By Caroline Coyle
Hill’s Pet Nutrition is being sued for more than $2 billion in a class action suit brought by boutique dog food manufacturer, Ketonatural. The suit alleges that Hill fabricated the alleged connection between boutique, exotic and grain-free (BEG) dog foods with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) beginning in 2018, in order to destroy competition.
The suit alleges that Hill conspired to spread false information to encourage consumers to avoid grain-free and boutique dog foods, and that several veterinarians associated with Hills did so by collecting biased data. to convince the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the connection; and then they publicize the warnings through vets, articles and social media.
According to the complaint: “Using the tools of professional science and Hill’s extensive network of veterinary influence, the method’s goal is to convince American pet owners that grain-free foods are not just a “fad diet” but Actually. dangerous for dogs–an argument that, if successful, has the potential to wipe out the entire grain-free sector of the pet food market. They have been carrying out this extensive procedure ever since and it is, by any measure, a stunning (if illegal) success.”
The suit singles out Hill’s from the other two pet food giants, Purina and Mars, for the following reasons: “First, it’s the smallest of the three–its annual revenue is smaller than most of the others. pet food brand, but they account for about 20% of Purina’s revenues. Second, as the nation’s largest manufacturer of “prescription-only” diets and as the self-proclaimed “#1 Vet Recommended Brand,” Hill’s is closer to the veterinary community than Mars or Purina. For Mars and Purina, marketing to veterinarians and distribution through veterinary clinics are both relatively insignificant parts of their vast company; for the Hill’s, they are a core part of the business.”
“The third thing that makes Hill stand out among the three “traditional” pet food companies is its poor financial performance in the years before 2018, when the misconduct began at the center of the suit that this. Nowadays, the market for pet foods made by “non-traditional,” often independent, brands is growing exponentially. For example, from 2011 to 2017, sales of “grain-free” dog foods rose from 15% to 44% of all dog food sales in American pet specialty stores, a leading category among independent manufacturers. Purina is so big and diversified that it successfully weathered this storm, growing steadily and maintaining its market share from 2014 to 2017. But Hill’s didn’t. Over the same four-year period, Hill’s annual revenue was pancake-flat, and its market share fell by more than 20%. Long the third-largest seller of complete-diet dog food in the country, Hill’s fell to fourth in 2018, after being overtaken by Blue Buffalo, the biggest of the new wave of “non-traditional” pet food brands.”
“Therefore, beginning no later than 2018, the Hill’s and a cluster of related entities and individuals (including the Hill’s, the “Defendants”) embarked on a violent and unlawful course to reverse the slide that this. They have devised a scheme to mislead American dog owners into a huge, unrelated, and very diverse group of dog food products–basically, any product made by any of the hundreds of independent companies that -together destroying Hill’s market share–all increase the risk and severity of a fatal canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (“DCM”).”
“To carry out the scheme, Hill’s, along with a group of closely-knit academic veterinarians (the “Veterinary Defenses”) and front organizations acting on Hill’s behalf, acted in a concerted conspiracy. “
“First and most explosively, the Veterinarian Defendants fraudulently induced the United States Food and Drug Administration to launch a high-profile investigation into DCM.”
“The second strand of Defendants’ scheme: Hill’s co-conspirators, the Veterinarian Defendants authored study after study about DCM and then falsified the findings.”
“The Defendants also created and maintained social media environments including at least one Facebook group that was an echo chamber, preventing any contradiction of the propaganda campaign.”
The full 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 Hill’s, has yet to respond, but it promises to be a long legal battle.
Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=281327
