WYSONG VS. PRODUCER B

(EXCERPTS FROM VAROUS PRODUCER B ADVERTISEMENTS) 
(Name of producer withheld to be kind.)

Producer B: "No prescription is more valuable than knowledge."

Wysong Response: There is also nothing more dangerous than a little bit of knowledge presented as if it were authority.

Producer B: "When Producer B introduced the first natural dog food into the U.S. in 1974, people were surprised that it didn’t contain the usual ingredients found in other dog foods. We didn’t use soybeans, wheat or corn – the number 1, 2 and 3 allergies of dogs that cause them to chew at the root of the tail or lick their feet... We use amaranth, millet, barley and stone-ground brown rice."

Wysong Response: Producer B did not produce the "first natural dog food." Just calling something "natural" does not make it so. A natural food is the food which matches the genetic expectation of the species. Amaranth, millet, barley and stone-ground brown rice, claimed ingredients in Producer B's Product, are not natural foods for dogs or cats.

Food allergies are usually manifest in digestive disturbances, not "chewing the root of the tail," normally a sign of flea allergy dermatitis.

Pet food grains are ground by steel hammer mills, not "stone" grinders. "Stone-ground" sounds gentler than using a hammer mill, but the net effect – milled grain – is the same.

Producer B: "We never use animal fat or poultry fat, which is rancid and may contribute to heart disease and cancer. We use canola oil and flaxseed oil, which are good for the immune system. Our flaxseed oil doesn’t contain hexane; a chemical used by other flax oil companies. Our flaxseed oil helps the heart and is used by dogs with cardiomyopathy. Our flaxseed oil helps to reduce the incidence of epileptic seizures."

Wysong Response: Animal fat is the natural fat consumed by carnivores. If Producer B does not use it, how can they claim their food is "natural"?

All animal fat is not "rancid." This would only be true if the fat were not properly stabilized. Highly unsaturated vegetable oils used in Producer B’s product are much more susceptible to rancidity than animal fat. Flaxseed oil is so unstable it should only be eaten as a separate supplement in light impervious, nitrogen-flushed glass bottles kept in the freezer or as stabilized ground flaxseeds. Putting flaxseed oil in pet food paper bags, which are then stored on shelves, is a sure formula for rancidity and free-radical pathology.

Animal fat does not "contribute" to heart disease and cancer per se. This plays to popular misconceptions and the "low fat," "low cholesterol" fads, but does not reflect current science. There are nutritional factors within animal fat that are even cardioprotective and anticarcinogenic.

Animal fats are "good for the immune system" too. They contain important essential fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and other fat-soluble nutrients valuable to carnivores not found in canola and flaxseed oils.

Hexane is not used by most companies in the manufacture of nutritious flaxseed oils. If it is used, it is then removed from the final product in good manufacturing methods.

Cardiomyopathy in pets has been caused primarily by deficiency of the amino acid taurine, not flaxseed oil.

Where is the epidemiological proof that the flaxseed oil in Producer B’s product decreases the "incidence" of epilepsy? If the FDA sees this unsubstantiated claim (as well as most others in the ad) they could remove Producer B's product from the market.

Producer B: "We never use sunflower oil. Cancer researchers use sunflower oil to induce cancer tumors in rats. Sunflower oil contains no omega 3, essential fatty acids, so necessary for development in unborn and young animals."

Wysong Response: Sunflower oil does contain omega 3 fatty acids. It is also very high in omega 9 fatty acids (olive oil factors), is quite stable and has many health benefits. Attempting to paint sunflower oil and animal fat as the bad guys, and canola and flaxseed oils as the good guys, is overly simplistic and attempts to convince by creating or playing to uninformed prejudices. There are benefits and dangers to all food ingredients including every one used in Producer B's products.

Producer B: "Producer B never uses chicken. We use fish and lamb. All the Oriental dogs, Arctic dogs and dogs from England, Scotland, Ireland and water dogs were fed fish in their diets and sea vegetation. Our sea vegetation...is always fed with our dog food. It works through the thymus and thyroid glands for the immune system."

Wysong Response: Producer B "never" uses chicken because "Oriental," "Arctic," "dogs from England, Scotland, Ireland and water dogs" ate "fish and sea vegetation." How does this constitute a valid reason not to use chicken? Are "water dogs" and those from the named countries somehow better than dogs from others (assuming the claim that they only eat fish and seaweed diets is true)?

