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H. R. 7380, the “Pet Food Uniform Regulatory Reform Act of 2024” or the “PURR Act of 2024” proposes updates to the authority of the Food and Drug Administration, replacing a current system of state and federal authority over pet food. 

The PURR Act establishes the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) as the sole regulatory authority over pet food for dogs and cats. It provides “certain flexibilities” for pet food manufacturers such as allowing ingredients listed on the label to be “sometimes present” (and sometimes not present). The bill allows health and quality claims to be made on pet food labels that are NOT validated, such as Human Grade or Urinary Tract Health. The PURR Act provides no benefits for pet owners, in fact this bill could cause serious harm to millions of US pets. (Details are provided below explaining each concerning issue of PURR.)

Pet Owners need to speak out against PURR!

Find your Representative in Congress, Click Here.

The Purr Act currently sits in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee Health. Below are the members of this Subcommittee.

If your Representative is one of these members of the Subcommittee, it is important you contact them. If your Representative is not a member of the Subcommittee, ask your Representative to contact a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee Health and urge them to take action to stop any progress of the PURR Act.

Example Letter to Send your Representative in Congress:

The PURR Act puts the health of US pets in danger, the safety of pet food at risk. The PURR Act establishes the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) as the sole regulatory authority over pet food for dogs and cats. It is doubtful the FDA is capable to handle the additional responsibility as the sole authority over pet food, considering how the agency currently struggles to protect human food safety.

The PURR Act provides “certain flexibilities” for pet food manufacturers such as allowing ingredients listed on the label to be “sometimes present” (and sometimes not present). The bill allows health and quality claims to be made on pet food labels that are NOT validated, such as Human Grade or Urinary Tract Health potentially misleading pet food consumers.

Low-cost spay and neuter clinics will lose funding through PURR if States no longer require registration of pet foods. The cost to US taxpayers for FDA sole jurisdiction over pet food would be dramatic. It is questionable if FDA is the correct federal agency to be given this significant responsibility. USDA jurisdiction is better aligned to regulate pet food than FDA.

Pet owners have little trust that FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine will assure the safety of their pet’s food. Pet owners were promised pet food safety updates in 2007 by Congress (Section 1002(a) of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act – Ensuring the Safety Of Pet Food), the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine ignored those safety updates – NEVER implementing what Congress required.

The PURR Act provides no benefits for pet owners, in fact this bill could cause harm to millions of US pets and cause millions of pet owners to be misled by unvalidated marketing claims. Please take immediate action to stop the PURR Act.

Please reach out to other pet lovers, and encourage them to contact their Representatives in Congress too. Industry is working hard to push this Bill through…we need to push even harder to stop it.

Details of Concern of the PURR Act:

Minimal Consumer Trust

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine continues to fail pet food consumers on numerous issues resulting in lack of trust the agency would assure the safety of pet food products. As recent as January 2024, FDA CVM received more than 1300 reports of sick pets (in one month), 103 pet death reports linked to pet food but the agency did not issue a consumer alert/warning to the many adverse events received. Had the agency warned the public in a timely manner (as done with other consumer products), thousands of pet illnesses could have been prevented in months following. The FDA CVM did not notify the public of these concerning pet food illness and death reports (which continued in February and March 2024 at significantly high numbers) until seven months after the outbreak. 

Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinics Will Lose Funding
Currently, most State Department of Agriculture agencies receive funding through required registration fees of pet food products that sell within state boundaries.These registration fees support pet food label reviews, random and investigational testing, the state agriculture laboratory and in numerous instances registration fees support low-cost pet spay and neuter clinics. If the PURR Act is passed, most State Department of Agriculture agencies would shrink in size due to revenue loss limiting their ability to properly regulate and perform laboratory analysis of their remaining responsibility (livestock feed), and funding to support spay/neuter clinics will be lost. 

Cost – Potentially Hundreds of Millions Annually

Many state feed officials perform label reviews, perform random testing on pet food/animal feed products, and investigate consumer complaints. At a bare minimum, should the PURR Act pass, the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine would need to hire 50-75 new employees to perform the work currently performed by each State Department of Agriculture. FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine’s annual laboratory analysis costs would dramatically increase, costs of random and investigative testing of pet food products would dramatically increase.

Or, if the FDA is not properly funded, important laboratory monitoring of pet food would be ignored. Without millions of dollars in additional funding, the safety of pet food cannot be assured for US pet food consumers. Currently, the FDA struggles to properly regulate human food, the added burden of regulating the entire pet food industry would be overwhelming for the agency leading to only partial regulation of pet food. The added burden of sole regulatory authority of pet food for FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine makes it easy for pet food manufacturers to regulate themselves (or allows them to do whatever they choose to do with pet food products).

Focus of the PURR Act Neglects Consumers

H.R. 7380’s main focus is industry, the bill completely ignores the needs of consumers – the largest stakeholder group of pet food. As currently written, the bill allows mislabeling issues; allowing consumers to purchase products with unverified (and potentially misleading) claims.

The PURR Act allows pet food manufacturers to list ingredients on the label that may not be included in the food, allowing ingredients to be “sometimes present” (and sometimes not present). The bill allows health and quality claims to be made on pet food labels that are NOT validated, such as Human Grade and Urinary Tract Health. As example, currently pet foods that are labeled as “Human Grade” are required to validate in advance that all conditions of manufacturing, ingredient quality and ingredient transportation meet the same requirements of human food. The PURR Act allows these claims to be made with NO validation.

The PURR Act focuses on fast-tracking new ingredient approvals through FDA. While industry might benefit from swift ingredient approvals, consumers question the safety of fast-tracked approvals. Of concern, the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine has already moved forward with this portion of the PURR Act (ingredient approvals) BEFORE the Purr Act is passed.

The PURR Act also focuses on larger pet food manufacturers, potentially inhibiting growth of small to very small manufacturers. 

Is FDA the Wrong Jurisdiction for Pet Food/Animal Feed?

The current system of pet food regulation definitely needs improvement, to be updated to properly regulate the pet food industry. 

Congress promised pet food consumers pet food safety updates in 2007 with Section 1002(a) of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act – Ensuring the Safety Of Pet Food. The Act promised pet owners updated labeling requirements, updated ingredient definitions and standards within 2 years (September 2009). The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine never completed these requirements of the Act. The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine ignored what Congress required them to complete by September 2009, ignored the needs of pet owners.

With FDA’s history of ignoring pet food safety requirements established by Congress and with the current struggles the agency faces properly ensuring US foods are safe, perhaps the proper regulation of pet food belongs in USDA jurisdiction. The current jurisdiction of USDA better aligns to regulate pet food than FDA. USDA currently regulates foods that contain more than 3% meat, and many/most pet food ingredients such as meats, grains, fruits and vegetables. Due to this current USDA jurisdiction, the agency burden would be less with USDA than with FDA.

Please take action against the PURR Act. Take five minutes to find your Representative in Congress and send them a message. Take five more minutes and ask friends and family to do the same. Big Pet Food is working hard to push the PURR Act through Congress. We need to work even harder to stop it.

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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The 2024 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here to learn more.

The 2024/25 Treat List

Susan’s List of trusted pet treat manufacturers. Click Here to learn more.