I hadn't really been following this thread because my animals wouldn't touch the couple of cans of Evangers that I bought last year while we were all searching for safe food. However, the company's understandable frustration at seeing their issue spread virally all over the web is starting to remind me of a highway accident - you don't want to look but you can't help yourself.

If the FDA had expressed concerns about the robustness and safety of processes for producing the food that I was feeding, I would be looking for a clarification before continuing to feed that food, and that would be either a retraction or correction by the FDA, or a confirmation from the FDA that the standards were now being met. I would not be feeding on the basis of assurances from the pf company or its PR firm. There is a huge disconnect between what these two entities maintain, and until it is resolved, I wouldn't be feeding this product.

The customer service attitude is quite something else. Customers - can't live with 'em; can't live without 'em...

Well, after reading all of this So Far, I will nor be bying Evangers ever. Off My list and many others'.

Of course, Martin, based on consumer brand experiences and health issues, consumers
will have to be committed to independent confirmatory testing. But since very little knowledge
of pet food company safety testing is available to consumers generally presently, it would
be a start in the direction of improving pet food safety by allowing consumers to see posted
test results on the products they purchase on manufacturing websites. So it's another piece
of information on which to base purchasing decisions. It's an open thread here or elsewhere.
Post away.

Regarding posting test results (in case any of you forgot the Innova thread discussion) -- for test results to mean anything you have to know specifically what is being tested, at what levels of detection it was analyzed, who did the testing and how was the testing done. 

The critical point is, of course, testing levels if you are comparing results.  I am now of the belief that product testing is a lot like market research, you can make the data look any way you want.  You have to know if you're comparing apples to apples, especially in regard to a consumer's test versus a pet food company's test. 

Personally, after 17 months of this mess test results mean nothing to me.  If I owned a company I certainly would not tell you there was a problem. 

Public Relations has the responsibility to manage communications for a company, both internally and externally and to maintain a positive image for that company.  PR firms want to accentuate the positive and downplay the negative.  I think this is commonly referred to as “spin doctor.” 

Mr. Weaver identified his position as Rocky Mountain Territory Manager.  While everyone appreciates his involvement, I am very curious why a Territory Manager would be addressing issues of such a critical nature that are national in scope for this company and why is the Pres. or VP not involved? 
DonnaC

Donna and Nabiya, you brought up points of view that I hadnt thought about but will be pondering it now.....this is all so confusing......thank you for your thoughts.

Did anyone notice that Evangers has taken their company response to FDA's notice off their website, its not there today...... 

The VP may have been told not to write any more letters.  But IMO more than likely behind what Rocky Mountain writes.

Very quickly, I am writing responses here because Joel, the VP, is busy with inspections today. Our plant is inspected regularly, but unfortunately, not very often by the FDA. We have constant inspections from the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the EU inspectors, organic inspections, kosher inspections, etc. We never had a problem with any inspection until the standard FDA inspectors came by. This inspection was the first FDA inspection since Holly and Joel purchased the company in 2001.

As some of you know, and many of you do not, we are a small company run by Holly and Joel Sher. Joel is the plant operations manager, and Holly is the office/sales manager. We honestly thought we were producing everything to FDA standards, and we appologize that we were not. Most of the questions that the FDA had were about our paperwork. We are now working with a third party to ensure that everything done at our plant is documented and manufactured correctly. Current FDA standards are very tight, so pet food on the marketplace should theoretically be safe. We have never compromised our ingredients, and everything we produce is human grade.

Joel is a very busy individual, so if anyone has any questions, they can call him and ask. If you want to ask a question here, I will be more than happy to answer it, with the assistance of Joel. Joel would answer questions personally here, but he does not have enough time right now to do it himself. I appologize that I must be the one here to answer questions, but I am happy to do so.

As soon as Joel gets a little free time this afternoon, I will find out the answers to some of your questions.

Respectfully,
Brenton Weaver
Evanger's Pet Foods