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Thanks to Social Media and Educated Consumers…

…we are changing the future of pet food. Perhaps more than we realize. Here is consumer feedback to a Beneful advertisement on Facebook.

…we are changing the future of pet food. Perhaps more than we realize. Here is consumer feedback to a Beneful advertisement on Facebook.

First, credit must be given to Beneful for taking ‘the heat’. Many pet food companies would simply delete negative comments – Purina did not.

The discussion started with this advertisement that happened to show up in the Facebook feed of an educated pet food consumer…

The phrase “farm raised chicken” is popular in pet food today. But…more and more consumers are learning that the phrase means absolutely nothing in reference to quality of ingredients, it is just marketing (farm raised chicken?…what…as opposed to city raised chicken?). Certified humanely raised chicken would have a valid meaning, “farm raised” is meaningless marketing.

The ad didn’t seem to go far for Beneful, even with a $3.00 off offer. Note that the above screen shot image of the Beneful advertisement on Facebook was posted ten days ago (posted 1/12/18 – screen shot image taken 1/22/18). In ten days, this advertisement was only shared 32 times. That’s not very many shares for a coupon type ad. Not too many years ago, Beneful was the #1 selling pet food in the United States. A lot has changed over the last several years (thanks to educated consumers).

To compare shares, a recent post from Facebook that pet food advocate Rodney Habib posted got 632 shares in just one day…

 

Under the Beneful ad of January 12, 2018 was a comment from a consumer that shared with Purina TruthaboutPetFood.com’s recent post on Purina by-products…

Beneful responded…the consumer responded…and I responded…

And then we had more discussion…

While I give Purina Beneful respect for staying in the conversation (and not deleting these comments), their response back to me was misleading. When any pet food company tries to assure a consumer their ingredients “come from a USDA facility” or as Purina states “originates at facilities certified by the USDA…” the statement tells the consumer nothing about the quality of ingredients. Condemned animal material “comes from” or “originates at” USDA facilities. Purina claimed their by-product ingredients are “high quality ingredients”. For most, high quality would at the very least be USDA inspected and passed by-products. Just because by-products ‘originate at USDA certified facilities’ does not assure the consumer by-products passed inspection, does not assure ‘high quality’.

Also, when a pet food company tries to assure a consumer their ingredients “meet the careful guidelines established by AAFCO” – again the statement means nothing regarding quality. Not one AAFCO ingredient definition requires it to be sourced from from USDA inspected and passed meat or by-product sources. Pet food companies use this type of statement quite often, knowing full well that AAFCO owns the ingredient definitions and most consumers don’t spend $100 a year to read them. Any pet food company referencing “careful guidelines” of AAFCO is probably not being fully transparent with the consumer.

And under the same Beneful ad, several consumers spoke up with complaints about the dog food – which Beneful let stand…

 

I firmly believe ‘we’ are making a difference. Consumers are speaking up, sharing the education. Together…we are holding the pet food industry accountable. That’s a very good thing.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food


Become a member of our pet food consumer Association. Association for Truth in Pet Food is a a stakeholder organization representing the voice of pet food consumers at AAFCO and with FDA. Your membership helps representatives attend meetings and voice consumer concerns with regulatory authorities. Click Here to learn more.

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The 2018 List
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12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Robin

    January 23, 2018 at 10:41 am

    Susan I continue to educate people and send them to your website the world is a better place because of you

    • Susan Thixton

      January 23, 2018 at 10:52 am

      Thank you – but this is a team effort. Changes we see are because we are all working together. Go Team Pet ‘Food’!

  2. Peter

    January 23, 2018 at 10:59 am

    I do give “credit” to Purina for letting certain comments stand. But the follow-up response does adhere to what we’d expect, and is intended to gratify only non or mildly-aware consumers. Purina really has no choice but to accept that they need to confront and participate in social media… so I can’t really give them any “credit” for accepting that.

    The problem is that they are piggy-back-ing on already accepted deceptive practices of “puffery” and misinformation that pet food manufacturers have always used. When (for example) Purina uses terms such as “farm raised” its plainly deceptive since anyone with a meager understanding of modern agribusiness knows those terms are carefully researched and abused. We should intuitively know that “farm raised” does not mean what we might imagine: it is what Purina or Frank Purdue want us to imagine. In that, Purina cops the meaning consumers take from current Purdue TV advertising, in which “farm raised” is portrayed as “happy” chickens casually living (by choice) outside with room to roam and luxuriate in green grass under blue sky, etc. with the company executives casually strolling through. That’s not what life there is like, and it is patently dishonest and such a gross misrepresentation that it should be illegal. In reality, it’s a “factory farm” where animals are commodities, nothing more, with no federal protections whatsoever, for example, for chickens (fowl).

    Purdue is running this ad continuously right now. Purina, gets to benefit as the concept of “farm raised” chicken is being defined for consumers via moving images on TV every night.

