Why do humans not learn valuable lessons until after the fact? I can’t point any fingers, because it happened to me too. But, I just don’t understand it. After a pet gets sick or dies, a pet owner learns about inferior and/or risky ingredients in their pet’s food and only then makes changes. But it’s ‘after the fact’ – after a pet gets sick or dies. Why does it have to happen this way?
Very recently I was talking to someone who was very knowledgeable in organic ‘people’ food, yet she fed her dog what I consider to be a very inferior pet food. When I made a slight suggestion (and I really mean slight suggestion) that she should consider changing dog foods, I heard the same response I’ve heard many times before…”We’re doing fine with it.”
I once thought I was ‘doing fine’ too. And then my dog died at eight years old from bone cancer my vet told me was caused from the chemical preservatives in her food; I wasn’t doing fine anymore.
Is it that we are hard headed, and once we get comfortable with something we just don’t want to hear anything bad about our comfortable place? Or is it that it takes hard lessons for us to learn? The following shares some further insight…
“What’s the secret of your success?” the teacher asked.
“Two words,” the principal replied.
“And what are they?” asked the teacher.
“Right decisions.”
“But how do you make right decisions?” the teacher queried.
“One word,” the principal responded.
“And what is that?”
“Experience.”
“And how do you get experience?” asked the teacher.
“Two words,” replied the principal.
“And what are they?”
“Wrong decisions.”
We all make those ‘wrong decisions’. But the question still remains, why does it take a hard learned ‘wrong decision’ in order for pet owners (myself included) to learn what pet foods to avoid? Years ago I owned a pet boarding and training facility in Louisville, KY. A contractor I had hired walked out on me before the job was finished with $3,500.00 of my money in his pocket. Which ended up costing me another $3,500.00 to hire someone else to finish his mess; a $7,000.00 ‘wrong decision’. Even though I wasn’t a happy camper about my expensive lesson, my father added to my education sharing some advice I’ve never forgotten…’well, you’re learning who NOT to do business with’.
It is such a shame that so many pet owners have to learn the hard way who ‘NOT to do business with’ in regards to pet foods. There are folks out in the world who have learned their hard lessons and work to prevent others from learning the same way. From natural and holistic pet food store owners to bloggers and to website owners like myself, my guess would be many started their business specifically because of the pain they felt learning that hard lesson and they truly want to prevent others from making the same mistakes.
Which leads me to what I think is a possible explanation of ‘doing fine with it’. We have all been exposed – over exposed – to people and businesses that sell us on something and then later we discover it was only to line their pockets with money. We’ve all been burned far too many times. We’ve become jaded, and tend not to believe anyone about anything. Because we’ve believed in so many different people and products, and had the rug pulled out from under us so many different times, and every time fell painfully on our #$% without any warning…now we tend to want to learn things the hard way. Bummer.
If you’re still with me – still reading this – here’s what I think we can do. For starters, once you find someone or something that you’ve found to be quality – if it doesn’t hurt the environment, or damage anyone’s person or pet, tell other people about it. Ok, yes, at first some might still have that jaded attitude and not listen. But…just imagine…if after some time of being told about good things – products and people that can benefit your life, maybe as a whole we would begin to shift to becoming more open and less having to learn those hard lessons. Then, the people and companies that really are mindful of your health, your pet’s health, our environment, and so on – those companies could earn more money, produce more ‘good’ products or services and the whole thing can just keep right on rolling!
I firmly believe that the many profit minded companies out there are counting on we will continue to be jaded and will want to learn things the hard way. They count on those folks ‘doing fine with it’. With pet food, they count on their tremendous advertising dollars keeping the media quiet and count on their lobbing efforts keeping the laws the same, protecting them and hindering the quality minded manufacturers. They count on nothing will change. Actually if you think about it, absolutely nothing has changed since the deadly recall last year. Chinese imports continue to be tainted, continue to lack inspections by the FDA, and pet owners continue to buy pet foods whose label does not tell them country of origin of ingredients.
And then with the most recent recall from Mars Pet Care due to Salmonella contamination; as with the many Salmonella recalls in recent years, absolutely nothing has changed either. The FDA has not required – through law – pet food manufacturers to properly disinfect pet food manufacturing equipment in between batches or runs. One ingredient in batch one could be contaminated, and if the equipment is not properly cleaned and disinfected, batch two, and batch three, and so on can become contaminated and the result can be hundreds of illnesses and deaths.
We can’t count on the FDA to suddenly ‘get it’ and we can’t count on profit minded companies will suddenly have a change of heart (or that they even have a heart). But we CAN count on those we trust. Once you find those products or services you trust, please, make an effort to help those companies; tell others about what you’ve discovered. Who would you rather give your money to? A quality minded person or company, or a profit minded person or company? It’s up to us to help build the quality minded companies into power houses they deserve to be. I am all for any business that produces a quality product; those that earn money ethically, honestly and without deception. Those guys should all be millionaires. Because when they do make it – they invest in other ethical companies and projects and everyone benefits. Start sharing with your family and friends about the ‘good’ stuff you come across, if only the quality minded companies begin to get support, the impact on the entire world could be tremendous.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author, Buyer Beware
Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
PetsumerReport.com
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 2500 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. www.PetsumerReport.com
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