07/03/2018
David Morris
ZuPreem CEO/Founder
Good Evening Friends of ZuPreem,
First, let me start by saying that 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of my family’s founding of the ZuPreem® specialty nutrition brand. ZuPreem is part of the pet health and nutrition legacy started by my grandfather some 70 years ago that includes Prescription Diet®, Science Diet®, and the Morris Animal Foundation®. During these 5 decades, ZuPreem has been committed to building special bonds between parrot owners and their beloved birds.
My grandfather, Mark Morris Sr., DVM, and my father, Mark Morris Jr., DVM, PhD, were both veterinarians who loved animals and believed food plays a critical role in improving their health and well-being. I have continued with this belief and that mission as CEO of ZuPreem. And, I can assure you that each employee at our small, family-owned company, feels the exact same way.
That is why it’s been especially painful for me over recent weeks to hear the dedicated team at ZuPreem being called things on social media such as liars, uncaring, greedy, arrogant, rude, and dishonest, just to name a few. The truth is that if you were to visit us at our facility in Shawnee, Kansas, you would find our people to be nothing like they have been described on social media.
The people who work at ZuPreem, such as Gail and Jennifer, who make up our consumer communication team, act and believe nothing like the people being described on Facebook. Bird lovers, bird caregivers, nutrition fanatics, quality improvers, and food safety advocates would be much more accurate descriptions of the people who contribute every day at ZuPreem.
Now, after continued negative posts on social media, I can no longer stand by and allow a series of unsubstantiated accusations degrade the great people and products at ZuPreem.
My family and my company have loved and cared for pets for over 70 years. We know all too well how difficult it is to lose an animal. We have never put sales and profits ahead of the health and well-being of animals. Any suggestion to the contrary is completely misleading and inaccurate.
My grandfather and father taught me always to start any inquiry with facts. Given that, here are a set of facts to provide you with my perspective on ZuPreem and the batches of ZuPreem FruitBlend that are related to the unfortunate event in Michigan:
- Batches called into question: FruitBlend Large Pellets (code dates ending 2/28/19, 3/31/19).
- Both batches, over the course of the manufacturing process, were each cleared by 13 different food safety tests before ever leaving ZuPreem facilities (as a part of what I believe is the most rigorous food safety testing in the bird industry).
- Michigan State University tested pellets from these batches for a series of toxins, and no toxins were found. ZuPreem pellets were not implicated in any way in these findings.
- Pellets from these batches also were not implicated in the findings of the histopathologic (microscopic) analysis of the necropsied bird.
- These same two batches of FruitBlend contained 350,000 pounds of large pellets which equals approximately 1.8 million food servings or meals for birds.
- Pellets from these batches have been fed around the world by professionals in zoos, bird sanctuaries, retail stores, breeding facilities, and in other rescues without any health-related inquiries submitted to ZuPreem.
- Pellets from these batches have been fed by tens of thousands of individual bird owners around the world with only very few health-related inquiries submitted to ZuPreem.
- Thus, the evidence submitted to ZuPreem from customers around the world does not suggest, in my view, and the views of experts we’ve consulted, that these batches have any health-related issues.
At different times throughout this inquiry, we have proactively reached out to scientists who are trying to solve this case including: Birds and Beak’s veterinarian, Michigan State University, Michigan Department of Agriculture, and the FDA, offering our assistance in helping them get to the bottom of this incident. We will continue to do so going forward, as we always remain open minded to the possibility of new information being discovered.
In closing, I would like to express my gratitude to all friends of ZuPreem who have continued to support us and purchase our products in the face of these unsubstantiated accusations. We are humbled to be able to serve you and your birds, and will do everything in our power to continue delivering high quality and safe food products for your pets.
Sincerely,
David Morris
ZuPreem CEO/Founder
