We exchanged a total of two short E-mails.
I would like you to read them and give me your feedback.
NOTE: I am showing the following E-mail messages in the order I received and sent them. Please excuse any typo's and misspelling's. All E-mail between us is presented here uncut and has not been edited other than noted in any way.
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E-mail message #1 (Received by William D. Cusick) From: Richard MacLean To: "William D. Cusick" Subject: Your e-mail Cc: NOTE: this I have edited out - it was the E-mail address of the customer referred to below Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:01:15 -0400 X-Priority: 3
Dear Mr. Cusick,
Please be advised that your allegations about the ingredients in BLUE are wholly inaccurate. BLUE pet foods, as fully disclosed on its labels, do not contain any unidentified "meat" or any meat by-products. We use only whole meat and meals made from whole meat. This is clear from our label and further explained in detail on our web site.
Your representations to consumers that BLUE is falsley advertising its products contents, and your further suggestion that BLUE might contain euthanized pets are reckless, irresposible and defamatory.
I strongly suggest that you immediately cease any further dissemination of these falsehoods. While your attempts to educate consumers as an "Animal Advocate" may be well-intentioned, and while some of your allegations may be true as to many pet foods, they are not true as to BLUE pet foods. We will not abide by any further false and defamatory statements from you about our products.
I sincerely hope that you will correct these misstatements in your future correspondence.
Richard E. MacLean
Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind.
*From:* W D Cusick
Dear Dollz,
i.e. A dog food ingredient listing that includes the word "meal" is NOT a product made with "meat." The word "meal" is NOT a synonym for "meat." When Herschel Pendell was the president of AAFCO, he appeared in a King 5 Seattle Washington television news interview and was asked if he can tell if a pet food contains euthanized pets just by reading the label . . he responded with: "If the ingredient list meat or bone *MEAL*, you don't know if it is cattle or sheep, or horse, . . . or fluffy."
Blue Buffalo dog food is preserved with ingredients that have been PROVEN to damage the livers and kidneys of dogs that will eat it (see article at http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/013.html ). And they KNOW this is a FACT - I have exchanged enough E-mail with them to make that statement.
Buyer Beware! We NEED laws to protect us from companies like this.
You may want to read some of the breed specific information I have posted at my web site to determine what you should be feeding your dogs.
Yours truly,
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William D. Cusick's Reply to the above E-mail Sent 12:20 AM 8/31/07 To: Richard MacLean From: "William D. Cusick" Subject: Re: Your e-mail Cc: Bcc: X-Attachments:
Dear Richard E. MacLean,
How I wish that the advertising claims used to sell Blue Buffalo dog food was not contradicted by the listing of ingredients on the Blue Buffalo dog food labels.
Your product may not contain by-products. I never claimed it did. Your product DOES contain "meal" - chicken meal - fish meal - lamb meal (see your own label ingredient listings at http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-puppy-chick.shtml or http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-puppy-lamb.shtml or http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-large-puppy-chick.shtml
As I stated to the dog owner who asked me about your product "i.e. A dog food ingredient listing that includes the word "meal" is NOT a product made with "meat." The word "meal" is NOT a synonym for "meat." When Herschel Pendell was the president of AAFCO, he appeared in a King 5 Seattle Washington television news interview and was asked if he can tell if a pet food contains euthanized pets just by reading the label . . he responded with: "If the ingredient list meat or bone *MEAL*, you don't know if it is cattle or sheep, or horse, . . . or fluffy."
You can verify this by viewing the full uncut or censored King 5 Seattle Washington television news interview at http://home.att.net/~srcusick/deaddogsinfood.avi
"MEAL" is a Department of Agriculture term for a product that comes from a rendering plant - definitely NOT the fine meat parts from a butcher shop - and IF Blue Buffalo dog food ONLY contains the MEAT I wonder why the term "Chicken Meal" is used in the list of ingredients. "Meal" is a term generally accepted throughout the pet food industry as indicating the product is NOT just the meat from the chicken, lamb or fish and as the President of AAFCO said could be ". . . cattle or sheep, or horse, . . . or fluffy." You may want to personally check out the AAFCO definitions for Chicken meal, Fish meal or Lamb meal and any other "meat meals" that may be used in your products OR listed as an ingredient on your labels. If you do you will see why I take exception to your company's sales advertising claiming that a product uses ONLY the finest meat products but list ingredients like "Chicken Meal" "Fish Meal" or "Lamb Meal" as one of the ingredients on the product label.
I do understand that AAFCO is an ASSOCIATION not a regulatory agency and that their definitions are SUGGESTIONS for pet food companies that want to follow their guidelines to use. But . . . I also know that, as a general rule, their definitions are fairly accurate. AAFCO defines a "Meal" as: "A ground or pulverized composite of animal feed-grade ingredients."Ê To me, just like it must have been to Herschel Pendell when he was the President of AAFCO, reading the ingredient listing of "Chicken Meal" "Fish Meal" or "Lamb Meal" on a Blue Buffalo dog food label would NOT provide me with an indication there were just fine MEAT products in Blue Buffalo dog food.
