Where have I been? Obviously, not scouring dog food rating sites.

I usually make Phoebe’s dog food, but there are times when I want to give her a little diversity or run out of her home made food. I used to use Merrick grain free as the back up and felt secure in my choice (past tense emphasized).

This evening, I was contemplating switching Phoebe from a homemade diet to commercial dry or canned food. In the past she didn’t do too well, but it never hurts to try every so often. Part of my decision-making process includes going to the good ol’ standby for nutritional and quality reviews (dogfoodadvisor.com).  What I learned on this research adventure shocked me.

Merrick’s sold out to Purina in July of this year (4 months ago +/-)

Naturally, Merrick and Purina promise up and down that nothing will change. Unbelievable promises that Merrick’s will maintain its quality. Come on folks! Purina is the parent company. Is there a single reason to believe any word coming from Purina?

As if selling out to Purina isn’t bad enough, Merrick sold out while Purina was embroiled in a lawsuit. Several dog owners had already filed suit claiming that Purina’s Beneful dog food was killing dogs. In fact, the law suit was amended in June 2015 to include owners in 15 states. Yet, Merrick still went through with the merger/sale the following month anyway. There is absolutely no way that Merrick could not have known about this lawsuit, which leaves me wondering about Merrick’s dedication to quality in the first place.

If I owned a brand that prided itself on quality, I certainly would not sell it off to a company with such a poor reputation that also happened to be in litigation.

Any way you slice it, it is wrong.

It is wrong, wrong, wrong!

I wonder when Dog Food Advisor will take Merrick off the 5-star list. My guess is that they cannot make an arbitrary change and have to wait for quality to go downhill. In the meantime, I will give it my own rating.  Merrick’s just went from a 5-star food to a 1/99th of a star food in my book.

I guess I have to delve and figure out who the parent company is when I research dog food. It sucks.