Dog Tidbits

In a previous post, I talked about how much Lisa and I liked Merrick dog food for our dogs Faith and Mac. One of the reasons was because — in owner Garth Merrick’s own words — Merrick Pet Care sold only to “the independent specialty pet market, ” which consists of locally owned and online pet shops. Merrick maintained that his company sold only to these pet shops because it was the independents who supported him when he began manufacturing dog food and cat food.

If you go to the Merrick Pet Care website, you can still see and hear Garth Merrick say those words in the video on the home page. Unfortunately, though, he’s no longer telling the truth. The sad fact is that for Merrick, profits trumped principle. He now sells to chain stores. It’ll be interesting to see how long the current version of the video remains on their website.

Merrick Pet Care follows a long line of independent companies such as Toms of Maine toothpaste (now owned by Colgate Palmolive), Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (now owned by Unilever), and Burt’s Bees skin care products (now owned by Clorox) that have sold out to national or global conglomerates. The companies couch their reasons for selling out in lofty-sounding terms. But the reason is simple: They put profits ahead of principles.

In Merrick’s case, Garth Merrick didn’t sell out the company, but he did betray his often-stated principle of selling only to “independent specialty” pet shops. Currently, Merrick is selling his dog food and cat food to Whole Foods and PETCO. There’s speculation that he also will cut a deal with Petsmart as well.

I learned that Whole Foods was selling Merrick dog food and cat food this past summer, when Whole Foods bought out Greenlife Groceries. Green Life was as locally owned organic grocery store in Tennessee with sites in Chattanooga and Ashville. Lisa and I discovered Merrick pet food there well over a year ago and began feeding it to Faith and Mac.

Last summer a friend of ours who’s a local vendor who sells his product to Greenlife told us that the store was being bought out by Whole Foods. (He also mentioned that Whole Foods had begun limiting shelf space to local vendors and replacing their products with Whole Foods’ own brand-name ones, many of which undersell the local products.)

When I asked one of the Greenlife employees if Merrick was going to continue selling to them now that they were owned by Whole Foods, she responded that customers loved the product and Whole Foods was negotiating with Merrick to keep selling their food. The food never left the shelves, even for a day.

This past weekend, Dale of A Natural K-9 blog alerted me that PETCO was selling Merrick dog food and cat food. I checked the PETCO website, and — sure enough — they were offering the whole gamet of Merrick pet food and treats. The prices are lower than what independent pet shops sell them at.

Apparently Merrick downgraded some of the formulas they use in making some of the food. Right now I gather that the change is mainly for the dry food. I assume Merrick made the change to meet the increased demand of selling to chain stores. Lowering the quality of a product to expand production isn’t surprising, though. Companies do it all the time to sell to conglomerates such as Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and Target. Many of the companies sell the products at reduced prices, so manufacturers compromise quality to maintain profits.

Lisa and I try to support local businesses. One reason we bought Merrick dog food was because Merrick sold only to independent businesses. Now that Merrick doesn’t do that anymore, we owe no more loyalty to the Merrick brand.

If we still want to buy Merrick pet food, we’ll purchase it from a local pet shop such as Aunt Sue’s K-9 Bakery & Pet Supplies or The Bone Appetit Bakery (website being updated) and not from Whole Foods or PETCO. We might have to travel further to buy it, but we’ll still be supporting local businesses.

I think, though, that we’ll look for another brand to buy. After all, there are plenty of high-quality dog foods to choose from. And some of them still sell only to local pet shops.

Garth Merrick’s decision to sell to PETCO and other chains also hurts the independent pet shops he claimed he wanted to support. One thing that separates local pet shops from chain pet shops is that the locals carry products the chains don’t. One of those products was Merrick pet food, which many people love. Now owners of local pet shops will feel the financial pain in reduced sales.

Merrick’s decision also hurts local communities. Now instead of $68 of every $100 spent on Merrick pet food staying in the community, only $43 will remain. That difference of $25 will go to PETCO’s corporate headquarters in San Diego, California and to Whole Foods’ corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. Soon that $25 also will go to Petsmart’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

In his comment on my Merrick pet food review, Dale said that “[a] brand name can always be sold or changed. Its a business.” He’s so right. And Merrick is a good case in point.

For Merrick, profits trumped principle.

Ever since she came to us three years ago, our fearful dog Faith has had trouble finding a playmate. For the longest time she tried to get our cats, Caesar and Princess, to play with her. But she wanted them to play like dogs — and they wanted no part of that.

When Lisa and I adopted Mac, we thought that Faith would finally have a playmate. But no dice. Mac had no interest in playing with her. The frustrating thing — for us, anyway — was that Mac would play with Charlie whenever he came over for a long-term slumber party.

