As you all know, last week I spent a couple of days in Dayton, Ohio attending the second Behind the Paw Summit at the invitation of Iams/Eukanuba. When I wasn’t leaving computers on buses or throwing gutterballs in a sad attempt to unconvincingly demonstrate my bowling prowess, I actually did learn a lot about the pet food manufacturing process.
I’m always a little leery of doing trips like this, because I have two competing agendas when writing about them: mine and theirs. My agenda, of course, is curiosity. Who wouldn’t want to see a pet food plant? Is it gross? Is it filled with Homer Simpson-esque characters chuckling as they toss cigarette butts into the pet food bags? (In this case, no and no.)
The agenda of whomever invites a blogger to their facility, of course, is to get you to write about it in a positive manner. And you know, if I didn’t feel positively about it, I couldn’t do that. I value my integrity and the trust of the people who listen to what I say too much to do that. So I don’t take invitations like this unless I feel reasonably confident it’s going to be good to begin with, and take my chances that I’ll be right. And if I’m wrong, well, that’s when I just vaguely mention that I went on a trip and the hotel was pretty good.
Well, here I am, writing about it. And you know, the hotel was pretty good. But so was the rest of the trip.
As you can probably tell by our posture, it was a little chilly in Dayton. All of us huddling there except the Canadian blogger Lynette in her skirt and sunny flats, smiling like it was 80 degrees out. (Whatever, snow bunny.) 😉 This is the group about to head into the Pet Nutrition and Health Center, which is where the dogs and cats participating in feeding trials live and play.
I am happy to report (or perhaps sad, if you were hoping I’d have some depraved tales of mistreatment and horror) that the animals there are in great condition and live well rounded, training-and-enrichment filled existences until their retirement into forever homes. And I’m a tough sell- as someone who ran away from a career in lab animal medicine after seeing dubious ethics in way too many places, this was not the case here.
I’ll go more into that later, since I decided after coming home that I actually did have more questions after all and sent them a long and involved series of questions regarding feeding trials. Once I have that I’ll go into more detail about what is involved in that.
I imagine someone out there is going to be tempted to post a link to the PETA video from 2003 that shocked a bunch of people. If you all want to know what the P&G had to say about it, I can go into the discussion. I will do that as a favor to you, if you want me to. To be honest, I find arguing with PETA people rather exhausting since it’s very difficult to reason with someone who has already arrived at a foregone conclusion and I’d just as soon not, but I will, if you are interested.
This isn’t my battle to wager, and the last thing I have the patience or energy to do is referee a bunch of shouting, but I will offer this: I can give you the facts as they were presented to me and let you draw your own conclusions. I’ll let you guys tell me in the comments if you are even interested or not in me going there. And if not, I’ll just tell you what I saw and leave it at that.
I will say this: as a veterinary professional and someone who has spent years and years studying animal welfare issues, sat in on IACUCs and worked on enrichment programs in academic lab animal research settings: based on what I saw, Iams has nothing to be ashamed of. Their facilities are world class.
As a former owner of an feeding trial dog, I can say that I no longer buy any P&G product. When he came to us, he was not socialized, had severe separation anxiety, was terrified of men, and lots of fear aggression. He was also sweet and loving, and incredibly goofy. Unfortunately, we had to put the poor guy down after two years of love, training, and medication weren’t enough to heal his poor mind (he attacked me, so there was a very, very good reason for that heart-breaking decision).
I, personally, would be interested to hear how they have improved since Indy was one of their subjects.
I would be very interested as well. I’m VERY picky about what I feed Sophie and Oscar (currently EVO and stuff I cook for them) and I’ve heard some terrible things about food trial animals. But while I’ve heard the stories (and seen some evidence), I’m always happy to hear positive truths.
OK, NOT a PETA member, but do believe in SOME of the stuff they do.. Dont worry I wont argue, but I am curious to hear what they had to say about the 2003 video.