    • T Allen

      January 23, 2018 at 2:23 pm

      That Perdue ad makes me laugh every time I see it! The chickens are Cornish X (little pigs of the poultry world) and as you can see they are all except for one, lying right where they were placed on that nice green freshly mowed lawn. They are lying there because they can barely walk a few feet, they wouldn’t know what to do with a plants or a bug because the instinct has been bred out of them. They spend their days lying with their heads in the feeder except to try and walk 5′ to get water. They weigh 5# at 5 weeks old when they are butchered. GMO corn fed pigs with wings. And yes, the by products from them, day old male chicks and spent laying hens are what you feed your dog and cat. 🙁

  3. landsharkinnc

    January 23, 2018 at 11:42 am

    there needs to be more education of pet owners as to how to file a complaint with the FDA about a food ( or Drug ) problem — that is REALLY how we are going to make significant inroads in to the issues of unsafe feed . Vets need to get on board with it as well — they don’t have to ‘concur’ that the food caused the issue, only that Brand x was what the animal was fed, and that it exhibited xxx symptoms/condition not caused by other disease or illness. Pet owners can ‘convince’ their vet to sign off on the complaint if they are diligent

  4. Helen Fowler

    January 23, 2018 at 11:46 am

    I wasn’t feeding Purina foods when I had my two heelers…Sophie, a blue heeler, and Shelby, a red heeler/Jack Russell cross. I was feeding Nutra Nuggets Lamb and Rice. It was good quality (at that time15 yrs ago.). I couldn’t afford pet store foods, but Nutra Nuggets had named source ingredients. No corn, no preservatives, no artificial dyes. Alas, it contained menadione sodium bisulfite K…which I believe led to my Sophie having “spells”, and to My Shelby having -and dying from- hemolytic anemia at age 9. One of the causes of hemolytic anemia can be from toxins. I don’t know that the menadione was the sole toxin…she had been treated with Advantage, to kill the flea(s) I couldn’t see, but was causing her to be super itchy…she was allergic, and I saw the bites. Then cortisone shot to stop the allergic reaction. Then an antibiotic to curb the secondary infection from her scratching, then an anti-fungal to stop the systemic yeast infection that was likely due to the cortisone and antibiotics. I gave them one at a time, even though the vet said I could do the last two together, which didn’t make sense, because for me, the antibiotic alone can cause yeast overgrowth. Meanwhile kept feeding the Nutra Nuggets. When Shelby collapsed a few weekends after all that, and began peeing blood, I ran her up to the vet, who took blood and urine samples on Saturday morning. By Monday, we knew we were fighting a losing battle and took her in to have her put down. That’s when we received the diagnosis, but knew she was too far gone to save, so we held her as she crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I started doing a lot of reading and discovered that hemolytic anemia can often have a toxic cause. There was absolutely nothing in her environment that could have done it, other than the onslaught of medications. I researched all the plants in the yard, even! But as I reasearched, I came across information on the menadione in their food. I don’t blame the food for Shelby’s death, but I do believe it was part of the problem. Interestingly enough…Sophie never had another “spell” after that and lived to be 13, sleek and healthy from feeding even better foods. I have noticed that Nutra Nuggets has removed that ingredient from their food since. Describing Sophie’s spell: they would last no more than 5 minutes, but usually 2 to 3 minutes, where she would be super stiff, she would swallow a lot, and she was scared. I would just hold her and talk to her and then she would simply, suddenly be okay. She never had convulsions or lost consciousness or continence. One time, during a spell, she saw a squirrel and jumped out of my arms to go after it, in a very stiff way barking and trying to run. The spells happened randomly, sometimes during the night, while asleep, and it would wake her…there was just no pattern. Less than once a month. But she never had another spell after Shelby passed and I had changed foods.

  5. Tryniti

    January 23, 2018 at 11:54 am

    I wish someone would have taken the opportunity to address, as well, that when a company lists “by-products”, that literally means they have no idea what is in their food! By-products are not inherently evil. It’s just different parts of the animal. In fact, the most nutritious parts, such as the liver, heart, tripe, and lung. But it can also mean not very nutritious parts, like beaks, feathers, and feet. The pet food I use knows EXACTLY what goes into each bag, and has the cleanest supply chain in the world. They list out each part of the animal in my pet’s food, and there are no ambiguous terms like “Animal Meal” (what animal??), “Poultry by-product meal” (What type of poultry? What parts of the animal are included?? Do they even know?), etc.

  6. Diana Tippit-Casella

    January 23, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    When I have products I disagree with or have an opinion about come through my FB feed as a paid advertisement, I have posted my negative experiences, or about other similar products that I recommend instead, etc. and have been surprised later on that my comment in the advertiser’s thread is still there later on. (Maybe someone “liked” it and that led me to check on the comment I posted later)
    This makes me wonder if the advertisers don’t have an option available to delete negative comments.

  7. Debbie

    January 23, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    Susan, This has been going on for years with Purina. I myself battled with Purina on their page and they do let the comments stay. But they also follow it up with the private message to the person. They are getting details from consumer and offering $50 or $100 to get them to sign a paper to shut up. HUSH MONEY. So Purina is still doing the same tricks they have been doing for years because it is working for them. I really don’t see much of a change here. Sorry! But we do need to keep fighting this until one day Beneful is OFF THE SHELVES. (and all of the other garbage Purina puts out)

  8. Andi

    January 23, 2018 at 3:35 pm

    This does give me some hope! I tell everyone who has dogs about your site and try to spread the word. We feed Primal and Answers and raw has saved my pup’s life. You rock Susan!

  9. Ian

    January 23, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    I love the woman’s response “I work in a vet office and I’ve seen what your product has done to pets”. !!! Interesting to hear that the private contacts possibly result in buy-off payments. I was immediately suspicious that identifying the individuals was the first step to suing the consumer for making negative statements on social media. Thank you Susan for your tireless efforts to educate the nation to understand how the pet food industry uses sophisticated marketing to profitably sell garbage to pet owners. If anyone ever saw the real ingredients of most mass produced pet foods they would never feed it to their pet.

  10. Jane Eagle

    January 25, 2018 at 2:20 am

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