American Veterinary Medical Association Has Concerns About Jerky Treats

This video is through the work of Build A Better Dog

More On The Problems With Waggin' Train Treats

Thanks to Mollie Morrissette for continuing to expose the problem with Waggin' Train dog treats.  Mollie and Susan Thixton have been all over this issue which I have not seen any where else up until now.  They have both been on the forefront of this debacle.

Again, thanks and please read on.

"Why should you put your trust in a company that knew pets were being made ill and some were dying all along from treats they imported from China and refused to do anything about it until they were caught by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets for illegal drug residue in their treats.

I’m sorry, but what on earth makes them think that consumers should believe a single word on their website?

As it turns out, you probably shouldn’t. Just in case Purina should be held liable for anything said on their website and to make absolutely certain Purina has their ass covered they have this neat little disclaimer on their terms and conditions page:

While we use all reasonable attempts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information on this website, we are not responsible if the information that we make available on this website is not accurate or complete. Any reliance upon the material on this website shall be at your own risk. You agree that it is your responsibility to monitor any changes to the material and the information contained on this website.

Does the expression “to be forewarned is to be forearmed” spring to mind? It should. You can’t say they didn’t warn you. After all, everything Purina tells you on their website may just be a complete fabrication and to believe anything they say Purina wants you to know you will be doing so at your own risk.

For example, do you believe this to be an accurate statement:

Waggin’ Train has worked hard to strengthen our already strict quality controls throughout the production process, from egg to finished treat.

Oh OK, so let me see…they have strengthened their “already strict quality controls” which couldn’t have been that strict, because they failed to control contaminated poultry from being used to make their treats in China a year ago.

We now source all of our chicken from just one trusted supplier in China. This is important, because sourcing exclusively from a single chicken supplier means greater control over all aspects of the chicken supply, including how the chickens are fed, raised and processed.

Oh please, if they think they have control -  they are kidding themselves. Other than their flimsy reassurances, what evidence can they provide consumers that possibly ever restore confidence in the safety of their products?

How about good old-fashioned lab test results. They rely on them apparently, why shouldn’t the customer?

Did Purina provide access to their ongoing sampling program of their products in China?

No, ‘fraid not.

How about transparency, that’s a buzz word marketers love to use nowadays. Has Purina been fully transparent?

Nope, sorry. Why, just today Purina refused to tell Susan Thixton of Truth About Pet Food the name of their U.S. supplier.

Truth? Truth is always a surefire way to give consumers a boost of confidence!

No, Purina isn’t very good at that thing. They lied to American consumers that their treats could not possibly ever be responsible making pets sick. All they could do to assure consumers they weren’t, was to blame the FDA for their lack of ability to find a reason for illnesses. Absence of proof does not mean it a problem does not exist, it only means someone hasn’t discovered its reason for occurring.

The most shameful thing Purina did was to deny any responsibility and refused to help their consumers with sick and dying dogs, they refused to pay for their veterinary bills, and eventually they pulled every offer of a settlement off the table and denied all claims. Purina left consumers with nothing but broken hearts, a mountain of vet bills and dead pets to bury.

Trust Purina?

Never.

If this story wasn’t sickening enough to every single pet parent who lost a beloved furry family member to one of these imported treats, is the following cryptic announcementhttp://waggintrainbrand.com/ on Nestle Purina’s Waggin’ Train:

Please check back early February when we plan to share even more real dog excitement

I’m not sure if excited is the term I would use to describe my anticipation of their pending announcement, I would say terror would more accurately describes my feeling; impending doom or dread would be another good description.

So, what’s the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doing about it?

Not a whole heck of allot, if the results of their efforts are anything to measure their performance by.

What we do know is that the FDA made a huge mistake (boo-boo, fib — call it what you like) in telling the public the truth regarding the level of illegal antibioticsactually found by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets in the treats, under-reporting the actual amounts discovered.

Heck, maybe the FDA needs one of those handy Terms and Conditions pages on their site exempting them from accuracy as well.

