I'm sorry, I didn't mean to undermine your unfortunate experience. My purpose was to inform people that many internet sites, especially wikil, are not totally trustworthy. Obviously, you have done your research. The pet food industry, let alone the human food industry, is wrought with questionable practices to say the least. I'm truly sorry about your cat. My post was not intended to focus on some random aspect of a post, just to make people wary of believing everything on the internet.Originally Posted by leanansidhex
Sorry I haven't responded. I'm so new to the internet as a whole, and forums completely, that I Just found a way to retrace my earlier postings on all sites.
I mentioned wikipedia as "a place to start". It gave me an idea where to begin digging into a product. I also used the Brand website as a cross reference to create an initial profile.
I then looked for details that may have been incorrect or pertinent information that was not included in those initial sources. Look way beyond the first results and first pages, as it is easy enough to have complimentary results come up on the first pages.
With every search it became easier to find connections that could not be made from reading product labels, watching commercials, visiting pet food brand websites, pet food retailers, or even reading mainstream magazines about pet ownership.
Many of "veterinarian?" websites I found had information on nutrition that tended to skew toward the whatever they were suggesting/selling.
Many of those sites where very convincing and sophisticated in their presentation. Many sites echoed and repeated results from the consumer research results companies.
There was one vet site that "felt" more wrong, seemed more wrong, than the other sites, but I couldn't figure out why.
Since I am the target consumer, YES, my impressions are entirely relevant.
It took almost an hour of reading glowing testimonials, cutesy pet stories and endless pictures of animal dressed up for the holidays to find the important incongruity in their Holistic message.
They advocated the use of SLENDEROL, by Pfizer and COVENIA.
Attempts to corroborate the initial wiki and brand site info, has led to new found, useful information that has come from many diverse sources.
These sources include, but are not limited to, industry insider websites for investment companies, pet food manufacturers, professional recall specialists catering to corporate clients, the Canadian equivalent to the U.S. FDA, marketing companies used by pet food companies, Consumer research done for pet food companies in regards to public perception of brands and how to best use this information to create a favorable impression of their brands, nutrition results on various ingredients and possible non favorable outcomes of using those ingredients ....
I could go on but that is a good overview for anyone else wishing to do deeper analysis of for-profit companies that they trust their pets lives to.
One more thing that I think is important, if you want to follow up, Veterinary Care (big picture) is being bought into by "investment firms" that leverage the value of the business or hospital and then sell their interest in the business, reaping HUGE profits.
That information came from THE companys' site under their presentation for future investors.
I contacted the investment company for further information on their relationships with individual pet related "acquisitions" but never heard back from them.
I also contacted the acquired companies directly and heard back in replies that varied little from each other. I was assured nothing had changed, everything was well and would remain status quo.
Interesting to me, because that would mean a reversal of past, documented, management of "acquired targets".
All of my "proof" for my posts have been written (and parsed) ad nauseam in another community, under the same username. Best located under my posts (inclusive), rather than just my threads.
I refer anyone interested to them first because I a Am Tired, and I think it's all been covered.
If after reading my responses, Sincere questions remain, or anything not addressed that is important to you I will happily discuss on this site.
Also, I'm sure most of you can understand when I say I'm also done "discussing" this with the 1% that are are stuck on some random aspect, but won't read further or educate themselves relative to the actual discussion, but still think they have something relevant to say.
None of Us of course! [smiley face] I don't know how to use the icons
My intent was to inform any other owners that had not heard of did the under-the-radar Voluntary Recall that might still have a chance.
When you say [Wellness] "did reveal their recall so the pet stores should have pulled the batches" I think I understand your reasoning. Unfortunately, in my situation, "timing was everything".
I am not alone in my lack of fortunate timing regarding this recall. Search the Results for Wellness recall 2011.
Wellness choice of a voluntary recall kept the FDA from listing Wellness, on FDA recall website (I have e-mail updates sent) kept the info off the evening news and out of newspapers.
Good for Wellness image and Wellness business---(text book damage control) not so good for getting the word out to owners of at risk cats.
I wasn't aware that checking the Wellness website everyday would be necessary. I wasn't aware of TruthAboutPetFoods.com then. Those are the only places I have found that the Voluntary Recall was Initially disseminated.
I had purchased 2 cases of Wellness just before the recall.
The Irony? They swiped my buyer card, or loyalty card that day.
When the Wellness cans I had purchased that day were recalled, the Pet Store could have contacted me to inform me that My Boy could be adversely affected, Wellness was the only brand on the receipt.
They did not. Seems the "Loyalty" aspect of their card does not apply to them.
Sorry I took so long to respond. I'm not as adept at navigating forum sites and their usage as I am at compiling and extrapolating Data.
Thank You for the heads up on the Weruva thread.