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Features > PETA Files Complaint With FTC Against Iams Claiming Ads Are False and Misleading

PETA Files Complaint With FTC Against Iams Claiming Ads Are False and Misleading

Update
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has responded to PETA's complaint regarding Iams' false statements about the care it claims to give to animals used in its laboratory tests.

While the FTC has decided not to take action at this time, it did state, "This decision should not be construed as a formal Commission determination of whether the challenged actions comply with" federal law.

Significantly, the FTC agreed with PETA that Iams' publicized claims about the company's treatment of animals can be likened to advertising and must be truthful:

"[W]e appreciate that for many consumers, a company's policies toward animal research and welfare may well affect their choice of or conduct regarding a product. … Therefore, a company's public dissemination of its research policy may, depending on the circumstances, be 'advertising' subject to the substantiation requirements of Section 5 of the FTC Act."

PETA Investigation Reveals That Company’s Charmingly Named “Four-Footed Associates” Pay for Product-Development Research With Their Lives

Washington — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against the Iams Company of Dayton, Ohio, and its parent company, Procter & Gamble (P&G), headquartered in Cincinnati, for making allegedly false claims on the Iams Web site regarding its care of the animals the company uses in its research and product development. Recently, PETA investigated an Iams contract laboratory and documented horrendous conditions for the animals and cruel practices that it believes show that the company’s claims are deceptive. The claims PETA disputes include the following:

Iams: “[Iams] will only conduct the veterinary equivalent of any tests on cats or dogs which are acceptable in nutritional or medical studies in people.”
Among PETA’s findings: Tubes were stuck down dogs’ throats in order to force them to ingest vegetable oil.

Iams: “Each animal is given the best possible veterinary care and treated with care and respect.”
Among PETA’s findings: Dogs were dumped together on cold concrete flooring after having huge chunks of muscle cut out of their thighs.

Iams: “[Iams] will not fund or participate in any study requiring or resulting in the euthanasia of cats or dogs.”
Among PETA’s findings: Twenty-seven of the 60 dogs who had thigh muscle removed were deliberately killed.

Iams: “We will ensure the humane treatment of cats and dogs … creating a total culture of care.”
Among PETA’s findings: Cats and dogs had developed neurotic behaviors, including whirling ceaselessly in their cages, from confinement, isolation, and lack of exercise inside barren cages in windowless, dungeon-like buildings. PETA’s investigator witnessed Iams representatives’ touring the facility, which was oppressively hot and humid at the time, and failing to take any action to improve the conditions.

Last year, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority upheld two complaints regarding Iams’ “exaggerated” and “misleading” claims of its products’ health benefits, and Nutro and Kal Kan have filed lawsuits charging Iams with false advertising and misleading labeling for claiming that dogs can be fed smaller portions of Iams food and still have their nutritional needs met.

“When it comes to caring about animals, Iams is telling consumers one thing and doing another,” says PETA Senior Vice President Mary Beth Sweetland. “Iams’ customers love animals and would be outraged to find out how dogs and cats have suffered for Iams’ bottom line.”

Broadcast-quality footage of animals in an Iams contract laboratory is available.
To view the footage, click here.
To view PETA’s FTC complaint, click here.

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