# Purina Beneful Lawsuit



## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

I ran across this article about a class action suit against Purina and its Beneful brand dog food. Makes for interesting reading. 

Purina Sued for Allegedly Killing 4,000 Dogs With ‘Toxic’ Food - The Daily Beast


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## Rainheart (Nov 28, 2010)

This has had a lot of controversy over the past few days since it has shown up. Not sure if the allegations are necessarily true... but what I do know is that I personally feel that Beneful is full of junk and I would never suggest clients feed it. When someone comes in feeding Beneful or a similar food, I recommend a food change.


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## kristasmith (Jul 16, 2013)

We used to feed our Jack Russell beneful. When we rescued Ivy, I went on the Internet to search for higher calorie foods to help her gain weight and stumbled onto a lot of horrible allegations about Beneful. I chucked the last bag and never went back feeling it was better to err on the side of caution.


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## Bwilson (Mar 25, 2014)

Thank you posting that. My mother in laws pit bull is in love with Beneful so she kept him on it. Called her and gave her a heads up to find another food.


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## Melfice (Aug 4, 2012)

Good to see, and its funny about dog food in general I think. My first golden when I was a kid growing up. We did not know anything about "good" or "bad" dog foods back then. 

It was the mid 90's, and the internet did not have the info it does today. I fed Ginger (my first golden), Purina Puppy Chow, and then Dog Chow once she was an adult. Ginger ate Purina Dog Chow her whole adult life, and lived 12+ years with no medical issues at all. 

Makes you wonder how much of an impact a dog's food really makes on them. I would never feed Dog Chow to my dogs now, because I know it's crap. But still makes me wonder if the "high-end" dog food I am feeding, will make a difference long term? haha


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## Susan: w/ Summit we climb (Jun 12, 2014)

Melfice said:


> Good to see, and its funny about dog food in general I think. My first golden when I was a kid growing up. We did not know anything about "good" or "bad" dog foods back then.
> 
> It was the mid 90's, and the internet did not have the info it does today. I fed Ginger (my first golden), Purina Puppy Chow, and then Dog Chow once she was an adult. Ginger ate Purina Dog Chow her whole adult life, and lived 12+ years with no medical issues at all.
> 
> Makes you wonder how much of an impact a dog's food really makes on them. I would never feed Dog Chow to my dogs now, because I know it's crap. But still makes me wonder if the "high-end" dog food I am feeding, will make a difference long term? haha


I've had the same thought. I don't know how to answer that question. I was hoping that the "Lifetime Study" might come up with some answers, but it won't be soon enough for our dogs.

I wonder whether Purina Pro Plan could be considered a kind of happy medium between Dog Chow and Orijen/Acana-type meat-based foods.


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## Susan: w/ Summit we climb (Jun 12, 2014)

Melfice said:


> Good to see, and its funny about dog food in general I think. My first golden when I was a kid growing up. We did not know anything about "good" or "bad" dog foods back then.
> 
> It was the mid 90's, and the internet did not have the info it does today. I fed Ginger (my first golden), Purina Puppy Chow, and then Dog Chow once she was an adult. Ginger ate Purina Dog Chow her whole adult life, and lived 12+ years with no medical issues at all.
> 
> Makes you wonder how much of an impact a dog's food really makes on them. I would never feed Dog Chow to my dogs now, because I know it's crap. But still makes me wonder if the "high-end" dog food I am feeding, will make a difference long term? haha


In the early 90's, we fed our dog California Natural, which did contain grain and didn't compare to Orijen/Acana now. He had no problems until he got hemangio at 11.5, which is relatively late (early might have been around 8yo).

Orijen/Acana might be close to a wild dog's diet, but if it doesn't result in better health than, for example, Purina Pro Plan, it could be that we might as well feed Pro Plan plus regular sardines.


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## GoldenLove88 (Jul 25, 2014)

*Purina Beneful Sued Recently*

It was on news yesterday and today,

Purina Beneful dog food lawsuit: man claims dog food brand killing pets - + KSHB.com

and people are posting this on social media. I just want members in this forum to be aware about this recall.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

This may turn out to be nothing more than a bunch of bottom feeding lawyers mining for dollars.

To Date:

The retailers have not recalled the product.

