Things Iams Don't Want You To See

[wolfsoul]

Originally posted by mugsy
Science Diet is owned by Colgate/Palmolive

Doesn't colgate test on animals? Or was that Crest?

[Rio and Me]

Wolfsoul I know they dont have to test on animals for ANYTHING, but if they insist on such crulty they could at least provide adiquete space/flooring and bedding! thats what i ment sorry
Ky and Rio

[Miss Meow]

Originally posted by mugsy
Here's a link to a page that talks about what is in dog food and who owns some of the major brands of dog food....Donna, Science Diet is owned by Colgate/Palmolive


http://www.api4animals.org/doc.asp?ID=79

Mugsy, I saw that site when we were looking at pup food for the devilish duo ... there's a lot of good, unemotional information there. Thanks for posting the link The use of waste restaurant grease and cleverly concealing corn ingredients made me furious.

Now I've become a label reading freak

[mugsy]

Originally posted by Miss Meow
Now I've become a label reading freak

You and me both Nicole!! I drive people crazy telling them what's in stuff. I have made A LOT of enemies out there. But....I don't care in the least!!

Let me go hunt down my email from my friend (who happens to be a member of PETA) who sent me the cruelty free and cruelty companies and I'll post it if I can find it.

[mugsy]

Well DANG! I just looked at the companies that test on animals and am ashamed at how many of the products I use. Guess I'd better be more careful.

And, yes, Colgate/Palmolive tests on animals.

Here's the link (it belongs to PETA, but at least you can see the list of cruelty and cruelty free companies there are)

http://www.peta.org/mall/cc/ccdonttest1.html

[Kater]

Originally posted by mugsy
Let me go hunt down my email from my friend (who happens to be a member of PETA) who sent me the cruelty free and cruelty companies and I'll post it if I can find it.

Oh yes, THE LIST.....
http://www.caringconsumer.com/searchcompany.html

[moosmom]

So, I guess I should switch my cat food to something that DOESN'T test on animals. Any suggestions???

[trayi52]

Thats what I want to know, somebody please make a suggestion. I am too lazy and old(just an excuse for being lazy, sorry) to search. I want to do what is right for my pets, and other defenseless animals.

Those were horrible pictures!!!!! I guess Science Diet is out too? I live in a small town. I need and want suggestions. Please.

[dukedogsmom]

I am sickened by this and plan on sending Iams and Eukanuba some emails. Also, I'm feeding Duke Science Diet for sentive skin. Does anyone know what I can feed him instead? Got to keep in mind his Pancreitis that he had in April.

[KYS]

posted by lizbud:I know that there are a few folks on PT that spring to the defence of these conditions and want to excuse Iams and attack the messenger. >>>>>>

I am not sure about attacking the messenger,
but I do believe to post all sides to make it
a bit more ballance when it comes to PETA.
I am a supporter of The Doris Day Foundation for
animal rights, and I remember reading small
blerb about Iams on the Animal Guardian.
Iams this year severed all ties with the company
that was in question. So I am a bit confused.
I was under the impression that Iams has cleaned
up it's act. IF they have not, Iams deserves to be boycoted.
.
I could not find the article, but I did
search the web about the Peta incident.
(I cut out some of the article)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Iams dog food chewed up at protest

Back to the Portsmouth Herald | Print this Story
By Nancy Cicco
[email protected]

A division of Procter & Gamble, Iams is PETA’s latest target in the organization’s efforts to raise public awareness about animal cruelty in the marketplace.

But an Iams spokesman responded Monday saying PETA is simply barking up the wrong tree.

Iams has come under PETA’s microscope for allegedly mistreating dogs and cats subjected earlier this year to nutritional testing at an Iams contract laboratory in the midwest.

The results of a PETA-led, nine-month undercover investigation at the lab found Iams allegedly committed several animal abuses. PETA wants customers to boycott Procter & Gamble’s products until the company changes its ways.

"Our investigation found their dogs cowering in cages, some which hadn’t left the cages for six years," said Matt Prescott, a Newmarket native who works as a PETA campaign manager. "Some had their vocal chords cut out...simply because the director of the facility was annoyed by the dogs barking."

Iams conducts clinical and controlled studies on cats and dogs to ensure the company’s products perform up to standards, according to Kelly Vanasse, Iams’ associate director of global external relations. PETA’s charges of mistreatment are a "highly sensationalized accounting" of what happened earlier this year, she said.

The Iams company unwittingly hired the undercover PETA investigator to enforce humane standards at the lab as an animal-welfare specialist.
The lab in question is not owned by Iams but was contracted by the company as a test site. Last March, days after PETA came forward with its information, Iams stopped working with the lab. Iams’ subsequent investigations at the company’s eight other contract laboratories showed those labs are "fully implementing" Iams’ research policy, Vanasse said. The policy mandates the company "will ensure the humane treatment of cats and dogs."

In addition, the company created an international animal-care advisory board to ensure the company continues to live up to its animal-welfare standards.

"We have been very open and transparent about what’s going on," Vanasse said. "We will only conduct the veterinarian equivalent of what a human would agree to undergo."

The company did not authorize anyone to cut the vocal chords of dogs in the facility, and dogs involved in some tests were only fed "a teaspoon" of vegetable oil, she said.

[lizbud]

KYS,

I believe the question about Iams severing ties with "bad"
lab testers is covered here in Whats going on with the dogs
now? segment.


Why Iams?: Frequently Asked Questions
What’s Wrong With Iams?