I am not the one you should be angry with for pointing out "If the ingredient list meat or bone *MEAL*, you don't know if it is cattle or sheep, or horse, . . . or fluffy." It was the President of AAFCO, Herschel Pendell, who made that statement. Someone at your company chose to use the words "Chicken Meal" "Fish Meal" or "Lamb Meal" when listing the ingredients on the products being sold. If the listing of Chicken Meal as an ingredient does not mean what the industry standards are then that person probably should not have used that term on the label. The people you should get angry with are Herschel Pendell for pointing out the negative connotations of that wording or the person who wrote the label or the people in the advertising department of Blue Buffalo. Get Herschel Pendell to retract his statement as it would pertain to YOUR dog food and I would be happy to say that Blue Buffalo may be the exception, that when Blue Buffalo uses the same wording as the rest of the industry it does not mean what the rest of the industry means when they use the word. But if the wording on the ingredient panel is what AAFCO definitions or industry standards are for "Chicken Meal" "Fish Meal" or "Lamb Meal" then the person who wrote the label is the honest person and it would be the advertising department for Blue Buffalo that should be held accountable for the conflict. The conflict does exist. It is not my fault that it exist and until both departments within Blue Buffalo are stating the same thing I will continue to judge Blue Buffalo's claims/listing of ingredients as I would ANY of the companies making selling pet food products in the USA.
I also note that in your E-mail to me you did not address the issue of Blue Buffalo dog food containing ingredients that have been PROVEN to cause liver and kidney problems. I ALSO made a statement to that effect in my E-mail to the dog owner. To me this would be a more damaging claim about a dog food than if a term on the ingredient panel indicated the ingredient listed was real meat or what the industry standards for what the term would indicate. The FACT is that your dog food contains TWO sources of vitamin C (see your own label ingredient listings at http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-puppy-chick.shtml or http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-puppy-lamb.shtml or http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/lp-large-puppy-chick.shtml
It has been PROVEN and cited in the National Research Council publication Nutrient Requirements of Dogs that dogs SHOULD NOT BE FED DAILY DOSAGES OF VITAMIN C. I suggest that you or the person formulating the foods get a copy of the book Nutrient Requirements of Dogs Revised 1985. It was published by the NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS in Washington D.C.. It is a report that was prepared by the Subcommittee on Dog Nutrition. This Subcommittee was made up of some very distinguished members: Ben E. Sheffy, Chairman (Cornell University); Kenneth C. Hayes (Brandeis University); Joseph J. Knapka (National Institutes of Health); John A. Milner (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); James G. Morris (University of California, Davis) and Dale R. Romsos (Michigan State University).
These respected scholars, including chairs of Schools of Veterinary Medicine, stated: "It is concluded that there is no adequate evidence to justify recommendation of routine vitamin C additions to the diet of the normal dog."
Other distinguished Veterinarians and even members of the pet food industry have published books that state: "Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) is not required in the diets of dogs as it is in the diets of primates, guinea pigs, bats and some birds and insects." (BASIC GUIDE TO CANINE NUTRITION - page 21)
The worlds leading manufacturer of vitamin C, Roche¨, has gone on record that today's domesticated canines should not be fed vitamin C - and why. They are willing to provide CURRENT studies to anyone interested. If interested, you can ask them yourself by contacting them directly.
Test have proven that supplementing a healthy dog's diet with vitamin C can do the same damage to the animals Liver as supplementing the healthy dog's diet with synthetic thyroid can do to the animals Thyroid Gland. When fed correctly, the liver of a canine can produce ALL of the vitamin C the animals body requires and when the daily diet of a canine contains vitamin C the gland can atrophy. The third highest reason for dogs dying in this country is liver failure (to atrophy - Pathology. A wasting or decrease in size of a bodily organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use) and I blame this in part on the commercial foods, LIKE BLUE BUFFALO that contain a daily dose of vitamin C. Thus another person you may want to get angry with is the person that formulated the food your company is selling. He is the one that put ingredients into a product meant to be eaten by canines that should not be there.
Ask ANY Veterinarian what happens to a healthy dog's gland if given a daily dose of what the gland can naturally produce - the gland will atrophy.
In conclusion, there are people who should be held responsible - those that wrote the labels that conflict with the advertisements or those that wrote the advertisements that conflict with the ingredients listed on the label or those who formulated the foods being sold by Blue Buffalo. I am just a messenger - what I stated to the Blue Buffalo customer when asked: "help, I have been feeding my dogs dry blue buffalo,it is not approved buy the aafsco,is it safe to feed my dogs?????????????thank you, dollz" is based on DOCUMENTED - PROVEN - FACTS. You can threaten me, as "General Counsel" and try to keep me from telling the truth but until your company's advertising claims can be compared side-by-side to the listing of ingredients on your company's labels and leave no room for doubt about the contents of the food and when your companies foods do not contain ingredients that have been PROVEN to be harmful to canines that will eat the products made by Blue Buffalo I will continue to present my present views of your company's foods when asked.
I would also like your permission to publish copies of all the E-mail between us at my web site. I assure you that I will not edit any of it but show all of the E-mail in its entirety when I post it.
Yours truly,
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It should be noted I never heard back from the "General Counsel" of the dog food company. |
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