Purina law suit

[last5oh_302]

Can't let this thread die Mike. Lol. I knew you'd be back. LOL

[mooboy76]

I guess it's more convenient to buy the dog's food while you're already at the grocery store or Walmart, and it's cheap.

Yes, on both accounts. I really like the Acana foods (the dogs like to eat it too), but I usually blend it 75/25 with Beneful to ease the wallet at bit. That also allows me to buy the 'standard' Acana blue bag, and adjust the Beneful flavour to change things up a bit for variety. That said, I do find the Acana foods to be a great value for their price point. The loyalty programs make it even better.

Both my dogs are currently on 100% Beneful for a while, because money was and is pretty tight - at least I know they like it. We'd tried several brands/flavours in between the price of Beneful and Acana or Orijen, and our dogs refused to eat most of them. It sure surprised me, since our male is food motivated for training. I thought he'd eat just about anything.

I did pick them up a bag of Science Diet T/d, and blend at 10-20% to help with their oral hygiene. I am surprised by how well that food works.

I'll start blending in the Acana again in June.

[last5oh_302]

So you're mixing your acana with a little cardboard then. Lol. Sorry mooboy but Beneful is just crap no matter how you look at it although I understand your financial situation. There are still better alternatives than feeding a bag of chemical cereal filler to make them feel full. The neighbours garbage might be a good start.

[last5oh_302]

Just for interests sake lets look at the ingredients of a couple of cheaper kibbles and a couple of better quality foods. I;m copying and pasting this since somebody's vet told them to feed PP Focus but they were feeding Puppy Chow. Puppy Chow is pretty much the same as Beneful:

Here are the ingredients of Pro Focus Large Breed Puppy (Chicken and Rice) -

Chicken, brewer's rice, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pea fiber, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), dried egg product, animal digest, fish oil, calcium phosphate, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium citrate, L Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, garlic oil, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B 12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, Vitamin D 3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, and sodium selenite

Here is the ingredients list from Puppy Chow -

Whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soybean meal, egg and chicken flavor, brewers rice, barley, animal digest, calcium phosphate, fish oil, calcium carbonate, dried yeast, salt, potassium chloride, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, Yellow 6, ferrous sulfate, DL-Methionine, Yellow 5, Red 40, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, Blue 2, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite. Y-4001

Just for fun - let's look at the ingredients of two of the better foods available -

First, let's look at Orijen since most members here agree that it is just about the best commercial food available - their Large Breed Puppy contains -

Boneless chicken*, chicken meal, chicken liver*, whole herring*, boneless turkey*, turkey meal, turkey liver*, whole eggs*, boneless walleye*, whole salmon*, chicken heart*, chicken cartilage*, herring meal, salmon meal, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, chicken liver oil, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pea fibre, chickpeas, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium, Vitamin A, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, niacin, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, Vitamin B12, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, selenium yeast

And Taste of the Wild's puppy - this is High Prarie -

Bison, lamb meal, sweet potatoes, egg product, pea protein, peas, potatoes, canola oil, tomato pomace, roasted venison, beef, flaxseed, potato fiber, natural flavor, ocean fish meal, salmon oil (a source of DHA), salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, yucca schidigera extract, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus reuteri, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

I think that you can see by looking at these ingredient lists which food is the better food and which food shouldn't be fed at all.


Now, I'll be honest - some dogs do just fine on Ol' Roy which has about as much nutritional value as paper but that doesn't mean you should feed it! Your best chance for a dog that lives a long healthy life is to start out feeding a high quality diet - much like you will live a longer healthier life if you eat fresh, quality foods instead of McDonald's daily.

[last5oh_302]

Most of the Orijen and Acana lines of foods are about 75% meat. I think Purina Dog Chow probably contains about 5-10% meat? and that meat is just by-products....often rotten meat that is not sold in grocery stores, chickens that have died of disease, and and other 3-D meats (dead, dying and decayed), feathers, beaks and feet (waste from the chicken processors).

Bottom line is that your dog will most likely live eating Purina Dog Chow, or Beneful, or Pedigree....but they may not thrive.

People may ask what's wrong with corn?
Somehow---power of advertising? lack of critical thinking? taking what vets say about canine nutrition as gospel?--people think feeding corn, grains, and cereals to dogs is perfectly fine.



Would you feed your horse or pony buckets of meat and expect them to thrive?

[Cass]

I'm amazed this thread is still going. Makes me want to bash my head off something

[mooboy76]

So you're mixing your acana with a little cardboard then. Lol. Sorry mooboy but Beneful is just crap no matter how you look at it although I understand your financial situation. There are still better alternatives than feeding a bag of chemical cereal filler to make them feel full. The neighbours garbage might be a good start.

Could be.

They've been exclusively on Beneful since the end of September; they are energetic, happy, urinating and defecating normally, and the female's coat has never been more luxurious to feel. I don't attribute the coat to Beneful, she practically did not shed during her first three years and is just growing into it, but her coat has not suffered either.

Maybe there are millions of dogs suffering in silence from us feeding these foods. You mentioned buying it at Walmart when picking up the groceries or other shopping. That is a good indicator that it is a seller; Walmart doesn't tolerate duds, and definitely would not allot two shelves of six feet to the product if it did not sell lots. That means that there are potentially tens of thousands of people buying Beneful for their dogs every week.

The problem with these law suits is that , how do you prove it was the dog food? The lawyer for the plaintiff has to figure out how it was only the dog food that was the dependent variable in the deaths. Almost impossible to prove . He'/ she would have to prove that EVERY other variable was the same for EVERY dog. Good luck.
The defendant's lawyer will of course be able to provide thousands of dog owners who feed Beneful and have had no problems.

From the FDA Jerky investigation, it seems it is quite difficult to prove it was the food.

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/.../ucm295445.htm
What were the findings of the 72 necropsies that were performed?

We are exceptionally grateful to the owners who consented to allow FDA to perform post-mortem examinations of their beloved pets. We understand this is a difficult decision to make and appreciate the opportunity to learn more about the potential cause of death.
The FDA performed necropsies on as many cases as possible in order to learn more about the cause of death, even when reported symptoms did not appear to be related to eating jerky pet treats. About 54 percent (39 dogs) were found to have died from identified causes such as widespread cancer, Cushing’s disease, mushroom toxicity, parvovirus enteritis, bacterial meningitis, abscess, pneumonia, cardiac lesions, infarcts, or internal bleeding secondary to trauma. In the remaining 33 dogs, no specific cause was identified and jerky pet treats could not be ruled out as contributing to the deaths. Twenty-six of these dogs had indications of kidney disease and two dogs had gastrointestinal disease.
Few of the necropsies (5 of 72) revealed indications of the FLS that has become the hallmark of the investigation, perhaps because some dogs diagnosed with FLS either improved or recovered with appropriate veterinary care and removal of the treats from the diet. Additionally, in three of the dogs who tested positive for FLS, the necropsies revealed causes of death unrelated to jerky pet treats.
Although the majority of the dogs reported as testing positive for FLS survived, and their FLS seemed to resolve once the treats are no longer fed, it is important to note that most of these cases also received veterinary care, including hospitalization, intravenous fluids, etc., during the duration of their illness.
We still have necropsy cases pending and will provide updates in future reports.

In this kind of tort case, I think they are hoping Purina blinks first.