Provided by Freedom of Information, we find public funding of AAFCO, raw pet food bias, mocking consumers and attempts to hide conflict of interest.

Thanks to Kohl Harrington (producer of the documentary Pet Fooled), we are provided with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents evidencing some concerning truths about those that regulate pet food. Below are screen shot images of documents or emails evidencing just some of the concerns.

Evidence that FDA provides AAFCO with public funding (YOUR tax dollars):

The above email is from Ali Kashini – AAFCO’s Secretary-Treasurer, to FDA. Below is the document Mr. Kashini sent to FDA, further evidencing FDA’s financial support provided to AAFCO (public funds support of AAFCO):

Below is an email from AAFCO Board of Directors member Austin Therrell (South Carolina Department of Agriculture representative) mocking the Dogs Naturally pet food educational program to other Board of Director members; “very affordable compared to a PhD in Nutrition“:

And below is a response to the above email from fellow AAFCO Board member George Ferguson (North Carolina Department of Agriculture representative); “I’m assuming we all just got some kind of computer virus just for viewing that page. Raw phishing?“

The above email from Mr. Ferguson is MORE than concerning; a regulatory authority having a biased (and nasty) attitude towards raw pet food.

The following email – marked as “Confidential” is from AAFCO 2019 President Robert Geiger (Office of Indiana State Chemist representative) to the AAFCO Board of Directors discussing a conflict of interest issue. Note in the second to last paragraph Mr. Geiger states “please keep all discussions confidential“.

The website AAFCO is confidentially discussing – www.feedpctraining.com – is an consulting business catering to the pet food and animal feed industry ran by a former AAFCO president Richard TenEyck (Oregon Department of Agriculture) and current Chair of AAFCO’s Ingredient Definitions Committee. The AAFCO Board of Directors appear to be intentionally hiding the significant conflict of interest issues for a Committee Chair to be providing services to industry.

Pet owners sent AAFCO many emails expressing their concerns of AAFCO banning consumers and advocates from participating in meetings. Those emails were shared back and forth between the AAFCO Board of Directors. Below is an email from 2019 AAFCO President Robert Geiger (Office of Indiana State Chemist representative) mocking one of those consumer emails; “This is my favorite so far.”

Below is another AAFCO email from AAFCO Board member George Ferguson (North Carolina Department of Agriculture representative) complaining about receiving consumer emails. Mr. Ferguson (last paragraph) states “I receive more than 50 spam emails a day that are trying to steal my identity, my accounts and my time, and I never respond to them. Why should I respond to these?“

Also in the above email from Mr. Ferguson, he states that “85% of the emails (from consumers) are based on severely misinformed ideas and concepts.” Through more FOIA acquired emails we learn that AAFCO itself has intentionally misinformed their members. The following 2 images of email excerpts are/were AAFCO’ plan of attack against consumers and advocates.

Note under “Project Description” AAFCO’s ban includes (3rd bullet point) “All individuals participating in a video recorded at the 2019 AAFCO Meeting…and in which these individuals publicly announced as individuals that their desired outcome is the closing of AAFCO as an organization.” This statement from AAFCO is absolutely FALSE. As evidence, Click Here to view the Facebook video from Dr. Judy Morgan’s video AAFCO is referencing. Not one person in the video made a statement regarding the closing of AAFCO – nothing even close.

In the following excerpt of AAFCO’s Board of Directors “Project“, please notice the last sentence declaring “The AAFCO meetings are not public meetings and AAFCO is not a public agency.” It’s interesting that AAFCO makes this statement/has this attitude; a ‘private’ agency writing pet food/animal feed law in ‘private meetings’ that also happen to receive public funding.

To read the full AAFCO Board of Directors Project Management Plan, Click Here.

The following email evidences that AAFCO got consumers names from Dr. Judy Morgan’s Facebook page – and selected those to ban from meetings:

And how much money does AAFCO have? Also provided in FOIA request is this financial statement effective 9/30/2019:

We also have email evidence that AAFCO Board of Directors or their attorney is making false statements to Attorney General offices. As example Washington Attorney General’s office told multiple pet owners in response to their complaints about closed meetings: “It is our understanding that AAFCO is currently a party to litigation with a raw pet food manufacturer, in the case of Lystn, LLC v. Food and Drug Administration et al., No. 19-cv-01943-PAB-KLM (D. Colo), and that AAFCO has closed access to AAFCO advisors who are also intervenors in the lawsuit, until the case is resolved. We are not aware of any further closures.” Thus it appears that AAFCO or their attorney told Washington that only intervenors in the lawsuit were banned – which is completely false. None of the pet owners or pet owner advocates AAFCO closed meeting participation to are intervenors in the lawsuit or affiliated with the lawsuit.

These emails and many others evidence pet owners have a VERY broken system of pet food regulation. An organization that writes law should NOT be allowed to do so in private, regulatory authorities should not mock pet owners or mock a particular style of pet food (products they regulate). Further, public funding should not be provided to an organization that has openly misled others as to the cause of their vengeful actions and public funding should not be provided to an organization that attempts to hide conflict of interests. Our pet food regulatory system needs to change – now.

Should you choose, you can email FDA at AskCVM@fda.hhs.gov. FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is the ultimate pet food regulatory authority, they can and should take action to correct the many errors happening at the hands of AAFCO. Our pets deserve better than this.





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



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