Community Chat

[Kachina624]

Thought you might be interested in this letter from Purina concerning a lawsuit against the makers of Blue Buffalo.

"Dear Pet Owner,

Purina believes that honesty is the most important ingredient in the relationship between pet owners and pet food manufacturers, so that pet owners can have trust in the food they choose for their pet.

In the interest of ensuring pet owners understand what is in the pet food they buy, on May 6, Purina filed a lawsuit in U.S. Federal District Court in St. Louis against The Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., for false advertising. We took this action because we believe that Blue Buffalo is not being honest about the ingredients in its pet food.

Here are some facts we’d like you to know:

• Blue Buffalo’s promotion, advertising and packaging repeatedly and unequivocally state that its pet food products contain “NO Chicken/Poultry By-Product Meals.” As documented in our lawsuit , however, testing conducted by an independent laboratory revealed that several of Blue Buffalo’s top-selling “Life Protection” pet food products actually contain substantial amounts of poultry by-product meal.

• Independent testing also shows that Blue Buffalo “LifeSource Bits” contain poultry by-product meal and corn. In addition, several Blue Buffalo products promoted as “grain-free” actually contain rice hulls, despite Blue Buffalo stating on its website that its “grain-free” products will “free your pet from the grains and glutens that cause allergic reactions in some dogs.”

• Our lawsuit follows decisions against Blue Buffalo by the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. In March 2014, NAD found Blue Buffalo’s advertisements to be misleading and disparaging against competitors’ products. NAD also found Blue Buffalo’s advertising deceptive in a 2008 decision that recommended its superiority claims be modified and its “NO Animal By-Products” claims be discontinued when referencing pet food products that actually do contain animal by-products, such as fish meal, lamb meal and/or liver.

For more than 85 years, Purina has been putting pets first and raising the standards for pet nutrition – from innovative research, to food safety, to sustainable practices. We are invested in the quality of our food because we are a company of pet lovers. Our principles have guided us to take this action to stop misleading and deceptive advertising aimed at pet owners. We encourage you to learn more about our case, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company v. Blue Buffalo Company Ltd., Civil Case 4:14-cv-00859 and the NAD decisions. View the press release.

At Purina, what goes in the bag goes on the label.

– From the Pet Lovers at Purina

[mewsmomtoo]

Thank you for posting - just yesterday I was thinking of making the switch to Blue Buffalo. I guess the only way to really know what is in your cat's food is to make it yourself

[CrazyDaisy]

Blue Buffalo has issued a response statement to the Purina lawsuit. It reads…

Dear Pet Parents,

I’m writing to you about the lawsuit Nestle Purina filed today alleging that Blue Buffalo has lied to you about the ingredients in our pet foods. We categorically deny all of these false allegations and will aggressively defend the integrity of our brand and our products. It is an easy thing to make unsubstantiated claims, put them in a lawsuit and then publish them all over the web to disparage and defame a company. It is quite another thing to prove those allegations.

Please be assured that unlike Nestle Purina:

Blue Buffalo does not use chicken by-product meal or poultry by-product meal in any of our products
Blue Buffalo does not use ground corn in any of our products
Blue Buffalo does not use artificial preservatives in any of our products

We will prove these and other matters in the court with good reliable evidence, and we look forward to disproving the voodoo science that Nestle Purina relied on to support their outrageous allegations.

We’re disappointed to see one of the largest food companies in the world with over $100 billion in sales launching such a baseless lawsuit against a family-run company and attempting to prosecute it on the Internet. In some ways this attack by Nestle Purina is not too surprising, since pet parents have demonstrated their preference by selecting true natural foods like Blue Buffalo instead of the by-product and corn-based pet foods Nestle Purina has been selling for years. In fact, their inability to compete successfully with natural pet foods is the key motivation for this frivolous lawsuit.

My sons and I founded Blue Buffalo with the mission of bringing transparency to pet foods, and made the True Blue Promise to our pet parents. Clearly, some of our major competitors, who have built their business using lower cost ingredients, are upset. We will always stand behind our promise and our products.

We have a saying at Blue Buffalo: “When we’re right, we fight.” We look forward to seeing Nestle Purina in court.

Sincerely,

Bill Bishop
Founder and Chairman
Blue Buffalo

[conlt]

My Vet recommended against Blue Buffalo a couple of years ago. At the time she said she there had been problems and there was not enough research on the dog food yet.

[Kachina624]

Blue Buffalo gives my dogs gas. Bad!

[Mominohio]

Thanks for posting this information. Just another instance to remind us that what we see in advertising may or may not be accurate, and if it is important to us, we'd better try to research it more thoroughly, and not depend solely on the manufacturer for information.

[CrazyDaisy]

Regardless what dog food you like, you have to wonder why Purina felt the need for the lawsuit and Internet campaign. In my opinion big companies cannot do natural products well, there is always pressure to cut corners and save money.

Several years ago Purina purchased Innova/EVO brands to get into the natural pet food market. There were many recalls after the purchase. Everyone I knew who used these products (including myself) have moved on to other brands.

So I would guess Blue Buffalo is just the first of the natural pet foods that Purina is targeting. They have the resources to start putting the smaller competitors out of business.

[okBlonde]

My vet doesn't like the type of AAFCO feeding trials that BB uses. I tried BB with my cats; neither one would eat the LifeSource Bits and my former feral became seriously constipated after eating this.

[pistolino]

My dogs hated BB and I suppose that turned out to be a good thing. They would actually pick out the LifeSource bits and throw them on the floor, refused to eat them.

While I don't care for Purina's low-end dog foods, their higher end brands are okay.

[CrazyDaisy]

On 5/8/2014 Indy-Blonde2 said:

My vet doesn't like the type of AAFCO feeding trials that BB uses. I tried BB with my cats; neither one would eat the LifeSource Bits and my former feral became seriously constipated after eating this.

AAFCO feeding trial standards are very loose. Your vet must have spent a good amount of time to research all the pet foods on the market in order to make that statement.

I am more concerned with the pet food meeting the AAFCO nutritional standards using quality ingredients.