pet connection

Try to get your mind around this one little piece of information:

If the amount spent on pets is ranked with the economic output of the 172 developed countries, the pet products industry would come in at No. 43.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it? I imagine it is even for Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Association, the sponsor of the world’s largest pet industry trade show, Global Pet Expo. The show just opened its three-day run here at the convention center in Orlando, having a couple years ago settled on the Florida location as one of only a couple venues large enough to hold the event, which just gets bigger every year.

And every year, Vetere, who offered the above little tidbit this first thing this morning, struggles to come up with new words to describe the growth of the pet-care industry, which defies all reasonable expectations and just … keeps … growing. Tomorrow at the APPA’s annual press conference, Vetere will release the trade group’s estimates of the value of the pet industry for 2010 and the his predictions (always on the conservative side) for 2011.

I have no doubt next year he will be revising those numbers upwards again.

While it’s hard to imagine the mind-blowing size of the pet-care industry, it’s easier to do so when you look at the trade-show floor here. The number of booths is up 10 percent over last year — more than 2,300 booths representing nearly 900 companies from all over the world. To cover the floor, you need two pairs of shoes (the concrete floor’s a killer on your legs, and a change of shoes at midday is a survival must) and a daily pre-dosing of your preferred anti-inflammatory to avoid feeling as if you’ve been shoved through a wringer by the end of the three days.

You also need a battle plan, which is what our team worked out this morning at 6:30 a.m. over breakfast in advance of the show’s 9 a.m. ET opening.

We have four reporters working the show: Me, David Greene, Ericka Basile and a new player, Teresa Becker, our Dr. Becker’s wife, who has seen just about everything there is to see in pet products over her life. She’s an expert on physical fitness (with an M.A. to show for it), and I know from knowing her that her interest will be in products that help keep pets and people fit without breaking the bank account. Dr. Becker calls her a “Ninja shopper” for her bargain-hunting prowess — she loves to look, to compare and to ask questions, but isn’t very keen on buying. “Bring me the value” is her motto, and in this economy, I think that puts her in good company.

After two days of sweeping the floor looking for “Secrets, Surprises and Solutions” — the subtitle our new book, “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual,” as well as our own PetConnection mantra, along with “Question Everything!” — we’ll meet as a group with Dr. Becker to winnow down the thousands and thousands of products to less than 50 or so. From there, Dr. Becker will add his own observations and favorites, and finally he’ll select the 10 products he deems as “Dr. Becker’s Best” for our own Best In Show offering, which he’ll offer at the close of the show on Friday.

Between now and then, we’ll be covering the news from here, along with spotlighting some products and events we each find particularly interesting. Ericka, our product-review coordinator, will additionally be collecting information on products she’ll tag for future reviews across all our media platforms. She’ll also be covering Cesar Millan and the launch of his new product line — love him or hate him, the man is news — and Dr. Becker’s presentation of  studies advancing the power of the human animal bond. Tomorrow, our Dr. Tony Johnson takes the stage for a media conference after which we’ll  mock him without mercy write about seriously and then … well, let’s leave a little to chance.

So stay tuned … we’re here, and we’ll be covering the floor until we can’t walk no more … and posting until our fingers cramp.

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Springfield, Ill., and Lynchburg, Va.,  are almost 600 miles from each other. One is a state capital, the other a sleepy rural college town. Yet the two communities share an important characteristic — they are both stunning examples of No Kill successes. Brent Toellner, the tireless creator of KC Dog Blog, recounts the drop in kill numbers, and notes the formula rarely deviates.

What is amazing about all of these success stories is that they are amazingly the same … and they all begin with the leadership at the shelter making the decision to quit killing.

Then, the solutions become obvious. They include providing low cost spay/neuter options. Doing aggressive marketing of the animals that need homes. They include building up a volunteer base and foster homes and doing off-site adoption events. It includes proactive efforts to reunite lost pets with owners and reaching out to the public to ask for their help and support and embracing the community (instead of blaming them for your problems).

It isn’t about the shelter, the region of the country, or what kind of pets we’re talking about. It’s about a community that wants to think differently.

Funeral dirge on Beale: Meanwhile, Memphis is still broken. You won’t be surprised to learn they’re not a No Kill community. (thanks to alert reader John Robinson)

Mice still playing across the pond: So they hire a new cat to patrol the premises at 10 Downing Street. Larry is in charge of mouse control at one of the world’s most famous addresses and…he’s doing a terrible job. MSNBC is on top of the story.

Barely had the 4-year-old tabby lapped up his first saucer of milk on the job, when a whiskering campaign began against him. He was, some said, simply not up to the job.

“He has shown no interest in the many mice in Downing Street,” said one of Larry’s anonymous accusers (cattily) from inside Number Ten. And, unusually for that place: “There is a distinct lack of the killer instinct.”

The problem is that he spends too much of his time, well, sleeping.

You can insert your own joke here.

