FOR MOST DOMESTICATED DOGS
A RAW FOOD DIET IS NOT
THE
ANSWERThe present trend to feed
dogs a raw food diet was kicked off by Dr. Ian Billinghurst when he wrote a
book in 1993 promoting a "Bones and Raw Food (BARF) diet." Now there are
many different pet food companies which promote a line of raw meat pet foods
or the use of raw meats supplemented with the line of dietary products they
produce. Raw food diets have been around long enough that we have been able
to see the harm they are doing to many domesticated dogs. This has been well
documented. Ann Martin, who wrote the book FOOD PETS DIE FOR has a
new book out titled PROTECT YOUR PET: MORE SHOCKING FACTS. It has
chapters on the "Dangers of Commercial Pet Foods", "Raw Meat Diet
Controversy", "Increased Cancer in Pets" - and more. I urge all pet owners
who are thinking of feeding their companion pets with a raw food diet to
read the chapter "Raw Meat Diet Controversy" in Ann Martin's new book.
Ann is joined by many canine nutritionists and
Veterinarians who now urge dog owners to be VERY CAREFUL about feeding raw
meat to their dogs. Unfortunately most of the published information about
the dangers of a raw food diet are published in scientific journals that the
average dog owner never hears about i.e. the article Public health
concerns associated with feeding raw meat diets to dogs written by
Jeffrey T. LeJeune, DMD, PhD, and Dale D. Hancock, DMD, PhD. The article
appeared in the November 1, 2001 issue of JAVMA (a small publication sent to
Veterinarians). For a copy you can contact Dr. LeJeune. His present address
is: Dr. LeJeune, c/o Food Animal Health Research Program, Ohio Agriculture
Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH
44691-4096.
At his Internet web site Dr. Belfield states:
"As a veterinary practitioner for thirty-seven years and a veterinary
meat inspector for seven years, I, in good conscience, cannot recommend raw
meat diets to my clients. My advice to my clients is "cook the meat until
the redness is gone". When this is done, there is no vomiting, the
cholesterol level is normal, the risk of infection by microorganisms and
parasites diminishes." (a direct quote from his 1999 on-line article Raw
Meat Diets for Companion Animals?)
Any diet that gets a dog eating foods that are not filled
with preservatives and other chemicals found in most commercial dog food is
considered by most canine nutritionists as a step in the right direction.
But the raw meat diets which are on the market today fall into the same trap
as the all-breed/any-breed kibble and are being sold as "one diet GOOD for
all dogs." Even though, in the National Research Council's book,
Nutrient Requirements of Dogs,they show how one breed can have a
different reaction to a single food source than another breed. There are
breeds that have genetic predisposed allergies to beef. Some dog breeds have
inherent allergies to fish or chicken. We know that the amino acid content
of various meat sources are different and must be in the correct balance for
the animal being fed so that the protein is bio-nutritive for that animal
and not cause an allergenic reaction. Raw or cooked, you should not use a
meat source that will cause the breed of dog you are feeding nutritional
distress. It has been PROVEN that the differences in per kilogram
nutritional requirements of the different breeds makes it impossible for any
one diet, including a raw meat diet, to be nutritionally correct for all
dogs.
The meat that we can buy at the store (the same meat you
and I buy and cook before eating) is NOT the same as the meat that a wild
animal eats from a natural kill. Commercial meat has been processed and
exposed to many factors that make feeding it to our companion pets
potentially harmful. If we could provide the same fresh raw meat that the
ancestors of today's dog had access to 600,000 years ago, including the hot
fresh guts - what wild animals still go for first in a kill - then it might
be OK to feed them with that food source. Unfortunately, today's pet owners
can't. Meat that is processed and sold through retailers has been exposed to
a number of chemical agents. There are 72,00 chemicals now in use in the
USA. Commercial meat, even "Organic meat", can be (and most likely
is) exposed to most of these 72,00 chemicals. These MUST be destroyed by
using heat to generate temperatures that will break them down.
Most companies selling their raw meat diets are promoting
this type of diet with the claim that all domesticated dogs descended
from the wolf. For years, scholars have debated the origins of today's
domesticated dog. In 1787 John Hunter proposed: that since the dog produces
fertile hybrids with both the wolf and the jackal, these three canids should
be considered a single species. A different view on this was written about
by Linnaeus in 1758. He concluded the dog to be a separate species based on
the fact that it had physical characteristics unique to the Canis
familiaris (domesticated dog).
