From The Los Angeles Times:
A former Corona mayor and developer of the Nature’s Recipe dog food brand pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to FBI agents during a bank fraud investigation into his dog food company, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Jeffrey Bennett, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements and could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.
Federal authorities were investigating Bennett’s company, Earth Elements Inc., which developed the Nature’s Recipe brand. Investigators were trying to determine if Bennett had committed bank fraud or bankruptcy fraud related to his company’s $9-million line of credit with City National Bank.
In 2009, Bennett told FBI agents that his company had been inactive since the dog food brand was sold to the H.J. Heinz Co. in 1996 and had been filing “zero dollar” tax returns. But in court Thursday, Bennett admitted that his company received millions of dollars in 2002 and 2003 from lawsuit settlements from legal actions filed before the sale, and that he had not filed tax returns since 2001, according to a statement released by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
As part of his plea agreement, Bennett has promised to pay all back taxes owed
I am not too surprised.
The dog food business is mostly a con to start with: companies claiming their product is better than another without ANY supporting evidence, and disguised labeling to suggest higher quantities of good stuff and lower quantities of "bad" stuff, when that is rarely so. Dog food is routinely marketed by kickbacks to veterinarians, and quality control problems are endemic due to long periods of storage. If you would lie about your core business, why wouldn't you lie about your taxes?
My suggestion for dog food is always the same: Purina. At least this is a company that has been in the business for more than 100 years, has a steady set of suppliers, has its own dog food factories, does feed trials, sells its food fast off the shelf, and pays for core nutritional research as well.
One bit of advice I offer is that if you see the word "nature", "holistic", "premium", "ultra premium", or "human-grade" on the bag or in advertisement, turn away. This is company that has already decided you are an idiot, and that truth is a lesser value. None of these words mean anything in the context of dog food, and all are an attempt to start the relationship with a lie.
Nature's Recipe? Nature does not have a recipe! She feeds her wild canids the rectums of diseased downer animals, the worm-riddled bodies of sick bunnies, roadkill, garbage, and the twitching bodies of almost-dead rats. Mmm good!
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10 comments:
Just out of curiosity, have you watched the documentary "A Dog's Breakfast"? I was able to watch it, although with a bit of multitasking on the side (hence, didn't get the whole thing 100% like I usually do when watching shows), but was just wondering what your thoughts were on it.
I have not. As I recall the movie was somehow tied to a class action push. Not sure if I remember that right. Menu Foods, of course, is a classic reason to keep Canadian products out of the U.S. ;-)
P
I have not. As I recall the movie was somehow tied to a class action push. Not sure if I remember that right. Menu Foods, of course, is a classic reason to keep Canadian products out of the U.S. ;-)
P
Two main things about Purina concern me:
1. They are notoriously secretive and will not answer basic questions about their foods. Pretty much all answers from them say "Sorry, that's proprietary information".
2. Some of their ingredients. For example, I don't like things such as "animal fat" or "animal digest" because that basically says it came from a mammal. If they can't be more specific than MAMMAL, it leaves me wondering. Purina also does the trick of making it seem there is more meat than brewer's rice in their food by listing ingredients by weight. We all know that "chicken" is in large part water so it's likely their main ingredient is brewer's rice, not chicken.
Since food recipes cannot be patented, everyone who makes food is secretive. McDonald's will not tell you what's in their "Special Sauce," and KFC will not tell you what's in their "secret herbs and spices." If you have a good thing that cannot be patented or copyrighted, you keep your trade secrets close to your chest if you can. That's just smart business.
As for the fat in dog food, most of it is chicken, which is cheap (and not from a mammal) and the byproduct of several billion chickens a year that are spent egg-layers. The only thing those birds are good for is dog food and chicken soup, and we don't need that much chicken soup. Fat, of course, is fat, and it is the same regardless of what animal it comes from -- chicken, cow or reindeer. As for ingredients by weight, the "wet weight" measurement makes complete sense as water is the only difference. Water is water. When I take five pounds of beef and dry it to jerky, it is still five pounds of beef no matter that it now weighs a pound and a half.
P
With all due respect, I disagree. Almost half the Jacks we have fostered are allergic to corn, so we feed corn-free kibble. We have had dogs come in to rescue who are nearly bald, have been eating their own feet, and have chronic yeast infections. The owners have spent thousands of $$$ on steroids and (useless) vet visits. Take the dogs off corn, their hair grows back in, they stop itching and stop tearing at their feet. Purina has a lot of corn in their feed. Nuff said.
(And, yes, I was a loyal Purina customer for 20 years.)
"...half the jacks you have fostered"
OK, how many is that?
For the record, the most common allergy in dogs is NOT to corn ... it's to BEEF.
I have had dogs for 50 years and never had a dog with allergies of any kind. But, as always, feed what you want. The simple fact is that more dogs are doing well on Purina than any other dog food in the world.
This is an excellent article about canine nutrition that is well worth a read and bookmarking:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=5315
(Title: Raw Meat and Bone Diets for Dogs: It’s Enough to Make You BARF)
Me thinks you may have been a bit quick to shoot from the hip on this one. I knew Jeff Bennett when he owned Nature's Recipe. We were in the same kennel club, and I still lament the sale of the company to Heinz (now Del Monte owned).
I fed my kennel of show and hunting dogs that food exclusively for years, as did many other breeders I know.
Jeff built the company name on a simple principle. Only USDA (people grade) ingredients were used in the product, and I'm here to tell you, it was a great kibble. I'm pretty sure the USDA label or a reference to it was on every bag. Pricey, but well worth it IMHO.
Of course that all changed when Heinz bought the company (drastic formulation change), and sent me and a lot of other breeders searching for a replacement kibble. I'm bored with all the dog food arguments, but I will say Purina didn't even make my short list.
I haven't seen Mr. Bennett since the late 90's, and I know nothing of his business activities outside of the dog food world. However, I just read that Jeff received probation, and here's another article that gives some additional insight. If you're gonna crucify someone, at least research the facts.
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/aug/23/local/me-corona23
Make sure to read page 2.....
I got it 100% right and so did the LA times.
Your post basically says "I know a guy who turned out to be a crook, but I like him so we boughtt his dog food because he told us it was made of 'human grade' stuff."
But, of course there is no standard for "human grade" so it's a bunko term, and you apparently don't know about dog food to know that.
The article you link to only says "Bennett and his wife, Nan, who were worth $35 million in 2000, were worth negative $14 million two years later, with their debts taken into account, according to court records."
So here's a guy who lost $49 million at a time when the economy was roaring.
How do you do that?
Answer: Greed gone bad.
The article says Bennett made a bunch of bad business decisions with geasy con men and then he went banking and asset-parking in Cook Islands so that he could welch out on his deal with a finance company for an airplane deal than also went FUBAR on him.
And what was the result of all this greed, incompetence and chicanery?
He was arrested and PLEAD GUILTY, but due to jail overcrowding got SIX MONTHS of home detention, TWO YEARS OF probation, and a $10,000 fine. See http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_bennett07.3b2a851.html
This is just the criminal charges. The civil stuff has forced him to sell his house, condos, cars, etc. etc.
Nice work keeping this story in the air, LOL. I'm sure Mr. Bennett is thrilled to have a bit more of it aired, especially his conviction on crimal charges and bankruptcy.
P
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