Blue Buffalo admitted the truth in court yesterday: A “substantial” and “material” portion of Blue Buffalo pet food sold over the past several years contained poultry by-product meal, despite pervasive advertising claims to the contrary. Blue Buffalo asked the Court for additional time to file an Amended Complaint in the litigation, naming its ingredient suppliers as Defendants.
The admission came almost one year to the day when Purina filed a lawsuit against Blue Buffalo for false advertising after testing revealed the presence of poultry by-product meal in some of Blue Buffalo’s top selling pet foods.
In its original suit, Purina alleged independent tests showed that Blue Buffalo uses chicken by-products, egg shells, rice hulls and artificial preservatives in its products — despite claims to the contrary. Blue Buffalo has continued to make claims in its advertising that none of its pet foods contains animal by-products thereby implying that Blue pet foods are healthier for pets than competitive foods that contain by-products.
A lab report by Windsor Laboratories, which Purina submitted in the civil lawsuit, alleged several of Blue Buffalo’s pet foods contained poultry by-product meal which contained “between 22 and 24 % poultry byproduct meal, egg shell and raw feather.”
THE BY-PRODUCT BLUES
Animal by-products, the much-maligned pet food ingredient, probably tops most consumers list of ingredients to avoid: A concern that Blue’s advertising campaign exploited. Indeed, when Blue Buffalo commissioned consumer research and discovered that pet owners have strong ideas of what they don’t want their animals eating—above all, anything called a by-product– they discovered the basis for their marketing campaign: “Consumers just don’t like the sound of ‘byproduct,’ says Bill Bishop, the Chairman of Blue Buffalo.
What is chicken (or poultry) by-product meal? Generally speaking, it’s ground-up chicken necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines and it’s not supposed to include feathers (although Purina’s testing found feathers). Animal by-products generally are thought to include organs — lung, spleen, kidney, brain, liver — blood, bone, fatty tissue, stomach and intestines. Which, under certain circumstances, could be perfectly fine ingredients, as long as they were not rendered. Unfortunately, meat meals are typically the result of rendering, a process involving one of the meat industry’s most revolting aspects of dealing with slaughterhouse waste.
But, the central issue is not whether by-products are bad for pets to eat, it’s about Blue Buffalo’s insistent claim that their pet food did not contain ground-up chicken intestines and feet, when in fact it probably did or still does (no one is certain).
HISTORY DOES REPEAT ITSELF
An eerily familiar story involving Blue Buffalo emerged back in 2007, when Purina and many other major brands recalled tons of dog and cat food after the FDA found it was contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical traced to Chinese suppliers. However, Blue Buffalo arrogantly ran advertisements bragging that its products didn’t contain the chemical. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be correct, and Blue Buffalo eventually had to pull a third of its product line. At the time, Blue Buffalo said it had been “deliberately deceived” by one of its contract manufacturers. Sound familiar?
THROWING THE SUPPLIER UNDER THE BUS
Blue Buffalo now claims it had no way of knowing the bags contained by-product meal. A manufacturer is responsible for knowing what’s in its product, which a simple audit of its supply chain would have revealed what Purina discovered after reviewing the documentation.
San Francisco-based Wilbur-Ellis admitted that following a review of its facilities – in response to concerns about product mislabeling – it “revealed poor record-keeping and operational processes at its facility in Rosser, Texas, and the mislabeling of pet food ingredients that were sold to companies that formulate food for pets.” But, Wilbur-Ellis hastened to add that although mislabeled, albeit illegal, “the products sold were all commonly used in pet food and safe for pets to consume.”
Bishop explained, that when the company learned that Wilbur-Ellis screwed up and had accidentally mislabeled some ingredients, he complained that although Blue was “ordering and paying for 100% chicken meal, at times they were receiving shipments that contained poultry by-product meal.”
SELLING THE SIZZLE NOT THE STEAK
Contrary to its carefully cultivated reputation for authenticity, Blue Buffalo’s advertising campaign, as it turns out, was built on a claim that should have been verified. And the image of the little family run business up against Big Pet Food isn’t exactly accurate either: Blue Buffalo is, in fact, owned by a big Wall Street firm and they outsource all their manufacturing, as do most pet food manufacturers.
