The city of Rock Springs, Wyoming posted a brief public notice regarding the city’s potential partnership with Hill’s Pet Food. “In an effort to save money on purchasing pet food for the Rock Springs Animal Control Shelter, the City is looking at partnering with a pet food company.”
The city of Rock Springs also made available the agreement that Hill’s Pet Food provided in order for the shelter to receive that discounted pet food. The agreement requires the animal shelter to purchase Hill’s Pet Food “exclusively” for the cats and dogs in their care. The agreement also requires the Shelter employees and volunteers “to educate Pet adopters about Hill’s’ brands and products (including through the use of adopter script in Appendix D, and other instruction materials provided by Hill’s from time to time).”
The adopter script provided by Hill’s pet food included the following suggested conversations with adopters…
“At ‘shelter name’, we’re proud to be part of the Hill’s Food, Shelter & Love program and we feed our pets Hill’s brand pet foods.”
“We suggest that you continue feeding ‘Pet’s name’ Hill’s Science Diet:
– Continuity and consistency of food helps avoid the stress of switching
– While feeding Science Diet, you are offering ‘Pet’s name’ a pet food that is or has:
#1 veterinarian recommended
Precise nutrition supports healthy skin, coat & stool”
…and on and on.
The proposed contract between Rock Springs Animal Control Shelter and Hill’s also requires any shelter social media posts to “tag Hill’s in the content, #HillsFoodShelterLove and #HillsTransformingLives at the end of the communication.” Hill’s provided the following examples of social media posts for the shelter…
So…what kind of a discount would the shelter receive from Hill’s for all this promotion of Hill’s pet foods?
This discount pricing chart was also included in the agreement:
The Hill’s Pet Food agreement provides the shelter with a 35% discount for wet pet foods, but ONLY a 23% discount for dry dog and puppy food (undoubtedly the most used/purchased type of pet food in shelters).
Is the Hill’s Pet Food discount worth an animal shelter becoming a marketing tool?
Wishing you and your pet the best –
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Concerned
November 7, 2022 at 11:36 am
They can get a better discount if they buy directly from Chewy with Autoship up to 40% savings. Or their buy 3 get 4th free which is 25%. And no BS that h-ILLS (pun intended) makes them do.
Cheryl
November 9, 2022 at 2:27 pm
Yes, I had the same thought. They should be checking with Chewy. I’m not aware of any company that is so supportive, caring, and generous to customers and rescues.
Linda Sannino
November 7, 2022 at 11:54 am
That shouldn’t be Legal. Disgusting.
Kayleigh S.
November 7, 2022 at 12:02 pm
Unfortunately the SPCA here in BC, Canada does this already and has for awhile. When I worked in the pet industry customers always asked what food they could donate and I told them don’t bother because they won’t accept it. Completely ridiculous to partner with such garbage food, and to turn away donations from good samaritans.
Jane
November 7, 2022 at 12:42 pm
Hills also pays tuition for veterinarians too!!! Hills is highly pushed at Vet schools.
Margo Mann
November 7, 2022 at 12:44 pm
Will the shelters tell the public about all the recalls Hills has had?
Gill
November 7, 2022 at 4:45 pm
It really is pitiful, dishonest and unethical. It also explains why every veterinarian’s office I’ve been in only ever has Hill’s crappy food in it. We have an emergency vet office here in Greensboro, NC where we unfortunately had to take one of our dogs a few weeks ago and they were delighted to tell me that she’d eaten the wet food they’d given her, twice. What the vet failed to take into consideration was that the dog hadn’t eaten for 3 days .. under those circumstances she probably did eat it but when we got her home, she turned her nose up and wouldn’t eat it!!
Jane
November 7, 2022 at 7:15 pm
Yes, all Veterinary offices carry Hills as they make good money selling it. And the Vets are loyal to Hills as Hills probably paid for part of their tuition. Worst food on the market.
Kathy
November 7, 2022 at 7:20 pm
Bribery at the expense of our pets.
T Allen
November 7, 2022 at 7:40 pm
Wow. My really quick calculation for Hill’s chicken puppy kibble at 23% off equals $2.25/# for 30# bag. Ingredients:Chicken, Brown Rice, Whole Grain Oats, Cracked Pearled Barley, Chicken Meal, Pea Protein, Chicken Fat, Flaxseed, Egg Product, etc. Chicken 4th ingredient.
Amazon Wonder Bound $1.06#/30# Ingredients: Chicken, white rice, grain sorghum, wheat flour, chicken by-product meal, rice bran, ground corn, corn gluten. Pretty similar right?
Amazon WAG $2.00/# 30# Chicken, CHICKEN MEAL, brown rice, white rice, grain sorghum, egg product, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), fish meal, oatmeal, dried yeast, flaxseed, dried beet pulp, etc.
Amazon WAG is a much better product (if you have to feed toxic garbage) for .25 cents less per bag!
Eve
November 7, 2022 at 10:18 pm
hoodwinked yet again!!! The commercial processed pet food industry is jumping on the backs leaching the life out of pet saviours. As if these rescued and rehabilitated pets have not gone trough enough already! The unethical practise of forcing this toxic gulp waste sh@@t into the bowls of cats and dogs is just another way they have found to SYPHON OFF WASTE UNFIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION that’s it in a nut shell no other way to put it. The animal rescue shelters NEED EDUCATING ON CORRECT CAT AND DOG NUTRITION use your head guys not your eyes PLEASE WAKE UP your being LIED to. Possibly ok if they were rescued ruminants then the only problem there would be quality…but cats and dogs are NOT PERIOD DOT biologically designed to eat this CRAP. Why is it raw and or cooked human food pet manufacturers out there not banding together to SAVE PETS LIVES the correct way? Far too quickly the rescuers grab whatever support comes along. To me this is saying we love these animals under conditions NOT unconditionally. Susan my friends Cavoodle is only 6 years young. She has been diagnosed with Ascites with less than 4 months to live! She ONLY ever ate the commercial dog food called mydog and you guessed it kibble. Her liver is so poisoned it is failing to work efficiently. Her belly is constantly tight and balloon enlarged, while her body muscle mass is wasting away showing skeletal spine and hip joints poking through the skin. This sadness and angers me HOW CLUCKIN DARE YOU DO THIS TO HER! Hope what you did to her and millions of other animals fills your company stockings with KARMA.
RIP my dear sweet friend x
Dawn Dallmann
November 8, 2022 at 11:49 am
With all the free advertising you would think it would be sent free of charge to the shelters. 😉
Sarah
November 8, 2022 at 12:29 pm
If the “shelter” is even partially TAXPAYER supported (part of local government or with a government contract for taking in county/city animal control critters) that is ILLEGAL without an open-bidding process. If the “shelter” is a 501(c)3 charity or a nonprofit similar rules govern the exclusivity concept and moreover it would be against the Internal Revenue Code to promote a product for any form of gain even if that gain is a “discount.” Private vet clinics can indulge in this dishonorable practice but PUBLIC or CHARITABLE entities cannot. I hope in that area some local citizen will challenge this or at least alert regulators. So ugly what these pet food companies do. Just SO UGLY and SO CORRUPT.
Royal Canin
November 18, 2022 at 12:05 am
It really is unethical and really shock to hear.