Do Marketers Have Your Pet's Best Interest at Heart?

The average American is exposed to hundreds of commercial messages each day; and like it or not, we do rely on some amount of marketing to provide us with information. How would we know about new products if companies didn't tell us about them, right?

When it comes to the welfare of our pets, however, we want to be especially cautious about not buying (into) everything we're told, whether that's a product or just an idea. And on the Internet, where's there is very little barrier to entry, it's a lot easier for people to sell products than it used to be in the traditional brick-and-mortar world when costs were a significant deterrent to newcomers. On some occasions, you'll run across people or companies who are more interested in turning a quick buck than they are in the long-term health of your furry (or feathered) kid.

Case in point, in the parrot community there was a recent incident where a marketer put out a press release stating that clipping a bird's wings is tantamount to animal cruelty, with links to videos showing how he taught his bird to fly outside in just a few simple steps. The implication being that anyone who loved their bird should grow out their wings and teach them to fly outside using the approach shown in the video.

A well-studied bird owner knows clipping a bird's flight feathers does not constitute "abuse", and anyone savvy to online marketing knows that this "press release" was just a PR stunt. However, most bird owners aren't going to know everything there is to know about the latest research and might be swayed by this company's press release.

These consumers would have no reason to distrust claims that someone conducted "research"; they wouldn't know that press releases undergo minimal quality control by the services that distribute them -- anyone can put out a press release about anything on the Web.

Directly as a result of the press release, and the video it was promoting, one parrot owner decided he wanted to give his African Grey the opportunity to free fly. Had he done more research using independent sources, he would have known that the majority of professional bird trainers would never recommend those methods. His extremely ill-advised decision to let his bird outside without any restraint resulted in her flying away.

As of this post, she still hasn't been recovered.

The purveyor of this video training system admits to not having a lot of experience and still learning by trial and error, but has not stopped marketing his products as expert training, nor has he added any sort of caution to bird owners who might stumble upon his video pitch on YouTube.

By contrast, responsible pet companies do lots of vigorous testing, consult with experts or veterinarians, and voluntarily conduct recalls on products found to be harmful to animals.

What's the lesson here? As stated earlier, you can't trust everything you see on the Web. But as pet owners, we also need to take responsibility for being smart consumers -- for ourselves as well as our pets.

If you're thinking of trying a new product or training method, ask your vet or other people you trust. And ask yourself if the product's claims sound too good to be true.

Is it really that easy to recall a free flying bird, with no risk of it flying away?

Why should I believe that this pill is going to stop my cat from shedding and that it's safe to give her?

Do I want to take the risk and trust my dog not to pee on my antique rug just because I sprayed this product on it?

The take away is not that pet marketers are snake oil salesman - many are dedicated pet owners and animal lovers themselves, who would never trade in falsehoods and misinformation.

It's unrealistic just to tell pet owners to avoid any and all marketing messages -- but if it can't pass the sniff test, it's your responsibility to educate yourself further using trustworthy sources

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