Feline CSI: Now for some good kitteh news – your cat can help solve crimes (even if she’s asleep). As Discovery News explains, the fur shed by cats can have sufficient genetic material to be used as evidence.

Fur from a fluffy, white house cat has already been used in a murder trial. The accused, Douglas Beamish of Canada, had cat fur stuck to one of his pockets in a discarded jacket. The fur was genetically linked to victim Shirley Duguay’s cat, Snowball. The evidence helped to convict Beamish of second-degree murder, leaving him with a 15-year prison sentence.

So if some dastardly crime befalls 10 Downing, Larry can do something helpful.

A hero among us: Rob McMillian is a Facebook friend of mine. I have to admit that until I read this Culver City News piece about Rob and his wife Helen, I had no idea this man has done something so remarkable. Love, training and unswerving patience can accomplish wonders. Bravo, Rob.

Cami, get me a beer: I’m old enough to admit my all-time favorite Saturday Night Live commercial was for Shimmer. Today, there’s Bark4Beer. I make no judgments on the product. I am merely passing along the information.

Farewell, Bri: Wayne Mates is a dear friend and fellow Syracuse alum (Go Orange!). His website is devoted to tips and tricks for small business entrepreneurs, but he took time out to compose a tribute to his late dog Bri that choked me up until I couldn’t speak. Thank you for sharing this post with us, Wayne.

Finally, a chuckle: Once you’ve recovered from that, you can cheer up by watching Simon’s Cat cope with sticky tape.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits: Happy dog, flickr creative commons (wsimmons). Bri, waynemates.com

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Wait … it’s not Friday night, is it? Could it be that the problems of the dump-and-run Friday night recall are finally getting through to pet-food companies?

Or maybe just Wellness, which gets major props not only for recalling certain lots of canned cat food in a timely fashion but also for putting the recall notice on the home page with a letter from the CEO.

Yeah I know: ALL recalls are voluntary, since the FDA still can’t do a damn thing about rogue producers. But you gotta allow folks a little spin, don’t you?

From Wellness:

Please know, the vast majority of products tested had the appropriate levels of thiamine; however, with the number of recipes we offer, we did not want to make this more confusing. Therefore to avoid confusion and in an abundance of caution, we have decided to recall all canned cat products with the specific date codes noted below. Cats fed only product with inadequate levels of thiamine for several weeks may be at risk for developing a thiamine deficiency. If treated promptly, thiamine deficiency is typically reversible.

Though the chance of developing this deficiency is remote, withdrawing these products is the right thing to do and we are removing it from retailers’ shelves.

The lots involved in this voluntary recall are:

Wellness Canned Cat (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13;

Wellness Canned Cat Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with best by date of 10NOV13 and 17NOV13.

If you have cat food from these lots, you should stop feeding it to your cats. You may call WellPet at 1-877-227-9587 to arrange for return of the product and reimbursement.

This recall is so unusual — a Monday? — that we didn’t even notice it until this morning. Recalls released when they happen — not when you think they won’t be noticed — show respect for your customers, and caring for their pets. The dump-and-runs show contempt for customers and more concern about continued sales than pet health.

And thanks to Dorene P for flagging me so I could get it posted.

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The question came up on Facebook recently as to whether the words “human grade” actually mean anything when it comes to pet food ingredients. The answer, as I discovered when I was writing about pet food labeling in 2009, is yes.

And no.

The first thing to know is that no human or pet food regulations define the terms “human grade,” “human quality” or similar descriptions, so in that sense they don’t actually “mean” anything. Foods are either edible or inedible for people, and those terms do have legal definitions per the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

“Edible” means that a food has been handled continuously under process controls established by law or rule, including documentation that the product has not been exposed to anything that would make it unfit for human consumption. Foods considered edible for people must also be manufactured in compliance with certain Food and Drug Administration regulations and state and local requirements for manufacturing facilities that produce food for people. Any foods or products that do not meet the above standards are “inedible.”

When it comes to the terms “human grade” or “human quality,” FDA spokeswoman Laura Alvey says the definition is self-evident:

“namely that the item is ‘edible,’ in legal terms, for people.”

Edible ingredients can become inedible in two ways: by being mixed with other ingredients that are not edible for people, or by being processed in a way that does not comply with the regulations for manufacturing, packing or holding human food as spelled out in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR) Part 110 [21 CFR 110].

By those standards, only foods that are produced in USDA-inspected plants for human foods qualify as “human grade.” So a pet food could conceivably contain organic, locally grown, grass-fed beef from cows that lived a happy life and were humanely slaughtered, but if it was not processed in a particular type of facility or in a particular way, then it is not considered edible.

No matter how great the ingredients, using the terms “human grade” or “human quality” when the above conditions are not met is considered to be false and misleading labeling.

“Most pet foods are manufactured from inedible ingredients in plants that do not comply with continuous process controls to establish the final product as human edible,” says Dave Syverson, a representative for the Association of American Feed Control Officials. “If the pet food is manufactured in a plant that is using edible standard process controls entirely and all the ingredients used to make the food are edible because they were produced and handled using edible standard process controls entirely, then it is generally not considered to be false and misleading if the product displays the term ‘human grade.’”

