Hillary Clinton said Wednesday she wants to increase the transparency in the quality of dog bedsheets, calling for standards to be developed that can help prevent the spread of infectious disease.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a standard for dog bed sheets, and to allow pet owners to request their own sheets.
“We need to know how they get the bedding,” Clinton said in an interview with CBS News’ Charlie Rose.
“And we need to make sure that pet owners get the right kind of bedding for their pets, because it’s not just about how it’s packaged.
It’s about how they’re cared for.”
The CDC has proposed standards for the quality and safety of bedsheets in the past.
The guidelines were based on a 2009 study that determined bedsheets should contain a minimum of eight different types of bacteria and microorganisms, as well as a maximum of three different types and two different strains of coronavirus.
But there has been no agreement on how to define quality, and a handful of states, including New York, Connecticut and California, have set standards that vary widely.
Clinton said she wants standards that can be shared between states, and that they should be made more accessible to pet owners.
“I think there are a lot of ways that we can do it, and we need standards,” she said.
“But I think we also need to have the ability to be able to say, ‘Look, this is what this is supposed to be, what it looks like, and then let’s go and have conversations about how we can make that happen.'”
The Democratic front-runner also suggested the federal government should step in to oversee pet bedding supply chains.
“If the supply chain is not in place, I think there is a very real risk that a pet owner who is sick or suffering from a pet disease might have to wait months or years to get a new bed, and the bed may be a brand-new one, and people will be hesitant to buy them,” she added.
Clinton also said she would support an increase in pet bed standards, including a requirement that pet bedsheets contain a “maximum” of eight types of germs.
The CDC says the standards are based on evidence from a study of bedspread and bedding in dogs, and have been adopted as guidelines in the United Kingdom.
