Pet Feed Marketing In A Veterinarian Quiz
Category:NutritionBy Susan Thixton
A quiz – directed at veterinarians – was sent to me by a well-known and trusted holistic veterinarian. I won’t share the name of this veterinarian because the quiz is only accessible to veterinarian members of Clinicians Brief – a publication for small animal vets. (And because I was able to access the veterinarian only quiz…I don’t want to get anyone into any trouble.)
The problem with the quiz is the biased information it presents to our vets as uniform facts. Such as…
The quiz tells vets that home prepared pet foods made from 100% human grade ingredients is no healthier than a feed grade commercial diet. Of course they neglect to disclose to veterinarian quiz takers that feed grade pet foods are allowed by FDA to source ingredients from diseased or non-slaughtered animal material.
The quiz also discussed the nutritional benefits of by-products – again with no mention of inferior (and potentially dangerous) quality feed grade by-products.
The quiz tells veterinarians that carbohydrates are a quality source of nutrition for cats – although they did disclose more research is needed.
No great surprise, the quiz reports that prescription/therapeutic diets are more effective than ‘over the counter’ pet diets. The quiz neglects to tell vets that therapeutic pet diets are allowed by FDA to make drug claims (to cure, treat, or mitigate disease) without being held to any drug safety requirements. Further the quiz neglected to tell veterinarians that therapeutic diets can be made with inferior (and potentially dangerous) feed grade ingredients.
This quiz was little more than pet feed marketing in quiz form. The vet that shared the quiz with me so correctly pointed out that the quiz neglected to mention significant points and it will unfortunately give practicing vets biased information that will unfortunately be preached to pet owners.
Until more vets are educated to the dramatic differences between feed and food, pet owners will continue to face challenging discussions with them. For more educational documents, visit the following links:
Human Grade & Feed Grade
Do you know what the differences are between Feed Grade and Human Grade pet food? Click Here.
The Regulations
Pet Food is regulated by federal and state authorities. Unfortunately, authorities ignore many safety laws. Click Here to learn more about the failures of the U.S. pet food regulatory system.
The Many Styles of Pet Food
An overview of the categories, styles, legal requirements and recall data of commercial pet food in the U.S. Click Here.
The Ingredients
Did you know that all pet food ingredients have a separate definition than the same ingredient in human food? Click Here.
We know that the pet feed industry isn’t going to be fully transparent with veterinarians about feed grade products…but we can be.
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Click here to read this article on the TruthaboutPetFood website.