For nearly 10 months, PETA conducted an undercover investigation in an Iams contract laboratory. What our investigator witnessed and was able to capture on hidden camera would outrage any animal lover: dogs gone crazy from confinement to barren steel-and-cement cells, dogs left on a paint-chipped floor after having their vocal chords severed and part of their leg muscles hacked out; dogs who were sweltering in scorching heat and shivering in bitter cold; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no veterinary care. The dogs and cats in Iams’ tests are no different from our dogs and cats at home when it comes to deserving companionship, play, a stimulating environment, and the right not to be tormented in painful experiments.

But doesn’t Iams have to continue research and development in order to create better foods and improve the health of dogs? They can’t stop testing altogether, can they?

We are calling on Iams to rely on non-animal, laboratory analysis and in-home tests using dogs and cats whose human companions have volunteered them for such tests. Right now, dogs and cats are suffering endlessly in concrete cells with no chance for exercise or stimulation just so that Iams can slap new claims onto its products and maintain its market share. It’s all about marketing. If Iams officials cared about the health and happiness of our companion animals, they would end this unnecessary testing immediately. They’ve proved that all they care about is profit.

But what about the fact that Iams claims on its Web site that it meets and even exceeds federal regulations?

Iams lied to PETA repeatedly with promises to improve living conditions for the dogs in contract labs. Our investigation took place more than a year after Iams had promised to “raise the bar” on animal-welfare standards in its contract facilities and even assured us that enrichment programs were already in place, but our investigator knew better. At least 27 dogs were destroyed while other dogs had illnesses left untreated despite assurances in the Iams research policy, which specifically states that no animal in any Iams test will ever be deliberately killed.

Our video footage shows Iams representatives touring the facility and witnessing dogs’ endless circling in barren cells in the sweltering heat. Iams officials knew the truth yet they lied. How can they be trusted to act in the best interests of the animals at this point? Our investigator fought for six months to have a single cheap, rubber toy placed in each dog’s cell. This is Iams’ idea of “enrichment.” Once animal lovers become aware that they are financing the confinement and mutilation of dogs and cats, they simply won’t buy Iams food or propaganda.

What’s going on with the dogs now?

After considerable pressure from PETA, Iams finally agreed to have the dogs from this particular laboratory removed. We’ve been informed by Iams officials that the dogs are now in an Iams facility in Dayton, which they have refused to let us see. We have no idea whether the dogs are in a better situation now than they were before. We are continuing to press Iams to let us see the facility and urging the company to adopt the dogs out to loving homes, but until we have a confirmation from Iams that this has happened, we will assume otherwise.

Why should we believe you and not Iams?

Videotape doesn’t lie. See the abuse for yourself here. Procter & Gamble, Iams’ parent company, has a long history of wanton cruelty to animals. After years of pressure to eliminate cruel product testing on animals, the company continues to torture rabbits, ferrets, and many other animals in its skin- and eye-irritancy experiments for cosmetics. P&G spends more money on advertising in five days than it has spent on developing alternatives to animal testing in the last 14 years. That’s a bad record for a company that claims to care about animals.

Why are you targeting Iams specifically? Don’t most major brands test on animals in laboratories?

Iams claims to be a leader in the pet food industry. We’re asking the company to act like one. As a major food producer, its pioneering choice to end laboratory testing on animals would serve as an example of progress in the industry and would begin a truly “new and improved” era in pet food, not just a minor change at the animals’ expense.

A list of forward-thinking companion-animal food companies that have stopped or never conducted tests on animals in laboratories can be found on our Web site IamsCruelty.com.

Aren’t you against all animal testing, even for human medical research?

Animal testing has never been a necessary, safe, or effective way to conduct medical research. The case of Iams is particularly outrageous because these dogs are confined to barren steel-and-cement cells in all weather extremes and made to undergo invasive surgery just to test dog and cat food.

Animal lovers wouldn’t sacrifice their own animal companions’ welfare to benefit other animals, and they don’t want to subject dogs and cats just like theirs to cruel and unnecessary experimentation. We’re talking about dog and cat food here. The truth is, this continued experimentation is about nothing more than Iams’ pocketbook.

[KYS]

posted by lizbud:KYS, I believe the question about Iams severing ties with "bad" lab testers is covered here in Whats going on with the dogs now? segment.>>>>

Thanks Lizbud.

I am not going to lie and say I am against
all animal testing, but I am against
animal cruelty testing when it involves products
such as perfumes, make-up
and dog food etc. Medical research is another story.


IF Iams has NOT cleaned
up it's act, then they deserve to be hurt in
the pocket book and shut down till they do.

[wolfsoul]

Originally posted by dukedogsmom
I am sickened by this and plan on sending Iams and Eukanuba some emails. Also, I'm feeding Duke Science Diet for sentive skin. Does anyone know what I can feed him instead? Got to keep in mind his Pancreitis that he had in April.

Wellness Fish and Potatoes is really good for allergies and pancreatitis. Micki and a few others on PT have and do use it. Lemme see if I can find the thread...

[lizbud]

Here's one alternative for dog & cat foods that I've found other
than the list of companies already listed that sell pet foods from
companies that don't abuse animals to sell their products.


http://www.petfoodshop.com/

Edit: One more from Better Nutrition Magazine,

http://www.betternutrition.com/view....03&article=478

[Uabassoon]

If anyone here is interested in switching over to a brand that is 100% cruelty free I highly recomment Wysong. I recently switched over from Science Diet to Wysong and have had a really good experience. Not only is it 100% cruelty free but the ingredients are all human grade, no hormones or chemicals. Send me a PM if you have any questions.