Pet Food is Tested on Animals?!

Well of course it is, I hear you cry - doggies and moggies have to ensure that their food is palatable before it is sold, just the same as our food. This is true, however, I am talking about a different kind of testing.

Some pet food companies carry out painful, invasive and lethal tests on animals in order to establish the effects of specific ingredients and subsequently give their products a competitive marketing edge.

Source: www.iamscruelty.com

One of these companies, IAMS (who are owned by Proctor & Gamble, one of the biggest companies that carry out animal testing), uses careful advertising to promote a caring image. However, the truth was unmasked by animal rights campaigners Uncaged, who detail the true extent of these cruel tests on their website. Previous tests by IAMS include:

• Inflicting kidney failure on 24 dogs by removing their right kidneys and partly damaging the left in order to investigate the effect of protein on dogs with the disease. The dogs were not treated for kidney failure as it would have undermined the test results, and all were eventually killed
• Exposing the stomachs of 28 cats to analyse the effects of feeding them fibre. A solution was pumped through their bowels and collected every ten minutes for two hours before the cats were killed
• Over-feeding 24 cats to make them obese before starving them to investigate the link between weight loss and liver disease
• Repeatedly injecting 14 husky puppies with live vaccines including hepatitis and parovirus and allergy causing proteins for the first 3 months of their lives to see how severely allergic they would become. The puppies developed permanent illnesses during the tests
• Inflicting skin wounds on the chests of 36 dogs and puppies to see if diet could affect fur growth.

Furthermore, a PETA investigator worked undercover for 10 months at a research lab hired by IAMS and filmed the shocking conditions in which test animals were forced to live, in a video which can be viewed here.

 

Other Companies to Avoid 

Most pet food brands in the UK are produced by companies that test on animals, including:

• Proctor & Gamble - Eukanuba
• Colgate Palmolive - Hills Science Diet
• Nestlé Purina/Friskies - Alpo, Bonio, Felix, Go Cat, Gourmet, Omega Complete, Proplan, Spillers, Vital Balance, Winalot
• Pedigree, Masterfoods (Mars Inc) - Bounce, Cesar, Chappie, Frolic, James Wellbeloved, Katkins, Kitekat, Pal, Pedigree Chum, Royal Canin, Sheba, Techni-cal (US & Canada), Whiskas, Thomas rabbit food, Trill bird food.

Most of these pet foods are also made of poor quality ingredients and feature highly in 'animal derivatives'.

 

What are the Alternatives?

The BUAV previously ran a No Animal Testing Pet Food Standard, whereby companies had to prove that neither they nor their suppliers engaged in animal testing that harmed animals in any way. Unfortunately this is no longer running, but Uncaged have obtained statements from companies that were on the list confirming that they still adhere to the Standard. These companies are:

• Arden Grange
• Burns
• Europa Pet Foods Ltd
• Nature Diet
• Pero Foods Ltd
• Trophy Pet Food

Out of the list, I have only tried my 20-month-old JRT on Burns. All these companies look great but I decided to try Burns as they use high quality, easily digestible ingredients, most of which are produced locally, plus they are stocked by my local pet shop. Burns have a range of different foods for dogs, cats and small animals, and I feed Jack on a mixture of the biscuits and the wet food. He loves it and always knows when it's dinner time! Unlike your usual tin of brown mushy dog food, I can actually see the rice, vegetables, eggs or meat in Burns food, and Jack's coat is always shiny and in excellent condition. A healthy dog makes for a happy dog!

Only the best for my boy!