-454-7387
www.countrypet.com
Dr. Harvey’s
1-866-362-4123
www.drharveys.com
Dry Fork Milling Co.
1-800-346-1360
Dynamite Marketing, Inc.
208-887-9410
www.dynamitemarketing.com
Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Co., Inc.
1-800-288-6796
www.evangersdogfood.com
Evolution Diet, Inc. (entirely vegan)
1-800-659-0104
www.petfoodshop.com
Good Dog Foods, Inc.
732-842-4555
www.gooddogfoods.com
GreenTripe.Com
831-726-3255
www.greentripe.com
Halo, Purely for Pets
1-800-426-4256
www.halopets.com
Happy Dog Food
1-800-359-9576
www.happydogfood.com
Harbingers of a New Age (entirely vegan)
406-295-4944
www.vegepet.com
Holistic Blend
1-800-954-1117
www.holisticblend.com
The Honest Kitchen
858-483-5995
www.thehonestkitchen.com
Know Better Dog Food
1-866-922-6463
www.knowbetterdogfood.com
KosherPets, Inc.
954-938-6270
www.kosherpets.com
Kumpi Pet Foods
303-699-8562
www.kumpi.com
Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. (has vegan options)
1-800-829-4493
www.naturalbalanceinc.com
Natural Life Pet Products, Inc. (has vegan options)
1-800-367-2391
www.nlpp.com
Nature’s Variety
1-888-519-7387
www.naturesvariety.com
Newman’s Own Organics-NEW
www.newmansownorganics.com
PetGuard (has vegan options)
1-800-874-3221
904-264-8500
www.petguard.com
Pied Piper Pet & Wildlife
1-800-338-4610
www.piedpiperpet.com
PoshNosh Inc.
613-747-1542
1-866-893-4006 (Outside Ottawa-Outaouais)
Raw Advantage, Inc.
360-387-5158
www.rawadvantagepetfood.com
Rocky Mountain Natural Products
1-877-768-6788 (Eastern U.S.)
1-800-665-5521 (Western U.S.)
www.rmtnp.com
Sauder Feeds, Inc.
260-627-2196
www.sauderfeeds.com
Stella & Chewy’s LLC-NEW
718-522-9673
www.stellaandchewys.com
Veterinary Nutritional Formula
1-800-811-0530
www.vnfpetfood.com
Wow-Bow Distributors Ltd. (has vegan options)
1-800-326-0230
www.wow-bow.com
Wysong Professional Diets (has vegan options)
1-800-748-0188
www.wysong.net
I've been wanting to put this up for a while, but wanted to wait so I could figure out how to get pictures up here so you can see what this company is actaully putting these poor animals through. I havnt figured it out, but it can't wait. If you want to see for yourself, visit www.peta.org
All of this info is from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
Please, if you have any animals of your own, or know someone who does, urge them to stop using IAMS products so that they will get the message that we won't put up with this bullshit. Ask them to pass this information along to everyone they know so IAMS can finally put a stop to all of this.
Please cross-post this anywhere you can.
I know that this is a pretty long post, but please read through it all.
A PETA undercover investigation revealed deplorable conditions at an Iams contract animal-testing laboratory. At least 27 dogs were killed while others died of illnesses that went untreated, despite assurances from Iams that no animal in any Iams test would ever be deliberately killed. PETA’s investigator found the following:
• Dogs and cats confined to small, barren cages, some for up to six years
• Dogs’ vocal cords surgically cut out so that they couldn’t bark
• Workers’ reports of a live kitten who was washed down a drain
• Kennels that were extremely hot in the summer and near freezing in the winter
• Dogs being force-fed vegetable oil through tubes inserted down their throats
“For the love of dogs, boycott Iams!” declares Anna Nicole Smith, who just completed the first steps in a campaign protesting IAMS. “These tests are not required by law, and animals shouldn’t live in squalor and misery for the sake of Iams’ profits.”
Iams Helps Mush Sled Dog to Death!
