sandra_slayton
Posted : 12/12/2007 5:14:14 AM
The letter from the TWO rep was posted on one of my golden retriever forums, and it was followed by the following. The entire thing had been posted on a different forum, copied and pasted on the GR forum. The poster there did not add who wrote this part of the post, but it does hold some interesting thoughts.
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I'd like to discuss some of Mr. Carey's statements and present my opinion and point of view:
Ingredient changes
It's difficult for me to believe that "nothing but" changes in the names of certain ingredients happened. For the record, here's a comparison of ingredient lists, the left column taken from my product database and the right column today (12/08/07) from the Timberwolf website.
Some of the time stamps show a time frame of over two years, but this is simply the case because at the time I last compared ingredients there were no changes, so no editing of those listings was necessary. (Also see here.)
Please note that even the number of individual ingredients differs between products, so the claim that no changes were made is not correct. The ingredient list in the right column is what Timberwolf claims you have been feeding all along, even if the ingredients to the left were printed on the bag.
It's hard to miss that in some cases ingredients present in the old formulas are missing, while the new ones show items that were not present at all previously. Just as an example, what happened to the much-touted unrefined walnut oil? When did tomato pomace enter the picture? How come ingredients that used to be higher up on the list are now in an entirely different place further down? This isn't possible if all the company did was "updating correct definitions".
Misdeclaration of food ingredients
Intentional or not, as per Mr. Carey's admission ingredients of Timberwolf Organics foods have been misrepresented for "a few years". I can't fathom how a company can "forget" the simple step of reviewing and comparing ingredient labels, especially when switching manufacturers for packaging materials.
Mislabeled bags is one thing, but being careless enough to provide the same incorrect information to customers on the company website, where it is no effort to update it at all, is entirely different.
I also recall amaranth was removed from Timberwolf Organics foods some time in 2006. Timberwolf Organics customer service representative Carol Cameron posted on OurDogsOnline.com on 10/13/06 that "We just sent off an order with redesigned bags today." By my calculations, that was roughly 14 months ago.
Food ingredients and allergies
While it is correct as a general rule that antigens associated with allergies are present in the protein portion of a food ingredient and fats are generally well tolerated, reality is that it's not just about "allergies". Some dogs are sensitive to any kind of chicken/poultry components and can't tolerate them in their diet. I'm not making this statement as a layperson, but as someone who has provided nutritional consulting for several years, and most of my clients ask for help due to allergies and sensitivities.
The fact that undeclared chicken fat has been present in Timberwolf foods could certainly explain why some dogs I know did not do well on some TWO formulations when technically they should have worked for them.
Packaging and "grace periods"
As for the "new ingredients in old bag" thing, which is brought up as a lame defense time and again: many food companies claim that AAFCO gives a "grace period" so that they can use up their old packaging (it's expensive), but this is not the case. The truth is that the ingredient lists must reflect what's actually in the container. End of story. If someone tries to convince you of this, ask them for the page number of the AAFCO publication where this "grace period" is outlined. It doesn't exist.
Those of my readers who have known me for some time and are familiar with my research know that I tend to give the benefit of the doubt where something went wrong once and a company works hard to improve things, but there have been so many different issues with this brand of dog food in the past where I couldn't help but doubt the sincerity of responses from customer service representatives and the business practices of the company that I have to point out that you can only hold onto a customer base for so long. Eventually people will become aware of all the little details, no matter how hard someone tries to sweep them under the carpet.
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How many of you rmember during all those recalls, TWO would not tell where it's food was made because it didn't want it's formula "stollen". Appears to me now that they may have been scared their true ingredient list would come out. As i said NO DOG FOOD COMPANY CAN BE TOTALLY TRUSTED as to their ingredients (oops, we did actually add X to our food),as to where their ingrddients came from--some said all ingredients were home grown--till they had to remove the food from the market for using stuff from other countires. Spome said they made their own food--til it was recalled because it was made in contamited plants that makes different brands.