Japan pet suppliers show Interpets planned for August

Interpets, the Japanese "pet event of the new era," will be held in Japan in August, open to pet food and pet supply industry suppliers as well as the public.  This pet suppliers trade show will be held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan, from August 23-26. The fair will feature new products for a better life with pets, including dogs, cats and small animals.
More information on registration and exhibitors is available online.

Pet food companies, pet owners to blame for pet obesity, vet says

A Canadian veterinary pet nutrition specialist says pets are becoming more overweight not only because pet food is high in calories, but also because pet owners may also be overfeeding and under exercising their pets, according to lfpress.com.
Monica Snedden, a veterinary nutrition specialist and registered veterinary technician at Princess Animal Hospital in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, says pet owners are contributing to their pet's obesity by “feeding them the wrong thing, overfeeding them, just leaving the food down and leaving the bowl full all the time.” In addition, she says pet owners that feed their pet from the table also add to their pet's obesity. “It's different for pets. One little one-ounce cube of cheese is like three chocolate bars. It seems small to us, but for them it is a huge sum of calories for the day,” Snedden says. Pet food companies are also to blame for the pet obesity problem, according to Snedden, because much of the petfood on the market is very high in calories and fat. It is often difficult for pet owners to find the calorie content on a pet food ingredient label and sometimes difficult to obtain the information even by contacting the pet food manufacturer. “There are so many companies out there that are making so many foods and they come and go that it's hard for people to know what they are feeding any more,” she says. “Consumers don't know what they are buying and we can't keep up with what's hitting the shelves.”  Snedden says pet owners can help prevent their pet from getting overweight in the first place by closely monitoring its weight and making a change in feeding or exercise, if necessary, to maintain a healthy weight. “Then we just try to keep them around there, judging how their body condition looks,” she says. “Once they are really obese you are fighting an uphill battle.” 

Pet owner unhappy with melamine-tainted petfood lawsuit settlement

A woman whose cat died from eating tainted pet food is unhappy with the settlement pet owners received compared to the compensation lawyers received in a class-action lawsuit related to the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood imported from China, NBC reported.
Kathy Forcier's cat, who died from eating "Special Kitty" food purchased at Walmart, was one of as many as 50,000 dogs and cats sickened or killed by the 2007 melamine-tainted petfood incident, in which as many as 150 pet foods produced by Menu Foods were recalled. Forcier was part of a class-action lawsuit with more than 24,000 people against Menu Foods that settled for US$24 million. Yet, she says she received a settlement check for US$58.76, about half of the cost of her cat's vet bills, while attorneys in the case received US$7.4 million. "It was an absolute insult," said Forcier.  The lead law firm in the case, Wexler Wallace of Chicago, would not disclose a breakdown of payouts or the number of checks that were mailed to claimants in California, USA, where Forcier lives. "Every claimant has the right to expect privacy with respect to their individual claims and I am going to respect that," said attorney Kenneth Wexler, who handled the case. "The range of recovery is not relevant."  "He didn't lose a pet," said Forcier. "He didn't lose a member of his family." 

Chinese pet food found to be mislabeled by Taipei city officials

The Taipei City Government yesterday ordered four pet food products to be taken off store shelves because of incorrect labeling, according to the Taipei Times.
City officials inspected 140 pet food products, of which four were found to be falsely labeled. According to city officials, Belicom’s tuna and beef cat food, Dobi’s beef, chicken and potato dog food; Ever Red’s beef dog food; and Maxwell’s beef dog food were improperly labeled because none of the products any trace of beef, a violation of the Commodity Labeling Act that is punishable by fines up to NT$300,000 (US$9,000). Yeh Ching-yuan, director of the city government’s Law and Regulation Commission, said petfood manufacturers would be told to make changes to the labels, and retailers would be asked to take the falsely labeled products off store shelves. 

North Dakota seeks pet food manufacturer comments on feed law

The Agriculture Department of North Dakota, USA, has scheduled public meetings around the state in January 2012 to gather comments and suggestions regarding the state's regulation of animal feed. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring says the department is reviewing its feed regulation program to determine if it meets the needs of today's industry, and welcomes comment from anyone from animal feed manufacturers to pet food manufacturers and retailers.
The afternoon meetings begin January 9, 2012, in Bismarck, North Dakota, USA, and end on January 17, 2012, in Valley City, North Dakota, USA. A full schedule can be found at online. 

Canadian pet food producer works to lower production facility smell

Canadian pet food manufacturer Champion Petfoods is working to reduce the smell from its plant in Morinville, Alberta, after local residents complained about the odors from the plant, the St. Albert Gazette reported. 
According to president, Frank Burdzy, the company’s October air quality tests suggested the plant was operating at 50 odor units per cubic meter, a 15% to 20% reduction from the level in April. David Spink, an air quality consultant who specializes in industrial odors, says odor units are standardized measures of smell, where one unit is not considered to be harmful because it is undetectable to half of the population and barely noticeable to the other half Burdzy says the smell problems began around 2007, when the company added more meat ingredients into its products. A US$500,000 plasma injection system was installed in 2010 to fix the problem, but failed to do so. A plan to install Venturi scrubbers to spin and soak the smell out of the air is being delayed until spring 2012 after a consultant found additional changes that needed to be made. The pet food manufacturer has since lowered the heat in its dryers, improved airflow in the plant and finalized plans for new stacks to be installed in spring, in an effort to reduce the smell to a maximum of five odor units. “There’s going to be some sense of odor from time to time, but the key thing is we want to remove the offensive nature of it,” Burdzy says.

Online petfood industry revenue of US$595.8 million by 2016, report projects

IBISworld released a new report on the online petfood and pet supply sales industry, which expects rising pet ownership to drive demand and boost pet food sales to 2016.
The report estimates that slowly improving economic conditions will boost consumer spending, which will drive online petfood industry revenue to a projected US$595.8 million by 2016. Over the past five years, IBISWorld estimates that revenue in the online pet food industry has grown to $484.7 million. The report also attributes higher demand for premium pet foods and online animal pharmaceutical sales to this growth over the past five years.
"Rising pet ownership in the United States and growth across the e-commerce sector has caused the industry to experience overall growth, despite the recession," says IBISWorld analyst Kevin Culbert. "Niche players like 1-800-PetMeds and discount retailers like Walmart have rapidly gained market share within the industry."
However, the report found industry revenue declined marginally in 2009 as consumer spending fell, but increasing per capita disposable income is expected to cause revenue growth of 2.5% in 2011. Rising revenue is also driving up industry profit margins, which have risen over the past five years due to improvements in automation driving down wages as a portion of revenue. A full copy of the report can be purchased online.