Why Are Lab Animals Used for Testing Purposes by Some Pet Food Brands?

For anyone who has ever lived with a dog or a cat, it's hard to imagine that some pet food companies would conduct invasive tests on animals in labs. But the pet industry is big business, and in their ongoing efforts to maximize earnings and deliver "new and improved" formulas, some leading pet food manufacturers conduct cruel experiments on dogs and cats.

The main culprits for cruel and unethical animal testing, according to PETA (People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals), are the major international pet food businesses, including Iams and Eukanuba (owned by Procter & Gamble), Hills Science Diet (owned by Colgate Palmolive), Purina and Friskies (owned by Nestle), and Pedigree (owned by Mars, Inc.).

In the most publicized case, a PETA investigator worked undercover in a laboratory paid by Iams and other major pet food companies to test their pet food products. Some of the cruelty that she witnessed and captured on hidden camera would outrage any animal lover, including the following:

• Dogs dumped on a cold concrete floor after having their vocal chords severed and huge chunks of muscle cut out of their thighs
• Dogs and cats gone stir-crazy from confinement in cramped steel-and-cement cells
• A coworker who instructed her to hit the dogs on the chest if they quit breathing
• Another coworker who talked about an Iams dog found dead in his cage, bleeding from his mouth
• Cruel studies done by Iams involving forcing tubes down dogs' throats to make them ingest vegetable oil
• Dogs with such severe tartar buildup on their teeth that it was painful for them to eat
• Coworkers who talked about a live kitten who had been washed down a drain
• Dogs left sweltering in scorching heat and shivering in bitter cold, and horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer without veterinary care
• Coworkers who talked about how they had had to go home because the ammonia fumes in the animal trailers were so overpowering that it made their eyes burn (try being one of the animals in those cages!)

Additional information on animal testing is available on PETA's StopAnimalTests.com web site.

Flint River Ranch is proud to be included on PETA's "Companies That Don't Test on Animals" list as a pet food manufacturer that "makes top-quality food for dogs and cats without harming animals in laboratories." PETA encourages consumers to drive animal abusers out of business by buying only from companies like Flint River Ranch.

Flint River Ranch does not test any of its pet foods or pet products on laboratory animals. No animals are destroyed or are involved in any type of medical surgery or physical invasion during the palatability testing and evaluation procedures. All testing is done voluntarily on pets of all ages, including staff pets and selected pet owners and breeders, in exchange for free food.

Various aspects of the animals' overall health are monitored, including weight, activity level, stool and urine, allergy sensitivities, and hair and skin conditions. The results are reviewed by certified nutritionists and veterinarians.

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