Author Topic: Veterinarian Professors - PAID Employees Of Pet Food Companies  (Read 1092 times)

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Offline Lola

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Written by Kymythy R. Schultze, C.N.

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You see, when I was studying animal nutrition at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine a few years ago,  only a couple of my professors weren't paid employees of pet-food companies.
 
I'll never forget one particular lecture where the teacher/veterinarian was discussing the different forms of pet-food products — dry, canned, and so on. While she was talking about the semi-moist products, she mentioned in an offhand way that she would never feed them to her pets. Then she quickly laughed and said, "Oh, my boss would kill me if he heard me say that!"
 
I didn't find it amusing. It was painfully clear that she was repeating (except for her slip-up) what the pet-food company wanted the students to hear — not unbiased information or her actual opinion.
 
The biggest pet-food companies hire brilliant marketers to sell their products. After all, what could be better than having experts (veterinarians) endorse your product? How did this come about? Well, one of the parent companies that's become very involved with vets also makes toothpaste. Do you remember the old advertisement that boasted eight out of ten dentists recommend a particular brand? It was a brilliant campaign and put this firm at the top of toothpaste sales.
 
At the time, the company also had a very small pet-food division they were about to sell, but an executive came forward with a great idea: If they could use the same tactic with this branch as they had with their toothpaste, they'd be equally successful. So they used the pharmaceutical industry's practice of spending tons of money to woo doctors. In fact, a retired sales executive from the pet-food company commented on why this marketing strategy works so well: "It's just like taking drugs: You go to the doctor, and he prescribes something for you, and you don't much question what the doctor says. It's the same with animals."

http://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/feline-nutrition-who-bears-the-responsibility
Everything you NEED to know about caring for your feline. www.catinfo.org

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