How does Producer B’s "sea vegetation… work through the thymus and thyroid glands for the immune system"? No credible scientific explanation here or documentation, just a claim.

Producer B: "Chickens are about the worst ingredient that could be put into dry dog food. In the 1970’s, Dr. Virginia Livingston-Wheeler published her book, ‘Chicken; Cancer in Every Pet.’ She stated that cancer is almost 100% transmitted through the DNA and into the eggs. We don’t use eggs in our dog food."

Wysong Response: Chicken and eggs do not cause cancer in every pet. Simple enough. The implication here is that all an owner has to do is feed Producer B’s product, which has fish and lamb and there never need be a worry about cancer.

Producer B: "In the U.S., many poultry farmers put ethoxyquin into the chicken’s drinking water. Ethoxyquin is rated as a hazardous chemical by its manufacturer. It is supposed to make the egg yolk a brighter yellow, so you will think you are getting fresh eggs when you’re not."

Wysong Response: Ethoxyquin is an antioxidant used to preserve vitamins and prevent fat rancidity, not a drinking water additive. Ethoxyquin is not used to make the yolk "yellow," that is merely a side effect. Ethoxyquin is not considered a hazardous chemical by the manufacturer unless improperly used. It is a food additive.

Producer B: "In the U.S., many poultry farms put female growth hormones into chicken feed to produce big-breasted chickens for the fast food industry for chicken breast sandwiches. However, doctors are now seeing young boys developing breasts, small sexual organs and low sperm count. Young girls, as young as eight years of age, are experiencing their periods."

Wysong Response: "Female growth hormones" are not fed to chickens. Chickens have not been proven to cause breast development in boys and early menses in girls. These are outrageous and irresponsible claims.

Producer B: "The May 26, 1991 Atlantic Journal-Constitution Magazine warned about eating chicken. The magazine interviewed 84 Federal poultry inspectors in five states in the U.S. ‘Every week, they found millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, and contaminated by harmful bacteria and marred by lung and heart infections and cancerous tumors. These chickens were shipped out for (human) consumption. The inspectors no longer eat chicken.’"

Wysong Response: Lay magazines are not the source of sound science. Horror tales can be told about what is seen in every meat processing plant – including those which process the "pus," "cancerous," and "feces"- contaminated carcasses in the lamb and fish for Producer B.

Producer B: "Chicken by-products may be beak, feet and feathers. Digest is the full guts of the chicken – including any manure in the chicken when it is slaughtered."

Wysong Response: Good quality chicken by-products do not contain heads, feet and feathers. Are we to believe that Producer B’s product contains prime fish fillets and racks of lamb? The ad doesn’t describe what they use, it just creates a chicken boogieman, which can only be vanquished by Producer B products.

The definition of poultry by-products is "free from fecal matter," according to AAFCO. Producer B is either deliberately promoting a falsehood, or not knowledgeable about basic ingredient composition.

Digest may or may not contain the "full guts," but that will not matter to carnivores.  The natural diet of carnivores is the "full guts" of their prey, often the preferred first part of the meal.

Producer B: "In December 1997, China slaughtered a million and a half chickens. E. coli and Salmonella were found in chickens and ducks there. Some people died. Cooking chicken does not kill these diseases. It only deactivates them for a while. That is why at Thanksgiving, you are told to refrigerate the turkey after it is carved. Room temperature activates these diseases."

Wysong Response: E. coli and Salmonella can be found in any carcass, including fish and lamb. Heat does kill pathogenic organisms.

True, turkeys should be refrigerated. Do fish and lamb not have to be refrigerated?

Producer B: "To help eliminate this perceived or real allergy, Producer B has replaced the yeast with flax meal."

Wysong Response: Any ingredient, not just yeast, can cause allergy. Removing ingredients because a misinformed public thinks "yeast causes allergy" shows that the producer is following, not leading.

Producer B: "...the risk of cancer is increased by 69% if you use sunflower, safflower, or corn oil. Producer B never uses these oils in their products. But some other dog food companies do use sunflower."

Wysong Response: Precisely 69%? Sunflower and safflower oil do not cause cancer unless improperly processed, left unstabilized or fed in excess.