We also know that the FDA and the Center for Veterinary Medicine met with Purina as recently as December, 11, 2013 with Larry Thompson, the senior research scientist at Nestle Purina PetCare. What they spoke about, no one knows.

Meanwhile, veterinarians still search for answers and 100 members of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recently filed a formal petition with the AVMA House of Delegates to issue a policy regarding the poisonous pet treats.

And consumers and their beloved pets will probably only be remembered by our government as collateral damage in the race to build trade relations with China."-Mollie Morrissette, Poisoned Pets, January, 2014.

Thanks for sticking with us and reading this.

Jerry Pardue

Build A Better Dog

Overt Cowardice at Mars Petcare

If you want to see a picture of cowardice, you need to look no further than Mars Petcare and their handling of the Joplin, Missouri plant.

Here is a portion of information posted by Mollie Morrissette on Poisoned Pets website

Being reported by their employees and being caught endangering lives did not change their sense of morality one bit.

Thank you Mollie for your work.

Hip Dysplasia, Part 2

This is the second part of a clip that discusses the history, cause, results, and some curative therapy for hip dysplasia in dogs.  It is a tragic condition that affects almost 75% of large breed dogs and there has been little relief in the past 80 years.  Take a look and remember the first part of this clip is available on the same sight if you missed it.  Hope you enjoy and find the clip informative.

Thanks,
Jerry Pardue, President
Build A Better Dog

Hip Dysplasia, part 1

The problem of hip dysplasia has a history that is frought with controversy and even today there is a hugh disagreement about its origin and how to cure it.  Build A Better Dog looks into that history in part one and will further investigate and tell how to manage the pain and the ailment.

Zoe Overcomes Her Hip and Back Problems and Can Now Jump

The Enzyme Elastin Plays A Role In Joint Movement

Elastin is a protein in connective tissue that is elastic and allows many tissues in the body to resume their shape after stretching or contracting. Elastin helps skin to return to its original position when it is poked or pinched. Elastin is also an important load-bearing tissue in the bodies of vertebrates-from Wikipedia.  The presence of elastin is reduced with age and this leads to the onset of joint pain and poor joint flexibility.  One way to remedy this problem is to increase the trace mineral level, particularly copper, zinc and manganese.  These lead to more effective production of elastin and allows the flexibility to return and the pain to ebb without medications.  This is a natural way to treat not only the symptom but also the heart of the problem.

Supplementing with chelated trace minerals is the most effective way to change the nutritional profile and increase mineral metabolism.  Minerals can easily be tied up in the body of dogs because of their total intake of nutrients.  For instance, having a water source that is high in iron can cause an antagonistic relationship between iron and copper and your pet can become deficient to a sub-clinical degree.  That is to say that there are no visible symptoms but the problem persists

To be assured that mineral supplementation is effective, the minerals need to be chelated, that is raw minerals bonded to amino acids at the molecular level.  This insures effective absorption because of particle size and using the more basic forms of mineral molecules instead of a mineral compound(like copper versus copper sulfate)

Always check out ingredients and look for listings like “copper amino acid chelate” or “zinc amino acid chelate” and don’t accept ingredients like “copper oxide” or “copper sulfate” as acceptable forms of supplementation.

By using basic mineral nutrition instead of medications like glucosomine(an extract of shell fish which can carry its on reactions) you are creating a healthier environment within the dog and”building a better dog” not just medicating a symptom.

Do Consumers Really Have A Chance?

Susan Thixton of Truth About Pet Food and Petsumer Report is at the AAFCO(American Association of Feed Control Officials) and she sent this message regarding who is at the meeting.
"I just got this from Susan Thixton today which tells us something about how the deck is stacked against consumers and their pets.

"In the midst of representatives stating their affiliation with ‘Mars Petcare’, ‘P&G’, ‘Cargill’, ‘Purina’, Del Monte’, ‘Hills Science Diet’ and all the others in attendance – there were two consumer advocates…myself and Mollie Morrissette (weather permitting Dr. Cathy Alinovi will join us tomorrow).  There are an estimated 200 representatives of industry representatives here – either directly working for a manufacturer or ingredient supplier or industry trade groups.  Standing and stating my name and “Association for Truth in Pet Food” is quite an honor (kinda fun actually stating those ‘truth in pet food’ words knowing many are cringing at the name)."