I am also interested in some of the other stuff too, how they keep animals safe, happy and their ethics policy. Who over sees this policy? and how is it enforced?
How do they find forever homes for their pets? Also, it does not look that cold out. Us Canadians are pretty immune to the cold.
The only “foreign matter” I’ve ever found in a bag of dog food was a bunch of … rose buds. Tiny little dried rose buds. Red ones. Whole, and wholly identifiable.
At first I thought maybe a corsage, but I found no wrapping materials (and I watched like a hawk for a pin, but never found that, either).
It wasn’t Iams. 🙂
This is all very interesting to me. Cant wait for the next installment. Peta are a bunch of crazies so no worries explaining that stuff but I am interested to hear how their quality stacks up against products I prefer like Wellness, Natural Balance, Evo and Red moon Custom order pet food.
I’m interested to see people keep mentioning Evo/Innova, since they were actually bought out by P&G last year. You guys are aware of that, right?
One of the reasons I was excited to talk to them! I really like Innova.
I really love Innova too, but I am not the biggest P&G fan, so I was really disappointed when Natura was acquired last year. It seems as though all the companies I really admired (not just related to pets) have been acquired by big conglomerates the past couple years.
Actually I am aware of this, which is the main reason I am even more interested than normal in what Dr. V discovered. I’m pretty much anti-conglomerate so I’ve been keeping an eye on the food to see if I see any quality deterioration.
p.s. Sorry for the negativity… I should probably keep my mouth shut. ;-P
I can always count on you to be honest. 🙂 I don’t mind the discussion- like I said, I’m not emotionally vested in the argument. I just don’t want to be refereeing a smackdown, kwim? But you guys have always been thoughtful in your comments even when you disagree.
Fair enough… no smackdown here, I promise! Part of the comfort level with making my thoughts on the subject known here is the anonymity, of course. Most people don’t know who “macula densa” is. 😀
Oh don’t worry, I’ll be sure to forward your personal e-mail to the marketing director at P & G. 😉 :p
I’ve been feeding my dog Iams products for the last year or so. I didn’t want to as corn is the first ingredient and then chicken by-product meal! I had been feeding him Blue Buffalo, but he started having gastro issues (Clostridium perfringens enterotoxicosis) and my vet switched him to their Low Residue after trying meds and probiotics. And the LR seemed to work and I was scared to try anything else lest he have more flareups (they are not pretty, let me tell you). Then there was the recall, so we had to switch, the vet said their Premium Protection was the closest thing and he’s still doing well. So I’m keeping him on it for now – it’s inexpensive and I can get it at Target (instead of the vets). I was looking for other food suggestions on Dogster and an Iams rep responded and gave some thoughtful answers to my concerns about the corn/byproducts – still not convinced or happy about the P&G connection, but I’m scared to switch at this point since he’s been doing so well for the past 6 months or so (knocking on wood).
I’d love to hear more about what you have to say. While I always have a healthy dose of skepticism about places like this, I wouldn’t go out of my way to look for problems in their facility, so I’m glad to hear that the animals seem well cared for. Maybe it’s naive of me, but I figure the fact that they’re even inviting people onto the premises in the first place is a good thing. How much of the actual food creation process were you guys permitted to see?
Great post & interesting discussion in your comments.
Pam & Oskar
Hi Y’all,
I read another post about this factory and, if memory serves me, they have a waiting list for their dogs. I can see, however, how it would be difficult for every dog to thrive in this environment.
Got to go. A massive thunderstorm is about to strike!
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
I actually adopted a few cats & dogs from their program, one way back in 98. I can attest to the fact that they took very good care of their cats & dogs way back when before peta. All of them have been varying degrees of outgoing or introverted, but you get that with any cat & dog. My cats & dogs have all eaten Iams & Eukanuba over the years and have been very healthy & happy. I like that they have always done non-invasive food trials to find the best nutrition and that they have always raised their kitties & pups to be pets. I will continue to adopt from them when I have the chance.