Dr Tom Lonsdale

Address: P O Box 6096, Windsor Delivery Centre, NSW 2756, Australia

Website: www.ThePetFoodCon.com

Proposers

Mr Roger Meacock MRCVS

Dr Colin Melbourne MRCVS

Candidate biography

1972 RVC, London graduate. In the late 1980s, I became aware I had harmed my patients and defrauded my clients by recommending industrial pet foods.

Conscience-stricken, I blew the whistle on the institutionalised cruelty and corruption.

From 1991 to the present, I have researched and written about the pet food fraud and its impact on animal health, human well-being, and stewardship of the planet.

In 1992, I formulated the Cybernetic Hypothesis of Periodontal Disease in Mammalian Carnivores (JVetDent 11:1 1994), a new hypothesis of health and disease applicable to animals and humans.

Raw Meaty Bones Tetralogy:

• Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health (2001) – Essential science and practical know-how likened to Silent Spring.
• Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones (2005) – Practical, easy-to-read guide for pet carers.
• Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud: Hiding in Plain Sight (2023) – Foundational science providing an indictment and prosecuting brief. Likened to Silent Spring.
• Spin Doctors: Junk Pet Food Partners in Crime. (2026) – Historical record and evidence against organised criminal conspiracy.

For 24 consecutive years from 1997 to 2020, I contested RCVS elections on the single most important issue confronting our profession.

This year marks my 27th appeal for your vote.

Candidate statement

Why do you want to stand to be a member of RCVS Council?

If we can, we should choose to make the world a better place.

I believe that the RCVS, by combination of bad luck, incompetence and negligence became captive of the junk pet food industry. An industrial pet food culture was permitted, even encouraged by the profession, with the resultant pet food economy involving raw materials, manufacturing, retailing, veterinary services, pet boarding, transportation, grooming, advertising, media and much more.

Alas, the entire edifice is built on normalised animal cruelty and deliberate consumer fraud. The veterinary profession has a duty to alert and protect the community.

I do not consider the RCVS has addressed concerns I previously raised with the Executive and which I also believe are shared by other voters. I believe there is a coverup and the RCVS is corrupt and liable to civil and criminal prosecution if it does not act on evidence I’ve provided.

For 35 years I’ve maintained a consistent line. I believe that by gaining a seat on the RCVS Council, I will be able to help the RCVS address these issues and proceed with greater confidence into the uncertain times ahead.

For our dependent animals, animal owners and the greater good, I seek your vote.

What do you think you can bring to RCVS Council?

With the Veterinary Surgeons Act up for review, I bring a unique and essential perspective gained from 54 years of experience.

As a London vet student, I first became concerned about the difficult choices confronting our profession. I noted that human medicine and dentistry have clear-eyed goals for the health of their patients. As vets, we suffer constant cognitive dissonance. We’re mostly available to the highest bidder. Factory farms receive acceptance despite the widespread animal suffering. Pets in terminal decline receive lavish care whilst puppies and kittens are euthanised en masse.

Outmoded scientific paradigms involving reductionism, germ theory and treatment emphasis – absent the vital preventative approach – create muddle and confusion. I believe invoking ‘evidence-based medicine’ perpetuates the flaws in the current approach. Bogus edicts and decrees prevail, when in fact a wholesale review of veterinary ‘science’ is urgently required.

At every turn, the veterinary bubble economy depends on a population of diet-affected dogs and cats – supported by a lack of regulation in this area.

If regulation of the profession were managed differently, I believe the pet food industry may receive scrutiny. I believe that my know-how and experience can help restore confidence, leading to a renaissance for the profession.

What relevant experience do you have?

My relevant experience and leadership are defining attributes.

The manifestos from 27 years of standing in RCVS elections are published on the Raw Meaty Bones website. Helpful new information is available at ThePetFoodCon website.

Whilst researching the elements of junk pet food-induced disease, I saw the co-evolutionary role periodontal disease plays in carnivore biology, with consequent significance for human medicine, dentistry, and science more generally. Thirty-three years ago, I proposed a new paradigm of health and disease – the Cybernetic Hypothesis published in the Journal of Veterinary Dentistry in 1994. Only now, in 2026, do human periodontists identify the patterns of systemic disease associated with gum disease – although they still fail to grasp the co-evolutionary significance.

In recent times I’ve opposed the Competition and Markets Authority’s approach to regulation of the profession. I believe they are barking up the wrong tree, have failed to understand the context and should be resisted.

The city of San Francisco is prosecuting large junk food corporations. Since my opening statement in 1991, and alluded to by my legal advisor in 1992, and published by the Sydney University Centre for Veterinary Education in 1993, I have recommended £multi-billion legal actions against the junk pet food makers.

Is there anything else you would like to add in support of your candidacy?

Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud was awarded Best of the Best Book 2023 by the Dog Writers Association of America. Pet owners give the book five stars. Only one vet journal (Control and Therapy published by Sydney University Centre for Veterinary Education) reviewed the book – providing a stellar review.

The RCVS administration refused to forward pdf copies of the book to Councillors which is in the RCVS library, but their attention was drawn to it. I consider this especially disadvantageous for lay Councillors because my book contains vital information necessary for them to fulfil their function.

The RCVS also refused to supply personal contact particulars for lay Councillors meaning I cannot express concerns directly. I consider the RCVS is trying to suppress the truth about the pet junk food industry. I don’t believe there can be legitimate communication with our professional regulator – on anything.

Countering this, I offer free PDF copies of the Raw Meaty Bones Tetralogy to all veterinarians, their staff, and clients. Please email me, and you will receive PDF books by return. Audiobooks are also available.

Whether or not elected to the Council I shall continue to lobby for open discussion on ALL issues facing our profession.

Answer to question submitted by the profession 

What will you do, if elected to RCVS Council, about the documented influence of major pet food companies on veterinary education and clinical nutrition advice, and about the mounting evidence that ultra-processed dog food is harming the animals in our care?

Since 1991 I have documented what I believe to be profound regulatory and scientific failure due to the influence of the junk pet food industry over veterinary education, professional advice and regulatory narratives.

The evidence is set out in the Raw Meaty Bones Tetralogy — Raw Meaty Bones, Work Wonders, Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud and Spin Doctors. These works document how a multi-billion-dollar industry has shaped veterinary thinking and practice in ways that compromise animal welfare, mislead consumers and undermine the integrity of the profession.

My 2026 election manifesto, published with embedded references at my website, should be read as a policy statement and also as an open, multi-part complaint concerning RCVS conduct and governance over several decades.

Despite repeated attempts to engage the College on these matters, meaningful investigation has not occurred.

Such a situation is incompatible with the principles of good public governance, including the Nolan Principles of integrity, objectivity, openness, accountability, honesty and leadership.

If elected to Council, I shall press for:

• full transparency regarding commercial influence in veterinary education and professional policy
• robust conflict-of-interest rules applying to Council, committees and advisory structures
• an independent inquiry into the influence of the pet-food industry on veterinary science and regulation
• a renewed commitment that the RCVS exists to protect animals, the public and the integrity of the profession.

At the age of seventy-six this may be my final election. I intend to ensure that these concerns — and the evidence supporting them — are clearly placed on the public record.