A friend of mine recently brought my attention to this horrible brand of ferret food on the market, "Evolution Diet" - http://www.evolutiondietstore.com/product.sc?productId=3&categoryId=27 Seriously, it's entirely VEGAN! If you look at the ingredient list, it's all grains, corn, soy and vegetables, which is terrible for ferrets as most of us well know! I did write to the company (as did my friend) about the importance of proper nutrition for obligate carnivores. This same company also sells vegan dog and cat food. I have nothing against people who choose to be vegans/vegetarians themselves, but forcing their own ideals on pets, whose bodies just can't handle this kind of diet, is just plain wrong! People like this should just own rabbits or guinea pigs if they want a vegetarian pet. I was really upset to see this, knowing there's probably lots of animals out there having to survive on this "diet" just because of their owner's extremes. :(

I'm seeing this passed around the ferret community. The company's responses are truely appalling. Thankfully, I don't think it's a very large or well-known company.

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

At least experienced and knowledgeable ferret owners will know to avoid this food. But some new/inexperienced or overly-idealistic owners may just fall for it which is a real shame! My friend received an extremely rude response from them, telling her she was a "lost soul murdering millions of animals for your ferret's pleasure" because she has them on an organic raw meat diet. But seriously.. If anyone's a lost soul here, it's the people trying to run this "business"!

Wow, that's...wack. It's one thing to be a vegan yourself, but to force an animal, a CARNIVORE, to go vegan or vegetarian is just wrong. I hate that they call themselves "Evolution Diet" (as though it's what nature intended) and tell, well, basically outright lies about how the food could affect their health. People need to learn to separate their own personal ideologies regarding diet from the nutritional needs and requirements of their pets.

Tiny


Wow, that's...wack. It's one thing to be a vegan yourself, but to force an animal, a CARNIVORE, to go vegan or vegetarian is just wrong. I hate that they call themselves "Evolution Diet" (as though it's what nature intended) and tell, well, basically outright lies about how the food could affect their health. People need to learn to separate their own personal ideologies regarding diet from the nutritional needs and requirements of their pets.

I agree completely. I am in no way a vegan myself, but have nothing against others who choose this lifestyle for themselves (after all, its a personal choice that we as humans can conciously decide on) but that does not mean that it should be forced on these animals as well, who have no choice in the matter and are obligate carnivores by nature!
 I once heard of a kitten that almost died because its owner tried to feed it a completely vegan diet. You'd think that if people "loved" these animals so much, they would do what's right for them instead of trying to make them fit a mold simply aren't meant to be in. 

And by the way, when I wrote to this "Evolution Diet" company myself, (with polite wording and simple facts about how ferrets are meant to be carnivores, and can be at serious risk for health problems if fed otherwise) this is the exact response I recieved, copied word for word from my inbox. These people are total extremists, no doubt about it:




"Evolution Diet <weisman@qwestoffice.net>
Do me a favor and kill yourself you ugly disgusting piece of Animal Killing Scum.  You are the Filth of the Planet.  Drop Dead.  Lay off You are not only Aniaml Killing Scum, you are harassing our ethical Co. you piece of living shit.  Die!"

Wow. Just wow.

Somebody's drinking the Kool Aid. 

What can we do to get this company out of business?

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

whiskandbowl


Wow. Just wow.

Somebody's drinking the Kool Aid. 

What can we do to get this company out of business?

Yeah, they call me "scum" but clearly they are the ones messed up in the head. I personally would NEVER write to anyone like that myself, no matter how much our views differed. 

 I did leave them a 1-star review on their Facebook page, as did a friend of mine (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Evolution-Diet-Pet-Food-Corp/285926380083) so maybe if more of us do the same, it will at least help to discourage others from buying this product! 

I don't know if there is a proper way to "report" this company to anywhere, but I am going to look into it. They really should not be in business!

Better Business Bureau?

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

I'm sure they will block me after a rude, harassing response, but I've posed a question on their page. (Albeit, with some sarcasm that is typical of me... Not that they would know. But I couldn't help it after reading the response that FurPerson got.)

Honestly, I admire vegans for their personal choices. But I can not agree with them forcing their ideals upon those who can not choose, and should not be forced into that lifestyle. When it would be negligent to feed a carnivore anything other than what it is designed to eat, I can not agree with that.

When people lash out at others for asking questions or pointing out weaknesses in their case, people lose credibility with me.

I love my little skunkers!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” -Mahatma Ghandi

Ferret World had a great video discussing vegan ferret food, and why it's NOT appropriate for ferrets.  

--Going to creep on their page to see your post Layup 


Edit-  bahahaha, great post!

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

I posted under my ferret account, "Felix Olson"... In case anyone else looks. ;)

No evil PMs yet, but I asked them to elaborate because their reply was simply "dogs, cats and ferrets" thrive on their crap.