To silence outrage from the humane community, Iams decided in 1994 to end its sponsorship support for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race-a cruel event that forces dogs to mush a grueling trek of more than 1,000 miles over unforgiving Alaskan terrain, usually in under 14 days (the fastest time being just under 9 days)! For nearly a decade, we’ve been under the impression that Iams was no longer involved with the Iditarod. However, we've recently uncovered the fact that Eukanuba-the so-called veterinary nutrition arm of Iams-has continued to be an official sponsor for "Team Norway" in Iditarod races, with deadly consequences for the dogs involved!
During the 2004 Iditarod race, Eukanuba sponsored Kjetil Backen of “Team Norway.” Focused on winning the race, Backen pushed his dogs beyond the point of exhaustion, so much so that Takk, Backen’s lead dog, “just sat down and died” a mile out of the checkpoint, according to race marshal Mark Nordman. Al Townshend, head veterinarian at the Unalakleet checkpoint, said, “Sudden death can occur in dogs for a number of reasons … including accidental trauma, ulcer or a dog inhaling [his or her] own vomit.”
Backen also dropped one of his dogs, named Blue, at the so-called “Cripple checkpoint” since she had developed tendonitis of the wrist resulting from the strenuous schedule of mushing day after day.
Even knowing for a fact that dogs are needlessly injured and killed in Iditarod races, Iams (Eukanuba) has refused to terminate its sponsorship!
In fact, Iams proudly sponsors other cruel events along with sled dog races. For instance, as a “major sponsor” of the fur-themed “Le Festival du Voyageur” (“The Festival of the Traveler”)-billed as Western Canada’s largest winter festival-Iams helps celebrate the “joie de vivre [joy of living] of the fur traders”! At this “celebration,” Iams hosts its own inhumane mushing event-the “Iams Voyageur International Sled Dog Classic.”
Worse yet, Eukanuba sponsored individual mushers from "Team Norway" (Robert Sorlie and Bjornar Andersen) again at the 2005 Iditarod race, yielding more disastrous results. Sorlie surrendered two dogs at Eagle Island checkpoint, "one with a sore leg and another [who] 'psyched out,' or didn't want to run any more." At the end of the race, Sorlie crossed the finish line with only eight dogs, "having dropped eight sick, sore, or tired dogs at checkpoints along the route."
Make no mistake about it-Eukanuba's sponsorship of "Team Norway" directly connects Iams to the deaths and injuries of these dogs and puts the company at fundamental odds with the humane majority who feel that the Iditarod is a cruel and outdated relic that needs to end.
Despite the barrage of consumer complaints regarding Iams' involvement in the Iditarod, Iams stubbornly refuses to withdraw support from "Team Norway"-with the bizarre rationalization that it suddenly has a new-found respect for "regional and cultural differences" regarding how dogs are treated. This, of course, is absurd. Cruelty to animals knows no boundaries, and neither should humane objections to it. The bottom line is that cruelty is cruelty, no matter where or by whom it is practiced.
Iams and Eukanuba are misleading the public by claiming that they no longer support the Iditarod despite their sponsorship of "Team Norway" in the 2004 and 2005 Iditarod races! In reality, they only care about marketing their names to the cruel dog-racing community, which only survives because of money donated from large companies like Iams.
Please don't let more dogs suffer needlessly. You can help countless numbers of animals by making the choice to boycott Iams. Your dollars are your voice in the world of business, and how you choose to spend them matters a great deal, especially with regard to the welfare of innocent animals. Knowing that you won’t buy while animals die, Iams will be forced to take humane stances-ending its sponsorship of Iditarod race participants and stopping all cruel laboratory tests on animals, which are not required by law.
Read our letter to Procter & Gamble (Iams' parent company) regarding this important issue. Please e-mail Iams (customer.service@iams.com) or write to the president of the company at the address shown below and let him know that the humane treatment of animals is not for sale and that the company must act humanely or risk losing a great deal of business
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
PETA to Iams: Stop Killing Sweet Chicks
Leave it to Iams to use the cruelest research method available for completing the simplest of tasks--namely, testing the digestibility of protein in its pet foods by subjecting 1-week-old baby chicks to severely growth-retarding “protein efficiency ratio” (PER) studies.
