Day of the Dog

We had a fantastic turnout at Dog Days Down Town yesterday. Probably the best turnout I've seen in the three years it's been going on, despite threatening weather. We gave out tons of samples, and had quite a few guesses as to "How many treats were in the treat jar". We'll announce the winner next week.

I had to laugh this morning when I saw the Record's article in this mornings paper. Of course, we didn't get any media play (we rarely do), but the funny thing I thought was that Purina did, as

"Purina handed out healthy dog food".

They were giving out samples of Beneful dog food.

I gave a presentation yesterday at this same event on how to read dog food labels, and what nobody but Sharon and my wife knew at the time was that my whole presentation was based on using Beneful as an example of what to look for to avoid, as I think Beneful is one of the worst foods out there on the market. I did not realize Purina would be there giving out samples of this food until we noticed mid morning that people were walking around with their sample bags of Beneful.

So, I changed my presentation at the last minute to "play nice". Those are real people at that booth just doing there job, and I didn't want to pick on the people - just the corporation and the horrible offering that they bill has "Healthy dog food".

If you actually heard my presentation, then you know that you really only count the ingredients before the fat, and for Beneful, this is the ingredient statement:

INGREDIENTS
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, salt, phosphoric acid, animal digest, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, biotin, garlic oil, thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.

Ingredient statements, by law, must list the ingredients in descending order, so what there is the most of will be first. This is all filler and mystery chicken meat. If you read a little further, you also see soy (and my research on what soy does to dog food). Look how far down the list "carrots and peas" are. There are photos of these on the front of the label, but that far down is like a tablespoon's worth in the whole bag. What is "Animal Digest"? I'll have to ask Erin - she's the Animal Science/Nutrition major at our house.

Folks, this is anything but healthy dog food, but they've got the media behind them and their multi-million dollar marketing campaign to make the public think this is healthy food. Picutres of vegetables are anything but a representation of whats in the bag.

I actually witnessed someone going to the event yesterday, skipped every booth that was there, and went straight to the Purina table to get their "free bag of Beneful", then mentioned to his girlfriend/wife that "this is the only reason he came". If you look at the serving size required for Beneful, it's no wonder the sample bag "looks like you are getting a real bargain" for free. In five days, you are giving your dogs a "whole extra serving" because they can't digest all of those fillers. Beneful's serving sizes are HUGE!

I bought a bag of Beneful to use as a visual aid in my presentation, which I ultimately did not use. I'll have to just throw it away now - my dogs won't touch the stuff. I guess they got some money even out of me anyway. Maybe it would work as fertilizer for my flower bed?

Some days I feel like we make such good progress in our mission to educate the public of whats really going on - to actually read ingredient statements - to understand and care what those ingredient statements actually say. Yesterday was not one of those days.

I guess the Purina guys can laugh. They got what they needed out of yesterday, and the little, local dog bakery didn't get anything across about ingredients, even though I chose that to be nice. Maybe I shouldn't be so nice from now on. How do you combat brainwashing?

I wonder what would have happened if I had gotten everyone at the event yesterday to turn over their sample bags and read the ingredient statements along with me, as I explained what those ingredients actually are. If I'd known that they would be getting in the paper as "handed out healthy dog food", I might not have been so nice.