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In my opinion it is cruel to force yor dog to eat good that it does ot do well on, be it Ol Roy or Timberwolf. On one of the forums I belong to one has a dog that has IBS and was on Science Diet. Well, the owner took a bashing, a whipping, a thrasing because she was feeding Science Death when she could be feeding X, Y, or Z, all premium brands. She ws even told she coulnd't love her dog if she fed her that 'crap". Well, the poor women went out and bought one of the brand, and her dog got so sick she had to be in the hopsital. So she tried another one and the dog got sick. Finally after trying 3-4 or the brands she gave up and went back to theSD and her got healed u and has not had a problem in 2 years. Was ity cruel of her to keep her dog in SD knowing it isn't the greatest food? I think not. I think it more cruel to force her to eat food that makes her ill.
AS I said in original replyk I have one on Purina One and she is great health, beautiful coat, tons of energy, great physicalsand blood work. My older one is on Taste of The Wild because I wanted her on grainless due to her age and a touch of arthritis (both knees operated on years ago for luxating patelles) and in the seveal months she has been on it,I have seen no difference at all in her coat, activity level, health in general.
My Grandma eat 2 eggswfried in butter and bacon every monring of her life. She drowned her veggies, et with bacon drippins. She drank pure milk right from the cow til in her 80's. She died 4 months before her 100th birhtday. I have know a couple of other folks who didn't drink, smoke, exercies, ate grat diets and died in 40's of cancer. There is no gaurantee either way., And I still say go with what works best for your dog, not what someones else tells you works best for YOUR dog,. Aftger all what works best for your may not work at all for mine, and works best for mine may not work at all for yours.
The way I see it, is that many people are fooled by advertising and do not know about better ingredients or healthy alternatives to grocery brand foods. However, I have chosen to educate myself about pet nutrition. I know a lot about ingredients and have my own philosophy about what dogs should and shouldn't eat (artificially colored corn puffs being one of them). I am a poor college student. I don't exactly leave a lavish lifestyle. However, feeding foods with high quality ingredients to my pets is a top priority ( I also have three cats). So, even though some months it is difficult to afford expensive food at that moment, I know that I am doing what is right and can not knowingly feed my dog and cats things I disapprove of.
I'm not saying for you to force your dog to eat better quality food if he doesn't do good on it.
but if your dog can thrive from a high quality food, then why not!!!
There is no reason a dog would do bad on a "better food". yes, some may be too rich, but there are plenty of brands and formulas out there.
Most people dont give their dogs enough time to adjust to a food either. If you are switching from Alpo to Merrick of course your dog is going to have the runs at first. You need to slowly switch over about 2-3 weeks time. The reason the dog has the runs is because its getting rid of all the TOXINS in the body due to being fed Alpo.
There is NO excuse to feeding something like Alpo, Ol Roy, or Beneful. I dont care if your dog "likes" it. I like burger king, should I eat it everyday? Heck no.
I think what they are trying to say that is if you know why Beneful is so bad that you're being willfully cruel if you continue to feed it. To put it into perspective, it's similar to forcing a child to eat nothing but TV dinners. That's not exactly cruel in the normal definition, but it's definitely not good parenting. I really don’t think they are equating willfully feeding bad food and beating a dog or starving one to death.
Sedona if thats the case, then maybe the word they need to use is willfully negligent or better even willfully ignorant not cruel?
To me saying someone is cruel to their dog conjures up images of not feeding dogs, beating them, making them fight, strapping them to rape stands, burning them etc etc. To me thats on a whole other level from feeding your dog a food that someone else perceives as being bad.
Anyway i guess its a moot pint as i have already pointed out that Bomber will no longer be being fed Beneful.
"Sedona if thats the case, then maybe the word they need to use is willfully negligent or better even willfully ignorant not cruel?"
Perhaps willfully negligent. If they don't know it's not good and don't bother to research, then they'd be willfully ignorant. If they know it's not good but continue to feed it anyway, I would class that as negligent.
cruel - noun
1: disposed to inflict pain or suffering : devoid of humane feelings
2 a: causing or conducive to injury, grief, or pain
In this case, I would agree it's not necessarily cruel but it could be. A dog that is doing well on cheap food isn't suffering or in pain, so it wouldn't be cruelty. A dog that is having reactions to cheap food, say, due to corn/soy/chemical allergies or something, is in pain and in that case, it could be seen as cruel to continue feeding that food.
I would not think someone is cruel if they fed something to their dog that had lesser ingredients. But if they know that Beneful is full of sugar & corn (can you say Corn Pops?), has low quality ingredients, the dog is having health issues, and that they can afford a better food but refuse to because of price and the fact that the dog is JUST A DOG...then yes - I may just consider them cruel.
But pets are a very sensitive subject for just about all pet owners. People are more inclined to listen to someone who disagrees with how their child is being raise than listen to someone who disagrees about their pet ownership. What may be obvious to a few dog owners, is NOT obvious to others. Telling someone that they are feeding a bad food from the get go is not the way to get them to switch. Point out ingredients and what those ingredients actually are.
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