About five years ago, I wrote an article
for our newsletter that addressed this very question. In
that article, titled “What’s The Deal With Raw
Meat?”, I talked about how folks have been feeding
raw meat to pets for decades, and that most of our customers
feed raw dog food -- some for as long as thirteen years.
Five years have passed since that article was written and
we remain
strong advocates of raw pet food. In fact, we have yet to
hear of a single negative digestive reaction to fresh, raw
meat. Since I wrote that article, feeding raw meat to pets
has become almost a mainstream phenomenon -- something I
would not have imagined back then! At that time, we were
one of the only companies advocating a raw
pet food. Now
there are hundreds of companies across the country that market
raw meat diets. And members of the American Holistic Veterinary
Association have been recommending raw meat diets for nearly
thirty years.
Why raw meat? We believe that a raw pet food diet provides the foundation
for a healthy immune system resulting in healthier skin, teeth, and coat
as well as a reduction in allergies, and an overall improvement in health
and disposition. Simply put, raw meat contains an abundance of heat-sensitive
nutrients, trace minerals, and amino acids that are otherwise destroyed
in the cooking process. We see pets on raw diets having less dog
health problems, living longer, visiting the vet less frequently, and even behaving
better.
The concept is really quite simple. The dictionary definition of dog is, "A
domesticated carnivorous mammal (Canis familiaris) related to foxes and
wolves and raised in a wide variety of breeds.” Cat, according to
the dictionary, is defined as being “A small carnivorous mammal (Felis
catus or F. domesticus) domesticated since early times as a catcher of
rats and mice and as a pet and existing in several distinctive breeds and
varieties.” The key word in both of these definitions is “carnivorous”.
Dogs and cats have been designed by nature to not only tolerate, but to
thrive on raw meat. Humans (who don’t tolerate raw meat well) worry
that their pets will get sick from the bacteria that has been found in
raw meat -- but actually the digestive system of a dog or cat is shorter
and stronger than that of humans, and can withstand bacteria. Just because
dogs and cats have been domesticated does not mean that their digestive
systems have changed from those of their wild ancestors. If that were the
case, dogs and cats would probably develop bacterial infections every time
they "cleaned their bottoms", ate feces, or showed up with dead
critters proudly hanging from their mouths. Think about the world around
you as it relates to diet in the animal kingdom. Bears eat raw elk, snakes
eat raw mice, birds eat raw worms. Even the Zoo keeper throws raw steak
to the lions and raw fish to the seals. In our experience over the last
eighteen years, dogs and cats also thrive on raw meat, whether they live
in the forest, on the family farm, or in your home.
Still, we are not a company that says you can only feed raw dog food. In
fact, we carry a full line of baked all natural dog
treats. We won't twist
your arm and say you can only use our holistic dog
food mixed with raw
meat. There will
always
be
a certain
percentage
of people uncomfortable with the idea of feeding raw meat. For these folks
we simply suggest replacing the nutrients lost in the cooking process with
a natural vitamin/mineral supplement such as The
Missing Link®, which we carry for our direct customers. And you
can always sterilize meat with grapefruit seed extract or human-quality
hydrogen peroxide if you’re still worried. Freezing meat solid can
also help by rupturing the cell membranes of bacteria, weakening or killing
them. For those who choose to feed raw, as the majority of our customers
do, we recommend starting a pet very gradually if feeding raw meat for
the first time. And we recommend following the same safe-food-handling
procedures people follow when preparing meat for themselves (i.e. disinfecting
the counter and cutting board, washing hands, etc.). When purchasing either
cuts of meat or ground meat, make sure it is fresh and healthy-colored
(though any store-bought meat is much higher in quality than the meat byproducts
commonly used in traditional cooked dog foods). Also, always keep meat
refrigerated or frozen. Raw meat will stay fresh in the fridge for about
4-5 days. Finally, if you have any lingering fears or problems, talk to
a holistic veterinarian to help you decide what is best for your companion
animal, or give us a call at 1-888-867-6567.
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Sojourner Farms. All rights reserved.
