The Gerald Accountability Project

Gerald Was Not an Isolated Case

Gerald’s story is not presented as proof that The Farmer’s Dog caused his death. It is one individual case, and I cannot claim more than the evidence allows.

But that isn’t how I came to believe Gerald’s experience deserved to be investigated.

I discovered that Gerald was not an isolated case while he was still alive.

Gerald spent seven weeks fighting to recover. During those seven weeks, I watched his symptoms change, watched him improve when his diet was restricted to foods he could tolerate, and watched him deteriorate again when his regular food was reintroduced. I kept trying to understand what was happening to him.

Eventually, I connected the dots myself.

I began looking at his food differently. I started researching the ingredients, the fat content, the claims made about the food, and the experiences of other dogs eating The Farmer’s Dog. And then I went looking for other owners who had experienced anything similar.

What I found devastated me.

There were other people describing dogs who had become seriously ill while eating The Farmer’s Dog. There were accounts of pancreatitis, gastrointestinal illness, hospitalizations, dramatic declines, and deaths. Some of the stories sounded disturbingly familiar.

And I remember thinking:

Why didn’t I look for this sooner?

That question is one I will probably carry with me for the rest of my life.

I was so angry with myself for not knowing what I know now. I had trusted that a company selling fresh, personalized dog food—food marketed as a healthier choice for our dogs—had done the work necessary to make that trust deserved.

I didn’t go looking for reasons to distrust The Farmer’s Dog.

I went looking for a reason to save Gerald.

And I found other families who had been asking some of the same questions.

Their stories do not prove what happened to Gerald. They cannot establish causation. But they do something important: they show that Gerald’s experience was not unique.

I wish I had found those stories before Gerald became sick.

I wish I had known to look.

I wish I had found those stories even just two weeks earlier. I believe it would have changed what I did. Whether it would have changed the outcome for Gerald, I will never know.

What I do know is that Gerald was still alive when I began connecting the dots. And once I did, I could not stop looking.

That is where this part of his story begins.