Campaign for Real Pet Food.

[Gillian Harvey]

You just have to remember that they are trying to switch you to their 'healthier' food when you are listening to what they have to say.

I've done my own research about petfoods over several years, so they don't need to try and switch me to their healthier foods, as I already feed my cats a healthy diet, based on what I found. I make my own decisions, based on my own research, but I am interested to see if this campaign (marketing or otherwise) makes a difference to labelling with regard to meat and animal derivatives (what sort of meat is it) additives, etc - and if it means that pet owners will go and buy the healthier foods (as long as they are healthier) then all well and good and I don't see the problem with that. 

[Ben99]

I am sure you are right but for me the issue is -  are they correct in what they are saying? If they are wrong I would like someone to show that, and if they are right then they are doing us all a favour. If they were keeping their business interests hidden then you would certainly have a point, but they do seem to be upfront about that. All campaigns are motivated by people with a particular interest  - it may be financial or if they may be just 'on a mission,' so why try to diminish a campaign that might improve the health of thousands of cats and dogs?

[tiga]

It's not a marketing campaign because it's called the Campaign for .....

It's a marketing campaign because it's been set up substantially by pet food companies to promote their own products and business services. There are lots of Campaigns for XXXXX, which are not  sales and marketing campaigns. If the campaign has been set up by people who have no financial interest or will gain no financial benefit from the campaign, it is a public awareness campaign. For example if a group of cat and dog charities put together a Campaign for Neutering UK Pets.

I agree with Christine and I am also in marketing. This is a clever marketing campaign designed to look like a public awareness campaign. It's not about raising awareness of the issue, it's about getting animal lovers to think about what's in their animals food and to get them to switch to the 'better' food as supplied by the promoters.

I'm all for feeding good food, my furballs get the best, but don't think that this information is impartial. They have their own agenda and the information will reflect that. You just have to remember that they are trying to switch you to their 'healthier' food when you are listening to what they have to say.

[Ben99]

I agree it is a marketing campaign - thats why it is called Campaign for  . . .!  What you are suggesting is that the CRPF is a way that a group of pet food manufacturers selling food free from harmful chemicals and additives are promoting their products. I think healthy scepticism is a good thing but you dont have to buy their foods and you dont even have to listen to what they say. But if you discovered you were feeding your cat food that contained a potentially harmful chemical  that might affect their health or behaviour, wouldn't you at least want to know about it and then decide that to do? At the end of the day it's about raising awareness - what you do with the information is up to you.

[Christine (Blip)]

I thought it was an important campaign. At last there is a campaign to try and get pet food manufacturers to say exactly what is in their foods,  

I would describe it as a marketing campaign by a number of petfood companies for their own products.  Nothing wrong with marketing - it's my own line of work - but in my view it's perhaps useful to bear in mind that that is what this is.

[Gillian Harvey]

And there are some well known people supporting the campaign, including Victoria Stilwell (Its Me or the Dog), Sarah Fisher (TTouch trainer) and interestingly - Deborah Meaden, from Dragon's Den! The forum is interesting, and there is, shall we say,  'lively' debate LOL!

[Christine (Blip)]

The Campaign for Real Pet Food website is at http://www.crpf.org.uk/index.php?section=528

I note in passing that its founder members include a number of independent pet food companies but this link is not what I removed previously.

[Desley (booktigger)]

i certainly would be Gillian

[Gillian Harvey]

I'm a bit confused, are we allowed to put a link to the Campaign for Real Petfood then? because I was going to to earlier, as I thought it was an important campaign. At last there is a campaign to try and get pet food manufacturers to say exactly what is in their foods, not just hiding behind 'meat and animal derivatives' and not telling us which sort of preservatives, colours etc they add.  I would have thought we here would all be interested in that?

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

As stated by the mods you may not use this site to advertise, whether or not you think thats what the web is about!

This is Purrs not any old site on the web and if you read the guidelines when you joined you would see that Purrs does not allow advertising without permission.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

This is a link to Tan's profile ... you can send her a private message from there.

http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=1

[Ben99]

I am sorry if you are not allowed to mention other websites (so why give the facility to link to them?) but I wasn't just advertising but raising the issue of what's in pet food and the Campaign for Real Pet Food. I couldn't put the video on your site so I had to link to it. As I said I am sorry but I think the internet is about links and connections and the issue is of concern to all cat owners. But I will try to contact Tan - how do I do that?

[Christine (Blip)]

We do wish you luck with your website Ben99, as we have said before, but sorry we don't allow posts that are just advertising websites in our threads. We will however consider your a link to your website on our links page if you wish to submit it. Please do this by emailing an admin of Purrs.

[Millys Mum]

And theres lots of wet foods better than orijen  

Real pet food should be as close to what nature intended, wet and meaty

[Ben99]

How can you tell one is better than the other?

[Mark]

There are still a lot of foods that are much better quality than Joe & Jill's - eg Orijen

[Ben99]

I saw a video on the PetStreet web site where the vet Joe Inglis was talking about his Campaign for Real Pet Food. It was a bit scary as so much pet food has got e-numbers and additives and all sorts of rubbish in it. The video was here - link removed by moderator.  You need to contact Tan and obtain her permission to promote your site, perhaps by a contra deal.