Does CBD help your stressed out pet? Fido might be out of luck after Idaho crackdown
It doesn’t take much to stress out local dog owner Christy Burnam’s border collie-pitbull mix. The pup is terrified of thunderstorms, fireworks and even weekend car trips.
To help with her dog’s anxiety, Burnam buys special CBD products made for pets.
“She calms right down,” Burnham said.
As a cannabis extract, part of CBD’s popularity is that, unlike its cannabis cousin THC, it isn’t psychoactive, so it allows users to get the purported health benefits of the plant without the high. Advocates of pet CBD say it can ease anxiety, pain and seizures in animals.
But owners across Idaho may soon no longer be able to buy such products for their furry friends. The Idaho Department of Agriculture announced that it plans to crack down on the sale of pet CBD starting next month.
Pet CBD flew under the radar in Idaho for some time, but when the Legislature passed a law legalizing industrial hemp — making Idaho the last state to do so — the Idaho Department of Agriculture began having new conversations about it.
The law allowed for the “production, processing, transportation, and research” of hemp with no more than 0.3% THC. A license is required for these activities and the department soon received applications from Idahoans wanting one, including from some seeking to manufacture animal feed with CBD in it. But because the Food and Drug Administration has not provided clarity on CBD for animals on a federal level, Idaho agriculture officials felt they could not approve those hemp license request, said Chanel Tewalt, deputy director of the Idaho Department of Agriculture.
After hearing complaints from applicants that it was unfair to deny them if pet stores were allowed to sell such products, the department decided it couldn’t look the other way for one group but not the other.
“It really put into sharp focus the need to know which products are legal and which products aren’t,” Tewalt said in a phone interview with the Idaho Statesman.
The department said the 2021 law did not legalize pet CBD in Idaho, so the state would begin enforcing that part of state code.
Advocates fear the effect this crackdown will have on pets who they say need it. The faces of the resistance have become Mike and Jennifer Willett, owners of Bark n’ Purr, a Boise pet store at 1036 S. Vista Ave.
They themselves used CBD products to help ease their dog’s arthritis pain. The 14-year-old dog, which died in June, had adverse reactions to pain medication prescribed by a vet, according to the Willets.
“The CBD treatment for pain was totally effective without having to go to any chemicals or pharmaceutical or anything worse,” Mike said.
The pair have been working with the the National Animal Supplement Council, helping launch a petition and phone and email campaign calling on Gov. Brad Little to keep these products in Idaho.
After trying for weeks, the National Animal Supplement Council got a meeting with Little’s office, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 14. Council leaders hoped to have a “positive discussion about the consequences of removing products” and to “find a responsible path forward.” They want Little to put the department’s enforcement on hold until the Legislature can consider a bill legalizing these products in the 2023 session.
“Hemp products that do not contain detectable levels of THC are not marijuana and have not been found to cause any verified concern for negative health consequences in dogs, cats, and horses despite many years of use of these products in these species,” the National Animal Supplement Council said on its website dedicated to the Idaho effort.
Bark ‘n Purr’s products are hemp-based, not marijuana based, and have 0.0% THC. The Willetts fear people could turn to online products with less regulation than those in their store.
“I feel terrible,” Tewalt said. “I know we have a lot of people who are passionate about these products, who want to provide efficacy data, safety data, personal stories. But that is just not what the regulatory process is at this point. That’s not how the law is set up. Our mission at the agency is always as policy implementers, not policymakers.”
The agency sent a letter in July warning sellers like the Willetts that enforcement would begin Nov 1. After that, anyone found selling pet CBD products will be issued a “stop sale” order giving the seller 30 days to bring their products in line with Idaho law. After that, a court could decide to allow the agency to dispose of the seller’s illegal products.
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