Iams brags that it conducts “extensive live animal testing” in its PER chick tests to “assure consistent protein quality.” Yet, two of Iams’ largest competitors, Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, feel that these animal experiments are completely unnecessary and unreliable. Hill’s uses a high-tech computer program instead that provides “very accurate results,” and Purina refuses to conduct PER tests at all. Iams is truly behind the times--its continued use of the PER chick test flies in the face of objections raised by leading experts who have publicly condemned the PER test as being inhumane and ineffective.
TNO Nutrition and Food Research (an internationally recognized authority in nutrition research), notes the following in issue 27 (December 2004) of Leads in Life Sciences: “[T]hese [PER] experiments are extremely slow and give no insight into the availability of the amino acids that are responsible for growth limitation. The test may also result in strong growth retardation due to amino acid deficiencies and therefore has ethical drawbacks. Moreover, this method determines the [protein] requirements of rats and [chickens], not of humans or dogs.”
Iams actually funded a study that was published in a 2000 issue of the Journal of Microbiological Methods, in which the authors lamented that PER chick tests “take from 2 to 4 weeks and require special facilities and large amounts of raw materials,” making it a “labor intensive, time-consuming and variable” procedure.
Clearly, whether judging by ethical, scientific, or economic criteria, the PER test is a miserable failure. Even basic common sense says that using a baby chick to model the digestive processes of a dog is crazy, not to mention lazy!
Several companies have created humane alternatives that address all of these concerns. For instance, TNO developed a computerized non-animal model called FIDO (functional gastro-intestinal dog model) that has been scientifically validated for use as an alternative to the PER test.
But, as is usually the case, Iams ignored the existence of FIDO, preferring instead to remain set in its ways and to continue harming baby chicks.
Refusing to back down, PETA persisted in pressing Iams to join the company’s major competitors in abandoning the use of chicks in PER tests. And, on February 7, 2005, Iams confirmed that it was looking into another alternative test method called IDEA (Immobilized Digestive Enzyme Assay) to replace the use of chicks. But Iams will be slow to implement this test method as it claims it must “validate” the method against the chick test. Validating a high-tech test against an inappropriate and inaccurate low-tech animal test is never a good idea, for obvious reasons.
You Can Help
E-Mail Iams or write to the address below. Please ask the company to immediately end its live animal PER experiments in favor of the more compassionate and accurate FIDO system or accept validation data from the IDEA manufacturer (Novus International) and start using that test method immediately:
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
Learn more about our feathered friends and why they are worth fighting for.
The Rotten Truth Behind Iams’ “Dental Defense” Diets
Iams should change the name of its “Dental Defense” diets to “Dental Destruction,” judging by the bloody gingivitis experiments on dogs that the company is currently funding to study its food formulas.
As far back as June 2002, Iams promised that it would “not contract for, nor conduct, any study involving surgeries to create or mimic diseases …; nor w[ould] the company use non-surgical methods to induce or simulate diseases that are not acceptable in nutritional or medical research on humans; nor w[ould] the company fund any university positions that may be involved in such activities for the study of cat and dog nutrition.”
But, none of this is true, since, according to new publicly available documents that PETA obtained from the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), Iams has committed funds from November 2002 through October 2005 for an experiment conducted by Dr. Roger B. Johnson (which is a follow-up to his similar 1999 Iams-funded study) that involves inducing gingivitis-a painful stage of periodontal disease-in 21 beagles by cutting and suturing their gums.
To make matters worse, and as more proof that Iams lies through its teeth, Dr. Johnson states in item 19 of his “Animal Activity Protocol” that “[a]t the end of the experiments, the animals will be sold and transferred to another research facility.” This is precisely how Iams operates-keeping dogs in cramped cages and conducting invasive tests on them for years on end, and then “adopting” them out to other testing laboratories rather than into loving homes. No wonder Iams has never revealed the location of its “retirement center.”
