Pet-lover price-gouging, food recall and hen names
By Gina Spadafori
August 11, 2008
Over on our DogCars.com site, Keith blogs about pet-lovers getting slammed for fees by rental-care companies:
A story on today’s WalletPop.com tells a nightmarish tale of how rental car agencies are ready to tack on excessive fees to those of who dare to drive with our dogs in their precious rental vehicles. Writer Carol Vinzant relays this story:
I know that car rental companies are having a hard time with people driving less. Their stocks are falling. But their absolute warfare against their customers fought with ridiculous fees and soul-crushing hassles can’t be helping. There’s hope that the gas refueling charge will go away, but it seems like Avis is trying to recoup their potential losses with pet hair and other absurd fees.
Here’s the rest. My dad just retired from a part-time retirement job at a car-rental company, and he has told me how utterly filthy these cars come back, and nothing is said. But a stray pet-hair? You’re getting charged.
It’s not just rental-car companies. Anyone who has tried to take a pet on an airline can testify how that industry has identified pet-lovers as patsies, too: It can cost more to have your dog in the cargo hold than to have you in the seat above. And the fees for bringing a small pet on as a carry-on were outrageous when I last paid them six years ago, and they’re much worse now.
Yeah, I know the rental car and airline industries are hurting, but if you’re going to hit your customers with fees, why not be fair about it? Too much to ask?
Pet-food recall: Mars has issued a recall of a small number of 20-pound bags of Pedigree. Here are the details.
Hen update: The new hens are here, and they’re definitely Nadine, Eulalie and Gladys. Four months old, cute and friendly as can be. I cannot believe how much I like having pet chickens. Thanks, everyone, for the name suggestions. In the end, aside from Nadine, I went with the busy-body theme for the new girls, naming them after Eulalie McKecknie Shinn (the mayor’s wife in “The Music Man”) and Gladys Kravitz (the nosy neighbor from the old sit-com “Bewitched”).
I call the ladies at work who smile to your face but gossip about you behind your back “the hens.” But I think I might be insulting your friendly chickens. :O)
Comment by Lori — August 11, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
Was thinking about all the pet foods yesterday. If the food is so all-around nutritious and well balanced as these companies want us to believe, then why aren’t they touted as being so nutritious that even humans can eat it. Doesn’t that make you wonder.
I’m pet-sitting a puppy this week whose owner is feeding nothing but dry food. She’s only had him for 2 weeks and I have him for 3 weeks while she’s away. This puppy is passing gas like wow - stink! I believe it’s the dog food. Was having the same problem with one of my pets although I’d been feeding more human than dog food. When I found that I was still feeding her incorrectly for her breed and switched to the proper human foods for her, the gas stopped.
Comment by VJ — August 11, 2008 @ 12:40 pm
If a human TOUCHES pet food, you’re supposed to thoroughly wash hands, per FDA and CDC. Because the animal fats sprayed on the kibble after cooking sometimes contain Salmonella, especially the ones Mars uses apparently. And humans have become ill from touching Salmonella contaminated pet food from Mars in past.
Comment by slt — August 11, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
I should be able to eat my cats’ food safely.
And according to the small company that makes the wet food I use, its all human grade and I could eat it if I want to. To quote the President of the company “go ahead and try it, we do.”
Comment by 2CatMom — August 11, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
hehe - great slogan!
Saw an episode of The Honeymooners last night where everyone was eating dog food (canned horse meat) thinking it was some kind of cracker spread. Everyone loved the taste and no one got poisoned!
Comment by slt — August 11, 2008 @ 2:35 pm
You don’t want the rental car next after we’ve been dragging wet dive gear around in it. Can’t believe we’ve never gotten a surcharge for the car smelling like the tide is out. And I’ll take stray pet hairs over getting a rental after a smoker.
Comment by kb — August 11, 2008 @ 5:06 pm
Pictures of the friendly little ladies, please!
BTW, in the Music Man, Eulalie McKecknie Shinn’s singing group was called the Peck-A-Little Ladies!
