[Patricia A]

I know that many disparage Susan Thixton on this board. I never understood why that is so. . I think she does hard work and at least woke me up in thinking about what I have been feeding my dogs and the lack of transparency of the pet food industry .(TruthaboutPetFood).”, Susan learned the ‘truth’ about pet foods the hard way. Her four legged best friend, Sam, died from bone cancer.From that day forward, Susan studied the pet food industry. TruthaboutPetFood.com began in 2004; today pet owners from all over the world visit TruthaboutPetFood learning about pet food regulations, ingredients, and recall alerts. TruthaboutPetFood.com provides a free newsletter and hosts a subscription based pet product review publication Petsumer Report. Susan is also the author of Buyer Beware and co-author of Dinner PAWsible.

So if you read below it says that the FDA is not allowing “boutique” brands to participate in the DCM study. Why is that? Also that Merrick, owned by Purina is also implicated in DCM. Why aren’t they taking Merricks grain free off the market . You would think that since Purina would not want to be associated with foods that are not formulated correctly?

An email received yesterday emphasized a very real problem of pet food. Yesterday (3/13/19) a 3 year old dog died of diet-related taurine deficiency induced DCM (dilated cardiomyopathy). This dog (and another dog in the same household also diagnosed with diet-related taurine deficiency induced DCM) was fed Merrick Grain Free Kibble.

A video attached to the email (sent by the pet owner’s sister) was gut wrenching to watch. It showed this young dog struggling to breath. A ‘Complete and Balanced’ dog food destroyed her heart.

Another ‘Complete and Balance’ dog food destroyed a family.

How many dogs have to die before FDA takes action?

We don’t know. FDA has issued two statements to pet owners; one in July 2018 and another in February 2019.

Of concern: the FDA has chosen to work ONLY with Big Pet Feed through their trade association Pet Food Institute on the DCM investigation. FDA has refused our requests to involve pet owners in the investigation. FDA has also refused the request of another pet food trade association that represents human grade pet food manufacturers to help aid in the investigation. Instead, FDA is choosing only to partner with feed grade pet food manufacturers (the very same companies whose pet foods have been linked to DCM sick or dead dogs).

What can you do to protect your pet?

Veterinarians are tending to instruct pet owners to stay clear of “boutique” (small brands) pet foods and attempting to lead pet owners back to grain based pet foods manufactured by Big Pet Feed. This ‘advice’ is bad for multiple reasons.

Merrick Pet Food – which was fed to the dog mentioned above – is owned by Purina. Purina or Merrick is NOT a “boutique” brand.

FDA refuses to allow “boutique” brands (human grade ingredient brands) to participate in the investigation of the diet-related DCM issue.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Patricia A.