Started in 2002, Blue Buffalo was propelled by advertising techniques Bill Bishop honed as an ad man on Madison Avenue where he ran ad campaigns for for brands such as Kool-Aid, Tang, Tareyton cigarettes (“I’d rather fight than switch”), and later SoBe, a beverage company he co-founded in the 1990s. Blue Buffalo last year racked up an impressive $1 billion in sales, making it America’s fastest-growing major purveyor of pet food and the largest specializing in the all-natural kibble niche.
Bishop realized that getting into the pet food market by starting small with contract manufacturers making the product was a no-brainer and that all one had to do was, “Slap on a good label, come up with a slogan, and off you go.” He already knew it would be a cinch to pull the wool over consumer’s eyes, because, as he said, “There were already a lot of smoke and mirrors in how pet food was advertised, and that was the sort of stuff we were good at.”
Being the consummate ad man, one who might still believe that any publicity is good publicity, one can’t help but speculate that the wily Bishop has lured Purina into a fight where attention is the real objective.
AN APOLOGY, A RECALL, AND A REFUND
All consumers have received thus far in this debacle in the way of an apology (if you can even call it that) is the wishy-washy half-admission that Blue Buffalo products “may” contain undeclared by-products. If Blue Buffalo sold products to consumers with by-products, has products in the marketplace that are mislabeled, I would expect Blue Buffalo to withdraw those products from the market.
However, despite this admission, Blue Buffalo still has failed to acknowledge complete responsibility for betraying consumer trust in their brand:
They still have not informed consumers of the presence of poultry by-product meal is or may have been in certain formulas;
They still have not revealed if the mislabeled product(s) were removed from the market or which brands may still be on the market or in consumer’s homes;
They still have not issued a recall;
They still have not offered refunds for purchases of said product;
Instead, they have chosen to place the entire blame at the feet of its suppliers.
Perhaps Blue Buffalo isn’t necessarily worse than other brands, but there’s no real evidence it’s any better and therein lays the crux of the matter – that consumers were ripped off.
Quite simply, the very least consumers deserve in an unreserved apology for the deception, the lies that seduced pet parents to buy a pet food brand that they were told was better than other brands and superior in quality for the health and well being of their beloved pets.
While consumers are angry and hurt by the deception, Bishop shrugs and says, “What can you do? Litigation is part of modern business.”
I love my dude but he was a brat today at the beach. Stole a lab's ball and scampered around with it while the owner berated me and the dog tried unsuccessfully to catch him. Since coming to live with us Mac has mastered he art of the fakeout, in which he feints in one direction and goes the other. Its hilarious until he's got another dogs ball in his mouth.
Sustained trotting is GREAT for dogs that are older than one year old, in good health and not over-weight. If your dog is overweight, care needs to be taken with duration and surface. 90% of...
Some good stuff :) sustained trotting is the bomb. We are enormous fans around here.
I used to do this with Ruby! I shed 40 lbs in one summer and Ruby was in the best shape of her life! If you and your dog are capable of doing it, I highly recommend it(while using the correct gear for both your pup and yourself!)
I always wonder why folks comment with things like this.
These sorts of comments tend to just incite people’s anger (on both sides) and there’s really nothing that can be done about it. He’s nearly an adult, his ears are already done- and as far as I’m aware, you don’t follow me. How do you know that I didn’t get him with ears already done? What if he’s a rescue? Does commenting that you’d prefer to see him with natural ears magically change his ears natural? Would it somehow undo the surgery he received as a puppy? Is he actively being harmed by the state of his ears in this picture?
There are plenty of animals on my dash every day that are not to my taste for one reason or another. I’m not going to comment “bet he could breathe a lot better with a longer snout” on someone’s picture of their beloved pug. The pug is not at fault for existing, I don’t know anything about that dog or their owner, and who wants to see such a disparaging comment pop up in their notes in the first place?
