The pesticide industry is powerful. In the late 1940′s and early 1950′s they even got the USDA to put out this ad, touting the benefits of DDT.

1947 Ad DDT is Good For Me!

In this 1946 video when British workers were trying to talk a Kenyan tribe into the “safety” of DDT, so that it could be used the area as an experiment in mosquito control. The elders were suspicious, and so the British worker demonstrates it’s safety by spraying DDT on porridge and then eating it. He is able to do this because DDT has deadly long term effects, not acute effects. I’ve often thought it would be an interesting documentary tracking down this DDT eating civil servant and see what became of him.

These bits of propaganda were just the start of the promotion of pesticides to the public. Remember the catch phrase from Dow (another trifecta company) “Better Living Through Chemistry”? Last year the commercials touting pyrethrin as “safe” and “natural” as a man walks through brightly colored flowers was suspiciously removed from the air. After all, it is illegal on a federal level to claim any pesticide is “safe”. Yes, pyrethrin is derived from chrysanthemum, but radon gas, arsenic and other known poisons are also “natural”. Pesticides by their very nature are designed to kill and kill they do.

With mounting awareness in the general public of the dangers of pesticides, including those used in flea & tick products, is it any wonder that industry is up to its old tricks? Here is the anatomy of their strategy:

1. Start an organization that looks like it is completely separate from industry and fund it.
2. Give it an “official” sounding name like RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment).
3. Start lobbying politicians, but keep trying to look like you are impartial.
4. Hit the grassroots efforts to talk people into how safe, healthy and needed pesticide use is.

RISE has started a website called Debug The Myths as part of their effort to talk you into that if you don’t use pesticides, your health is at risk. They are good for you, after all! So, to reach even more people, RISE has started a tour across the country. The stars of the tour are people dressed as rats, West Nile-spreading mosquitoes, Lyme disease-carrying ticks and community-destroying weeds. The take-away for Joe Public is that without pesticides we would be overrun with these horrible things. Don’t be fooled. It’s all a PR ploy. In fact, the target species for these pesticides repeatedly develop resistance to them. The pests with the resistance are the ones that reproduce and so generations later, they become immune.

On the RISE website they make all sorts of outlandish statements. Here are a few:

• STATEMENT: Herbicides control weeds to reduce risk of allergies, skin irritations from toxic plants, sidewalk and roadway damage, and overgrowth throughout our communities. TRUTH: Pesticide adverse reactions (including herbicides) cause an increased risk of adverse reactions in those with asthma and allergies. In fact, 20% of the population has ragweed allergies, and this allergy in particularly make people more susceptible. They can even have asthma attacks that cause death in children.
• STATEMENT: Before a pesticide product can be sold or used, it must first be rigorously tested for its potential impact on human health. Only products determined to have a reasonable certainty of no harm to the environment or human health can be registered by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). FACT: Time and time again we see harmful products that are known to be harmful to pet and human health on the market and sold in stores. The “rigorous” testing process doesn’t work, especially for pesticides that have been on the market for a long time. Why? Tens of thousands of pesticides are still waiting for a modern review. Even in the rare instance of removal from the market, this is usually a voluntary removal by the company at the request of the EPA. It includes a long “phase out” period, sometimes decades, to allow product to continue to be sold through on shelves and in warehouses.

This tactic of creating an organization that looks as if it is impartial or run by citizens doesn’t just happen in the pesticide industry. It is all around us. By creating these false organizations, the industry is able to give themselves more credibility with the public. They quote these stooge organizations as if their backing means something, and to the unaware, trusting public, it does.

So next time someone tells you something to “educate” you about a product, look behind the curtain and evaluate for yourself if the Great and Powerful Oz is using it as a mouthpiece.

Often what we read looks like an article, but is really a clever piece of marketing designed to try to fool you, the pet owner, into believing one product or another has more benefit or a better reputation than it does. Review things with care and soon you will be able to spot these “articles” a mile away.

Today I read the AP article entitled Several new flea treatments join pet care market that left me stunned. I suppose I should not be surprised anymore at anything in this industry. The disinformation from supposed “experts” was so incredibly out in left field that I was left wondering how the ASPCA or those corporations who are making and marketing fipronil (the main ingredient in Frontline) generic flea treatments can not be embarrassed by it.

Let’s go through it, shall we?

Enter the soundtrack of a very bleak, black and white horror film… Dr. Kim Nicholas wants to scare you by telling you he has “lost several patients because fleas sucked the blood out of them.” Wow. Really? I know that Dr. Nicholas is from the Pacific Northwest, but I think he may be watching a bit too much Twilight.

Did you know that manufacturers often pay regular vets and clinics to try out new products, sometimes products that are not released for regular use because they are still pending EPA approval, in their practice? That’s oddly what this sounds like to me (my emphasis added):

A 10-pound cat was brought in covered with thousands of fleas and already suffering from anemia. Nicholas put a dose of the new product on the cat, laid it on a white towel and put it in a kennel.

“End of the day, the white towel was black with dead flea bodies. I couldn’t find a live flea anywhere. That really made a convert out of me, a real believer. It shows that used properly, these drugs are very effective and fast,”…

Odd. I wonder why he chose to let this poor, anemic, 10 pound cat who supposedly had acquired “thousands” of fleas sit in a kennel all day so he can check out fleas on a white towel instead of taking twenty minutes to bathe the cat in mild detergent soap like Dawn Blue, which is often used in extreme cases of infestation (but not on a regular basis for flea control). It works. It’s faster. It’s more humane. It’s safer.

MISINFORMATION #1: He calls flea products “drugs”. They aren’t drugs. They are pesticides and insecticides. That’s why most are regulated by the EPA and not the FDA.

MISINFORMATION #2:

When used properly, nothing kills fleas the way today’s topical and oral treatments do, said Nicholas, a vet for 27 years.

It’s a proven fact that fleas and ticks are developing a resistance to chemicals such as pesticides. Have you noticed that instead of lasting a month or longer, your Frontline or other topical only lasts about two weeks now? That’s because fleas and ticks are more resistant to it as they evolve. It’s the same for almost any other chemical used in pesticides. However, what they can’t build resistance to is mechanical means of control such as vacuuming, washing bedding, good nutrition, flea combs, flea traps and diatomaceous earth (food grade only).

MISINFORMATION #3 & 4:

Commonly used flea control products include Frontline and Advantage. They are sold online and in stores without a prescription and are packaged in individual doses for direct application onto the pet’s skin. Nicholas said they are considered very safe. “You put it between the shoulder blades so they can’t lick it off. I’ve never seen a bad reaction, except they might get a little rash at the application site.”

In 2009 the EPA was so concerned about a 54% rise in adverse reactions to spot-on flea and tick products, including Advantage and Frontline, that they put these products under scrutiny and began to investigate them. Apparently a product that causes over 4,587 adverse reactions and at least 93 deaths is safe in his eyes.

He also says he has never seen a bad reaction, but then goes on to talk about a common one… a “little rash at the application site”. Also, it is illegal to make any claims as to the safety of a pesticide because they, by their nature, are designed to kill.

I could go on and on, but the moral of the story is not to believe everything you read. This is a vet who is paid to be a mouthpiece for pet pesticide companies. They hire these shills to try to fool you into believing their product is something it is not and gain your trust. The fact that he uses standard phrases direct from pet pesticide PR firms should give you a hint.