Iams and Animal Testing

Recently, mom was invited to attend an influencer summit sponsored by Iams and Eukanuba in Dayton Ohio. Unfortunately, I was not invited which Iams. But anyway, I decided to let my mom go on the one condition that she gets in inside scoop on Iams pet care and she gives us full reports for my readers here on prestonspeaks.com Over the next couple of weeks I will feature blogs my mom has written about her experiences at the behind the blog influencer summit. To catch up read these blogs : Behind the Paw 2011 – Manufacturing Tour, Behind the Paw – Day One ,and Behind the Paw 2011

Today, she is going to tell us about the controversy around animal testing

Going on this summit I was very curious if IAMS would discuss the web video created by PETA about IAMS conducting testing and experiments on animals. However, IAMS was true to their word to us that nothing was off limits and they brought it up first thing and let us ask any questions we had. So I’ll do my best to relay IAMS explanations. Around 2000 (ish) IAMS conducted animal feeding studies throughout the US at various universities and research centers. They partnered with world renounced experts in the animal nutrition fields and had over twenty five sites including their own – the IAMS Pet Health and Nutrition Center. These studies were true food studies to determine the palletability of the food as well as what parts of the food was were absorbed by the animals (think ..studying alot of waste) One of those locations was the Sinclair Research Center in Columbus Mo. This center was a USDA inspected and approved center. As in all locations in 2002 IAMS hired someone to develop an animal enrichment and socialization program for their research animals. However, that person was a PETA undercover “agent.” Instead of taking care of the IAMS animals she secretly and illegally took a video of animals that weren’t even involved in the IAMS research program. If you watch the videos is it disheartening but they edited together the viewer assumes the animals are being hurt. The beagles were being stayed and neutered in a group. this is a common procedure done in rescues and low-cost spay neuter clinics. . Where I volunteer at OHS they also have a spay/neuter clinic and it is common practice to line up the dogs as they come out of surgery so the staff can watch all of them closely. It is also common for them to wake up kinda scared and agitated because they are probably thinking “where am I, why do I have a cut, where are my testicles, etc. Even humans wake up disorientated after surgery.

PETA took the footage and made a fundraising video that has gone viral throughout the web. To date this is the largest netting fundraiser they have conducted. They even have a dedicated website just to target IAMS and raise more funds for their organization. I personally find it interesting that even though many other companies also had contracted with Sinclair to do their studies PETA never mentions them or goes after the other companies.

So I bet your wondering..what was IAMS response? Well as soon as the video surfaced. IAMS responded to all the concerns/criticisms by PETA..They cut all ties with Sinclair, ending invasive testing, removing cages, providing socialization, training, and an amazing adoption program for the retired research animals. They also brought all studies in house to their amazing research center and also does in home studies with over 700 families in the southern Ohio area. They have invested over the past ten years over 250 million dollers in research for alternatives to animal testing. Though their research they have been able to eliminate some animal testing completely as required by the government by designing lab experiments that get the same results as some animal studies. Finally, IAMS has also published their own website www.iamstruth.com to inform the public about their animal research policies. However, PETA ignored all of these improvements, because it’s much more lucrative for donation purposes to show people this and act like IAMS still works with Sinclair.

So your probably wondering..does P&G (IAMS parent company) still do animal research? The answer is yes. But they have a strict policy that only allows invasive animals study when required by law to prove that their products are safe to humans and the enforcement. For example makeup and household products by the government must be tested on animals. However, P&G provides their competitors the test results and studies so they also do not have to conduct the same test on any more animals.

Overall, I think IAMS took a responsible response to the issues at the Sinclair research center/PETA video and really made a wonderful effort to be a world leader in the area of animal research and studies. Until our government stops requiring animal testing we as a society will never be able to eliminate this out of the corporate world. However, IAMS I feel has implemented strict and ethical policies and procedures to still conduct business in this environment and take care of the animals at the same time.
.