Ang. boikotting av IAMS; Svar fra IAMS Norge

27. november 2003

Når jeg leste linken som ble lagt ut under tråden om boikotting av IAMS-produkter ble jeg svært opprørt og kontaktet den norske distributøren for å be om deres kommentarer til saken. Velger å legge ut hele svaret her. Jeg har ikke helt bestemt meg for hva jeg mener og tror selv ennå, men begge parter bør jo ha anledning til å uttale seg uansett hva saken gjelder. For dem som er interessert er svaret på min henvendelse som følger (nederst står det også direktetelefonnumre for dem som ønsker å stille spørsmål):

Vi takker for din e-posthenvendelse 21. november og sender deg utdypende informasjon om situasjonen.
En dyrevernorganisasjon har satt ut falske rykter om ernæringsstudiene til The Iams Company. The Iams Company har derfor gått ut offisielt med følgende pressemelding (på engelsk).

IAMS COMPANY POSITION STATEMENT: ANIMAL RIGHTS DEMONSTRATIONS
SEPTEMBER, 16, 2003

An animal rights group has been distributing false statements and demonstrating about The Iams Company’s nutritional studies. This information is highly sensationalized and misrepresents our efforts. I want to make sure you have all of the facts.

We have an industry-leading research policy, a key component of which is the funding and placement of an Animal Welfare Specialist in each of the facilities we work with. This person is responsible for ensuring that every aspect of our policy is followed. One of the facilities we worked with unknowingly hired an undercover animal activist “investigator” into this position. This person was supposed to ensure that the facility was in compliance with our Research Policy guidelines. Nevertheless, the facility was not.

When we became aware of this back in March of this year, we ended all research there immediately. Consequently, we have conducted audits of all of our external facilities. All facilities are operating by our guidelines. In addition, we established an International Animal Care Advisory Board of independent experts in animal welfare to ensure that internal and external facilities continue to adhere to our research policy, and to help us discover and implement additional research alternatives. We have a broad range of individuals represented on the Board, including Robert Hubrecht from United Federations for Animal Welfare, feline behaviour expert Irene Rochliltz, Reverend Kenneth Boyd of the UK-based Boyd Group, a medical ethics organization, among other US-based experts.

Most recently, we were wrongly accused of alleged issues at a facility in Vienna, Austria. The animal rights group claims that we were conducting studies at a lab at the University of Vienna. In fact, we have never conducted any animal research in that lab. Rather, we are conducting in-home clinical trials which are a part of our research program that the group has advocated in the past -- conducting animal nutritional research in the homes of pets with pre-existing medical conditions. The pets receive our pet food when they visit the veterinary clinic at the University of Vienna.

In the end, the Iams mission is to improve the health and well-being of dogs and cats by providing world class nutrition and pet care products. We passionately pursue this mission everyday. To support our mission, we conduct nutritional studies to ensure that Eukanuba and Iams does what it is supposed to do to help dogs and cats live long, healthy lives. Our studies are carried out within strict guidelines that exceed industry standards. We are truly leading the pet food industry in this area. You can find our policy published on our website at www.iamsco.com.

We take these allegations very seriously and hope that this gives you a good understanding of the facts.

Som du ser henvises det til hjemmesidene for å lese mer om våre forskningsetiske retningslinjer. På linken:
http://www.iamsco.com/en_US/jhtmls/iamsco/...n_US&bc=C&ai=18
vil du finne ”The Iams Company Research Policy” gjengitt i sin helhet, og helt nederst på siden vil du finne støtteerklæringen til retningslinjene fra en rekke uavhengige institusjoner som for eksempel den engelske kennel klubben, den amerikanske kennel klubben, den amerikanske veterinærforening, den amerikanske dyresykehusforeningen, og en rekke dyrevernorganisasjoner som ”The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals” og ”National Animal Interest Alliance”.
Vi håper at denne utdypende informasjonen var avklarende, og viser hvilke høye forskningsetiske retningslinjer som ligger til grunn for vår forskning. Vi tar denne type beskyldninger svært seriøst og vil gjerne bistå med ytterligere informasjon eller svar på spørsmål. Ta gjerne direkte kontakt med William Bredal (+47 98255709), Morten Baastad (+47 98255710) eller Thor Evensen (+47 98255714).

Vennlig hilsen,

William Bredal, BSc, DVM
Veterinary Technical Manager
Iams Europe
Norway, Denmark & Iceland