The deadline looms to register for the upcoming AAFCO conference, and I am asking – no, I’m begging – for your help to get me there. I need to be there to help my two colleagues, Susan Thixton and Dr. Jean Hofve, give Big Pet Food hell.

Remarkably, there are only three of us up against hundreds of pet food company executives, government regulators, and state feed control officials at AAFCO. As you might imagine, that could sound like a daunting figure, but we’re not intimidated. Because of each of us, Susan, Jean, and I have heard the cries for help from thousands of grief-stricken pet parents following the illness or death of their beloved companion animals due to a pet foodborne illness.

Now we need your help.

Even though there are millions upon millions of pet parents, thousands of pet food companies, and hundreds of government officials overseeing pet food, there are only three consumer representatives at AAFCO. That’s right, only three consumer advocates in the United States at AAFCO: Susan Thixton of Truth about Pet Food, Dr. Jean Hofve of Little Big Cat and yours truly, Mollie Morrissette of Poisoned Pets.

Without us, there would be no one looking after you and your pet’s interests’ at the most important meetings regarding the regulation of pet food in the US: the AAFCO conferences.

Every six months, each of us has the difficult; some could say the humiliating task of begging consumers for donations to help pay for us to attend these important meetings. We have to beg because none of us has a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. Put another way; we are as poor as church mice.

Why?

Because no one pays our salary, we don’t accept offers from pet food companies to represent their interests at AAFCO, we don’t sell pet food on our websites, we don’t have affiliations with pet food products, retailers or pet food companies, we don’t accept sponsors, we don’t accept money for promoting pet food brands.

Quite simply, we have integrity. Unlike nearly every single other pet food reporter, pet food website, or pet-related association on the web, we don’t sell the brands we investigate.

Why?

Because that would be a conflict of interest.

Ethics in this business is about as rare as hen’s teeth. And yes, that makes us about as popular as skunks at a picnic at AAFCO, but that’s because we’re not bought and paid for. We’re not in anybody’s pocket.

Sure, they don’t like us, but we like it that way. That means we are doing our job.

So, pitch in and help us help pets by making the pet food industry and government to keep it honest and transparent.

Without us, there would be no transparency, no arguments for consumers’ interests, no fight for safe pet food, nothing. AAFCO would continue as it has for decades – in secret and silence. Industry and government, hand in hand, doing business as usual with no input or objection from consumer advocates.

Help us fight big pet food by making a generous contribution to Susan Thixton, Dr. Jean Hofve, or yours truly Mollie Morrissette.

Your support means the world to us, as we live to protect your interests and pet’s health by fighting Big Pet Food and government from keeping crap on the market, by keeping pets from paying the price for their greed, and by keeping animals on farms from having to eat garbage (literally).

AAFCO registration is less than one month away to register early for the conference in January, and the coffers are as dry as a bone (pun intended). I desperately need your help to pay for attending and traveling to the semi-annual AAFCO conference in South Carolina.

AAFCO 2016 Midyear Meeting
Isle of Palms, South Carolina
Sunday, January 17th – Ingredient Definitions Workshop – 8am–1:45pm
Sunday, January 17th – Joint Board/Committee Chair Meeting – 2pm–4:30pm
Monday, January 18th – 20th (noon) AAFCO Conference

AAFCO Registration Fees
Non-Member $450 (through 12/18/15)
Non-Member $500 (after 12/8/15)

AAFCO Special Event
Ingredient Definitions Workshop* (Sunday, January 17th, 8 am – 1:45 pm) $50

AAFCO Official Publication
2016 Official Publication, Paper Copy & Online: Non-Member $200

Hotel Reservations (Deadline December 30th)
Room Rate $133.00 (4 days = $532)

Transportation
Airport shuttle $35 each way in South Carolina ($70)
Airport shuttle $45 each way in California ($90)

Flight
Round-trip $285 (today’s quote on Google Flights)

Total:
$1667 (not including meals, tips, etc.)

Help me get to the AAFCO conference by making a generous, or even an itsy-bitsy, donation today!

UPDATE: I have no association with Susan Thixton of Truth About Pet Food, either personally of professionally, or the Association for Truth in Pet Food.