Comments on: A Sustainable Spoil

By: JR

JR — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:58:41 +0000

yeah, Mollie, you’re right. It is a disgrace. I feed raw meat to my dogs, and their vet says they’re the best fed animals in the county. But the meat I feed them is frozen locally and not expired processed items. I only pay 50 cents a pound here in Florida. Its a great deal.

By: Mollie Morrissette

Mollie Morrissette — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:52:30 +0000

This program is a disgrace. Walmart/Quest has greenwashed garbage into a value added product with slick and deceptive marketing to consumers. They are making a profit off of garbage at the expense of the health and safety of animals. If you think feeding expired meat to animals you are sadly misinformed. Do the research before you buy the garbage they are selling the American public.

By: JR

JR — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:56:32 +0000

In all honesty, this program is a waste. The meat was not going into landfills to begin with. It was going to a rendering company, which uses the product. How do you think fertilizer is made? Now, quite a bit is going to the landfill, because the people who are picking it up, have no other way to get rid of what they cannot use. These people are paying to pick up “garbage”. I wish my garbage collector would pay me. When you consider that there are reputable places who sell meat for animal consumption, processed without any additives, and who have to comply with the USDA, for around fifty cents a pound, why would you go through this. The only thing you are accomplishing is hurting these people and helping Walmart put more money in their pockets, like they don’t have enough already. MS states it perfectly. These people are paying to haul off trash.

By: MS

MS — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:21:45 +0000

People are droping out of the program left and right. The reason is mainly because they are tired of Walmart employees and they have become nothing more than someone to pay quest to haul off Walmarts trash. Not enough money being made by Quest or Walmart to even care. All this stuff will go back to the landfill. Walmart never really cared for the animals nor about going green. What a joke.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:54:51 +0000

I have to step in and put my two cents in as a member of this program since it started on November 1st. I currently have one store in Georgia, and a meetup group with at least 20 active members in it, and we get approximately 1,000 to 1,500 lbs of meat per week. It is typically about 50-50, but I am looking for pig farmers to take the trash so we don’t have to keep throwing it away.

The program works, and it works great, provided you have the right store to meet your needs and you have planned for removal of what you don’t need. I disperse the trash amongst all of the members that come pick up meat that week, and I haven’t had a problem thus far. Once I find people with pigs and chickens to take the trash, that problem will be solved as well.

The monthly fee is not so “big business” can make money. The fee is the liability insurance, and it is only $100 per month, provided you have less than 4 stores on your contract.

It may not have worked well for some, but we are doing terrific over here. It has been a blessing to all involved!

-Steph in GA

By: Shari Vermeer-Morehead

Shari Vermeer-Morehead — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:08:26 +0000

I agree with Callie. We have spent WAY too much money actually to be a co-op member..and ended up picking up one of the stores through the Coop Organizer in our area. We were getting about 75 -80 pounds of usable meat every week, and 400 pounds of fried chicken, brats, lunch meat and roasters.
We were paying $150 per month to be a “member”, plus our time and gas and then cleaning and sorting and disposal of un-usable products.
What’s worse is some of the chicken SEEMED good, but ended up actually making our animals very sick, one who actually passed away last week from “Pancreatic” issues. Another who has same issues is having to be nursed back from death with fluids round the clock and lots of heart ache and expense…
They all got very ill after eating chicken with bones ( and I mean ALL of our 9 large dogs).. so I know the connection is accurate..
PLEASE think about this.. if you pick up once a week, potentially the meat could be quite spoiled and you do not know it.. Even worse.. the cold chain has more than likely been broken, and you could potentially be killing your animals as well.
In such a case..,… you cannot sue Walmart or Quest or the Coop for any “unforseen” losses such as we have suffered.
I think there is a LOT , I mean a A LOT of money being made here, and animals who are getting ill, and we are doing a great job of cleaning up Walmart’s garbage and making someone wealthy at our uneducated expense… TRENDY to raw feed, now isn’t it?. Not so much..
I am not the only one in our area (and coop) who have dogs who have gotten ill recently from the chicken products. THIS IS NOT HOW WE SHOULD TREAT OUR PETS.
I think for Zoos and others who perhaps have veterinary staff and PROPER and ensured methods for handling of these products, it’s great..
For the Coop members just trying to feed dogs and cats..It’s dangerous and expensive.,,
Better think twice, if you love your dogs..
Not good. Just another way for Quest or the local Coop organizer to make money…

By: Callie

Callie — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:59:20 +0000

I am a member. It some what what we expected. We get about 1/2 lunch meat and hot dogs and 1/2 usable meat. The dogs can’t eat a diet of half lunchmeat and hotdogs and half good food. So the lunch meat and hot dogs go to the dump. It is expensive. The dump charges by the lbs. We pay quest $100 a month and the garbage man I don’t know what a month varies by weight.
Things I don’t like
In our bins, we get a mix of non meat items, like pickles, mashed potatoes, onions, weird stuff. One time Tuna Salad covered our meat, and onions are toxic to dogs so we were not happy that day. Every couple weeks our meat is covered in seasoning, packets are dumped over the meat. So we wash each piece of good meat. Nothing is in its package, so it all smells like hotdogs and there is a lot of juices. Shrimps are scattered throughout and a royal pain to sort each little tiny shrimp. We spend 4 hours sorting/cleaning and tossing twice a week. 2 hours picking up twice a week, so 12 hours a week doing this. So it is a good deal??
My question for others who do this. What do YOU do with the lunch meat and hot dogs? Is there anything you can do with them? I hate to throw it all away, its expensive and heavy, but I can’t think of anything to do with them. If I feed them to the dogs the Drink like they haven’t had water in months and Pee and Pee and Pee. I know its not good for them, but I figured a Brat for a treat here and there wouldn’t be so bad. Oh no, its horrible.
Our store also added Deli, so now we have cooked chicken, chicken nuggets and INSANE amounts of lunch meat. This week alone we had over 200 lbs of lunch meat.
I do agree with someone post here about us paying them for their garbage. I really don’t understand why we have to pay Quest $100 to take Walmarts garbage. I know its for “insurance” but I would think Walmart has to pay for their garbage removal so quest is getting double paid. And I would be the people who picked up before got PAID by walmart and/or quest to take their garbage, so I don’t really understand why we have to do it for a fee? After gas, time and garbage expenses, it honestly probably isn’t worth it.

By: stori clement

stori clement — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:57:51 +0000

Very interested in learning more about the raw food diets. Been wanting to do this for years and have just found your site. Eager to know more…

Thankyou
Stori clement

By: JH

JH — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:26:15 +0000

I would like to know more about this, and where I can sign up to become a member.

By: SH

SH — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:11:59 +0000

Yikes, M.S., you seem very angry. Sounds like this program and/or the store(s) that you are/were getting your meat from is definitely not working for you. I can see why your experience would be frustrating but you shouldn’t condemn the whole program or imply there’s some sort of conspiracy just because you’re unhappy. You know, not everyone who might participate in this program is feeding large cats.

And, no, I don’t work for these people, or at a grocery store or am in any way affiliate with the program. I’m just a new raw feeder who is reasearching options and came across this story.

I just last night spoke to a woman who is participating in the program. She picks up her meat twice a week from her local participating store. She didn’t once mention anything about picking through trash, taking stuff to a landfill or being their “garbage person”. She seemed very happy with the program.

Your near-to-last sentence said it all “I knew form the start of this program that it was going too be a pain since its foundation was built on lies.” Kind of a sel-fulfilling prophecy you made for youself, huh?