Charlie belongs to Kim, who pet sits for us when we go away for more than a day by staying in our house. Faith loves Kim… Continue reading

On October 8, Blue Buffalo Company issued a dog food recall for three lines of dry food because the food might contain too much vitamin E. According to the company, the dog food recall affects “limited production code dates.”

The foods being recalled are:

• Blue Wilderness Chicken Flavor dry dog food
• Blue Basics Limited Ingredient Formula Salmon and Potato Recipe dry dog food
• Blue Life Protection Formula Natural Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe Large Breed Adult dog food

Following the practice of companies such as Merrick Pet Care, Blue Buffalo Company buried its dog food recall notice deep in its website, making the notice difficult to find.

Here’s the… Continue reading

Is This Dog a Source of Clean Energy?

We all love our dogs and cats. But their poop is becoming a serious problem here in the U.S.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average dog creates 274 pounds of waste a year. That’s a lot of dog poop! But if one dog outputs an amazing 274 pounds of dung a year, just think how much waste every dog and cat in the U.S. must create each year. According to William Brinton, president of Woods Ends Laboratories, Inc. — which has been studying animal waste for the past 36 years — the total… Continue reading

Photo by Svadifari / Sean via Flickr

Today human-style pet burials are becoming more and more common as we increasingly think of our four-footed companions as members of our families. So much so that currently there are over five hundred pet cemeteries across the country. And more and more pet crematories and pet funeral homes are opening up for business every year well. (The owner of one pet crematory that opened recently near Chattanooga told me that he handled over four hundred clients in a single month.)

Additional services pet crematories and pet funeral homes offer include such things as:

• Coffins
• Markers
• Memorials
• Fur clippings

Our Fearful Dog Faith — Free of Fear at Last to Walk on a Leash

Fearful dogs and fear of leashes often go hand-in-hand. Our fearful dog Faith would avoid us if she saw a leash in our hands. With a lot of patience and hard work, though, Lisa and I succeeded in helping her overcome her fear. Now Faith goes on mile-long walks with us around the neighborhood.

The big breakthrough came when Lisa not only enticed Faith to leave the backyard on a leash, but also enticed her to walk to our next door neighbor’s house and back –… Continue reading

Announcing another dog food recall.

On September 3, Hartz Mountain Corporation recalled one specific lot of 74,400 8-ounce bags of Hartz Naturals Real Beef Treats for Dogs because of possible Salmonella contamination. Hartz imported the treats from a supplier in Brazil. Apparently, Hartz sold the treats to a number of customers in the United States

If you have an 8-ounce package of Hartz Naturals Real Beef Treats for Dogs, check the lot code and the UPC number. If they match the ones below, then your package is part of the Hartz dog food recall:

• Lot Code: BZ0969101E
• UPC Number:  32700-11519

Here’s the text of the full Hartz dog food recall notice as it… Continue reading

Pet gates come in all sizes and shapes. There’s one to fit every cat or dog guardian’s needs. The one that worked for us was the Carlson Extra Tall Walk Thru Pet Gate with Cat Door. Both Lisa and I consider it a great product. Here’s why.

When our fearful dog Faith first came into our living room to live, we were confronted with a special problem. We didn’t know how Faith would react to our three cats while we were at work. Would she think they were chew toys and kill them?

You might think our concern was a bit far fetched, but it wasn’t. Already Faith had killed a tiny duckling that had somehow… Continue reading

If you have a cat and live in Loveland, Colorado, you might want to know that Proctor and Gamble (P&G) just recalled “a small number” of their Iams Proactive Health Indoor Weight & Hairball Care dry cat food.

Fortunately, the recall only affects one or two pet stores.

The reason for the recall? You guessed it. The food might be tainted with Salmonella, although no one’s reported any illnesses from the food yet.

Here’s the text of the full recall:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 29, 2010 – CINCINNATI  — Procter & Gamble (P&G) is voluntarily recalling a small number of bags of its Iams Proactive Health Indoor Weight & Hairball Care dry cat… Continue reading

Photo by Erick Pleitez via Wikimedia Commons

Animal shelters all across the country are being swamped with unwanted dogs and cats.

The reasons for the deluge vary. When some people lose their homes, they move into rental houses or apartments that don’t allow pets. So they either abandon their pets or drop them off at shelters. Other people simply don’t want their dog or cat anymore and dump the unfortunate pet somewhere. And some people don’t neuter their pets.

Folks in the part of Tennessee in which I live are notorious for not neutering their dogs and cats. For example, a couple just down the street keep two unneutered dogs –… Continue reading