As someone who’s received death threats over his dog’s ears of all things, whenever I see comments like this, I do wonder what’s going through your mind as you type it. Do you think I won’t see it? Do you think other people won’t see it and feel it appropriate to comment their own flavor of disapproval? What is voicing how much you disapprove even going to accomplish? Do you actually know my stance on cropping or docking, or the situation in which I acquired this dog?
The rebuttal used is so beautifully self-defeating:
There are plenty of animals on my dash every day that are not to my taste for one reason or another. I’m not going to comment “bet he could breathe a lot better with a longer snout” on someone’s picture of their beloved pug. The pug is not at fault for existing, I don’t know anything about that dog or their owner, and who wants to see such a disparaging comment pop up in their notes in the first place?
Yes actually, the pug is quite probably in discomfort due to his short nose. And yes, whoever made him that way (the breeder) IS responsible for it and SHOULD be challenged on it, but not in a rude unconstructive way. (I.e. No death threats!)
Nobody was saying that commenting on it will magically turn back the clock and undo that surgery or un-breed that particular pug. But you CAN influence what other people do in the future. You CAN have a rational debate about the ethics of pointy-ear-surgery or breeding dogs that can’t breathe, or whatever else.
Here’s the thing. Cutting parts off of healthy dogs for no reason other than your human sense of aesthetics IS NOT ETHICAL. It is wrong. In fact, it is banned in many countries.
Let’s play a game.
Imagine a legal policy on something, but you don’t know what it is. All you know is that these are some countries that have banned it:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
UK
Finland
Germany
Iceland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Sweden
Switzerland
And these are some countries that do not restrict it:
Afghanistan
Bolivia
Egypt
India
Kuwait
Lebanon
Morocco
Nepal
Panama
In whose company do you want to be, not knowing what this is about?
Ooooo you guessed it, you just banned ear-cropping! And, I’m pretty sure tail docking too.
Sidenote: In fact, you can’t even move to Switzerland because it is forbidden to import dogs with cropped ears / cropped tails. Also, the Swiss insist that you cannot keep a lone guinea pig- you must have two. In short, bless the Swiss.
Virtually nobody has a valid reason to go chopping off bits of dober-ear and I have every damn right to point this out, much like I am also free to point out that breeding brachycephalic dogs IS NOT ETHICAL. There isn’t some magical logic-forcefield that prevents people from commenting on unethical shit you’re doing because you like how it looks and they should mind their own business.
Unlike the breeding of dogs with health problems, which may involve layers of ignorance or even well-meaning breeders and buyers.. cropping ears is so clear cut (har har… pun!).. one person goes to the vet and specifically asks for this.
And yes, I agree, it’s not the end of the world. I bet modern ear surgery is done with pain meds and once it’s healed it probably doesn’t affect the dog much. But the fact remains you put them through that to satisfy your aesthetics, and you are absolutely, undeniably, explicitly in the wrong. This is not subjective. It is not about “taste”. You can be a great dog owner otherwise but that doesn’t make it ok to do this.
Aggressively worded one-liners about how one person doesn’t like something is not the way to communicate your opinion if you don’t want to be called out on it. I repeat: if you know nothing about the dog, the owner, the way the dog was acquired by the owner, or the context of the picture itself, perhaps being aggressive about how much you don’t like something that cannot be changed is the last thing you should do.
You do not know how I acquired Creed or who cropped his ears. You assume it was me, that I got him as a natural-earred 8 week old and took him to the vet for elective surgery post-haste, and that his ears were merely cropped because it fits my personal aesthetic. All of those are incorrect. Creed was acquired as an already-cropped 13 week old, and my first doberman was acquired as an already-cropped 2 year old. There is nothing saying this in the post. Commenting that one doesn’t like his ears accomplishes nothing except make that person sound like an ass.
Also if you follow my blog, you would see that I am very supportive of including natural doberman in the AKC standard so that the elective surgeries could remain a choice and not “if you want natural then import”, and thus up my chances of being able to find a good service dog candidate with both his ears and his tail. As it stands, so few actually decent breeders in this country have allowed litters to go home all natural that I can count them all with one hand, and none of them produced service dog candidates in those natural litters. That I continually mock those that think that natural dobes are somehow inferior for not having cosmetic surgery, and that I’m quick to correct someone when they spread the myth that a natural dobe is nothing more than a hound.
