Saturday, March 24, 2012

Great News and Congratulations to Facebook! (did I just say that????)

Yes I did! We are barkin' happy that Facebook did something socially conscious in the pet community and that's why we are posting this good news today. In response to concerns raised by the ASPCA and its national “No Pet Store Puppies” campaign, measures will be put in place to ensure that puppy mill dogs will no longer be sold via Marketplace on Facebook. The ASPCA is working with Facebook and Oodle, the online classifieds service that powers Marketplace on Facebook, to restrict listings of puppy mill dogs on the popular social media site. Through an ongoing removal process, ads placed by puppy mills have already started coming down. The process was designed to ensure that individuals may continue to post dogs available for a nominal adoption or re-homing fee. To read more click here.
__________________________________________________________

Hats Off Award

Halo Pet Food, partially owned by Ellen DeGeneres, wins the very first
'Hats Off Award' from TruthAboutPetFood.com. Pet Food giant Science Diet challenged Halo in 'Advertising Court' (bol!). The Hats Off Award is to recognize Pet Food Manufacturers that have acted or taken action encouraging the pet food industry to become accountable for their ingredients, labels, and manufacturing of pet foods and treats. More about this story here.
Pin It!

5 comments:

Bailey Be Good! said...

That's GREAT news about FB! Thanks for letting us all know! :)

Woofs & hugs, <3

~Bailey (Yep, I'm a girl!)

Two French Bulldogs said...

We saw that, yippee to Facebook
Benny & Lily

Jack George said...

Hills pet food is dedicated to helping pets reach their full potential through quality nutrition and healthcare.

Reba Messina said...

@JackGeorge - It sounds as if you work for Hill's but hard to tell as your blog has nothing on it. To address your statement I'm sure Hill's feels they are "dedicated to helping pets reach their full potential through quality nutrition and healthcare". I'm not saying that Hill's is a bad company. My dog was on Hills for 13 years until I learned more about truly nutritious food for pets with no grains, no fillers, etc.

Friends dragged me kicking and screaming for a couple of years into learning more about pet nutrition. I always used to do exactly what my Vet recommended until I became more educated.
Hill's is a for profit company (nothing wrong with that) that must appeal to the greater portion of the pet population in order to meet their financial goals. In order to do that Hill's, and other large commercial pet food companies, must use filler ingredients (less expensive ingreds - less nutritious ingreds) mixed in with better ingredients to make the food affordable enough for the greater portion of pet owners.

Hill's supports Vet Teaching schools with an incredible amount of money and support so by the time Vets graduate and get into a practice Hill's is just about the only food they know and the Vets are emotionally connected to them. Vet schools, so far, do not spend much time at all on pet nutrition or holistic medicine so Vets are not educated in those areas. One Vet told me that they spent about a minute on pet nutrition in school.


Fact is once pet owners start researching alternatives to traditional pet foods and start introducing holistic supplements to their pets and eventually study Food Energetics in pets, understand what natural and organic really means, and start moving toward raw foods, there is a major noticeable difference in their pets within a very few weeks in terms of their coats, energy levels, joints and so much more.

There is a much smaller portion of pet owners who are willing or able to spend the money on raw diets for their pets but if Hill's wanted to get into the game and really help pets reach their full potential through quality nutrition and healthcare, then Hill's could start manufacturing food like Ziwi Peak, Orijen, Nature's Logic, EVO, Honest Kitchen Wervua, Pawgevity, Taste of the Wild and a handful of other small manufacturers. Just sayin' George.


Oh by the way, my dog Reba is now pushing 17 years old. A few months ago I took her in for her Sr. Exam and her liver values were 3 x/s out of normal range. My vet recommended putting her on Hill's K/D. She knows Reba eats raw but asked me to fold some of the K/D into her diet. I was so nervous about Reba going into liver failure that I did just that. A few days later I noticed that when my dog peed on the grass, the grass was turning brown. That had not happened in 3 years since I switched her off commercial foods. I realized that the K/D was not PH balanced, that there was too much acid in it which was disconcerting. So I made an adjustment in Reba's daily protein so she's not getting so much and stopped the K/D. Took her back 6 weeks later for a re-eval and her liver enzymes were back in the normal range which amazed us.

There are a lot of ways one can look at the pet food industry. My philosophy isn't for everyone just as higher end commercial foods, like Hills, are not for people who grab pet food from the grocery story shelves. Truth be told, Home Cooked food where you have complete control on what your pet eats is the absolute best route to go. I'm not a cook nor do I have the time so I chose the second best way to feed my dog. Just trying to get this little girl to age 20 the best way I can. Reba's Mom.

Four Paw Savings said...

Thanks for posting about Facebook! Good to know that more and more people are learning about how horrible puppy mills are!