What fun!!
:>
Comment by Nadine L. — August 11, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
Car rental companies have nothing on Air Canada, which recently breached a Transportation Canada order by refusing to take a passenger’s dog in the cabin.
Save yer bux. Don’t fly Air Canada, especially with an animal.
Comment by SocialMange — August 11, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
Yet another food recall — will it never end? And now even Rachael Ray is jumping on the dog food bandwagon — see http://thewholisticvet.wordpress.com/
I too got grief from the rental company when my lemon car was in the shop — and they knew in advance dogs were going in the car! Never mind the other car they gave reeked of cigarettes, had garbage on the floor, and things left behind from the previous renter. What a crock.
Comment by Laurie S. Coger, DVM, CVCP — August 12, 2008 @ 8:32 am
San Diego Union Tribune 8/12 - On recalled Pedigree Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites - Lot numbers are listed.
“The product was distributed in 20-pound bags to Albertsons supermarkets in Southern California and in 52-pound bags to Costco stores statewide, said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health.
The lot codes for bags sold at Albertsons is 830BFCAT02. The bags sold at Costco have lot numbers of 831BFCAT02 and 830DFCAT02. Both have “best by” dates of 7/2009.”
Article here:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....ecall.html
Comment by Nadine L. — August 13, 2008 @ 11:45 am
Hey Gina, you don’t happen to live in a city do you? A friend sent me a site last week which is a city dweller’s guide to raising chickens in one’s backyard. It’s actually illegal to raise chickens in urban Toronto, so this web author also has some sneaky contingency plans in case someone complains.
http://www.torontochickens.com.....lcome.html
Comment by Fred — August 13, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
I live in suburbia, on a quarter-acre lot. My chickens are legal according to the county regs. :)
A lot of different rules apply in different jurisdictions regarding chickens.
Some allow only hens (no rooster crowing), some allow only set number of chickens (or set number of hens). Others require chicken area to be X distance from a dwelling, on a minimum lot size, etc., etc.
And of course, even when you’re legal according to your local municipality, chickens may not be allowed by the codes, covenannts and restrictions of your housing development.
I do know there are a lot of illegal chickens in city limits here, if for no other reason than that you can buy chicken feed in the city.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 13, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
About 3 months ago, at the city shelter where I volunteer, 5 chickens, over a dozen quail and a pig were brought in, confiscated from someone’s apartment. I’m not sure if the owner was hoarding or planning a medieval banquet.
There’s no fear of the cauldron for the animals now. They were all sent to a farm animal sanctuary.
Comment by Fred — August 13, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
Talking about naming pets, my new cat looked so Italian that I named her Sophia. She is my black beauty and I have official ribbons from the shelter to prove it.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — August 13, 2008 @ 12:51 pm
Regarding the Mars recall of Aug 8th, I just found this on PRNewswire:
FRANKLIN, Tenn., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The recent
statement issued by the California Department of Public Health concerning a
voluntary recall of limited bags of 52-pound PEDIGREE(R) Complete Nutrition
Small Crunchy Bites is factually incorrect. The CDPH statement, also picked
up by numerous Southern California news organizations, incorrectly implies
that these bags have been recalled from Costco stores statewide.
Mars Petcare US did voluntarily recall a limited number of 52-pound
PEDIGREE(R) Complete Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites bags from limited Costco
stores in Northern California and Nevada only. Costco has notified all of
its customers in Northern California and Nevada about this issue directly.
Additionally, one hundred of the 20-pound bags of PEDIGREE(R) Complete
Nutrition Small Crunchy Bites sold in Southern California and Las Vegas,
Nevada, Albertsons locations were also recalled.
Corrected information on this voluntary recall can be found online at
http://www.petcare.mars.com. Consumers can also call: 1-877-568-4463.
Additional media inquiries can be directed to Debra Fair at (973)
691-3536.
Comment by Barb — August 13, 2008 @ 4:36 pm