February 13th marks the beginning of the 2-day Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which takes place each year in Madison Square Gardens. The show features purebred pups prancing and preening before an audience of dog lovers and TV cameras. But this year, the WKC Dog Show will not feature long-term sponsor Pedigree’s emotionally charged advertisements of disadvantaged, homeless, and abused dogs. The club has decided to drop Pedigree as a sponsor and take on Nestle Purina PetCare in order to display ads with a rosier hued image of healthy, happy dogs.
Representatives from both the Westminster Kennel Club and Pedigree cited the split as a lack of ‘shared vision’. The club believes that people want to see images of robust, athletic dogs, and not the sad heart-wrenching images that Pedigree displays in order to encourage adoption and protection of orphaned animals. This decision was made despite the fact that in previous years, Pedigree has raised thousands of dollars for animal welfare and adoption.
We believe that the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has made a huge mistake by not allowing these ads to run. The ads do nothing to damage the reputation or atmosphere of the show, and in fact they help raise awareness of mistreated and abandoned animals. By removing the ads, the WKC is sending a message loud and clear that the plights of these unfortunate animals are not as important as those of purebred, pampered dogs.
Fortunately, the Pedigree Adoption Drive has devised a campaign called the ‘Every Dog, Dog Show’ to counteract the loss of exposure to their cause. For every visitor who interacts on the Pedigree Adoption Drive’s Facebook page, the company will donate a bowl of food to a homeless dog in a rescue shelter from now until 11PM ET, February 14th. This is a great way for dog lovers to show their support for this cause, and to prove that every dog deserves love and kindness, regardless of their breed or lot in life.
As much as dog owners are in tune with their dog’s nrutitional needs and the substandard commercial dog food in the market today, cat owners feel the very same way too. There are plenty of discussion about cat food over here but I gather, not as much as over the dog’s section. The reason is because many cat owners have yet to realize the importance of feline nutrition. Most feed the ways their parents feed their cat or get influenced by advertising and over hype marketing gimmickry. And this is one reason why you see people feeding Friskies, Nine Lives or MeowMix thinks that they are feeding the best.As a cat owner, I do a lot of research into feline nutrition. The science have evolved over the years and many new findings are proving old theory wrong. For instance, for years, cats rely of a staple diet of dry kibbles. Now, we know that the only species appropriate diet for a cat is wet food. Even better, the RAW movement is gaining momentum and many have chosen to feed it. And most recently, research has indicated that dry kibbles does very little in helping keep a cat’s teeth cleaned, as cat rarely chew or break apart dry food. Most periodontal diseases not only affect the teeth but the whole mouth and gums where even chewing on kibbles does not help.The transition will be a slow one and cat owners will have to keep an open mind. The commercial cat/pet food industry is not as closely monitored as claimed and many ingredients that goes into what cat eats are highly questionable. We should really be proactive and we should not treat cats as second citizens. If one feel that a dog should eat well, so should a cat.