Some pet foods are made to those exacting standards, and First Amendment rights to commercial free speech allow them to claim the product to be “human-grade.” I am aware of two of them: The Honest Kitchen (full disclosure: a PetConnection sponsor) and Bravo Raw Diet. Further disclosure: I occasionally feed both of those foods.

The takeaway: Just because a food claims to contain human-grade ingredients doesn’t mean it actually meets the standards for that designation. If a pet food makes those claims either on its labeling, on its website or in its marketing materials, call the company (all labels must contain contact information, by the way) and get the skinny on where its ingredients come from, how they’re handled, and in what type of facility they’re manufactured.

Photo credit: Steak, bigstockphoto

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Tell me about the size and width of a dog’s head, and I can make an educated guess how fast he or she might be.

OK, I can’t, but William Helton at the University of Canterbury can. His findings suggest you can be strong, or you can be fast, but probably not both. From Discovery News:

“In the real world, it would be hard to be both fast and efficient at running, and to be extremely strong in combat at the same time,” author William Helton told Discovery News. “Nature does not allow unlimited budgets and the trade-offs are often physical constraints.”

Helton, a senior lecturer in the University of Canterbury’s Department of Psychology, studied how well 217 dogs performed during International Weight Pulling Association sporting events for canines.

Brachycephalic, or broad-headed, dogs that participated included American Pit-Bull Terriers, American Bulldogs and Bernese Mountain Dogs. Dolichocephalic, or more narrow-headed, breeds consisted of Samoyeds, Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes.

None of the studied breeds included the extremes of each condition. Pugs, for example, have incredibly broad heads, while Borzois are the polar opposite.

Excuse me, I need to go find my tape measure.

A Dog’s Breakfast: One of the most controversial –  and important –  documentaries on the pet food industry will finally premiere on U.S. television. “A Dog’s Breakfast” aired on Canadian TV in 2008. The story of what gave rise to the 2007 pet food recall will air a week from today, Thursday, Feb.10 at 10 p.m. on CNBC. It will repeat Friday at 1 a.m., then again on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 10 p.m. (Hat tip to Mary Cvetan)
Note: Ingrid King informed us that “A Dog’s Breakfast” has been pulled from the broadcast schedule without explanation. Stay tuned for updates if it returns.

Performance depends on the handler’s beliefs: Interesting piece in Science Daily about a study out of UC Davis’ Department of Neurology. How a drug or explosive-sniffing dog does in their duties can be swayed by what their handler believes.

The study, published in the January issue of the journal Animal Cognition, found that detection-dog/handler teams erroneously “alerted,” or identified a scent, when there was no scent present more than 200 times — particularly when the handler believed that there was scent present.

“…There are cognitive factors affecting the interaction between a dog and a handler that can impact the dog’s performance,” said Lisa Lit, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology and the study’s lead author.

“These might be as important — or even more important — than the sensitivity of a dog’s nose.”

Stuffed things? I love stuffed things! Remember Pets.com? I still have a Pets.com sock puppet around here somewhere. Even though they went belly up more than10 years ago, the idea is being resurrected by a new startup. SF Gate says PetFlow has learned the lesson from Pets.com, and intends to remain profitable.

“They sold product for below cost,” PetFlow co-founder Alex Zhardanovsky says of Pets.com. “You can’t get a customer to buy a product for half price and then later charge them twice the price. It makes no sense.”

PetFlow might not offer insanely low prices, but they’re making a profit on each order they ship and are projecting to break even by the end of the year. In January, PetFlow has shipped out 7,000 different orders resulting in $600,000 of revenue for the month.

Whereas Pets.com offered free shipping even on heavy bags of food, PetFlow charges a consistent $4.95 shipping fee per order. They also have an exclusive deal with FedEx that reduces their shipping costs even more – similar to the shipping deal Zappos has in place with UPS.

I just want them to have really good television ads.

They won’t catch us. We’re on a mission from Dog. My buddy Nancy Freedman-Smith at GoodDogz Blog wins the prize for this week’s best blog story.

Go Pack Go! Feel free to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday, but I have it on good authority the Green Bay Packers will win. How do I know? Veterinary Pet Insurance says so (full disclosure – a Pet Connection sponsor). Their inside information? Dogs’ names. Don’t laugh. Last year, they successfully picked the New Orleans Saints, and the year before, they said the Steelers would beat the Cardinals. This year, if the Packers win, that’s three in a row.

Cat movie: I’ve seen literally hundreds of videos about cats. However, Cat Diaries is different. It’s sponsored by Friskies, but from the cat’s point of view. (Thanks, Patti S.)

Midnight madness: Thanks to Lisa in Toronto for this wonderful ad from the Winnipeg Humane Society.
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I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail

Photo credit: Borzoi, Flickr Creative Commons (Llima)

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