We were at our local pet store recently when we read a blurb about IAMS. They are owned by parent company: Procter and Gamble, who “who ruthlessly conduct experiments on animals to try to give their pet food a competitive marketing edge.”

Read more here and here. (I am digging up some more links as I find them.)

From the IAMs Web site:

_ “At the Iams Company, it’s our mission to provide world-class quality foods and pet care products that delight the consumer and strengthen the human-pet bond. We strive to know dogs and cats better than anyone in the industry, and that’s a personal passion shared by everyone who works here. Learn about the extraordinary measures we take to ensure that our love and respect for our four-legged friends is delivered every day for every Iams dog and cat.”_

Love and respect? I dunno about that. Nevertheless, we have decided to stop supporting IAMS now that we know what Procter and Gamble is up to.

I am curious as to what else I ignorantly support. And I’m sort of stuck between wanting to know and become militant about putting an end to it, or sticking with pure ignorance because this sort of thing keeps me up at night. Man, we are a cruel bunch of animals, us humans.

Our cats’ vet in Boston basically told me when we took Dub in for struvite crystals that she blames IAMS for the majority of cases of crystals and urinary tract blockages she sees. I had switched Dub and Kali to IAMS after they stopped eating Purina Kitten Chow at about 6 months, and the crystals problem showed up a couple of months later. I was furious with the company, and still am – I can’t believe they market themselves as being so good for animals, yet the evidence is quite to the contrary. I will never again feed any pet of mine IAMS products.

Schmitty had the crystal buildup problem when he was a young boy. Had I not been such a freak for animals, equipped with a credit card, he probably would have been put down because of it. It’s only just now did I realize that the Iams diet he was on might have been the cause.

He hadn’t peed in a long while. I have no idea how long. I came home one day and found him riving in pain. It was the ER for him. There, they gave me the option of putting him to sleep or giving him a perianal urethrostomy. I opted for the latter.

What really bugs me is that some folks might not opt for the expensive operation and the problem is totally avoidable (if, of course, our pet food suppliers create healthy meals for them). How many cats have died because of their food?

The enormity of the recent pet food recall, and the idea that everything is centralized – foods you may think are vastly different are actually being produced across the room from one another using the exact same ingredients – scares me. So much so that I am determined to stick to more expensive, harder to find, independently produced natural food for my temporary foster pets. They may be getting Iams in the Iams sponsored shelter, but I can only hope that the really good stuff they get during their “formative weeks” with me makes a difference.

It’s scary – a lot of pet owners are oblivious to how food gets in their pet’s bowl. If more people knew the full story behind the companies that feed our “best friends”, the pet food industry might be a very different thing altogether.

We’ve been buying Wellness. Have you heard anything negative about them? Also, Newman’s own from time to time although, now that Schmitty is gone, Tucker has no interest in wet food anymore. :[

Also:

For those who want to take it a step further and boycott other Procter and Gamble brands, here is a list:

* Always * Bounty * Braun * Charmin * Crest * Dawn * Downy/Lenor * Duracell * Folgers * Gillette * Gillette Mach3 * Head & Shoulders * Iams * Olay * Oral-B * Pampers * Pantene * Pringles * Tide * Wella * Fab

I haven’t heard anything either way about Wellness. My natural pet food store loves it, though.

We’ve been buying from Merrick http://www.merrickpetcare.com/ . Family owned business: Yay! Also, their food names are awesome. Our last kitty, Hobbes, loved the “California Roll” version. Kitty after our own sushi-addicted hearts.

This good food is seriously the first time we’ve ever seen a kitty so excited about the prospect of getting more food that he danced. Over and over and over.

Oh my god, how much do I love that freaking Web site! Wow, thanks, Minty.

Wow, bookmarking Merrick! I’ve been ordering from this place lately since they deliver all the way up to me for free. http://1800whiskers.com/V2/template2.php?CHAPITRE=102

I tried the Wellness wet food recently and my kids didn’t like it. No idea why. They do like the Felidae wet food, but hate the dry.

PETA has a site about Iams too. http://iamscruelty.org/