From Susan Thixton of TruthAboutPetFood.com

"Unlike any other AAFCO meeting, the voice for pet food consumers is loud at this meeting. What tremendous people I’ve met – that are all here for the same cause. Safe pet food.


Always at AAFCO meetings I wish all of you could be a fly on the wall watching the goings on. This meeting is no exception. After the opening session, our group of consumer advocates got to meet face to face – and we certainly bonded over our collective cause.


We were: Dr. Jean Hofve, Mollie Morrissette, Dr. Karen Becker, Dr. Judy Morgan, Nina Wolf, Rodney Habib and myself. We’d never all met – but all of a sudden here we were sitting side by side in an AAFCO meeting. It was thrilling – honestly thrilling. There was nothing much for us to participate in during the morning sessions, we left the building to have a bit of privacy and to officially meet. And the conversations were empowering.

I can tell you I got goosebumps on several occasions listening to these brilliant people. They were here, ready to fight, and were eager to begin the battle. In the afternoon session, our first battle began.


This session was ‘Enforcement Issues Committee’ – basically this meeting is AAFCO officials who are also State Department of Agriculture representatives and FDA representatives discussing what needs to be enforced within pet food regulation. The topic of this session was submitted by Dr. Jean Hofve and it addressed numerous recent studies of pet food where protein sources listed on the label were not found in the pet food.


After the AAFCO folks introduced the topic, Dr. Hofve spoke to give the committee members information as to why enforcement of what’s on the pet food label should be in the pet food – why it means so much to consumers. She was perfect. I followed sharing with the committee I brought with me 78,000 signatures from consumers all saying they want to know what they are buying. Nina Wolf spoke sharing with the committee how difficult it is for independent store owners to aid their customers in choosing the right food not being able to trust the pet food label. Dr. Judy Morgan gave a very passionate statement to the committee reminding all of us that pets can die because of needless allergic reactions. Dr. Karen Becker faced the committee several times during this session asking the committee to raise the bar.


Honestly, I wanted to stand and applaud each of them after they spoke to the AAFCO committee. They were fantastic! We certainly tried to share with the committee the importance of enforcing the pet food industry – now we hope they will listen. (I will provide more details after I return and go through my notes.)


Today is a very busy day. Pet Food Committee and Ingredient Definitions Committee along with our meeting with FDA. I will provide all with details of everything once I return home. I just wanted all of you to know we are here – and in force. We have more consumer advocates arriving this morning. Reminder – you can listen in to both meetings today – click here for details." Go to www.TruthaboutPetFood.com



Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food