The following article, reprinted from the September/October
1999 issue of Pet Food Industry Magazine is a
response to a letter from Dr. Sharon Machlik
that deemed the feeding of raw foods risky in
the May/June issue of the same magazine.
I disagree with Dr. Sharon
Machlik, ("Raw
risks," May/June, 1999). She would hope the
reader comes away from her article with the thought
that all raw food diets are a potential danger
to dogs and cats, that homemade diet preparation
is difficult and that today's processed and manufactured
pet foods are perfectly nutritious and wholesome
for these creatures. Having nearly 30 years of
hands-on practical experience with well over 250,000
dogs and cats in my three small animal practices,
I must disagree with many of Dr. Machlik's assertions.
A question of convenience
To begin, I would suggest
that many pet owners look forward to preparing
meals for their pets;
the term "difficult" is relative to each
individual's outlook on the feeding experience
and has no bearing on the nutritive value of the
meals prepared. Convenience should never enter
the decision-making process when we determine what
we should be providing our pets to sustain their
lives at an optimum health level. In fact, the
convenience and ease of feeding processed dry "food" to
dogs and cats have been contributing factors in
the popularity of many inferior quality grain-based
diets. I have personally observed during the course
of practice many dogs and cats that were poorly
nourished by so-called "complete and balanced" dry
pet foods.
"Those who would advocate raw diets would
undo much that has been done in pet nutrition over
the past quarter century by the pet food industry,
pet nutritionists and veterinarians," Machlik
states.
"Great," say I because the assumption
is that she is referring to the marketing and advertising
of canned and bagged pet foods (a financially-driven
activity). Marketing and advertising are often
unrelated to product quality! And since no one
can undo" valid scientific research, the science
is safe from any perceived assailants such as me.
There are knowledgeable people who believe that
raw foods are better dietary sources of nutrients
for humans and animals than cooked, refined, expanded,
sterilized, fortified, modified and processed food.
This opinion is precisely why so many people are
turning back to nature, back to raw for their own
nutritional needs as well as for the nutritional
needs of their pets. The real question we must
answer is whether or not raw, minimally processed
foods are less nourishing and intrinsically more
hazardous than cooked, processed foods.
Precaution prevents risks
Much of the resistance to feeding raw foods, especially
raw meat, stems from the quite justifiable fear
we all harbor of contracting a sickness from such
food-borne pathogens as E. Coli, Salmonella and
aflatoxins. I wondered about that when I first
considered the raw food concept years ago. What
I learned (as an inveterate skeptic, I might add)
is that raw food products are not much different
from most other items of value in life; if you
take proper care of the product, it won't hurt
you! If raw food products are handled properly
all along the line from field to table, health
risks of those raw foods can be greatly minimized.
Unquestionably this means that the pet owner or
manufacturer who makes a raw diet for dogs or cats
should take all the reasonable precautions one
would take when preparing food for their personal
consumption. Prudent storage, washing and preparation
are assumed to happen. If somehow the feeding of
raw food does result in an enteric infection, it
is not the raw food that is the culprit! Somewhere
in the chain of events from field to table, there
has been a human error that allowed ubiquitous
bacteria a change to propagate. (See Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Point Procedures published by
USDA.) Don't blame raw food for the problem when
the causes are extrinsic to raw foods!
To say that raw food causes
disease would be similar to saying that water
causes disease. The problem
is not in the products itself but rather in how
it is handled, what pathogens happen to tag along
with it, and if conditions exist that favor the
reproduction of those pathogens. Oh, and I might
mention that dry pet foods in a bag are susceptible
to pathogenic overgrowth too. Recently there was
a huge recall of many brands of bagged, dry dog
foods because of a mold toxin that was making many
dogs sick. See, nothing is perfectly safe! I wonder
if, in the future, I will read an article titled, "Bagged
Pet Food Health Risks! Is Bagged, Dry Pet Food
Safe?"
Raw diets prevalent
"... In my view, the raw diet for dogs is
a fad, and one to be avoided by breeders and dog
owners in general," say Dr. Machlik. Well,
in my view, the feeding of cooked, processed, extruded,
fortified, modified, sterilized, preserved, grain-based
dry food is a fad based solely on convenience and
price! And the mistaken notion that simply because
the bag is labeled "complete and balanced" the
contents, therefore, are perfectly nutritious for
meat-eating canines and felines gives false validation
to the fad! Raw foods have been fed to dogs and
cats for as long as history has any notations on
the subject; tens of thousands of years! Arctic
populations even today feed their vigorous pets
and sled dogs uncooked meat and fish diets and
they have for all of recorded history. It has been
only the past half-dozen decades that pet food "manufacturers" have
appeared on the scene with preserved "food
in a bag." Please recall that, for years,
zoo carnivores have been fed raw meat diets (with
some supplementation to balance the nutrient profile)
and these expensive animals do very well. I believe
most dry pet foods, with only a few rare exceptions,
should "... be avoided by breeders and dog
owners in general." THe fad is in the bag!
Dr. Machlik suggests that
we pet owners simply surrender critical thought
and place the same trust
in the pet food manufacturers that mothers purportedly
have in the baby food industry. I am not sure how
many mothers she has talked to for support of her
opinion that: "Most mothers trust the products
of baby food manufacturers because they know that
these products have been proven to be both trustworthy
and highly nourishing."
Again, we can't help but come back to the beginning
where we asked the unavoidable and single fundamental
question: Are cooked, sterilized, refined and processed
pet (or human) foods better than raw, unprocessed
foods? Would anyone proclaim the quality of packaged,
precooked, processed, ready-made food in cellophane
to be more nourishing and health enhancing than
fresh, uncooked meat, fruit and vegetables? Blind
trust can lead to blind alleys.
Variety required
Regarding the feeding of
bones to dogs: I agree completely with Dr. Machlik
that they can be a
potential source of gastrointestinal trauma and
should be avoided. (I have data to support that
belief.) As well, "all meat diets" have
been shown to be deficient in the balance of nutrients
dogs and cats should have. And that is precisely
why people who choose to feed raw foods often select
from a variety of food sources. There are a number
of resources available to anyone wishing to learn
more about home-prepared diets for pets.
Dr. Machlik's view and
my own relate to the same goal and surely that
is to try to discover the
best way to properly feed our dogs and cats. There's
good news for Dr. Machlik, and for people who choose
to feed a raw diet. Although nudged out of the
spotlight cast by the major pet food producers'
advertising budgets, there are a few companies
who have been preparing properly balanced, raw
diets with meat as the main ingredient. Though
few in number, these "minor players" in
the pet food industry are quite alive and have
long and successful track records in the animal
food service business. These companies profess
the philosophy that raw nutrients are the best
choice; and additionally, their research and years
of successful animal feeding have proven their
diets to be health enhancing for canines and felines.
Dr. Machlik may be happy to know that there are
these few companies who successfully feed meat
eaters on raw diets; and pet owners may be happy
to learn that they can have confidence that these
diets are complete and balanced and, dare I say,
convenient to serve.
There arises a single,
fundamental question from Dr. Machlik's article:
Is cooked and processed
food better than raw food? Little thought is needed
to answer it and an advanced degree in Food Science
isn't required. If there are people who choose
to dine on raw, whole and unprocessed foods themselves,
it follows logically that they may also choose
to do the same for their meat-eating canines and
felines. Consuming raw foods can be done safely
and conveniently and has been for eons. Remember
-- sterilized, homogenized, liquefied food in a
can and dry, cooked and extruded food in a bag
have only been around since "modern times."
