The pet food industry has little regulation or oversight. Industry experts want that to change

Last year, veterinarian Anna Tebb treated a number of animals that made her think differently about Australia’s pet food industry.

She saw three dogs who had acquired vitamin D toxicity from their food, something that was confirmed through blood tests.

“All three of them presented with increased thirst and increased urination. And a couple of them were also vomiting,” the Perth-based internal medicine specialist says.

While two of these dogs recovered after a few weeks, one dog went into mild kidney failure and now has permanent kidney damage.

Animals receiving treatment at a vet surgery

Dr Tebb says some pet owners spend thousands of dollars to identify the cause of their pets’ illnesses. (ABC RN: Sophie Kesteven)

She says the dogs’ owners were understandably upset by what happened.

“It’s nothing that [the pet owners had] done … we put a lot of trust into pet foods and that what we’re doing is the right thing for our pets.”

So what’s being done to regulate this industry in Australia?

‘No pet food regulations at all’

Currently there are more pets than humans in Australia. Those 28.7 million companion animals include dogs, cats, fish, birds and other small animals.

Nearly 40 per cent of Australian households own a dog and 27 per cent own a cat, so it should come as no surprise that the pet food industry in Australia is estimated to be worth $5.7 billion.

But questions have been raised about what exactly goes into the food we give our pets each day.

Carolyn Macgill, the executive officer of the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA), says there’s currently “no pet food regulation at all” in Australia.

In some countries, such as the United States, it is the government’s responsibility to monitor pet foods and act on adverse pet food incidents.