Or, you know, you could leave aggressive one-liners about how much you don’t like my dog’s ears and then miss the point spectacularly and write an aggressive (and incorrect, and kinda racist) post about how I am A Bad Person for having a cropped dog while simultaneously knowing nothing about me.
Also: Canada as a country has not banned ear cropping. Certain provinces in Canada have banned ear cropping. There is a difference. North America as a whole has not banned ear cropping, just specific places within North American countries.
Also: In addition to the listed countries that have not banned ear cropping, you can include most of these continents- Central and South America, Africa, Asia. It’s almost like there’s a difference of opinion weighed by a majority, here.
Also: Your quip about me not wanting to associate myself with mostly brown countries backfires spectacularly because, since you don’t know anything about me you have no idea but, I’m not white and you are directly insulting some of my background, culture, family, and friends by implying they are somehow inferior to White Europe. But thanks!
This is why you don’t come at someone you don’t know.
Since Mac is no doubt gonna be a veritable nightmare to the poor soul who expresses his anal glands, i gave him a hipster banana so at least he won’t look like a demon being
i got one of those fancy running watches! v excited to test it out with mac. we can know our pace now! aiming for like.....9:00? I’m crazy out of shape right now. SO excited to take it out for a trial run, hehe.
now just to wait until it’s not approximately 900000 degrees outside.
none while we’re on city streets, non negotiable. our trainer had us use the ‘sit’ and ‘heel’ command (heel in a kind of loose sense, as in, within a foot of my left leg) and he has to stay that way until I give him a ‘sit’ and release command to let him sniff around when we get to an open space/lawn/something where someone can’t unexpectedly pop out at him.
I worry so much when people say to bite their dogs. I love Mac and he loves me but I seriously doubt I could push him so far as to run up to him and chomp on his ear.
Maybe I’m just odd but I don’t want my dogs to “like” kids or anyone else for that matter. I want them to ignore them when we walk. Continuing on that same mindset, I want them to ignore everyone when it comes right down to it. I tend to like the very aloof breeds for a reason.
I couldn’t care less whether someone wants their child to be able to walk up and pet my dogs. My dogs aren’t there to entertain anyone’s youngling. They’re not their to entertain you either. One of the things I dislike about Voo’s temperament is how he loves just about everyone to the point of flopping all over them like a fish out of water. Except my brother. I suppose his good sense has to kick in at some point, but I digress.
When I socialize my dogs, it’s to get them to the point that they know the world isn’t a scary place but that’s where it ends and I start training them to ignore people. If you want your child to be able to play with a dog, I suggest getting on the internet and researching which breeds would be best to add into your home. Because I am under no obligation to make it so little Timmy or little Sally can come play with mine.
And while we’re on the topic, what is it with parents not teaching their children not to be absolute hellions when around strange dogs?
Also, don’t be a asshole when I say dont touch my dog and tell me I shouldn’t have it out if people can’t pet it
One is there to save my life and the other is to protect my life one was trained to ignore you one was trained to bite you. So no I will not let you touch my dogs because you feel you have the right to. My dogs are not their for your fucking amusement
I agreed with this? For some reason. Like, I would love to talk to you about my dog and maybe you can give her a short pet but she’s not going to just love everyone so don’t act like she has to? Sven ignores people completely but I’ve had parents let their children just run up and grab her and pet her and try to take her leash out of my hands.
It’s not only irritating to me, it’s irritating to her. She doesn’t bite, but you can tell she’s not enjoying herself.
One time that sticks in my mind is when a parent pointed at me and Svenja, who were doing disc and obedience training in the empty baseball diamond, the whole park away, and they called to their kid on the swingset and said “look honey! Go see the puppy!”
Like excuse you I am training my dog.
So this kid runs over and starts petting Sven vigourously, doesn’t even ASK to pet her first, then proceeds to snatch the frisbee from my hand and throw it badly, one time catching Sven full in the side of the head with it only to have Sven turn around and take the frisbee right out of her hand (no, she didn’t bite the child, but if someone hit me with something I’d take it away from them too.)
