Bandit's Buddies: May 2015

WSBTV.com – an Atlanta television station – is reporting that a Walmart private label brand of jerky treat – imported from China – is linked to 23 sick dogs including 3 deaths. When will this madness stop?

To date, jerky treats imported from China have been killing and causing serious illness in dogs (and a few cats) for more than 8 years. FDA continues to tell pet food consumers they are investigating, but for some reason the FDA can’t seem to find the cause. Only with instances reported to FDA (a small percentage of the actual amount), jerky treats imported from China “are suspected in 4,800 pet illnesses and 1,000 dog deaths.”

WSBTV.com states this Walmart private label jerky treat was brought into stores in 2014. Why – with 8 years of reports of pet death and illness linked to Chinese manufactured jerky treats – why would Walmart go to China to source their own private label brand?

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ST. LOUIS, May 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Purina issued the following response to Blue Buffalo's admission in court yesterday that a "substantial" and "material" portion of Blue Buffalo pet food sold to consumers contained poultry by-product meal, despite pervasive advertising claims to the contrary. Blue Buffalo asked the Court for additional time to file an Amended Complaint in the litigation, naming its ingredient suppliers as Defendants.

"Despite this admission, Blue Buffalo still has not informed consumers of the presence of poultry by-product meal in Blue Buffalo pet food, refuses to accept responsibility for the product it sold, and is instead blaming its suppliers," said Keith Schopp, a spokesperson for Nestlé Purina Petcare.

On May 6, 2014, Purina filed a lawsuit against Blue Buffalo for false advertising after testing revealed the presence of poultry by-product meal in some of Blue Buffalo's top selling pet foods. Blue Buffalo's CEO responded by immediately claiming the testing was "Voodoo Science" and assuring their customers that "Blue Buffalo does not use chicken by-product meal or poultry by-product meal in any of our products."

According to Schopp, "Only when faced with undeniable evidence from the lawsuit has Blue Buffalo admitted the truth to the court: a 'substantial' and 'material' portion of Blue Buffalo pet food sold over the past several years contained poultry by-product meal. It is unclear to us if or when this practice stopped, or whether any Blue Buffalo pet food containing by-product meal is still on store shelves."

No small company, it is estimated that Blue Buffalo sells over a billion dollars of pet food at retail and well over 10 million bags annually.

"Through a $50 million annual advertising campaign that flooded airwaves and pet food aisles alike, Blue Buffalo told consumers over and over, emphatically and without qualification, that its products never contain poultry by-product meal," said Schopp.

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