Producer B: "No matter what other dog food companies tell you, it is a waste of money to buy dog foods that list probiotics and digestive enzymes on the label. These are killed at 120° and dog foods are cooked at 325°. Also, some companies say they mix the enzymes with oil and spray them on after the temperature drops below 120°. Not possible! The food must be cooled before it is bagged. As the oil cools, the probiotics and enzymes separate from the oils and fall to the floor of the mill."

Wysong Response: Probiotics and enzymes are certainly not a waste of money. Abundant research proves this. Probiotics and enzymes mixed with oils do not "fall to the floor of the mill" if cooled. Wysong has successfully enrobed dry foods by this method for years.

Producer B: "...Producer B's Seameal takes 22 days to get into the body. That is the rate of change in cells."

Wysong Response: "22 days" to get into the body and to change cells? Where’s the evidence for that? What does this information have to do with anything? Nothing, because there is no logical or scientific sense here.

Producer B: "White dogs absorb much ultra-violet light. This drains the immune system. Producer B's Seameal will help."

Wysong Response: Producer B’s product helps white dogs prevent immune system drainage from ultraviolet light? Where is the proof? Why has nature created perfectly fit white creatures such as birds, arctic foxes and polar bears that survive just fine?

Producer B: "Dogs are 11% trace minerals and 4% vitamins."

Wysong Response: There is no evidence that "Dogs are 11% trace minerals and 4% vitamins."

Producer B: "As the arsenate passes through, it takes the arsenic out with it. So the arsenic is not absorbed."

Wysong Response: Arsenate is not an antidote for arsenic poisoning. Arsenate is a potent toxin used in pesticides and as a preservative. It also induces cancer. Arsenic, on the other hand, is beneficial to health at low levels.

Producer B: "If you look under a microscope at a molecule of whole blood and a molecule of chlorophyll, there is only one atom difference."

Wysong Response: Whole blood is not a molecule. It is millions of molecules. A “blood molecule” cannot be seen with the naked eye using a microscope. Chlorophyll differs from hemoglobin by more that one "atom."

Producer B: "The processing of Producer B's Seameal takes place in Scotland. We no longer get our kelp from Norway since the Chernobyl meltdown. The meltdown caused radiation contamination."

Wysong Response: If Chernobyl contaminated Norway (Is this where Chernobyl is?), what’s so clean about Scotland, a close neighbor?

Producer B: "They say they use Vitamin E (tocopherols) as a preservative. But that lasts only 30 days."

Wysong Response: Science has proven that vitamin E tocopherols can exert antioxidant effects much longer than "30 days."

Producer B: "We can prove there is no ethoxyquin, no BHA, no BHT in our dog food, because we use the vacuum-packed bags."

Wysong Response: Vacuum packaging merely removes air, it does not prove the absence of such chemicals. What about Producer B’s products which are not vacuum packed? Also, what about the fact that ethoxyquin is commonly used in fish meal, an ingredient in Producer B’s products?

Producer B "...corn and soybeans were to be fed only to food producing animals, but never to companion animals or people."

Wysong Response: Humans and animals have consumed corn and soybeans for thousands of years.

Producer B: "Producer B is the only dog food company that is a member of the Organic Trade Association."

Wysong Response: Anyone can belong to the Organic Trade Association. Why take credit for organic, when Producer B’s products are not organic?

Producer B: "Producer B’s dog foods use no chemical preservatives... We use the natural preservative of rosemary in our oils."

Wysong Response: The active components in rosemary are chemical preservatives.

Producer B: "Producer B's Berry Balance contains blueberries. It helps with bladder and kidney struvite stones. It acidifies the stones and helps to prevent FUS in cats or feline Urinary Syndrome or FLUD. It works the same in dogs. These struvite stones/crystals are the result of a too alkalis system. Blueberries are acid. It helps to dissolve the crystals."

Wysong Response: There is no evidence that blueberries prevent urinary stone problems in pets. Stones are caused by many factors, not just a "too alkalis (sic) system."

Producer B: "The chondroiten molecules are so large that they can’t be absorbed. The American Association of Feed Controls has never approved these ingredients in pet food."

Wysong Response: "Chondroiten" (sic) molecules can in fact be digested and assimilated to benefit joint health. AAFCO approval of ingredients is certainly not the measure of their health benefits. Additionally, Producer B has used many ingredients not approved by AAFCO.