This is an article that I’ve wanted to write for a while,
but now I have published facts to back up my post.
As many may know, the dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) issue in
dogs (which may or may not be nutritional in nature since the cause has yet to
be determined) has led certain people and groups to basically say that anyone
who feeds their dog(s) anything but the “big five” foods, which for them are Hill's,
Purina, Royal Canin, Iams, and Eukanuba, is doing harm to their dogs. These
people and groups tout the research done by these companies and the “quality
control”/in-house manufacturing as what sets them apart from other pet foods
(which by the way is not something that actually sets them apart as many other
pet food companies do research and manufacture their own food). I’ve heard
these arguments many times and I don’t buy them at all. Here is an example of why.
Hill's Pet Nutrition had a major recall early this year (2019) that started in late January
with 25 different varieties of canned dog food due to excessive vitamin D
levels. At the time Hill's said that they had identified all the lots affected
by the issue and had removed them all from shelves. Then on March 20th
(48 days after the initial recall!), Hill's expanded the recall to include 20
additional lots of food of 8 new varieties. Another lot of food was added to
the recall on May 20th.
After the recall was initiated, the FDA went to the
manufacturing facility and collected samples and evaluated the protective
measures (quality control measures) that Hill's had in place to try to find out
what went wrong. What they (FDA) found was quite interesting. Hill's, indeed,
had safety plans to prevent this type of issue from occurring. However, they
did not follow through with those plans. Specifically, they did NOT test
ingredients prior to implementing them into foods as their plans required. They
also were supposed to obtain a certificate of analysis from ingredient
suppliers that showed the ingredients being delivered were within the specifications.
Guess what? They didn’t do that either!
So while a company can say that they have amazing quality
control and will tout this on tours—as I’ve heard people who have toured the
facility aver that Hill's does—and say that they are better because they make
their own food, that is not necessarily true. Hill's has been saying for a long
time that they do testing of ingredients and that they have excellent quality
control, and yet they had dog foods get onto retail shelves that had 33x the upper
safe levels of vitamin D and are responsible for the deaths of numerous dogs.
So when I see these DCM groups promoting these brands (and
spamming other pages and posts on social media and on retail sites) based on supposed “research”
and “quality control”, I have to laugh because they are completely suckered in
in the very same way they accuse others of being with other brands and don’t
see it. No one knows the answer to the DCM issue yet and, even if it is a nutritional issue with some formulations, it does not affect all (or even a majority of all) foods that are not the "big five" so the recommendations being pushed are incorrectly narrow and not based on facts.
Specifics on dates, products, and violations
retrieved from FDA Warning Letter to Hill's Pet Nutrition:
https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/hills-pet-nutrition-inc-576564-11202019
