Be the Dogs' Champion
Please help me to get the American Kennel Club (AKC) to do the honorable thing and remove their endorsed dog treats, which are made in China, from store shelves.
PetCo & PetsMart have already agreed to remove & no longer carry or sell dog treats, that are made in China.
Let's urge the AKC to to do the same thing. By asking them live up to their mantra "We are not just champion dogs. We are the dogs' champion." Currently they are not being "the dogs' champion," because their endorsed treats are made & manufactured in the same Chinese plants that have sickened & killed over 1000+ dogs since 2007.
I lost four very precious lives to their chicken jerky treats.
1) Bellehound's Sgt. Baroo 2U "Sargent" was only eight years old, when he died after having eaten dog treats that are/were endorsed by the AKC. He was a sweet, loving, red & white, Basenji, who loved to "baroo." He is also the dog who first alerted me to something being wrong. All four dogs showed similar symptoms, but his were the most severe. He became very sick, very thin, very quick, & could never seem to quench his thirst. I took him to my vet & his liver enzymes were off the charts. He was in advanced, severe renal failure. He passed away in my arms, on December 6, 2011.
2) Bellehound's Creeping Violet, "Crackle" who was a tri-colored, flashy marked, feisty, but very sweet, Jack Russell Terrier. She was one of the best mousers I had ever had. She loved swimming, car rides & being my little, but very mighty, companion. She lost weight very quickly, became anemic, & also had the unquenchable thirst. True to her Terrier breeding, she hid her weakness, & illness well. She too was in an advanced stage of renal failure, by the time I realized she was sick. I lost her January 30, 3012.
3) Bellehound Rescued Me "Mimi" was a mischieviously, too smart for her own good, little tri-colored Basenji. She too loved to talk, & helped me to keep my other dogs in line. Her symptoms started out as diarrhea, vomiting, anemia (she & Sargent tested negative for hereditary anemia & Fanconi, some thing that is far too common in Basenjis). She was a fighter, she fought & lived the longest of any of my four dogs. How she managed to do that, I will never really comprehend. Other than that was her stubborn nature. She passed away in my arms August 5, 2013; three months shy of her 17th birthday.
4) Bellehound Scrawny Tawny Lion, JC "Bruiser" was my Service Dog. He was also the first for his breed with that job, not only in America, but the World. He was a very handsome, muscular, built, red, Thai Ridgeback Dog. He saved me from a rattlesnake in 2004. He received two Certificates of Honor from the AKC's Canine ACE Awards in 2005-2006 for that. In 2008 at eight & a half years of age, he made AKC history, by being the first Thai Ridgeback to earn a lure coursing title. In 2009 he was one of my Thai Ridgebacks, that was filmed for Animal Planet's, DOGS 101; Rare Breeds, episode. In October of 2010 he was diagnosed with a severely damaged liver, & renal failure. He was placed on various medications, to help slow down the progression of his disease, & put him in remission. This was a year after I had quit feeding the chicken jerky treats (when Sargent, first became, deathly ill). Clearly the damage had already been done. Bruiser was my working partner for twelve & a half years, before he was forced, unwillingly into an early retirement. He had become so weak, & thin friends who hadn't seen him in a few months, couldn't even recognize him. October of 2013, I was told he was no longer in remission. I was devastated. I was told that my partner would die. There was nothing else my vet could do, & it would be just a matter of months, before his body would just shut down. I had to walk Bruiser to the Rainbow Bridge; even as sick as he was, he refused to give up his job, he could no longer walk, due to his progessed disease, he couldn't keep food or water down, due to the gastrointestinal upset, he had devoloped stomach cancer, three years after the treats were stopped. That's what no one gets, stopping the treats may put the dog in remission, but the poison in the treats has already caused organ failure & shut down. Bruiser fought the anesthetic, he weighed a mere 50lbs., but because of his love for me, to continue to be my working partner, he had to be double dosed. He was dosed for a 100lb dog, because the recommended dosage, wouldn't work. That is the type of partner I lost, on December 6, 2013, a day after his 13th Birthday.
His death made me feel that this organization had stabbed us both in the back. I trusted the AKC, after all they have a Health Endowment section. Never in a million years did I think that they would sell anything, that would harm a dog. I sent the AKC several emails, begging for them to recall their product. They all went unanswered. I made comments on every one of their facebook pages, I was blocked from two of them. I called their Health Endowment Section, and after I asked why the AKC was selling treats made in China? I was told their office was not a part of the AKC; but they answer the phone "American Kennel Club, Health Endowment, how may I help you?" I was rudely brushed off. One of the facebook pages, before I was blocked told me (on a thread), "we don't make the treats, or own the company that makes them, we just endorse them." Endorsing treats that the FDA has known, was making dogs sick & killing them since 2007, is clearly not being any "dogs champion." The AKC also knew about it, as did Waggin Train, Canyon Creek (both owned by Purina), yet money seems far more important, than the lives of their customers.
I am hoping that with your signature, we can get the AKC to follow in the same path, as PetCo & PetsMart, & pull their product, from store shelves. Before more innocent dogs are made sick & will eventually die, a very slow, painful, death. That is what I've had to watch, four of my dogs go through. The hardest & m...
