Many Horrified Parents Accidentally Fed Their Children Dog Treats!

Ruh-roh! Several parents in New Zealand have been left feeling horrified and no doubt a bit silly after accidentally feeding their children dog food after a mix up at the supermarket.

The treats were labelled ‘Scooby Snacks’ and featured a large image of cartoon character Scooby Doo. The individually packaged biscuits shaped like little bones seemed to be the perfect snack to pop into a child’s lunchbox. Except they were dog treats!

The Scooby Snacks were advertised at the end of an aisle at Whanganui Pak’n Save where several parents purchased them thinking they were children’s snacks. The sign clearly read “dog treats” but as they weren’t in the dog food section, parents mistook them for a tasty lunchbox treat.

While the product packaging says it’s a pet food and not intended for human consumption, they are “human friendly”. And rather delicious by the sounds of it.

“A child at work had these today. By the time I saw it she had eaten all of them,” one Whanganui woman shared on Facebook.

Notices have gone up around Whanganui preschools and staff are checking lunchboxes to make sure children aren’t eating the dog food.

“I wondered why my boy didn’t like the taste of them,” posted a parent on Facebook.

“I got these today not knowing they were dog food and tried giving one to my 1 year old. Lucky he wasn’t hungry and I ended up eating one and spitting it back out followed by reading the packet more,” another parent wrote.

One young woman however, confessed to eating two packets and said they tasted “pretty good tbh.”

Another parent said she bought a Scooby Snack multipack on Tuesday during her weekly shop thinking it was children’s food.

“I was absolutely mortified when I gave them to my daughter. She took one bite and said, ‘this is rubbish’. I looked at the packet closely and gasped, ‘Oh no, I am so sorry. I just fed you dog food’.”

Yet another parent admitted feeding their child the snacks, which the child enjoyed.

I’ve purchased some sort of Scooby Doo endorsed snacks for my children in the past, although while I can’t remember what type of snack they were, I found them near the muesli bars. So I can imagine myself picking up a couple of these multipacks not realising they were meant for dogs if they were on the end of an aisle at half price! After all, they do look a bit like the choc-chip Tiny Teddies in a similar styled packet. So it’s probably just as well that I don’t live near this supermarket in New Zealand then!

Life lesson: always read the fine print!