Purina Beneful lawsuit

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driftless shifter

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Our dog, a Beaglador mix got to being old, lazy and stinky, a couple years ago. she was 9 at the time. She also had hotspots she wouldn't leave alone. She's a rescue dog, we think she was abused she is so submissive. Vets assistant suggested changing dog food, removing grain from diet. It changed her life within 2 weeks. She's now 11 1/2 bright and chipper. We had been feeding her Beneful. We've been feeding her Wellness Core ever since, which uses potato as a binder instead of grain. Don't know if its the switch from grain to potato or just getting her off of Beneful that made the difference. The change in our Lucy was really quite remarkable, she never showed any distaste for the Beneful but then her modus operandi has always been, "There might be food". Thought you dog owners ought to know.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-claims-purina-beneful-pet-food-sickens-kills-dogs/

Bill

 
I checked out a couple of different websites who analyzed the ingredients of a  bunch of different dog foods and then rated them by how beneficial they are for the dogs. They also explained what some of the ingredients actually were. Beniful was one of the bottom ones. I have been feeding my old dog Canidae since we got him over 8 years ago. It is one of the top rated ones. He had one episode over a period of days when he got the runs, so the vet suggested switching him to grain free. Canidae also comes in grain free, so Ive been buying that. I found out later that Canidae had changed its recipe without notifying everyone so that was probably why he got sick. However, hes been doing fine on the grain free, so Ive kept him on that. We started our Hank Dog on it when we got him last year. And he too is doing well. Vet reports are always good. Buddy the Dog is over 10 years old now and still chases the short one around the yard on a daily basis... when its not too cold that is.
 
My Tibby the dog was on beneful for about a year.  I didn't notice any ill effects but quit the stuff after doing some internet searching which revealed a lot of reports of some very sick dogs who got well after their food was changed.  I now have him on a salmon and potato food from The Real Canadian Superstore.  He seems to be doing well on it.  Has anyone else fed this food?  I don't know if it would be available in the U.S.  Dan
 
Unfortunately the 'good' brands are ones that most people have never heard of.  And more expensive.

If you have a dog you should check out www.dogfoodadvisor.com before you buy anything.  I assume there's a similar site for cats, birds, ferrets ect.

Our Goldens get Merrick grain free and Wellness Core Dry Dog Food (both rated 5 stars) mixed 50-50 and a handful of string beans.

I wish it were easy to identify which foods have ingredients imported from China.
 
Checking or a cat food advisor.  (on edit: www.catfoodadvisor.com is under construction, same people as dog food, but not yet up and running)

I do not know what it is about Beneful but I do know they claim it is killing Dogs and a pet-food Recall was issued

If you want to read the recall go to community.compuserve.com/cooks (if I got it right) and search for Pet Food Recalls in the folder that includes the word "Alerts" in it's name,,, It should be near the top.. Scroll down to it.

You can also find it in the Diabetes forum under FDA RECALLS, but it's way further down

Do not recall if it is in the 2014 or 2015 collection.
 
I have been suspicious of dog food for many, many years.  Shortly before we got Jackson in 2007, when we still had our yellow lab, I started researching dog foods.  I wanted a totally 100% natural one.  When I read what was in some of the so called top brands, I blanched!!  At the time one of the few if not the only natural one was Blue Buffalo.  I used that for many years and a few years ago I noticed several more natural brands coming on the market.  More research.  I now use a Canadian brand called Acana which also makes Orijen.  Both made by a company located in Alberta, Canada, called Champion Pet Foods.  Excellent pet foods, I think they can be ordered online to be shipped to the US.  I also noticed that they are opening a plant in Kentucky following the strict standards of the Alberta Canada plant.  I also feed Jackson raw meat as part of his diet.  There are many raw dog food places popping up these days and Natures Variety is available now in Petsmart in their freezer.  When I read about the Beneful problem I was not surprised.  I also feed Jackson fresh fruits and vegetables which he loves and are better for him than dog snacks, less calories too.  Maybe I'm a little OCD about him, but he's worth it.
 
I don't buy dog snacks. I buy tubes of Natural Balance dog food and cut them up into bite sized squares. My dogs will do anything for those treats, and since its a decent quality food, its not full of crap that the snacks are made of. Plus I give them bits of my bananas and the bottom bumps off bell peppers.
 
I noticed that one of the items that was mentioned in the law suit was propylene glycol. Propylene glycol is the "safe" antifreeze and is the "pink stuff" that we use in our motorhome fresh water system. I would not want to drink propylene glycol by the gallons, but it is considered safe. The big thing for me at this time is the treats that are coming out of China. These treats have caused a lot sickness and some deaths in the past 4-5 years. The bad dog food "recall" was from a source of protein that also came from China and affected several brands of dog food. However, all that has been correct and is not a problem at this time.
 
Many of the food recalls I see, both pet and animal feed, and Human ood..  Comes from China.lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

However that said: US companies are guilty of this too:

A product fails to meat the standards, Perhaps somethig is lacking or something is there that should ot be.. So we can not sell it domestically.. SHIP IT OVER SEAS.  Yup, that's what they do.
(NOTE: They = the company that produced the faulty food/product,  It does not indicate a country, I can name US companies that have done this but choose not to since .. Well there are now laws which I would violate if I named them, Yes, the government protects those companies, at least in some states).
 
there are some things that China does well.  Electronic manufacturing there is very good.  At the bottom of the list is food processing.  Anything even remotely edible produced in China simply cannot be trusted.

People with children in China smuggle milk & formula in from other countries whenever they can.

China is riddled with corporate, government, and personal corruption.  Anything for money as long as you don't get caught.  Plenty of Chinese businessmen have been executed for corruption but it changes nothing.  The same despicable crap keeps happening again and again.

Professionally I worked in the periphery of medical device and pharmaceutical brand integrity.  Most of the counterfeiters we were able to locate were in China.  Local law enforcement would shut them down and they'd be back in business in a week a couple of miles away.  A totally corrupt country.
 
I deal with a lot of electronics and have friends who make me look like a slacker in this area... I am not convinced they do Electroincs well.. OK, yes, but not well.
 
Not to steal this thread, but just watch 60 Minutes on laminate floring made in China.  Super high levels of formaldehyde.  Labeled to neet Calidornia regulations, but tested by US labs at far greater levels.  Formaldehyde known to cause cancer and bronchial problems.
 
John From Detroit said:
I deal with a lot of electronics and have friends who make me look like a slacker in this area... I am not convinced they do Electroincs well.. OK, yes, but not well.

I agree with John on Chineese electronics "quality".  Rembering Hewlett Packard lab equipment and further back Crosley radios etc.  This was not the disposable junk we are presented with today.  I believe that China has the potential to build quality equipment but economics gets in the way of that.

Dan (first time using quote - hope I did it right)
 
I think most of the blame can be placed on American greed and what is called the "Wal-mart" economy. While Wal-mart started it, other businesses have embraced it. They have enough buying power that they can go to the manufacturers and pretty much set their own prices. The manufacturers are forced to meet those prices or lose huge contracts. In order to meet those prices and still make a profit, they have to reduce their costs. So they go the their suppliers and give them rock bottom prices that they will pay. So the suppliers have to meet those prices and still make a profit, so they give them lower quality materials, which leads to lower quality products. Which leads to toxic protein substances in dog food and baby formula.
 
One could just as easily 'blame' improved communications and cheap transport.  Like it or not there is a global economy.  We fail, they all fail.  They fail, we fail.

The bottom line is that China's version of the FDA is ineffective and corrupt.  Food producers get away with murder.

Not everybody does business with the lowest bidder.  Some, like the company I retired from, stress quality, cosistancy, longevity, and stability more than price.

Off topic: 
About Crosley radios.  They were big, bulky, hand made, and had tubes.  They were point to point wiring, easy to work on and repair.  When I was a teenager I made pocket change repairing  Radios & TVs.  Those days are gone.  The circuitry that comprised what was essentially a superhet radio now fits on a single chip and sells for less than a dollar.  Very little is manufactured in ways to make it repairable, and some (Like Apple) go to great lengths to make home repair impossible.  But we also have computers that sell for $35 (raspberry pi) that could not even be dreamed of back when Crosley was alive.  Would you pay someone $150 an hour to repair a $35 computer?

Very few places do board level repairs anymore.  Too expensive compared to replacement cost.  But some of us do.  Go to www.ifixit.com and you'll see what I mean.  Want to take apart your iPad.?  (presumably to find the made in China label) they can show you how.

My DW says I can fix anything, and break three others in the process. ;)
 
Muddypaws,  we've seen incredible changes in both level of technology and quality in our lifetimes.  Level of technology has gone up while guality has gone down.  We have no cause and effect inherent here.  I meant to extoll not the level of technology (it was what it was) but the level of quality built into the products in days gone by.  Combine that level of quality with today's level of technology and we will have something worth writing home about.

Dan
 
i disagree.  Electronics are much more reliable than they were 'back in the good old days'.  Add to that that making a reliable 5 tube radio, or a 15 tube TV should have been easy.  Sadly many of them weren't  very good.  I remember slapping the side of the cabinet to make the damn things work.  I worked on lots of them.  Burned components, melted wires, and of course fried tubes. 

Given that today's TVs are single purpose computers with somewhere in the neighborhood a million transistors it's amazing that they work at all.  Yet some of them seem to work nearly forever.  I have several ranging from 8 to 20 years old that still work.  I've changed the DLP bulb in one of them.  But I guess the darn bulb should have lasted forever to be better than the old 'slap the side' TV.


I am speaking of TVs manufactured in China.  Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic., and a Polaroid manufactured by 'who knows'.  All probably assembled in China.

I sure hope that the folks who made the decision to manufacture electronic medical diagnostic devices (my business) did their due diligence regarding quality electronic manufacturing in China.  (The company is still in business so I guess they did.)  I wasn't happy to see it go there, but it was inevitable.  Part of it went to Scotland and Switzerland too. 

Are there bad things coming out of China?  You betcha!  It all of it crap?  No way.  If it was the entire worlds infrastructure would fail in a heartbeat.  Including your computer, my computer, and the networks that enable this conversation.  It all electronic manufacturing in China Six Sigma?  Nope.  But some of it is.

Do I give my dogs food that has any connection with China? (Back on topic) not only no but heck no.  Do I drink out of plastic bottles from China? Nope.  Do I buy any processed chicken?  No, because they don't have to tell you that it's grown here, shipped to China for processing, and shipped back!  Do I buy Chinese tires?  Never in a million years!

Frankly, the only way I see to avoid Chinese electronics is by becoming Amish.

 
The thing is, because of how fast technology changes, why doe anyone care about how long their TV will last? There will probably be a whole new way of watching TV within the next few years. Anything lasting longer than 5 or 10 years will surely be obsolete by the time it wears out. Spending more money to get something that will last that long seems pointless.
 

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