News Release
 Pet
food cruelty to be exposed at National Cat Club show
This year's National Cat Club Show being held at the National Hall,
Olympia, London on Saturday 8th December 2001 will see pet food giant
IAMS confronted by anti-vivisection group, Uncaged Campaigns.
IAMS, owned by Procter and Gamble (who themselves routinely subject animals
to poisoning experiments and other tests) were exposed earlier this year
in the Sunday Express for funding lethal vivisection tests on hundreds
of cats and dogs.
These included:
- Surgically forcing kidney failure into 28 cats, which either died
during the experiment or were killed to study the effects of protein.
- Cutting 18 cat's bellies to see the effect of feeding them fibre.
They
were then killed and dissected.
- Sterilising and over-feeding 24 female cats until they became obese.
They were then starved on a crash diet and when they had lost a third
of their weight, their livers were examined to investigate the link
between weight loss and liver disease.
Uncaged Campaigns will be handing out leaflets and other literature from
their stand and asking visitors to the show to sign a petition requesting
that the 'Governing Body of the Cat Fancy' condemn IAMS' experimental
policies. A large banner will be displayed stating;
"10 out of 10 cats prefer not to be vivisected by IAMS/Eukanuba"
Dan Lyons from Uncaged Campaigns states;
"Pet 'owners' know that they would not want their animals to be
subjected to this kind of treatment, therefore we are asking the public
to boycott IAMS and Eukanuba products (which is also an IAMS/Procter
and Gamble pet food brand).
"IAMS claim that they have stopped killing cats and dogs (as of
March 2001) but we have not seen any evidence of this despite requesting
it. Furthermore, despite direct requests for clarification, IAMS have
not denied that they will continue to perform painful and invasive (though
non-lethal) procedures on cats and dogs, nor do they deny that they
will continue to kill other species in researching their pet food.
"If IAMS were genuinely concerned about animal welfare, they would
not be actively damaging and slaughtering innocent animals. We call
on them to stop vivisection immediately and adopt cruelty-free research
methods"
For further information and interviews, please contact Dan Lyons on 07799
117694.
22.11.01
 IAMS
vivisection to be exposed at Supreme Cat Show
The Supreme Cat Show, taking place at the Birmingham NEC on Saturday
24 November 2001, promises to be a testing time for pet food giant IAMS.
The company has a stall at the event - but so does their nemesis, anti-vivisection
group Uncaged Campaigns. And the animal welfarists will be 'armed' with
documents that will inform the expected 10,000 visitors about the 'suffering
behind the science'.
Since being taken over by multinational Procter & Gamble (who themselves
subject animals to poisoning experiments and other tests) in September
1999, IAMS has been aggressively mass-marketed in the UK. However, earlier
this year, IAMS were dealt a massive blow when the Sunday Express ran
a front page exclusive detailing gruesome and lethal vivisection tests
funded by IAMS on hundreds of cats and dogs. Not surprisingly, this has
not gone down well with IAMS' target market.
Anti-vivisection group Uncaged Campaigns, who passed the documentation
to the Express for the story, have since launched an incessant public
information campaign about the IAMS tests. Director Dan Lyons comments:
"Despite a pretty desperate attempt by IAMS to spin their way out
of this hole, the campaign has been spectacularly successful. Funnily
enough, it's also been really easy. All we have had to do is present the
evidence of cruelty, which has been published in obscure scientific papers.
It's just been a matter of bringing the information to people's attention.
It's amazing that they thought they could get away with it."
Below are brief summaries of some of the vivisection experiments supported
by IAMS and participated in by IAMS' researchers:
- 28 CATS' BELLIES WERE CUT TO SEE THE EFFECT OF FEEDING THEM FIBRE,
THEN THE CATS WERE KILLED. University of Nebraska and The Iams Company
(Bueno AR et al. Nutrition Research, Vol 20. No.9, pp. 1319-1328, 2000.)
- 28 CATS WERE SURGICALLY FORCED INTO KIDNEY FAILURE AND EITHER DIED
DURING THE EXPERIMENT OR WERE KILLED TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF PROTEIN.
- University of Georgia and The Iams Company. (Proceedings of the 1998
Iams Nutrition
Symposium)
- 24 CATS HAD THEIR FEMALE ORGANS AND PARTS OF THEIR LIVERS REMOVED;
WERE MADE OBESE, THEN WERE STARVED, WITH SOME DEVELOPING A LIVER DISEASE
- University of Kentucky and The Iams Company. (Ibrahim WH. et al. AJVR,
Vol 61, No. 5, May 2000.)
Dan Lyons comments:
"Cat owners know that they would not want their cats to be subjected
to this kind of treatment, therefore it's an easy moral call for them
to avoid a company with such an abusive track record. IAMS claim that
they have stopped killing cats and dogs (as of March 2001) - we haven't
seen the evidence despite requesting it. Furthermore, despite direct
requests for clarification, IAMS haven't denied that they will continue
to perform painful and invasive (though non-lethal) procedures on cats
and dogs, nor do they deny that they will continue to kill other species
in research. In any case, we can't turn a blind eye to such recent killings
of cats and dogs - after all, murderers are brought to justice even
if the crimes they committed took place half a century ago - and IAMS
are not exactly contrite."
Related links:
Uncaged Campaigns 06.12.01 |
