Let’s Step Up This Campaign

Please join me in taking our campaign against Hartz, Sergeant’s, Wellmark, and Farnam to a new level. They have been profiting from the killing of our cats and dogs for too many years.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is supposed to be regulating these products, continues to sit quietly by as these companies wreak havoc on people and their beloved companions.  Every day that goes by, more innocent animals are poisoned by unsuspecting pet owners looking for an inexpensive flea and tick treatment.

A crucial component of our campaign will be collecting cold, hard facts.  I am in the process of submitting a request for information from the EPA (via the Freedom of Information Act), and I will make that information available to everyone here when I receive it.

The following companies are bottling poison.  A few of the brands they’re associated with are in parenthesis.  Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.

• Hartz Mountain Corporation (Hartz, Hartz Advanced Care, UltraGuard Plus, UltraGuard Pro)
• Sergeant’s Pet Products - (Sergeant’s Flea & Tick, Sentry Flea & Tick)
• Farnam - (Adam’s Flea & Tick, Bio Spot, Scratchex Flea & Tick Products, Sulfodene, Flys-Off,
• Wellmark International (Zodiac, Vet Kem)

Here are my ideas for how we can create awareness on a massive scale:

1. Every pet owner whose pet has suffered any kind of adverse effect, please file an official report with the agencies who are SUPPOSED to be regulating these products. Insist that the treating vet also file reports. This is absolutely essential!
2. Tell your vet to post information warning against these toxic products in the waiting room.  We all know that vets don’t recommend these brands, but we have to get them to be proactive!
3. Tell all of your friends and family members about the dangers of these products.
4. Visit your local Humane Society, SPCA, and other shelters and tell them what you know.  Advise them to reject donations of any of the above-named brands.  Ask them to post information warning against these toxic products in plain view of people who are there to adopt an animal.  Ask them to be proactive in warning adopters against using these products.
5. Print out the anti-Hartz mini-flyers and give one to every pet owner you meet on the street. Roll them up and stick them into packages of Hartz’s poison on shelves at your local grocery stores, drug stores, pet store chains, and big-box stores.  (I will be making new flyers which warn against ALL of the poisonous brands soon — stay tuned.)
6. Post negative reviews of these toxic products on the websites that sell them, including PetSmart.com, Petco.com, and TerrificPets.com.   Post negative reviews on review sites, like epinions.com.
7. Join pet-related discussion groups and spread the word!
8. Boycott ALL products manufactured by the above-named companies, and urge your family and friends to do likewise.  Don’t give them a single cent.
9. If possible, boycott ALL stores (including online stores!) that sell these products (especially the big pet store chains, like PetSmart and Petco).
10. Contact your local news station and tell them your story!  They may want to tell your story on the small screen — and that will reach thousands of people.
11. Remember that every single person you tell becomes a source of information for other people!

Please, everyone, let’s put our collective outrage into action!