Blue Buffalo Dog Food (caught in a lie???)

[BCSnob]

Purina sues Blue Buffalo for false advertising, disparagement

Independent testing found evidence of false nutritional claims, according to Purina

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company has filed a lawsuit in federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, against The Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., for false advertising, disparagement and unjust enrichment—including violations of the Federal Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1125(a)).



Blue Buffalo’s promotion, advertising and packaging state that its petfood products contain “No Chicken/Poultry By-Product Meals.” In its complaint, Purina alleges that testing conducted by an independent laboratory found that several of Blue Buffalo’s “Life Protection” petfood products contained significant percentages of poultry by-product meal. Testing was done from samples of multiple formulas of Blue Buffalo petfood purchased at retail stores on both the East and West Coasts, says Purina. Independent testing also showed that Blue Buffalo “LifeSource Bits” contain poultry by-product meal and corn, and several Blue Buffalo products promoted as “grain-free” actually contain rice hulls, according to the company.

The lawsuit follows a March 2014 decision of the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, which found that Blue Buffalo is engaging in misleading advertising practices with respect to its claims about competing products. The NAD decision recommended that Blue Buffalo correct its television ad campaigns by removing all of its allegations that Blue Buffalo’s competitors are misleading consumers.

[BCSnob]

My dog's health and temperament problems can't possibly be due to genetics; it's got to be due to food, socialization, chemicals, etc.

[dturm]

CA POPPY wrote:
... The young, healthy dogs I meet with these owners look none the worse for eating doggie M & M's. It isn't until people run into health problems with their dog or cat that they start investigating food quality...

And then often wrongly assume (with the aid of internet research) that every problem is due to that Beneful diet. Talk about difficult conversations...

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

CA POPPY wrote:
The young, healthy dogs I meet with these owners look none the worse for eating doggie M & M's.

LOL!! "Doggie M&M's" - heck no - I think they spray that stuff with Crack Cocaine?! When my daughter and her persnickety dog lived with us - she fed Beneful. MY dogs would go nuts over that stuff - I'd use a few pieces for training treats. In "Dog-Treat" World, my guys ranked it right up there with Nacho Cheese Doritos or freeze-dried liver....LOL!! They'd jump through hoops of fire for a little "green pea" 😉

[BCSnob]

CA POPPY wrote:
I'll bet the internet has changed everything for these big, long-established corporations. Their worst nightmare come true!

I always have the State Farm commercial in the back of my mind while reading websites, especially dog food rating websites.

"You can't put anything on the Internet that's not true"

[CA_POPPY]

YES, Deb! I've had people tell me, "I only feed the best, Beneful! I have to admit, that brand has some of the most touching, Disney-movie type dog food commercials. The young, healthy dogs I meet with these owners look none the worse for eating doggie M & M's. It isn't until people run into health problems with their dog or cat that they start investigating food quality. I'll bet the internet has changed everything for these big, long-established corporations. Their worst nightmare come true! I know it's caused the vets a lot more time answering owners' questions.

Our old, country vet told us he's seen dogs thrive on the cheapest dog food that turns poop red from dye and he's seen dogs have serious problems on pricey, premium dog food. His point was that genetics trumps many other elements of dog care and feeding. The good thing is, we now get to weigh a whole lot of factors and decide what to feed our pets. That is small consolation when you lose a little buddy, though.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

BCSnob wrote:
Many pet foods and the marketing that promotes them are geared to appeal to human sensibilies and ideas on what looks good to eat. Compare the amount of money spent on marketing food to owners as opposed the money spent on feeding trials to determine how well the pets will do eating their food.

Beneful always makes me laugh - do people really believe those green bits are peas and the orange bits are carrots?? *I* just see them as something that will leave a colossal stain if the dog barfs....

[AZPops]

Awh heck nevur mind.

[BCSnob]

Many pet foods and the marketing that promotes them are geared to appeal to human sensibilies and ideas on what looks good to eat. Compare the amount of money spent on marketing food to owners as opposed the money spent on feeding trials to determine how well the pets will do eating their food.

[rockhillmanor]

CA POPPY wrote:
We switched our dogs and cat to Blue Buffalo dry food two or three years ago and they've done well, but the price increases have been ridiculous.

Our old cat quit upchucking

when we switched from Pro-Plan to BB Wilderness. It sounds like Purina is most ticked about the bite into their market share. Our vet is noncommittal on the subject of grains vs grain-free and says if it ain't broke.. He sees pets doing well on both types of food.

X2
Back in the days, after years of my Siamese upchucking all the time, countless vet bills and then finally finding out it was the ridiculous red dyes they seem to like putting in cat food made me a believer just how much, added "unnecessary" colored dyes, can directly affect the health of pets.

Switched him to a no dyes cat food and it stopped the upchucking completely. :S

This was my first red flag to start thinking more about pet food ingredients.

[CA_POPPY]

We switched our dogs and cat to Blue Buffalo dry food two or three years ago and they've done well, but the price increases have been ridiculous. Our old cat quit upchucking when we switched from Pro-Plan to BB Wilderness. It sounds like Purina is most ticked about the bite into their market share. Our vet is noncommittal on the subject of grains vs grain-free and says if it ain't broke.. He sees pets doing well on both types of food.

[Pawz4me]

I have no qualms about that website. Looks to me like everything is laid out relatively matter-of-factly, with links to original documents and sources, etc. I like that.

I kind of doubt Purina really believes this will boost their bottom line. I doubt very seriously that the majority of people using BB products are ever going to switch to Dog Chow. Or even ProPlan. They'd be much more likely to switch to another "premium" food like Nature's Variety, Orijen, etc.

[Francesca_Knowl]

Pawz4me wrote:
Purina has created a website with information relating to these lawsuits --

petfoodhonesty.com

I went to do my normal Saturday morning perusal of Petfinder and there was an ad with that link on the main page. Looks like Purina really wants to get the word out about their disagreement with BB.

An "infowebsite" put together by the Purina marketing department, no doubt.

Such a transparent and cynical attempt to boost Purina's own bottom line by appealing to pet owners' desire to do "the right thing" has just had an unintended effect on THIS consumer.

This household is now permanently off Purina products.

[sue_t]

I think my dogs would be wonderfully happy to eat moose and elk droppings every day. They get pretty excited about those products that are left lying around the property here. Bunny droppings are also very interesting and scoopable.

I'm pretty sure these droppings are the by-product of a predominantly vegetation diet.

These are already the correct size too. Just need to dry and package them.

Hmmmm... :B

[Pawz4me]

Purina has created a website with information relating to these lawsuits --

petfoodhonesty.com

I went to do my normal Saturday morning perusal of Petfinder and there was an ad with that link on the main page. Looks like Purina really wants to get the word out about their disagreement with BB.