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The-Truth-About-Pet-Foods

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packaging and brand name. Contract manufacturers have many standard<br />

formulas they will allow aspiring pet food marketers to use. <strong>The</strong>n, to<br />

make it “different” and “new,” it is only necessary to add or remove a little<br />

of this or that. Viola! A “new” pet food is born. <strong>The</strong>re are now hundreds<br />

of companies and thousands of brands, with nothing really new achieved.<br />

Processing remains the same, ingredients usually remain the same, and<br />

therefore the only truly “new” things that happen are perceptions created<br />

by packaging and marketing.<br />

Although the true purpose of industry should be to create useful, high<br />

quality products, the advanced ability to deceive or mislead through<br />

marketing and advertising techniques makes it possible to convince<br />

consumers that quality is high where it is not. Complex products in health<br />

care and nutrition are particularly susceptible since the public is not<br />

sufficiently informed to cut through to the truth. <strong>The</strong> temptation for modern<br />

enterprises, under tremendous pressure to sweeten the bottom line, is to<br />

make it cheaply, convince the public that it is more, and sell it expensively.<br />

You now, however, armed with the philosophic framework discussed<br />

in this book, know better. <strong>The</strong> truth – creatures are designed for their<br />

natural in-the-wild foods – acts like a filter to separate true health value<br />

from flimflam and potential disease.<br />

<strong>The</strong> following section will give examples of how pet food marketing<br />

can be evaluated using this truth. I have before me the literature and<br />

website material from four different producers. <strong>The</strong>y have been chosen<br />

because they have either directly or indirectly criticized the health and<br />

nutritional approach described in this book, or demonstrate egregiously<br />

the points made above. Excuse me for getting a little excited here and<br />

there in the responses. Hopefully, you’ll see why.<br />

<strong>The</strong> outrageous claims, falsehoods, exaggerations and incompetence<br />

revealed in what follows, and prevalent throughout the industry, put pets<br />

in harm’s way. All to turn a dollar.<br />

After some 25 years of research into the diet-disease link, I am<br />

convinced that food is serious business. Feed wrong, and suffering and<br />

death wait. Feed right, and full health potential is possible.<br />

PAGE 163

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