There is no reason why Iams should be violating its research policy and purposely inducing gingivitis in healthy dogs! Please e-mail Iams or write to the address shown below and demand that the company immediately end this experiment, release the dogs to the Mississippi Animal Rescue League, and use humane testing alternatives such as collaborative veterinary clinic studies (in which dogs who have naturally developed gingivitis are volunteered to participate in the study by their human caretakers).
Jeffrey P. Ansell, President
Iams Company
7250 Poe Ave.
Dayton, OH 45414-5801
Iams has gotten away with murder for long enough!
Read our letter to Procter & Gamble (Iams’ parent company) regarding this bloody experiment and other troubling issues.
Important Update! Iams Funds Cruel Researcher From Wright State University
Update
Iams is scrambling to put a positive spin on the inhumane Iams-funded study that is currently being conducted by Dr. Larry Arlian at Wright State University (WSU). But the evidence doesn’t lie!
Iams’ claim #1: “We … currently have studies [at Wright State University] relating to allergens in pet food that do not involve animals” (our emphasis).
This is completely false. In Arlian’s current research protocol (which has Iams’ funding through November 30, 2005), Arlian states the following on page 7: “Tyrophagus putrescentiae (TP) (the most common stored product mite) and either Acarus siro (AS) or Lepidoglyphus destructor (LD) antisera will be produced in rabbits by [WSU’s] standard methods in place in [WSU’s] Laboratory Animal Resources facility” (our emphasis).
The last time we checked, rabbits are animals! As far back as 1992, Arlian conducted a similar experiment, in which he grew scabies mites in rabbits (and dogs), causing these animals to suffer in immense pain needlessly.
Iams’ claim #2: “Dr. Arlian … has never been sanctioned by the USDA and was not involved in the 1992 studies cited by PETA.”
Again, Iams is blatantly lying here. On July 12, 1993, the USDA filed a formal complaint against WSU citing Dr. Arlian by name, charging WSU with willful violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
Item number 9 of the USDA’s complaint states: “From approximately May 1990 through July 2, 1990, respondent Wright State, through its employee Dr. Larry Arlian, willfully violated section 2.31(d) (8) of the Regulations, 9 C.F.R. § 2.31(d) (8), by engaging in activities involving the care and use of animals before the [Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee] had approved those activities” (our emphasis).
Arlian was able to escape formal “sanctions” by the USDA because in March 1995, WSU paid a fine of $25,000 to avoid going to court.
Furthermore, references to Arlian’s scabies experiments are frequently cited in the USDA’s complaint, proving that Arlian was indeed involved with these cruel 1992 studies.
Clearly, Iams’ response to Arlian’s current experiment is full of blatant lies! Please e-mail Iams, inform the company of this evidence, and demand that this cruel study be stopped immediately.
What’s the Big Deal?
What’s the problem with Iams’ using dogs and cats in laboratory-controlled food testing if it has agreed to do the following:
1. Stop killing the dogs and cats it uses
2. Stop intentionally inducing diseases and injuries in animals
3. Stop using outside contract laboratories (by October 2006), such as the horrendous one that PETA investigated in 2003
Here’s the Big Deal
1. Through its purchase of entire litters of animals from breeders and dealers, Iams fattens the wallets of those who stock pet stores, thus exacerbating the deadly pet overpopulation crisis. Iams also buys "purebred" litters, thus encouraging the breeding of purebreds, despite the fact that such dogs and cats are more prone to suffer health problems. Instead, Iams can and should conduct in-home or collaborative veterinary clinic studies using animals who already require treatment for diseases or specific conditions of interest to the company.
2. By building a new facility, Iams is making an investment that will ensure the continued use of caged and kenneled animals to test its foods. Iams also continues to kill animals other than dogs and cats in unnecessary laboratory experiments.
3. Iams didn’t even know the number and nature of the USDA violations that took place at its 30 or so contract laboratories until PETA gave the company a complete report. Iams either didn’t care what the conditions were like inside its outside labs and/or failed to oversee them adequately. An end to the use of these labs is a good thing indeed. But once Iams brings all its testing in-house, the ability to scrutinize the company’s treatment of animals is greatly diminished.
