Vet Recommended Dog Food – What Makes us Special

Dear JFFD Family,

Our food is special for many reasons: we use real food and follow updated NRC nutrient profiles and have performed Feeding Trials on our diets. We have gained the trust and recommendation of many respected board-certified specialists and veterinarians across the country.  

In contrast, many commercial pet food companies never run trials and use AAFCO dog food nutrient profiles which are less current and most have ignored the role of veterinarians altogether. They may use lower quality ingredients allowed in pet food such as chicken meal and animal digest. These feed grade ingredients are not consistent with the quality we use in our food, which is 100% made with ingredients inspected and approved by the USDA and fit for human consumption.

Another reason our food is special is the culture from which it is created. I met Shawn Buckley, Founder, and CEO of JustFoodForDogs when he was looking for ways to conduct feeding trials. Upon researching options, he found that most trials were performed utilizing colonies of beagles that live in a laboratory and are born and raised in a facility designed for animal testing – this was not consistent with the culture at JFFD.

Shawn asked me if there was a better, more humane way. Our team at Cal Poly Pomona designed the world’s largest scale “at home” feeding trials, where student and faculty-owned dogs participated and remained in their happy homes. Many of these dogs are still loyal customers today, including Biscuit, Daisy, Duke, and others.

A video was released recently and it helped me reflect on our historic trials, and all that we are doing at JFFD. It showed laboratory dogs being rescued from one of these types of facilities and released for the first time. I should be clear; while the standard of care may vary in some of these facilities, all of them must be registered with USDA and the care and use of dogs in research are tightly regulated under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), so hopefully, these facilities are adhering to regulatory minimum standards.

Nonetheless, the video moved me – it showed beagles seeing, feeling, and playing in a backyard for the first time! It moved me because it is a reminder of what we do at JFFD. We are truly making a difference because we are simply doing things DIFFERENTLY – for the better.

Thank you JFFD Family for making us a success!

• Thank you to our customers for your high standards for canine whole food nutrition and being such caring pet parents.
• Thank you to the wonderful dogs that love our food!
• Thank you JFFD for making these diets affordable and sustainable to the public.
• Thank you to all the staff and employees of JFFD that help realize our vision daily. Keep up the hard work.

We are a small but growing company. We will always improve our systems and continually raise our standards. We will provide excellent products and services and make the best food for dogs in the country!

Thanks to you, we are successful. The longer we can be successful, the longer we can continue to make a difference.

Related Links:

• JFFD Ground breaking research: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/06/03/justfoodfordogs-study-idUKnPn6gW4hD+89+PRN20140603
• Historic feeding trials at Cal Poly Pomona: http://www.petfoodindustry.com/47390.html
• Cal Poly Agricolumn (page 9): http://www.csupomona.edu/~agri/documents/agricolumn2012.pdf