Target: Michael Regan, Administrator of Environmental Protection Agency
Goal: Remove potentially harmful and deadly flea collars from the market to protect pets.
An object meant to protect pets may instead be causing them grave harm. Seresto flea and ticket collars have been used by millions of pet parents since first hitting the shelves in 2012. These products also gained a fast and negative reputation for their reported link to 2,500 pet deaths and nearly 100,000 “adverse incidents.” These alleged incidents ranged from skin irritation and vomiting to violent body convulsions and multiple organ issues.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the collars, which apparently have the highest rate of “adverse incidents” of any product under the agency’s purview. Despite years of concerns and a history of action on similar products believed to contain harmful pesticides, the EPA only launched a review in 2021. Even Congress has investigated EPA oversight of these collars and noted a failure to protect the public interest. Now, instead of heeding calls to exercise its authority and take this possibly lethal product off the market, the EPA is instead looking to offload its responsibilities onto the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In the meantime, countless more pets could be at risk. Sign the petition below to demand the EPA fulfill its duties to protect vulnerable animals and the humans who care for them.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Administrator Regan,
The EPA called handing off responsibility for all pet pesticide products to the FDA a “long-term solution,” but what about the thousands of pets that could potentially suffer or die in the interim? Will you just write off these short-term effects as collateral damage? Oversight of flea and tick collars and similar products may very well be better suited for the FDA, but for the now they are your responsibility.
Why is the product with the highest adverse incident rate in the EPA still on store shelves…even after reports of death rates 25 times that of other collars …even after a Congressional review condemned the EPA’s lack of action…and even after your own scientists have reportedly raised alarms for years? The conclusions of an investigation into Seresto collars is forthcoming. Just as you have done with similar products in the past, use this data and previous information to make the right call for consumers and the pets they love.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Bruno Scramgnon
I think that we have all learned by now that the FDA won’t take these collars off the market. For example, Roundup, which causes cancer and kills the milkweed that our Monarchs depend on, and neonicotinoids, that will eventually destroy many of our crops, because it kills the pollinators needed to produce them, have been used for decades. We, as consumers, are the ones who will take these poisons off the shelves by refusing to buy them. Educate yourselves about the chemicals you use then tell others what you have learned. Don’t believe the manufacturers of the chemicals. They are in it for the money, not our health or the health of our pets.