4. Tests on dog and cat food don’t do a thing to improve animal health as long as commercial companion animal food companies like Iams use diseased, decayed, and discarded animal parts from rendering plants.
Support Brands That Do Not Test on Animals
PETA has contacted hundreds of companion-animal food companies, asking if they conduct laboratory tests on animals. Numerous companies responded to let us know that they do not. We have compiled a list of those companies below.
View the first letter, follow-up letter, and survey sent to companion-animal food companies.
Companies that are not on this list either responded to let us know that they do conduct laboratory experiments on animals or failed to respond to our numerous inquiries and are assumed to conduct laboratory experiments on animals.
If you are concerned about animals in laboratory tests, you should purchase companion-animal food exclusively from the following companies:
(Click here for the U.K. version of this list.)
Active Life Pet Products
1-877-291-2913
www.activelifepp.com
Amoré Pet Services, Inc.
1-866-572-6673
www.amorepetfoods.com
Animal Food Services
1-800-743-0322
www.animalfood.com
Artemis Pet Food-NEW
1-800-282-5876
www.artemiscompany.com
Azmira Holistic Animal Care
1-800-497-5665
www.azmira.com
Burns Pet Nutrition
1-877-983-9651
www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk
Canusa International
519-624-5697
www.canusaint.com
CountryPet Pet Food
1-800-454-7387
www.countrypet.com
Dr. Harvey’s
1-866-362-4123
www.drharveys.com
Dry Fork Milling Co.
1-800-346-1360
Dynamite Marketing, Inc.
208-887-9410
www.dynamitemarketing.com
Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Co., Inc.
1-800-288-6796
www.evangersdogfood.com
Evolution Diet, Inc. (entirely vegan)
1-800-659-0104
www.petfoodshop.com
Good Dog Foods, Inc.
732-842-4555
www.gooddogfoods.com
GreenTripe.Com
831-726-3255
www.greentripe.com
Halo, Purely for Pets
1-800-426-4256
www.halopets.com
Happy Dog Food
1-800-359-9576
www.happydogfood.com
Harbingers of a New Age (entirely vegan)
406-295-4944
www.vegepet.com
Holistic Blend
1-800-954-1117
www.holisticblend.com
The Honest Kitchen
858-483-5995
www.thehonestkitchen.com
Know Better Dog Food
1-866-922-6463
www.knowbetterdogfood.com
KosherPets, Inc.
954-938-6270
www.kosherpets.com
Kumpi Pet Foods
303-699-8562
www.kumpi.com
Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. (has vegan options)
1-800-829-4493
www.naturalbalanceinc.com
Natural Life Pet Products, Inc. (has vegan options)
1-800-367-2391
www.nlpp.com
Nature’s Variety
1-888-519-7387
www.naturesvariety.com
Newman’s Own Organics-NEW
www.newmansownorganics.com
PetGuard (has vegan options)
1-800-874-3221
904-264-8500
www.petguard.com
Pied Piper Pet & Wildlife
1-800-338-4610
www.piedpiperpet.com
PoshNosh Inc.
613-747-1542
1-866-893-4006 (Outside Ottawa-Outaouais)
Raw Advantage, Inc.
360-387-5158
www.rawadvantagepetfood.com
Rocky Mountain Natural Products
1-877-768-6788 (Eastern U.S.)
1-800-665-5521 (Western U.S.)
www.rmtnp.com
Sauder Feeds, Inc.
260-627-2196
www.sauderfeeds.com
Stella & Chewy’s LLC-NEW
718-522-9673
www.stellaandchewys.com
Veterinary Nutritional Formula
1-800-811-0530
www.vnfpetfood.com
Wow-Bow Distributors Ltd. (has vegan options)
1-800-326-0230
www.wow-bow.com
Wysong Professional Diets (has vegan options)
1-800-748-0188
www.wysong.net