Are You Feeding Raw, or Are You Feeding Garbage?

This Samoyed inspects her raw food dinner.

What are you feeding your beloved pet? If you are like most North American pet owners, somewhere in your home I will find a bag of kibble or a few cans of moist pet food. “I only purchase high end pet foods” you will tell me as I pick up the bag and wave it at you. But is it really the best you can do for your pet? Do you know what goes into the food you are doling out to your precious dog or cat on a daily basis?

As I ask this question, your mind is conjuring up images of juicy steaks, and thick chicken breasts accompanied by fresh crisp vegetables. Why wouldn’t you be thinking these things, these are the images pet food companies use to convince us their product is the best choice for our pet’s health. Therefore your ignorance of the truth can be excused, but let me educate you to what REALLY goes into the kibble you feed your pet.

In 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that euthanized animals were being used in pet food. Pet food manufacturers have vehemently denied the report; however, the American Veterinary Medical Association has confirmed the Chronicle’s story as to what is really in the dog and cat food.

Companion pets and zoo animals are euthanized with sodium pentobarbital and then processed and rendered. The sodium pentobarbital poison does not break down in the processing and goes into many commercial pet foods and feed for cows, pigs and horses, and yes, even your precious pet!

The most commonly used antioxidant preservative is ethoxyquin(EQ) that has been found in dogs’ livers and tissues months after it had been removed from their diet. EQ has been proven to have an effect that may lead to the development of certain types of cancer and may promote liver disease and other medical problems.

Governmental rules require ingredients to be listed from the largest amount to smallest. Protein is crucial to your dog’s health, yet sources such as soybean meal, corn glutens, corn meal, whole corn, and ground or crushed corn is used in many pet foods as a protein source.  While dogs do need some grains, too many commercial dog foods use grains as a substitute for meat. Meat should be the number one ingredient in any decent dog food. Ideally, the meat should be high quality human grade, making your dog’s chances for developing a protein deficiency very low. However the meat in dog food consists mostly of bones and viscera and scraps not fit for human consumption.

So basically that bag of kibble I just shook at you is a bag of garbage, high end garbage perhaps, but garbage nonetheless. Knowing what you know now do you still think your kibble is the best diet for your pet?  Here is what two of the planet’s leading vets have to say on the subject:

Dr. Richard Pitcairn  DVM

“Although we have come to accept commercial foods as being normal or natural ways to feed animals (and indeed ourselves), in fact they are not. They are simply what we’ve gotten used to in the last few decades. But nothing we can produce commercially ever can rival those mysteriously complex foods manufactured for eons by nature itself.”

“All processed pet foods – whether sold in cans, bags, or frozen packages, in either giant supermarket chains or local health food stores – are missing something that seems to me to be one of the most important “nutrients” of all. This key ingredient is something nutritional scientists have practically ignored. But when it’s there, you and I can know it and feel it. It is a quality found only in freshly grown, uncooked whole foods. It’s life energy.”

Dr. Charles E. Loops  DVM

“The best diet is a raw food diet.”

“Science Diet & Hill’s dog & cat food products are not good diets. They use chemical preservatives that have been shown to cause problems in some animals & they use by-products, which are words on the ingredient label that need to be avoided at all costs. This generally means food not utilized for human consumption.”

But you don’t have to take my word or even the word of the world’s most prominent veterinarians, research things for yourself. I guarantee you will be shocked by what you find!

Here are a few links to get you started:

Rawfed.com

rawlearning.com

rawfeeding.net

Happy researching!

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette