Solid Gold (pet food)
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Solid Gold Health Products For Pets, Inc. is a manufacturer and a world-wide supplier of holistic pet foods based in El Cajon, California. They also maintain distribution centers in Leipzig, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, Atsugi, Japan, and Espoo, Finland.
[edit] History
The founder and owner of Solid Gold, Sissy Harrington-McGill, raised great danes. In the early 1970s she travelled to Germany to acquire championship bloodline dogs, and while there learned that great danes bred and kept in that country were living significantly longer than those being bred and kept in the United States. She surmised that the reason for their longevity was the German practice of using more naturalistic dog foods. Upon returning home, she immediately began to do research into dog food nutrition, and in 1974 developed her own formula out of natural ingredients which she named Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken and began marketing it.
Today the company specializes in the development of foods which contain no preservatives or saturated fats, and are made of USDA Choice meats, and grains like rice, barley, oats and millet, instead of wheat, soy, or corn like most other manufacturers. They also have a line of skin treatments and shampoos.
On April 22, 1988, McGill and the corporate entity, Solid Gold Health Products for Pets, signed a consent decree of Permanent Injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California (Civil No. 88-0473-GT(M)), agreeing that certain products sold by the company which purported to cure, prevent or otherwise treat disease and medical conditions in animals were, in fact, unapproved new animal drugs, and promised to cease the sales of such products. On August 27,1990, both Solid Gold and McGill were found in Criminal Contempt of Court for violating the Consent Decree by continuing to sell the new animal drug products (S.D. Ca. District Court, Criminal No. 90-0221-GT); the corporation was fined $10,000 and McGill was sentenced to 179 days imprisonment.
