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| True Blue LIES |
ST. LOUIS, MO, October 15, 2014 - Last night, Blue Buffalo publicly revealed facts that prove the central allegations in our false advertising lawsuit against them. Contrary to prior assurances, for the first time Blue Buffalo has had to admit that ingredients from at least one of their suppliers contain poultry by-product meal. Click here for link. This is despite the fact that Blue Buffalo has repeatedly stated – in their TV commercials, their advertising, and to consumers on their website – that they never use this ingredient.
Blue Buffalo admits this is “unacceptable” and it is, but Blue Buffalo is not being as “transparent” as they claim. Remarkably, it was Purina – not Blue Buffalo – that unearthed the truth through its scientific testing and, more recently, from documents it obtained through the legal process from one of Blue Buffalo’s ingredient suppliers. Without Purina’s filing of this lawsuit, the truth would still be untold. Blue Buffalo’s approach since May was to deny everything – until Blue Buffalo was forced to admit it was wrong. Changing your story only after the facts are revealed is not transparency.
What is the real truth here? Blue’s Chairman, Bill Bishop, repeatedly told their pet parents, “I can assure you that we’ve never purchased one kernel of corn or one ounce of poultry by-product meal.” Why isn’t Blue Buffalo telling pet parents now that Wilbur Ellis is the same supplier that Bill Bishop blamed for ingredient problems in years past? Click here for link.
Why does Blue Buffalo always have someone else to blame? Remember Blue Buffalo’s angry protests, their countersuit against Purina, their charges of a “smear campaign,” their claims of “voodoo science”? Those are tactics, not truth.
The truth is that this is not someone else’s problem, it is Blue Buffalo’s problem. It is Blue Buffalo’s responsibility to know what is in their products. Amazingly, Blue Buffalo’s Chairman has publicly stated: “Slap on a good label, come up with a slogan, and off you go.” It is this cavalier attitude that is the problem -- an attitude that led Blue Buffalo to make irresponsible allegations of a “smear campaign” against Purina instead of promptly determining the facts. These facts show that there never was any smear campaign. If Blue Buffalo’s latest version of their story is to be believed, Purina knew more about Blue Buffalo’s ingredient suppliers than Blue Buffalo did.
About a month ago, Purina expanded its false advertising lawsuit against Blue Buffalo, noting that: [N]ew testing shows Blue Buffalo's “LifeSource Bits” actually have lower levels of some key nutrients than their standard kibble. In our amended complaint, we also make public the results of earlier independent testing that revealed the presence of poultry by-product meals, grains and corn in some of Blue Buffalo’s best-selling products.
Read the press release here, and the second amended complaint here.
I've called Blue Buffalo howling liars in the past, and time has certainly borne that out.
This is a company built on marketing fabrications, fancy packaging, and disinformation pumped out to gullible low-information pet owners.
And to be clear, this is what so much pet food marketing is about these days.
Lies and disinformation have been picked up, magnified, and echoed by anti-science hysteria-based websites and books proclaiming they are going to give folks "the truth about pet food."
Nonsense.
Not once has any book or web site devoted to dog food EVER given "the truth" about pet food, because the truth is that NO dog food has ever been proven better than any other.
None.
Ever.
You can't build an entire book or web site about dog food around that simple sentence.
As always, feed your dogs whatever you want, but as a general rule feed less.
Obesity is the PRIMARY nutritional problem in dogs. A very high energy and hard working dog (that's not a dog that jogs two miles a day with you!) may need more fat in its diet, but most dogs do fine on regular supermarket kibble made from a company that makes it own food and has a long track record of production. Several companies fit that bill. Blue Buffalo is NOT one of them.
Will Blue Buffalo dog food poison your dog?
Nope.
It's perfectly fine high-cost crap made by a group of proven charlatans, incompetents, and liars.
If you want to waste your money supporting that kind of business because you think America needs more of that, go right ahead. It's still a free country.
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