This is a confusing story. Some mainline news media outlets are carrying the story that, in America, Purina pet food and indeed pet food from other manufacturers is, it seems, poisoning pets but they can’t pin down which particular pet food is responsible. As mentioned, Purina appears to come up as the main culprit but also as I said, this is a conspiracy theory possibly made all the more troublesome because it in the news media but if you go to the Reddit.com website the argument there is that it is not factually correct.
This rumor is false, and we are saddened to see the confusion and fear that it has caused for pet owners.
Purina on their website.
The Channel 2 Action News media outlet has investigated social media reports that hundreds of pet owners have been complaining about pet food making their dogs and cats sick while the pet food manufacturers say that it’s safe.
The pet owners say that their pets have suffered from some serious symptoms such as seizures, and typically vomiting and diarrhoea. The accusation is that pet food manufacturers are keeping quiet about something they know about but don’t wish to disclose in order to protect their businesses.
But go to the Reddit.com website and there is a post about Dr. Judy. A user on that website, two months ago, “r/catfood” accuses Dr. Judy of spreading rumours against Purina. The post is below in full:
“For all of those worried about the Purina rumors here is yet again more proof that Dr Judy is lying for profit. She tested food from the manufacturer (Purina) and it came back negative. She said “okay just wait until I test the food sent in by pet parents!” She has not released those results. Instead, she is now stating that they will not test food until they know what to test for. This woman has caused a huge amount of pet owners to switch their pets food to small brands/raw without any evidence whatsoever. Please report her channel if you have a moment.”
And here is her video. Below the video is the following:
Pet Food Update: We still believe there is a concerning issue and have over 1400 consumer report surveys plus screenshots of similar symptoms being reported on 3rd party platforms. Symptoms can include diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, vomiting or bloody vomiting, food refusal, lethargy, seizures, itching/hives/rash. Typically corresponds to opening a new bag, box or can of food. Multiple brands have been reported, at this time we are only comfortable feeding Human Grade (vs. Feed Grade) ingredients. We hypothesize we are dealing with a pesticide contamination; however, we do not have lab verification of a specific contaminant at this time. It is a complex issue, and we will not be doing testing until further guidance or information is available on what should be tested for. Necropsies must be done in a specific manner, veterinarians can contact consult@drjudymorgan.com for additional information.
Visitors to this video say things like:
Thank you, Dr Judy, for shining a light on the sinister forces behind commercialized pet food.
YouTube commenter
Confusing right? Dr Judy has supporters and detractors. Where is the truth? An underlying problem is that a lot has been written about pet food and its ostensible poor quality and many don’t trust the manufacturers. There have been coverups in the past. There is a trust issue here.
Dr Judy seems to be at the center of this so-called conspiracy theory. The general consensus among commenters on Reddit.com responding to the above post by r/catfood is that Dr. Judy is spreading an unhelpful conspiracy theory for her own self-aggrandizement and perhaps to promote her YouTube channel. This is an allegation.
Obtaining online celebrity in unhelpful ways is not uncommon encountered on the Internet particularly social media websites. A lot of people don’t mind how they become celebrities.
That said, I have no idea whether there is a genuine problem with some manufacturers of pet food causing cats and dogs to become seriously ill on occasions. I just don’t know but the manufacturers deny that their food is causing problems.
I visited perhaps the best website about pet food in America, Truth about Pet Food, and my search there did not bring up any information about this particular ongoing problem, which supports the view that this is a conspiracy theory without foundations in fact.
If you have any information yourself about this then please leave a comment. If you have experienced any problems with cat food or dog food making your pet sick then also please leave a comment.
RELATED: Muslims don’t have to feed their pets halal pet food
The story supports the view by many that the cat and dog pet food manufacturers are unscrupulous in where they get their raw materials from. As you suggest: euthanised cats from shelters? And Chinese ingredients is definitely a possibility. There have been some terrible poisonings from ingredients from China. I am thinking of melamin in foods. And I can recall baby milk being contaminated with toxic ingredients in China which killed babies. They have a lack of scruples sometimes.
I wonder if they are using tallow from rendering plants that use euthanized cats and dogs from shelters again? We know they did it before because the euthanasia drugs were found in dog and cat food. They also use the same tallow for shampoo, laundry detergent, bar soap, dish soap etc. I trusted Purina because they claimed no ingredients came from China but that was a lie!
Thanks a lot BH for sharing your experience. Useful. I hope more do it. I would like to get to the bottom of this.
Happened to me earlier this year. One particular bag of Purina dry food sickened all of my cats, killed two and almost killed a third. It absolutely was the food. Happened to me years ago with a bag of Iams but not this bad.