Written by Caroline Coyle
Hill's Pet Nutrition is being sued for more than $2 billion in a class action lawsuit filed by premium dog food maker Keto Natural. The complaint alleges that starting in 2018, Hill's fabricated a link between Boutique Exotic Grain-Free (BEG) dog food and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in order to destroy competition.
The complaint alleges that Hills Company conspired to disseminate false information to persuade consumers to avoid grain-free and premium dog foods, and to persuade the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the link. They claim that some veterinarians have done this by collecting biased data. The warning was made public through veterinarians, articles, and social media.
According to the complaint, “Using the tools of expert science and Hill's vast network of veterinary influence, the plan's goal is to ensure that a grain-free diet is not just a 'fad diet' but an actual grain-free diet. My goal was to convince American pet owners of one thing. dangerous This argument, if successful, has the potential to eradicate the entire grain-free sector of the pet food market. Since then, they have continued to carry out this extensive plan, which by all accounts has been a breathtaking (if illegal) success. ”
The lawsuit names Hills over two other major pet food companies, Purina and Mars, for the following reasons: “For starters, Hills is the smallest of the three companies. Its annual sales are small compared to most other pet food brands, at only about 20 million yen,” which accounts for 20% of Purina's revenue. . Second, Hills is the nation's largest manufacturer of “prescription-only” meals, and as the self-proclaimed “#1 Veterinarian Recommended Brand,” it has far stronger ties to the veterinary community than Mars or Purina. For Mars and Purina, marketing to veterinarians and selling through veterinary clinics are both relatively unimportant parts of their vast companies. For Hills, they are a key element of the business. ”
“The third thing that makes Hills unique among the three 'traditional' pet food companies is its unique financial performance in the years leading up to 2018, when the fraud at the center of this lawsuit began.” This means that it is bad for people. During this period, the pet food market, produced by “non-traditional” and often independent brands, exploded. For example, from 2011 to 2017, sales of “grain-free” dog food, a major category for independent manufacturers, increased from 15% to 44% of total dog food sales in U.S. pet specialty stores. Because Purina was so large and diversified, it weathered the storm well, growing steadily and maintaining market share from 2014 to 2017. But that wasn't the case with Hills. In those same four years, Hill's annual revenue was flat and his market share plummeted by more than 20%. Hill's had long been the No. 3 selling complete meal dog food in the country, but it was overtaken by Blue Buffalo, the leader of a new wave of “non-traditional” pet food brands, and fell to No. 4 in 2018. I fell.
“Thus, by no later than 2018, Hills and a group of affiliated entities and individuals (collectively Hills and the “Defendants'') embarked on a bold and illegal course to reverse this slide. They offered American dog owners a large, unrelated, and highly diverse line of dog food products (essentially hundreds of independent brands that were collectively eroding Hill's market share). carried out a scheme to falsely believe that the product was manufactured by one of the companies.all Increases the risk and severity of a fatal canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (“DCM”). ”
“To carry out the scheme, Hills engaged in an organized conspiracy with a close-knit group of academic veterinarians (the “Veterinarian Defendants'') and a front organization acting on Hill's behalf. ”
“First and most explosive, the veterinarian defendants fraudulently induced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch a high-profile investigation into DCM.”
“Second element of Defendants' plan: Hill's co-conspirators, veterinarian defendants, wrote study after study on DCM and mischaracterized the results.”
“Defendants also created and cultivated a social media environment that included at least one Facebook group that served as an echo chamber to suppress contradictions in the propaganda campaign.”
The entire 124-page legal complaint is available online at https://truthaboutpetfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/KETONATURAL-PET-FOODS-v-HILLS-PET-NUTRITION-20240206.pdf .
Colgate-Palmolive, which owns Hills, has not yet responded, but it is expected to be a lengthy legal battle.
Shortened URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=281327
