Petco Will Stop Selling Treats from China

So PetCo is going to continue selling their poisonous inventory for 6 more months because it would be the end of their world if they didn’t make a profit on the poison, no matter how many pets got sick and/or died.

If they recognize the danger in these products, then why wait until the end of the year to stop selling them? Are they afraid of losing the profits to be made on their current inventory of poison? It would seem they are simply bending to public pressure and the probable decline in sales, rather than a true concern for pet health and safety. Otherwise, they would have stopped selling them long ago and stop selling them NOW rather than later. Sadly, PETCO is still a FOR PROFIT business concerned with the bottom line and the pets really do come in second.

Why end of the year? Why not now?

Let’s see if they really do it. And will they stop selling the oh-so-profitable Dogswell line of jerky treats? They will probably keep selling them and then say they ‘didn’t know’ because Dogswell has done such a good job hiding the information on the bags. It’s a shame we have to be so cynical about this whole industry, but we do.

Did anyone think that for a huge corporation, major changes take time and planning. Yeah a mom and pop could walk over and just dust off the shelf. Petco has been impressing me a lot lately. They have also been the first retailer to stock and endorse raw food. Way to go Petco, I’m impressed.

I am a bit baffled. For two reasons.
1. I don’t understand why the target date is December. I don’t really care why Petco made that decision. If they are just afraid of lawsuits – who cares? Product comes off the shelves. That they go beyond the jerky treats is a very welcome step.

2. I don’t understand the attacks on Petco. As flawed as this decision is – wouldn’t it be more productive to make other retailers the target of outrage? After all, they haven’t announced any plans to remove jerky treats, let alone other treats made in China. And lets not forget – this could have happened a LOT sooner had there been a widespread boycott of these products. We consumers have failed to organize and put substantial pressure on these retailers.

http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061024/news_1b24petco.html
Shareholders are the ones demanding profit. Shareholders are the ones to hold management accountable if expectations are not met.
http://www.pehub.com/2010/11/petco-raising-17-billion-for-dividend-to-leonard-green-and-tpg/
http://www.pehub.com/2012/10/petco-to-pay-603-mln-dividend-shareholders-including-leonard-green-tpg/
http://www.pehub.com/2012/10/petco-to-pay-603-mln-dividend-shareholders-including-leonard-green-tpg/

Hmmm.
Does that mean that they will be checking all food/treat products to not include ingredients from China?

So far, the only company that I see making that pledge is Merrick dog food.

PetCo could stop selling it now. However they could get total reimbursement from their insurance if the FDA issued a recall.
Just please don’t donate this junk to animal controls or rescues or shelters.

I am a very fussy pet parent & am constantly scanning labels and am trying to understand all the verbiage they put on pet food labels. Thank goodness a law was passed to let consumers know what is inside not only for pets, but for our own consumables. We just need to go even deeper than the superficial wording. I do shop at indy pet supply stores as well as Petco for some things, but support their non-China made products and have suggested they start to carry more American-made foods, treats and yes, toys. All that plastic and rubber material cannot be good for pet’s mouths or stomachs if they end up there. I’ve also discussed with the managers that being aware of foreign-sourced ingredients is still on the radar and needs to be watched and eliminated. If enough consumers start to communicate their concerns to store managers whether big box stores or ma and pa stores, that communication surely has to trickle up to the corporations. If we demand it, they have to listen! My cats mean the world to me and if anything happened to them, well, watch out! Makes me think of the Melamine scare in human baby formula that got immediately yanked off the shelves all around the world not too long ago. It’s high time that pet products with dangerous ingredients also be pulled immediately. I’ve even complained to supermaket store managers that they should not be stocking pet food in the same aisle as household chemical cleaners! Can you imagine feeding your pet dry food out of a porous paper bag that sat next to bleach or harsh cleaning products for who knows how long? Yuck! The whole issue of Pet food, treats, toys etc. is the oil slick coming to the surface and it simply cannot be denied any longer. People are finally waking up to the hard truth that profitability is more important than the health of pets who to some of us, are far more important to us than human kids as they up until now and until Susan’s wonderful work, have had no voice. Now they do! It’s through us the owners! Our voices are getting louder and are being heard, but we have to keep at it.

Finally, after Susan’s dedication to get the truth out there and into the brains of we pet owners, change is coming about albeit slowly which is unfortunate as we are dealing with trade with a country who we are linked to whether we like it or not. Bottom line is that we the consumers DO have the power to initiate change. Our wallets are our voting ballots and we still have the ability to contact our elected officials and make our gripes heard and again, the louder our gripes, the more we are heard. Grassroots efforts do get lots of attention that leads to major changes. To see that major network news programs are actually addressing these pet food ingredient issues is encouraging. Perhaps a happy medium can be achieved between countries who supply/manufacture/export and the end destination places if we’re all on the same page and agree that if we are to continue to do business with them, full disclosure is absolute and if they want to continue to do business, they have to address our concerns and understand the utmost importance of what the end result will be when it comes to the consumer. I’m sure the US is not the only concerned nation who has experienced negative results from tainted products from China. A thought did occur to me though. In China, dogs and cats don’t stand much of a chance as animal abuse is rampant there. Perhaps reaching out beyond pets or commodities which they seem to be there will help change how they themselves view animals and animal rights and maybe a new global respect for animals will come about that might be applied to pet food manufacturing. Knowledge is power! To quote the X Files’ Agent Mulder’s poster: “The Truth is Out There”!

These jerky treats from China have poisoned, gotten contamined, and even made lots of pets pass away from these horrible treats. With all that said, Petco is going to remove the threats at the end of this year?
Perhaps they should Google the 2012 recall of all those jerky treats that came from china. Maybe they’ll get a clue.

I find all the negativity around Petco’s decision puzzling. They have made a decision that even the FDA has avoided given the lack of conclusive evidence. Petco’s decision here will have done more for this cause than any blog site could ever achieve. Already Petsmart is following Petco and perhaps this will lead to other chains (grocery, mass retail) to follow. As for the delay, Petco is a self-distributed chain. That means they they own lots and lots of inventory. Independent stores can easily get out of China jerky because they buy from distributors. I think if everyone pushes the emotion to the side here, it’s pretty obvious that the Petco decision will have the single greatest impact to this cause than anything else and it is not even close. Great job Petco!