Dr. Subway,
This morning I was greeted by the news that you have decided to serve meat that has never received antibiotics starting in 2016. Your claim is that you are doing this to make your products even better.
Here is what you missed: all meat that is marketed is antibiotic free. Farmers and ranchers, along with veterinarians, follow strict withdrawal times whenever antibiotics are used. Carcasses are tested in processing facilities, and if there is any residue, that meat is discarded. USDA guidelines prohibit residue in meat, and USDA provides inspectors at facilities to make sure processors are complying. If inspectors find a problem, they can shut down an entire processing facility, so processors and producers have a big incentive to do the right thing, every time.
Antibiotics are an important part of healthiness. If an animal is sick, a producer should be able to treat that animal. You want to talk about humane treatment? How is allowing an animal to stay sick humane? Antibiotics can save an animal’s life. You wouldn’t deny yourself, or your children, life-saving medication. Why should we deny farmers and ranchers the ability to use this medication?
I have raised many different species of livestock, from chickens to pigs, and from sheep and goats. If I have an animal that is sick, I treat it. I feed all of our young sheep and goats a medicated feed, to ensure they have the best start to life they can. Newborn animals have no resistance to disease, and it takes time for them to develop that resistance. Coccidiosis is a serious disease in young sheep and goats, and can kill them quickly. I am not going to subject them to that.
My livestock pens are cleaned on a regular basis, and since my lambs and kids are born from January-May, it can be cold, and they are all born in a barn where they are protected from the environment. Cleaniness issues are not why we use medicated feed: quality of life is.
Antibiotics are an important tool for producers and veterinarians to utilize when needed. Making the claim that using meat that has never had antibiotics makes your products better is false advertising, and is misleading to the consumer. Shame on you for using fear, not facts, to promote your products. I will be taking my business elsewhere, and I urge others to do the same.
Sincerely,
A concerned customer and producer
If you wish to speak to Subway directly (since they have been deleting comments on Facebook), please call 1-800-888-4848.