Thank you Susan for your powerful voice

Looking Back 80 Years Regarding Hip Dysplasia

Going back in history, it was pre-1930′s to find a time when the subject of “hip dysplasia” was not mentioned in any form. Those were the times when people went to the butcher shop and the corner market and got some meat scraps and fed what was left at the dinner table from the three meals a day that the matriarch of the family collected at the end of each meal.
The depression and ensuing years brought about the change of the industry and the change of the products that came out of the family pet world. There evolved an industry that processed high carbohydrate grains, like corn, into pet foods that produced an unintended consequence of making cheaper, more easily accessible, pet foods but of much lower quality.
The unfortunate by product of using high carbohydrate corn(2,200 carbohydrate calories per pound) and building a non-meat ration resulted in a weakening of the femur and the acetablumen(the three bones that intricately fit together to form the cup for the end of the femur to fit into). This brought about the emergence of CHD(canine hip dysplasia) Now, when the malady arose, a lot of veterinarian and researchers tried to show that this was a genetic consequence.
From the 1930′s until the 1960′s, the breed associations in the United States and Europe tried their best to use genetic selection to aleviate the problem, to no avail. They found CHD problems in 70 to 75% of large breed dogs and after those three decades of work, they felt all the work had reduced the incidence by almost 5%. Not much to hang your hat on.
It was in the sixties that two men, one a veterinarian and one a scientific journalist began to explore nutrition as a major cause of CHD.
It was amazing the controversy that resulted from their findings which many years ago led to law suits and even some criminal complaints but the facts are the facts. These two researchers found that the use of high carbohydrate grains, especially corn, resulted in muscle and skeletal weaknesses that were the result of softening of the tissue and the weakening of the joints and now with some larger breeds, three-fourths of all those dogs have joint and walking problems.
NOTE: We are going to invest the time of several articles and a lot of research to further look into this problem and try to explore the economics of what this malady costs in actual dollars.

Check out THIS SITE for more blog information while waiting for part 2 of this article.

The Origin Of Hip Dysplasia

Going back in history, it was pre-1930's to find a time when the subject of "hip dysplasia" was not mentioned in any form.  Those were the times when people went to the butcher shop and the corner market and got some meat scraps and fed what was left at the dinner table from the three meals a day that the matriarch of the family collected at the end of each meal.
The depression and ensuing years brought about the change of the industry and the change of the products that came out of the family pet world.  There evolved an industry that processed high carbohydrate grains, like corn, into pet foods that produced an unintended consequence of making cheaper, more easily accessible, pet foods but of much lower quality.
The unfortunate by product of using high carbohydrate corn(2,200 carbohydrate calories per pound) and building a non-meat ration resulted in a weakening of the femur and the acetablumen(the three bones that intricately fit together to form the cup for the end of the femur to fit into).  This brought about the emergence of CHP(canine hip dysplasia)  Now, when the malady arose, a lot of veterinarian  and researchers tried to show that this was a genetic consequence.
From the 1930's until the 1960's, the breed associations in the United States and Europe tried their best to use genetic selection to aleviate the problem, to no avail.  They found CHD problems in 70 to 75% of large breed dogs and after those three decades of work, they felt all the work had reduced the incidence by almost 5%.  Not much to hang your hat on.
It was in the sixties that two men, one a veterinarian and one a scientific journalist began to explore nutrition as a major cause of CHD.
It was amazing the controversy that resulted from their findings which many years ago led to law suits and even some criminal complaints but the facts are the facts.  These two researchers found that the use of high carbohydrate grains, especially corn, resulted in muscle and skeletal weaknesses that were the result of softening of the tissue and the weakening of the joints and now with some larger breeds, three-fourths of all those dogs have joint and walking problems.
NOTE:  We are going to invest the time of several articles and a lot of research to further look into this problem and try to explore the economics of what this malady costs in actual dollars.