Letters to the Editor

• I don't have any problem with people feeding raw

  [Read the article: The beef over pet food]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I am involved in dog sports, and know a lot of people who feed raw. In general, their dogs are quite healthy--but so are most of the dogs I encounter--they're athletes, after all.

  But a lot of these people are evangelists--they practically accuse you of animal abuse for feeding kibble. As the first poster said, they cite statistics about pets dying earlier. I'd like a cite for this, as MY understanding has been that pets are living longer due to better nutrition and more consistent vet care. What I hear the evangelists say is that dogs get more cancer--which COULD be (at least partially) caused by diet, or COULD be the result of the dogs living longer (they live long enough to GET cancer). They also talk about the rise in skin and immune problems, allergies, etc. But they get a little defensive when I bring up the elephant in the room--genetics and selective breeding.

  It's my contention (and nobody has been able to refute this) that MOST animals should be able to live quite well on a good kibble diet (and by good kibble, I mean a kibble made using high-quality, human grade ingredients--there are such kibbles) IF THEY ARE GENETICALLY HEALTHY. If they are NOT genetically healthy, then yes, the raw diet might help.

  I think all the emphasis on diet is allowing some to mask, or ignore, inherited immune problems that they really shouldn't be passing on to offspring--and yet they are, because hey--it MUST have been the food, not the dog.

  All evidence FOR feeding raw is anecdotal, so let me offer some of my own.

  1. I know many performance dogs that are fed raw food. I do not know one whose performance got better due to it. I don't know any whose performance suffered, either. I do know at least one who almost died of a bacterial infection contracted from raw food.

  2. People who feed bones DO tend to get a benefit in teeth cleaning--but that raw meat breath can be pretty nasty.

  3. I have had 4 Shetland Sheepdogs in my life. The first one I got as a puppy, and ate total crap (whatever was cheap at the grocery store) until later in her life, when I started buying higher-quality kibble. She died of heart failure (basically old age) at 16 years old. The second I got as a rescue when he was 7 years old--god knows what HE ate. I fed him high-quality kibble. He lived to be nearly 17 years old, and competed in performance events until he was 13. #3 is 11 years old and counting (got him at 2 years old). #4 is 4 years old (got him as a puppy). I should say that with NONE of these dogs have I had a problem with autoimmune disease, contact or inhalant allergies, or anything like that.

  They all eat high-quality kibble, usually with some plain yogurt, cottage cheese, raw turkey or whatever thrown on. Sometimes they get some table scraps. Hell, sometimes they get chips and dip. Sometimes they get raw chicken wings (see I'm not against raw food--I just don't think it should be regarded as a cure-all)

  I believe I basically got lucky with both my rescues and my breeder-bought dogs. They won the genetic lottery. Some of the other dogs I know are such genetic messes it's a wonder they're sane.

  Permalink Wednesday, January 18, 2006 08:52 PM