I love my little skunkers!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” -Mahatma Ghandi

I'm now asking for scientific proof, because they keep talking in circles. They can't even get their time frame straight. "20 years" and "over 25 years"... It's probably more than one person responding to me. But it would be nice if they got it straight among their staff.

To be honest, I'm surprised I still haven't been blocked, though I may be soon... I'm not trying to be rude though, and I have dropped the sarcasm - as much as I can. ;)

I love my little skunkers!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” -Mahatma Ghandi

FurPerson

"Evolution Diet <weisman@qwestoffice.net>
Do me a favor and kill yourself you ugly disgusting piece of Animal Killing Scum.  You are the Filth of the Planet.  Drop Dead.  Lay off You are not only Aniaml Killing Scum, you are harassing our ethical Co. you piece of living shit.  Die!"

This looks like something for an Evening News "Whistleblower" Report.

Where ever their company is home based, find out what the most popular evening news station is, and try to get ahold of them to do a Whistleblower Report.

LOL  that would be so funny to see... 


"This one local company believes that it is safe to force a Vegan Diet onto carnivore pets!  Just look at this email a company representative sent to a concerned Pet Owner who wrote to them expessing concerns about how their pet food can actualy be harmful, possibly even fatal to most household pets... and then check out their response to US, when we came in with our camera's to ask them about it!"

FurPerson

"Evolution Diet <weisman@qwestoffice.net>
Do me a favor and kill yourself you ugly disgusting piece of Animal Killing Scum.  You are the Filth of the Planet.  Drop Dead.  Lay off You are not only Aniaml Killing Scum, you are harassing our ethical Co. you piece of living shit.  Die!"

Actually, I wonder if you could get someone at their office arrested over this... I would report this to their local police as well... they could be arrested for making "Terroristic Threats" against you.... attempting to incite you into a Suicide... they clearly intend for you to die or be killed...


You could press charges against th; or at the very least get a lawyer to go after them for causing you "emotional distress".... not that they probably did cause such distress for you, LOL, but still, I would laugh very hard if this company got put out of business just over their "manners" and extremist views and such.

I searched the phone number on their website and found a profile for "Eric Weisman" on LinkedIn. The area listed on that profile is Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Just in case you want to contact that news agency in his local... ha) There's a part that says "Summary" and here's the first little paragraph:

"I am a scientist (not a vet or m.d.) with a doctor of health sciences degree. I work in the development and administration of Nutrient - Metabolite Procedures for Cancers, Organ Failure and Infectious Diseases for Dogs, Cats, Ferrets and others everyday."

If he's not a vet, and has no veterinary training listed in his credentials, I wonder if he has any actual veterinarians working for him to develop these foods? 

I love my little skunkers!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” -Mahatma Ghandi

Evolution has been "successfully" Feeding Dogs, Cats and Ferrets for 20+ Years. What do I mean by "successfully". We have dogs, Cats and Ferrets living as long as they would on the finest Organic Meat Based Pet Foods mad for their respective species.\



So basically they are saying that ferrets fed their food live just as long as ferrets fed regular ferret food. Well, if I had a ferret fed nothing but Walmart ferret food, and it died at 2, what would they say to that LOL
(and don't they get that the use of quotes implies sarcasm? LOL, so basically not successfully at all)

Ferrets: Wesley, Percy, Owen    -rip Bandit-
Bettas- Kitty, Pip, and Logan
Sun Conure- Kita
Gerbils- Piper and Tailer

I don't think I'm going to get any more responses from them.
My guess as to why, would be that there is no "factual" (as they so put it) proof. But I took screen captures and compiled into one JPEG of the jumbled conversation just in case something happens. It's jumbled because FB is dumb that way on group pages.

I love my little skunkers!
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” -Mahatma Ghandi

Well if they don't respond to you, you can at least still spread the word!

http://holisticferret60.proboards.com/thread/15384/evolution-diet-ferret-food-avoid


I started a thread over on The Holistic Ferret; granted they're mostly raw feeders and push raw feeding, they do support kibble feeders and are a great website for ferret owners!  :)

Ok everybody let's make other accounts on every single ferret forum in the world wide web and tell everyone about it. Seriously though, I am appalled, The fact that new and or misinformed ferret owners might actually use this garbage just makes me cringe.

Wow, I had not logged in for a while but I am glad to see so many people who also share this concern! I am definitely going to look further into this and see if there is some way we can get this company out of business. 

I do like the idea of notifying the area's local news station. Though I couldn't honestly say they caused me "emotional distress" (I work in the fur industry so have gotten pretty used to animal activists and their frequent insults and name-calling by now!) Although I do seriously think that email I recieved from them was completely over the top and definitely not how any professional business person should (or would) normally respond. 


But mostly I am really concerned for the ferrets who's ignorant owners may start feeding them this food because of this ridiculously false information the company is publishing. THAT to me is cruelty and it needs to be stopped. At the very least we should all seriously keep spreading the word about this!