Bad to the Bone

"President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even gone to the pound to get his long-promised puppy for daughters Sasha and Malia, but when it arrives, there will be a present awaiting the fur ball. Milk-Bone tells us that it will provide a lifetime supply of the doggie treat to the new first family. Why? Well, says the firm celebrating its 100th anniversary, "to welcome the first pup to the White House." The firm adds in a release to us: "Milk-Bone, the iconic pet snack brand that is celebrating its 100th anniversary by recognizing Milk-Bone Moments, wishes to congratulate the new first family on the historic moment that occurred Tuesday night and their commitment to future pet parenthood by offering to supply the family with a LIFETIME supply of Milk-Bone dog biscuits. The Milk-Bone brand takes an oath to keep the presidential pooch-elect stocked with as many dog biscuits as he or she could wish for!" Source

Apparently, this is a big politically incorrect flub on the part of Milkbone according to the rescue world out there. Those bones should be donated to the shelter by golly! Every last tasy morsel! Heck, the President can afford his own Milkbones! He doesn't need a donation! There are dogs dying in shelters that need Milkbones! If Milkbone isn't going to donate those free lifetime bones to the shelter in the First Dog's honor, then Barack himself should!

People, really? Are you serious? First off, can we be happy that Obama is going to be adopting a dog, and not buying one out of a pet store, or going to the first puppymill they find in the newspaper that can then brag on their website about how their puppies are so good -- even the President bought one! Nope. He said he's going to the shelter to adopt one. Is that not good enough?

And here's a guy who has dedicated and essentially given up his life to help this country ... heck, there's no way he could just walk the "First Dog" down the street now ... and if someone wants to give him free dog treats to welcome him into his new job, then so be it! I don't want his job, and I'm grateful that he's willing to do it.

Let's look at Milkbone. Here you have a company who has been around for a bazillion years, whose name is synonymous with dog treats, who doesn't "need" the publicity, and the rescuers are accusing them of a publicity stunt. Oh wait. Maybe it's the company that bought Milkbone out that needs the publicity. Some small company ... what's their name ... oh something like ... Del Monte? Yeah, maybe they need the publicity. Getting the picture? And here's how it works in the internet day and age. Someone finds the idea so repulsive, they go on a public chat board, mention it, get people riled up enough about it, so that Milkbone has to endure not one complaint on behalf of the community, but various individual email complaints by the same "voice" per se who took a whopping two minutes out of their busy life the minute they found something to complain about. So what does Milkbone do? They do what any other large company would do. They come up with a generic blurb and send it to those that sent in the email complaints, politely saying that they would forward it to management, and oh, by the way, in case you all didn't notice, we donate thousands of cases of dog treats every year to shelters across the nation. I guess that doesn't count either. (Neither does the fact that the company is so huge, it probably has to do what every other company has to do -- find things to donate to as a tax writeoff...) I'm sure Milkbone drops and steps on more treats in a day in the processing plant than Obama and his family would give a single dog in its lifetime. Or perhaps even a whole kennel worth of dogs.

If someone had to attach their name to the "First Dog," I'm glad it was Milk Bone. And if Milk Bone wants to give away free treats to someone, good on them. They do plenty in the way of helping pets through their donations and sponsorships and programs, etc. If they want to keep the "First Dog" in treats for the rest of its life (did I mention it will be a pound puppy?), then good on them. I don't see anyone else doing it. Just a bunch of people sitting around complaining about it.

Happy tails,
JD