Dr Thomas Lonsdale

BVetMed MRCVS

Candidate 9 of 14

Proposers: Roger Meacock, Dr Andrew Stephens

Contact details

M +61 437 292 800
E [email protected]
W www.ThePetFoodCon.com

Candidate biography

1972 graduate Royal Veterinary College. Late 1980s, I became aware I had injured the health of my patients and defrauded my clients by endorsing the feeding of industrial products.

Conscience stricken, in 1991, I blew the whistle on the endemic cruelty and corruption.

From 1991 to the present, I have researched and written about the pet food fraud and its impact on animal health, human wellbeing and stewardship of the planet.

In 1992 I formulated the Cybernetic Hypothesis of Periodontal Disease in Mammalian Carnivores (JVetDent 11:1 1994), a new hypothesis of health and disease applicable to animals and humans.

Books:

• Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health (2001) Essential science and practical knowhow for all pet professionals.
• Work Wonder: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones (2005) Practical easy reader for pet carers.
• Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud: Hiding in Plain Sight (2023) Foundation science providing an indictment and prosecuting brief against the junk pet food/vet alliance.
   

2023/4 Petition to Parliament: ‘Inquiry into the pet food industry and its relationship with the vet profession.’

For 24 consecutive years from 1997 to 2020 I contested RCVS elections on the single most important issue confronting our profession.

This is my 25th appeal for your vote.

Candidate statement

Decades of false pet food advertising has obscured and normalised widespread animal cruelty and consumer fraud. TV ads depict dogs and cats as furry toys with limited maintenance needs—cans and packets on the supermarket shelf. Modified wolves (dogs) and specialist carnivores (cats) become addicted to ultra-processed junk leading to widespread diet-induced ill-health.

In the wild and in the zoo, biology defines the menu—'give the dog a bone’. But give the dog slops and death nuggets guarantees filthy teeth and stinking gum disease—leading to widespread skin, gut, heart, kidney, joint, liver and immune system diseases.

A conspiracy of silence prevails. I believe that vet students are brainwashed and defrauded and that the entire vet establishment including the vet regulator, the RCVS, maintain the fiction that ultra-processed industrial concoctions are suitable and safe for carnivores. Natural food, they say, is harmful and dangerous!

Founded on fallacy, living a lie the profession is responsible for:

• Systematic overservicing
• Appalling animal cruelty
• Cynical consumer fraud
   

The community, bombarded with falsehoods, lacks protection and is vulnerable to dog attacks. And surely the heart-rending, mind-bending moral contradictions of a profession that denies the obvious and defends the indefensible predisposes to vet depression and suicide.

Self-regulation of the profession may have been efficient when vets focussed on the needs of their farmer clients. In the modern day where pet owners—the majority of clients—are easily duped and exploited, self-regulation primarily serves the interests of the pet food/vet alliance.

I believe that:

• The RCVS regulator is criminally negligent and should be sidelined forthwith.
• Existing animal welfare and consumer protection laws must be enforced.
• New veterinary regulatory arrangements must be established.
   

I respectfully ask for your vote, not for me personally but for the pets, people and planet that we are here to serve. Thank you.

Candidate answers to questions from the profession

What do you believe is the single most important challenge for the profession in the next decade and what skills and experience will you contribute to Council to assist in resolving this problem?

No doubt the single most important challenge—the junk pet food industry/vet alliance—remains the same as in 1992 when the then President of the RCVS thanked me for my paper ‘Pandemic of Periodontal Disease: A malodorous condition’ which he would ‘draw to the attention of members of the College’. EXCEPT NOWADAYS THE CHALLENGE IS MADE MANY TIMES WORSE by 32 years of active suppression and neglect. The current RCVS Communications (obstruction) Department refuses to deliver Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud and supporting correspondence to members of RCVS Council. (Correspondence on file.)

The negligence and corruption have three main strands:

• Widespread animal cruelty affecting every carnivorous pet forced to consume artificial junk.
• Massive consumer fraud arising from sale of harmful products and wanton exploitation of the resultant ill-health and suffering for commercial gain.
• Suppression of vital new scientific information free from the dead hand of the junk pet food/vet criminal conspiracy.

Having first identified the issues in a 1991 paper, I have researched, written and campaigned on this and only this subject ever since. You can find much information at my website and in the Raw Meaty Bones Trilogy, Raw Meaty Bones, Work Wonders and Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud. (Winner: Dog Writers Association of America, Best Reference Book and Book of the Year.)

Whether or not elected to Council, I suggest that the RCVS and every veterinary school has an opportunity to reach out to me and thus make full use of my skills and experience.  

How would you describe good governance and what does good governance look like for the RCVS Council over the next five years?

As per the RCVS mission statement good governance requires that the following be sincere and true:

We aim to enhance society through improved animal health and welfare. We do this by setting, upholding and advancing the educational, ethical and clinical standards of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.

However, I believe that ‘regulatory capture’ renders the RCVS Council insincere and unfit for purpose. I believe that the RCVS has failed abysmally and under its present configuration is bound to fail such that in my 2015 RCVS Election manifesto I wrote:

In previous years I’ve called for a full parliamentary inquiry. Now I believe that the RCVS Council should be dismissed and an administrator appointed pending the outcome of that inquiry. I recommend that there be legal proceedings against prominent companies, veterinary institutions and individuals in respect to breach of contract, animal cruelty, theft and deception. 

Good governance for the next five years and all future years remains as it was in 2015. Accordingly, I request that all eligible people sign and share the petition:

‘Inquiry into the pet food industry and its relationship with the vet profession.’

When we know the full range and gravity of the problems, we shall then gain a better idea of how to tackle those problems. Thank you for your consideration.