So then the kid starts crying and the parents run over like “what happened honey what’s wrong” and the kid says “that dog snapped at me!”
Well then there was a shitfest. So I proceeded to keep my cool (which was extremely hard because 1) anxiety all over the place and 2) how fucking dare you this is why I hate kids), anyway so I said “She didn’t bite her. You can check for yourself. So they checked and there was no evidence of Sven even touching her. Not even a red mark. And they said “Why did the dog snap at her then?” and I said “Maybe because your child hit upside the head with a hard plastic frisbee.”
THE FATHER THEN PROCEEDED TO TELL ME THAT IF THE DOG CAN’T HANDLE AND ACCIDENTAL SMACK FROM A CHILD, THAT WE SHOULDN’T COME TO THE PARK.
That’s when I lost my cool and said “Well maybe it’s not my dog who should be banned, but your child, for her abhorrent manners.” and the father says “And what the hell did she do wrong?!” (at this point Sven has put herself between me and this guy cause now his tone is aggressive and you can tell she’s preparing to apprehend in case he tries to grab me)
so I explained how she ran over, didn’t ask to pet the dog, snatched my frisbee (aka, my property), from my hands, and proceeded to throw it, causing the frisbee to hit my dog in the side of the head, hard at that because she forgot to LET GO of the frisbee so it was kind of like hitting the dog with a hard plastic stick, in the face).
Well that got them to thinking, and they proceeded to say “So, she says the dog snapped at her, why would she lie?” and I say, in Svenja’s defense “The dog didn’t snap at her. The dog snatched the frisbee out of her hand on the side furthest away from her hand, and took it from her because she didn’t appreciate being hit in the head with it. My dog never bit or snapped at your child. Your child is probably scared because children don’t like having things ripped from their hands. The fact that my dog DIDN’T bite your child because of her behaviour shows you that my dog has a lot better manners, not to mention self control, than your child had in that moment.”
Long story short that ended the conflict. Until the child attempted to smack Sven on the nose for taking the frisbee from her.
That’s when I took it upon myself to put myself between the kid and my dog and do that thing I do where I stare you dead in the eye with the look of the ultimate bringer of doom and suffering and say “Don’t, you even dare.”
The parents and the child left the park and we continued our practise.
Because at that time I was using my GoPro camera to record how Sven sees the disc before she catches it to see if she was straining to catch.
I got all of this on film and they knew it.
Parks, and why I don’t go to them anymore. Right there. In a rather large nutshell.
Overall I’ve found the kids around here to be really good (not approaching a dog, and if they do, asking if it bites first before trying to touch it). If anything, it’s all the americans and canadians (seniors) coming down from up north who are the problems. The whole mentality about dogs is completely different compared to up north.
Once upon a time I wanted a social dog, now after dealing with social dogs I just want one that can ignore stuff. I don’t care if Epic doesn’t love dogs or people in the end, I’d just like her to be able to ignore them. And next dog will be socialized like ofdreamsandomens said.
After having been with overly stranger- friendly dogs ( my in law to be's dumb poodle), generally reserved dogs ( my childhood corgi mix), and naturally wary dogs ( Mac), i have to say i put less and less value on my dogs being super friendly with strangers. Mac is well on his way to bring safe to take anywhere because he can follow my lead and doesn't really want to interact with other people. I kind of like it. A lot better than i lie strangers dogs jumping all over me for attention.
Hey dogblr’s! I had a thought. We always answer memes about our dogs, but we never do any of ourselves. The handlers. So, basically the point of this is for everyone to get to know each other a little better. You answer with your name (just first name unless you’re comfortable giving your last name), your gender (and your preferred pronouns because that’s important), and what you do for a living if you’re comfortable with that. It’s almost like taking about what your dog’s name, gender, and played games/sports are.
I’ll start.
Lexi Sonnenfeld, Non-binary (they/them/their or he/him/his pronouns), Currently a student (unfortunately)
Jasmine (tend to go by Jas though)! She/her pronouns, I am a student working towards becoming an animal trainer and behaviour counsellor :) I have a trial on Sunday for a part time job at a dog boarding and training centre.
annaxmalina
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
origamiaround
titsay
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
