Going to the Dogs

Sunday paper coupons are a great source of my product-consternation. This week, I came across a new great healthy product... for dogs. I don't have a dog, I have a cat, and she can be darn picky with her food. She's small and doesn't eat much, so I have to be careful that her food doesn't get stale before she can finish the bag.

No such fears for your dog! Beneful to the rescue! (Oh look, and I didn't even realize it was a Nestle company when I started this! Brilliant!!!! Yes, Nestle, the Big Bad, owns Purina now.) Beneful introduces IncrediBites, real wholesome ingredients packaged in stay-fresh pouches. Yes, you can now buy a box of dried dog food, full of 14 smaller PLASTIC 6-ounce pouches of convenience.

IS it convenient? Perhaps. Is it necessary? Not at all. I have never but never heard a dog complain that his food was going stale. I have never heard a dog lament that his food wasn't out-of-the-bag fresh. I HAVE seem dogs eat cat poo right out of the litter box. (well, I guess that IS an argument for freshness...)  I have seen dog food kept in big old cans with a scoop in it, and the dog happily wolf down whatever. This leads me to wonder who this new packaging is for? It isn't for the dog; of that, I am certain. It has to be for the owners who think that their dog is really a little person and needs to be treated as such. (It is not.) I might be lenient if there weren't a slew of other ways to keep the dog food fresh, were a person so inclined as to believe their dog needs hermetically sealed freshness (it does not). You can buy containers anywhere that will keep the food fresh after you have opened the bag. Heck, I think I saw one lisenced by The Dog Whisperer in Petco (where the pets go) the other day. Get one of those, but by all means, REJECT this wasteful plastic.

Beneful's catch-phrase is "Healthful. Flavorful. Beneful. (R)" I ask, "Healthful for whom?" Because these plastic pouches are NOT healthful for the planet. Reject this latest attempt at a grab of a market share. Don't buy this food, buy some other food for your pooch, and put it in another container to keep it fresh... as fresh as that litter-box treat your dog was eyeing earlier.