An American pet food company that touts their products as being made from all-natural ingredients with “nothing from China” has come under fire for branding that many are calling racist.
“No soy, fillers, artificial colors or flavors, preservatives and nothing from China,” reads the packaging of Sojos’ “Mix-a-Meal” and “Complete” line of dog food products.
In a frequently asked questions page on Sojos’ website, the brand, based in the US state of Minnesota, says majority of the company’s ingredients are from America. Some are soured abroad, it says, but “none of our vitamins or minerals come from China.”
Sojos has not responded to Coconuts‘ request for comment.
Many outraged by the insensitive language—in the same vein as former US President Donald Trump calling COVID-19 the “kung-flu”—have taken to Sojos’ Instagram account, calling out the company for perpetuating harmful racist stereotypes at a time when anti-Asian violence in the US has soared.
“Reminder that America also has garbage meat processing facilities as well. Saying nothing is from China doesn’t tell me anything other than that you’re xenophobic,” one Instagram user wrote.
Some who defended the company said pet food from China has a history of being recalled due to safety and contamination issues. In 2014, at least two major US pet food retailers said it would halt the sales of pet food from China, a move that came as authorities investigated thousands of pet illnesses and deaths believed to be linked to Chinese-made jerky treats.
The US Food and Drug Administration said, however, that it could not be definitively concluded whether there was a causal relationship between the consumption of the treats and the adverse events reported.
Sojos’ pet food are available from major retailers including Walmart and Amazon. In Hong Kong, pet food supplier Whiskers N Paws also sells Sojos’ products, but their website shows they only have dog and cat treats—which don’t have the race-tinged labels on their packaging—for sale.
A wave of racially motivated attacks targeting Asians, particularly the elderly, has gripped the US in recent months. Just this week, an ethnically Chinese man from Malaysia was knocked to the ground and punched in a New York City subway station.
In January, a man fatally assaulted 84-year-old Thai immigrant Vichar Ratanapakdee when he was out for a morning walk in his San Francisco neighborhood. Sustaining a brain hemorrhage, Ratanapakdee died at a hospital two days later.
After the killing of George Floyd made headlines and sparked a reckoning with racism in the US and internationally, Sojos expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement in a Facebook post, writing that the company is “committed to taking action against racism and building a more just, equitable and compassionate world.”
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