TRADE TALK | PET GAZETTE | 9
LEXI RECEIVES PETSMART SUPPLIER
OF THE YEAR 2017 AWARD
The dog lead company was honoured in the hard goods category
Dog lead manufacturer Flexi has been
recognised by American retail chain
PetSmart in its recent awards ceremony.
The chain awarded the Germany company
with the Supplier of the Year award in the
hard goods category. PetSmart recognises
top suppliers for performance, quality and
innovation every year. The Supplier of the
Year award is reserved for suppliers that
distinguish themselves by going above and
beyond PetSmart’s requirements, providing
customers with the most innovative products
and highest quality in the pet industry.
Manfred Bogdahn, Flexi owner, said: “We
are delighted to have been praised with this
prestigious award by PetSmart. This
reward fully recognises all efforts made by
all Flexi employees worldwide to deliver the
highest level of product quality and customer
service.”
FISH SWIM BACK INTO FASHION WITH UK
PET OWNERS
The research found that the UK’s most popular freshwater fish remained as the Goldfish
New research has found that 54 perfect of
British people consider a fish their favourite
pet, with half of fish owners admitting to
tracing their finger around the bowl to “play”
with their fish.
Tetra research also found that 23 percent
of British fish owners enjoy talking to their fish,
while six percent sing to their aquatic pets.
The research found that the UK’s most
popular freshwater fish remained as the
Goldfish, which has been the country’s most
popular since fishkeeping’s boom in the
1980s. The Pearl Gourami and Neon Tetra
came in second and third place respectively
while other fish popular with UK owners
included the Guppie, Cory Catfish and Danios.
Tetra says UK owners ranked “watching
them grow and feeling proud of taking care
of them as the most rewarding benefit”
of keeping fish. The aquatic pet product
manufacturer also said “keeping fish in
your home can bring many health benefits,
such as reducing stress and lowering blood
pressure and heart rate”.
‘POOP BAG’ ADVERT
REPRIMANDED BY ASA
The Ancol Pet Products advert was ruled by the ASA to be ‘misleading’ and claims of a
biodegradable ‘poop bag’ were described as not properly ‘substantiated’
An advert for a dog ‘poop bag’ has
been reprimanded by the Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA), who said
it was “misleading” and said claims it
was biodegradable were not properly
“substantiated”.
The ASA received a complaint relating
to a product page for dog waste bags on
www.ancol.co.uk, which featured text that
stated “Refill Poop Bag Rolls… these thick
waste bags are biodegradable to lessen
your dog’s impact on the environment”.
The complainant said they believed the
material the bags were made from was not
biodegradable.
Ancol Pet Products told the ASA that their
bags were produced using a controlled-life
plastic technology, which was added during
the manufacturing stage of production of
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their bags. They stated that the material
used converted everyday plastic products
into materials which were biodegradable in
the open environment.
Defra was consulted by the ASA to find
out if the oxo-degradable plastics used in
the bags were in fact biodegradable. Defra
told the ASA “plastic fragments and smaller
microplastics were left behind, which
could have a harmful effect on the open
environment, and in particular marine life”.
The advise from Defra led to the ASA to
rule that the product was “not in line with
how consumers were likely to interpret the
term ‘biodegradable’”.
Due to a lack of evidence proving the
product was biodegradable from Ancol,
the ASA told Ancol “the ad must not appear
again in its current form” and asked the
company to “ensure that their future
advertising did not mislead by making
environmental claims unless they held
adequate evidence to substantiate those
claims”.
Ancol Pet Products contacted Pet Gazette
to say they “object to the ruling made by the
ASA and are seeking further advice” on the
matter.
A spokesperson said: “We take this
ruling very seriously, and pride ourselves
on responsibly sourcing our products. As a
family run business we are very aware of
the environment and try to make positive
contributions to helping the environment,
one example of which is we installed solar
panels to our warehouse and so now we
are using only renewable energy in our day
to day running of the business.”
October 2018