Welcome to The Pet Schooled Press!

Welcome to The Pet Schooled Press. Today, I launch this reporting endeavor as part of my continued effort to bring as much information to the public as possible. After reporting on and researching the pet food industry an estimated seven years, there's still so much to communicate to the public at large. 

In March 2020, I launched the reporting and education platform, Pet Schooled. After years of hard work, I can't tell you how happy and excited I was to finally launch Pet Schooled to the public at large. Then, COVID happened. While it hampered the ability of Pet Schooled in it's first year, COVID also drove the search for truth down a different avenue which is proving to be a large success. 

The avenue here is one of public records. There is a severe lack of transparency and consistent conversation stemming from public agencies who are tasked with "regulating" the pet food industry, to the consumer and citizen. It often feels that "regulatory" officials act more in the interests of the corporations they're suppose to be regulating, cutting citizens out of the "regulatory" process as much as possible. When agencies are unhelpful or refuse to provide information on important matters, that is where public records come into play. Public records can provide us insight into what information exists or doesn't exists. This can allow the public to evaluate and determine if agencies or companies are telling the truth or lying on a given issue. 

Trying to obtain records has been difficult at times. I have been forced to file various lawsuits as a result of several agencies stalling or refusing to provide records on various topics. The lawsuits are proving to be effective. The records agencies have been forced to produce to me will often be a major part of my continued reporting on The Pet Schooled Press. 

While this can be an extremely difficult industry to understand, there are various and extremely serious public health issues are at stake here. Whether it is the obesity epidemic in dogs, high rate of cancer in both dogs and cats, high rate of diabetes, we now know that pet "food" on the market is playing a role in relation to these health epidemics in our animals. What exactly is allowed in most of these foods, and what potential health impacts do those foods then have on animals? 

The astonishing fact that keeps arising in my research is the level of complicity that public health officials have in both allowing for such epidemics to happen in the first place, and in the continued allowance of the epidemic. Public health officials often brag that they protect the "integrity" and "safety" of animal foods, while at the same time making no mention of the epidemics they have helped cause. 

The challenge to improve health and our current food system is great, but not impossible. It all starts with small changes, birthed by information and understanding. I am glad to have you here as part of this important undertaking. 

-Kohl Harrington

Pet Schooled

Director