In 1868 Darwin wrote:
"The chief point of interest is whether the numerous domesticated
varieties of the dog have descended from a single wild species or from
several. Some authors believe that all have descended from the wolf, or from
the jackal, or from an unknown and extinct species. Others again believe,
and this of late has been the favorite tenet, that they have descended from
several species, extinct and recent, more or less commingled together. We
shall probably never be able to ascertain their origin with certainty."
In the early 1950's Konrad Lorenz again popularized the
idea that some breeds of dog descended from the wolf and other breeds
descended from the Jackal. In the 1980's and 1990's those selling raw meat
diets took this a step further and promoted a single raw meat diet for all
dogs based on the claim that all domesticated dogs are direct
descendants of the wolf and thus would need the same diet as a wild wolf. A
direct link showing the wolf to be the sole forefather of today's
domesticated dog has never been proven. The FACT is that scientific
examination of the DNA sequences of the Wolf and domesticated dog show that
there are 26 different DNA sequences which PROVES that the domesticated dog
CAN NOT be a direct descendant of the Wolf. It may be a nice warm thought
for a dog owner to look at their companion pet and think of its ancestors as
free spirited, good looking animals standing on a cliff with a full moon
behind them. But the wolf may only be a distant cousin and no more related
to our modern companion pet than a jackal, a fox, a dingo, or a coyote. Most
dog owners might be less willing to feed their companion pet a food product
that was being sold based on a theory of an ancestor that was a hen-house
raiding fox or a mangy coyote. If a commercial food company promoted their
product using the claim that "Fluffy" needed the same diet as a jackal it
would never succeed. Yet according to undisputed experts on genealogy i.e.
Hunter, Linnaeus, Darwin, and Lorenz your companion pet could be as closely
related to the coyote or jackal as it is to the wolf.
It is not just the raw meat that can cause today's
domesticated dog harm. Raw vegetables can also do damage. The Glycemic Index
of Foods (Internet web site at www.glycemic.com) shows that raw carrot can
cause the pancreas to produce much more insulin than the same amount of
cooked carrot. The overload of insulin will then cause the dogs liver to
have problems the same as a diabetic human would experience. The Glycemic
Index of Foods list over 1,000 raw and cooked meats and vegetable food
sources and shows us that we MUST choose what we put into an animals diet
with care. We are seeing an increase in the number of diabetic dogs and the
correlation between the growing popularity of feeding dogs a raw food diet
and this disease can not be ignored.
Another argument for not feeding today's domesticated dog
a raw food diet is that we know domesticated dogs have been eating cooked
food for over 300,000 years. In the Middle Pleistocene period companion pets
(dogs included) were buried along side their masters. Grave sites have been
uncovered by archaeologists which have revealed much about the companion
pets as well as the early humanoids who were roaming this earth at that
time. i.e. the site of Zhoukoudian in North China. Our present day
domesticated dogs have been eating cooked foods long enough to cause a
change in their digestive and glandular systems and the way that they will
react to raw foods.
A final point I will leave with you is: NO human
nutritionist is recommending that all humans should eat a diet that only
consists of bananas and leaves based on the theory that humans descended
from the Chimpanzee even though the DNA profiles of the Chimpanzee/human is
a closer match than the DNA profiles of the wolf/dog. And . . . there is not
a single dog owner feeding their dogs a diet based on the wolf/dog theory
who is also feeding themselves a diet based on the nutrients a wild
Chimpanzee eats.
It is my hope that the dog owners of today will look at
the animal they are feeding and feed it according to its nutritional needs.
This would exclude feeding it a food based on marketability (a single
any-breed/all-breed dry kibble) or on a romantic theory (an
any-breed/all-breed raw meat diet). We know that the different breeds have
different per/kG nutritional requirements. We also know that different
members of a breed can have unique requirements based on where they live,
their activity level, medical history, etc. There is no single diet that can
be nutritionally correct for all Canis familiaris (domesticated dog).
We should choose a meat source that the breed we are feeding can assimilate
- and then blend that meat with the correct source of carbohydrates and
other nutrients which have been proven to be best for the specific dog being
fed - adjust the protein/carbohydrate/fat ratio/etc. to the requirements of
that animal - and then handle the food (this includes cooking it) in such a
manner to provide the safest and best bio-nutritive value for the companion
pet we love.
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