The FDA has not ordered recall of the product. (Nor any ingredient in the product.)

The USDA has not ordered recall of the product.

The MFGR has not recalled the product.


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## The life of Piper (Feb 24, 2015)

I have never liked Purina and I will never feed my dog that food. I would be surprised of this however. Look at what happened with all those cars! You just never know....


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

I would never,and have never fed my dogs ,any purina.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Back as far as I could remember my Dad fed Purina Dog Chow to his English Setters and pointers and most lived and hunted well into their senior years. They were all great quail dogs and we hunted some pretty rough terrain. In the 50's. 60's and even the 70's, everyone we knew fed Purina Dog Chow, including me.

On an all breed forum some stated that any dog on Purina, (and other brands carried in grocery stores, etc) had horrible coats, no muscle, etc. If they were not on blue Buffalo, etc, they were all sickly, horrible looking dogs. I had to post a rare picture I had of my Dad's English setter, Mack (age 13) and his pointer Lucky chewing burs out of Mack's coat after a hunt. You can't tell much about Mack, but you can see Lucky's muscles & tone. This picture was taken in 1960. Mack died 2 years later at age 15 when he got out and got in the road and was hit by a car. Lucky was 10 when stolen.

And a picture of my Irish Setter taken in l988. He as on Purina and I don't think you could ask for a more beautiful coat from a dog who never saw a groomer.

And for the record, I have only fed grain free for years. Mostly Taste of the Wild, but also 4Heath which I think is just as good. Our newly adopted golden, Sophie, was on Pedigree all of her 11 years, and Moose, our adopted Great Pyrenees as on it the 4 years he was with them. They are both on 4Health now and doing great on it. There are many foods I would not feed my dogs but I have no beef at all with Purina as it worked great for our dogs for 40 years. I just prefer grain free, and believe it is much better for them. Here are the above mentioned pictures and you can judge for yourselves if they did well on it or not.


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## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

Just looked up a Beneful ingredients list for a growing puppy formula 
GMO corn, GMO soy, wheat, as main ingredients ... sugar, unspecified fat & meat sources and what's with all the unecessary toxic dyes (linked to cancer) ??? 
http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf



*Ground yellow corn*, chicken by-product meal, *corn gluten meal*, *whole wheat flour*, *animal fat* preserved with mixed-tocopherols, chicken, rice flour, *soy flour*, milk, *meat and bone* meal, propylene glycol, *sugar*, *animal digest*, phosphoric acid, salt, potassium chloride, mono and dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), calcium carbonate, dried peas, dried carrots, tricalcium phosphate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, *Yellow 5*, manganese sulfate, DL-Methionine, niacin, *Red 40*, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, *Blue 2*, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, *Yellow 6*, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite.


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## T&T (Feb 28, 2008)

Duplicate post, threads merged.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

I have never fed Beneful, so I have no input on it... and whether this is a true claim or not. 

However, I raised my pup on Pro Plan and he did great on it. At 13 months I switched him to Taste of The Wild and when the media was going wild again about possible Diamond produced dog food recalls, I switched him to Earthborn grain free. Guess what - he did kind of iffy on TOTW and extremely terrible on Earthborn. I switched him back to a Pro Plan age appropriate formula and he is doing great. So, I have no beef with Purina at this time either as far as the Pro Plan goes anyway. I have never tried any other Purina brands. 

I think each dog is different and each dog will thrive on one food that another may not thrive on. 

Anyway, if this is a true claim about Beneful, I hope they pull it off the market.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I don't know anything about Beneful either so I can't comment about it. 

There are quite a few members that feed Purina Pro Plan formulas to their dogs and they are doing very well on it. 

I switched my two to Purina Pro Plan for Sensitive Skin and Stomach 4 years ago after several members recommended it to me. I would have never even considered feeding a Purina product if it hadn't been for their recommendations. 

My two are doing great on it and will continue eating it unless a problem comes up with either of them.


