Comments on: What’s In The Beef? Dog Chew Company Quits Brazil

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:03:20 +0000

Is anyone concerned that chicken breast wraps are manufactured in China? With Cinese chickens? Free range?

With the reliability of Chinese quality control?

By: MaryHaight

MaryHaight — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:40:33 +0000

Thanks Jan for stopping by and sharing this information – I gave two to a friend of mine…she has two little dogs but their teeth are excellent so they have no trouble with these. She is much relieved that she won't be smelling that awful stuff other companies use in the processing.

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:04:21 +0000

Just want you to know that Free Range came out with bully sticks that have no odor. That solves one of your concerns but can't doesn't change the basic concept.
I agree that it is sad to see the U.S. exporting its scary business concepts to other continents.

By: MaryHaight

MaryHaight — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:03:33 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Julie and I appreciate what you are saying. Economic facts of life for cattle farmers who still do it the "old-fashioned" way will force them all eventually to make a choice between factory farming or going organic. And they are not making any more land. Of course press releases have their own agendas just as newspaper sources do. Unavoidable. The fact that interested me was the difference in country to country laws…no growth hormones in cattle in Argentina, as of today. This determinant was key to making the release noteworthy and of interest to some of this blog's readers.

As to your point that to say that Brazilian beef is controlled by three companies is not really "fair" the Washington Post article did not offer any enlightening commentary on this or expound on why saying three companies controls the Brazilian beef market is incorrect. It was an interesting article about how Argentina is moving to feedlots along with the times. But even if I take your claim of "not fair"and agree to it, the fact remains that we see everyday how companies control the government with powerful lobbyists so their voices are heard over that of the people's voices. And often it's one company or organization at a time that gets their way legislatively over and above what the majority of people want. So while "not fair" may be true, it does not preclude the statement made by the company of three companies controlling the market from being true, even if it may be self-serving. You will see things, as you have mentioned, in a PR release that outsiders will not, but we outsiders see another story, too that is based on something incontrovertible which was the basis for the story.

I appreciate and welcome your participation in this forum, Julie.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:23:04 +0000

I work in the beef business and import meat from Brazil for resale in the US and found this press release to be a little more like propaganda rather than a concerted effort to shift production to more friendly meat sources. The press release sites no sources and Brazil just like Argentina is one of the worlds largest beef producers and grasslands, so to say that Brazilian beef is controlled by 3 companies is not really fair. After doing some research, check this out: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti... I would be just as concerned about feeding my dog meat from Argentina as I would be from Brazil. The fact of the matter is that both countries produce great beef and Free Range appears to be attempting to get publicity because it sounds like they lost their source. The other lesson that I think that this teaches us is not to take a companies press release as factual and true as it was likely written by their marketing department....

By: MaryHaight

MaryHaight — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:56:15 +0000

Voting with your dollars and telling your friends about companies like this one is the best service you can do for them. Tell people in your social media circles. IIt all helps!

By: Nanci Sullivan

Nanci Sullivan — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:49:54 +0000

I've been very concerned about this issue for dogs and humans since I told my husband he couldn't order the veal in the '80s. But I'm overwhelmed by information (and my lack of knowledge) in reading labels. I became convinced that Raw Feeding (or any home feeding) was better than anything you could buy, if for no other reason than you could vary the ingredients and supplements as needed. That was in 2000. It took me until 6 months ago to actually switch because I'm not a good cleaner and I was afraid I would kill us all. 6 months and all is well, but I need to get the cost down. Before that I really utilized the Whole Dog Journal as my back-up. I think very highly of them. But even they can't keep up with all the changes, and I can't keep up with treats – I slide a little there. Bully Sticks are great, but expensive. I don't know how we could do this, but I think information about products, similar to this post on the blog, should be more public. I've written down this company's info, but they deserve a lot more publicity, as so some others? What to do?