I let you know that I was going to the Iams & Eukanuba Behind The Paw Influencer Summit a few days ago and I have to tell you that I had a wonderful time and met so many amazing people.
I think the first thing I have to address is the PETA video that is out there from 2002. PETA has pasted together some horrible footage from an outside facility that Proctor & Gamble, Iams parent company, used for a period of time for a small portion of their animal testing. This facility did testing on many animals from many different sources
Iams felt that the feedback they were getting about their animals at this facility, was not very good. What they decided to do was hire a person themselves to oversee the care of their animals at this lab. Iams wanted to ensure that their animals got proper care, stimulation and were being treated well. The person that Iams ended up hiring was an undercover PETA operative, who took inflammatory video, mostly of dogs that
were not Iams animals and swung the power of PETA against "big corporate America" for sympathy and to raise money for their cause.
At the end of this PETA video it asks for you to contribute to Fifi, an IAMS pet. What PETA does not tell you is that Fifi was removed from the facility and adopted out to a loving family through the Iams adoption program. Any money given to PETA for "Fifi" is not being used to help her.
I met and spent almost 3 days with Proctor & Gambles Iams/Eukanuba team including Jason Taylor, who is in charge of external relations. What I want you to know more than anything is that the entire Iams family is deeply hurt by the lies that have been spread about them. I met everyone from the president of Iams Eukanuba North America to the employees that work at the production plant and these people love animals as much as I do.
Did Iams pay for me to Dayton to convince me that the PETA accusations are untrue? In part, yes they did. Were they successful in doing so? Absolutely. Do I want a fight with PETA on my little corner of blogland? Absolutely not, but what I do want is my friends to know are my honest opinions.
Iams research & development dogs are happy, exceptionally well treated, well trained dogs who are bought from reputable breeders, are AKC registered and adopted out to loving families at the end of their time with Iams.
I've got a lot more to tell you about my trip & I will in the coming days, mostly on
Oskar's Blog. This will be the only post in which I address the PETA video. I welcome your comments, but if their not respectful then they will be deleted.