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## Macs#1 (Oct 1, 2010)

Lee was 14 when she passed - complications from a stroke - and Jack died just after his 15th birthday, plain old age. Neither ever saw a vet for a health related problem and both were working retrievers. Both were transitioned from Purina puppy chow to Pedigree which they ate their entire adult life. Sam is nearly 6, very healthy, and is fed Pedigree once daily. Don't have any experience with Beneful but just know that we have not had any cancers, skin problems, or issues with excessive weight. Lucky, maybe, but I'll keep doing what has worked for us, and nobody on this planet loves these dogs more fiercely than I do. :wavey:


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## Three'sacrowd (Sep 23, 2014)

Prior to finding this forum and the excellent advice that can be gleamed here, we fed our guy Beneful, so I do have some experience with it. He seemed to be ok with it until about the age of 7 when he would suddenly suffer seizures. They were not regular in occurrence and some were more frightful than others but they did occur. We spoke to our vet/tested our guy to try and determine the reason for the seizures and nothing came back. Vet did say that this is not uncommon for large breeds and that for the most part the dog has no lasting consequence from them.

Long story short, began researching this forum and other websites when we decided to add to our family and reviewed the literature on nutrition and all other dog foods in the market. Came away from that and began feeding my guy Fromm's and from the minute we fed him till now (knock wood) he has not had one seizure and has a smile on his face at mealtime. Not certain of there is any correlation as I do not have the expertise to answer that question but it is the only variable that has changed in either his diet or activity. Needless to say, we will stick with Fromm's.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

We had LONG running debates on that all breed forum and some were so down right nasty they were kicked off. For instance, one girl had a chow chow with horrible stomach problems. The dog did well on Science Diet for that problem. Whe would be told she was killing her dog feeding it "Science Death", etc and she would try what they suggested, only to have the dog get sick. go back to the SD and the dog would be better. Some of us told her to ignore the food snobs. Everyone should feed what is best for their dog. When we were trying to get weight off our first golden after he was diagnosed with thyroid, we used the SD diet for a couple of months and it worked just fine. When Honey got a bad kidney infection she was put on the SD food a few weeks, then back to her TOTW. Do I like SD? NO. Would it feed it as a normal every day deit/ NO. However that is what my vet fed his English Setter and she wa 14 1/2 when she had a stroke and he had to let her go. My cousins fed it to her Sheltie his entire life and he lied to be 16. Who know. And tho I feed a "better food", I am not so sure it really is...not after seeing how our dogs did on Purina Dog Chow for 40 years.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

I feed Purina Pro Plan. The 3 year old eats the sensitive skin and stomach, the seniors who are 13 and 10 eat the over 7 formula. I have had no issues with any of them, their coats, weights and general health are fantastic. I have fed this food for many years and am extremely satisfied, and my dogs eat each and every meal as if it were their last.


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

T&T said:


> and what's with all the unecessary toxic dyes (linked to cancer) ???
> http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/food-dyes-rainbow-of-risks.pdf


I never understood the dye thing either. I know the marketing gurus figure it makes kibble look somehow healthier to dog parents buying their product. 

Many years ago I once fed my dog Pedigree until all of a sudden the kibbles magically became pieces of meat and vegetables with festive colors. 

That was the end of that even though my dog at the time thrived on it. My mother had reactions to a certain red dye in human food so that was a huge red flag to me.

I found myself getting caught up in the dog food roller coaster. Oh, those ingredients look good on paper but my dog didn't thrive on it although I gave it a fair chance.

The best thing I ever did was home cooking for my dogs. It literally saved my boys life after he almost died from NSAID's when no kibble could. 

My vet had given me 2 different foods for his problem to try initially although I was hesitant. Yes it is crap he said but it works. My dog got very itchy on one and the other I found was a very recent recall that my vet didn't have the chance to know about. My goodness, it all really opened my mind.

I sure can sympathize with folks trying to figure it out.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

With Purina, I think it depends on the variety - they are not equal.

I know with my horses, that is all I use, and it is what everybody swears by, mainly because of all their years of research.

For my dogs, I have gone from Wellness ( they doubled in price in 4-5 years ), to Earthborn ( just switched because of rumors of being bought ) to a local Three Dog Bakery brand.

I started out using ThreeDogBakery as treats, because my dogs LOVED it so much. Finally about 4 weeks ago I made the switch. I am noticing the past week, my 8 year old is playing a lot more and his coat texture if softening - must have been dry and I did not notice. So far I am happy with the price and how much my dogs love this food.


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