Overall a reasonable article though when you get down to it pretty light on details.

Some Notes:

- You missed mentioning the guy who started it all - Veterinarian Ian Billinghurst (BARF) at http://www.drianbillinghurst.com He copped a lot of flake for his stand on raw diets

- Katie Merwick is a flake who pushes her agenda with a lot of dubious statistics and studies.

- The reason there is little data on raw feeding - because no formal studies has been done. However there are very few independant studies of Kibble either. We need proper studies on both.

- While there are few studies on raw/kibble feeding there are the stats showing a huge drop in the lifespans of pets and a huge increase in teeth/bone/skin problems in the past 60 years cooinciding with the uptake of commercial pet food.

- Why the weird focus on what people were wearing ? who cares ? Of what relevance to raw feeding is that ?

- You left the impression that raw feeding is expensive, it doesn't have to be. Raw Feeding my three dogs & four cats is cheaper than the kibble I used to feed them - they don't get Fillet Mignon :).

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.

A few years ago a good friend of mine had started doing the raw diet. I was very interested, read her copy of "Give Your Dog a Bone." The arguments were very compelling-- dogs are related to wolves and should be fed as such, dog food companies have a highly unregulated industry and have been known to put bad things (ash, for one) into their food. It all seemed so logical and echoed things I believed about the true nature of dogs. I was contemplating doing it for my dogs.

But I wanted more information. Online I found a lot of resources for people who were true believers in raw food. But I felt it was based on a lot of conjecture and unquestioned assumptions and occasionally was a little too conspiracy minded about the relationship between vets and dog food companies. I also noticed they only veterinarian opinions I read were against it.

So I asked an old professor of mine to find out what he thought about raw diets. He's an animal behavorist who has studied dogs and wolves for decades-- health, anatomy, ancestry. He has written books on the history of the relationship between dogs and humans, run a dog behavior program and sheepherding school as well as training assistance dogs. There is no question he is a passionate expert on dogs and wolves.

I wish I had saved the email. Certainly no shill for dog food companies, he teaches at one of the most liberal schools in the country. He wrote me a passionate response, pointing out the major fallacy of the whole raw food theory-- dogs are not wolves. Domestic dogs have evolved as the companions of people for thousands of years. In this relationship dogs have adapted to eating human food, mostly our leftovers. Wolves have not. He also said that there are no special benefits to feeding dogs raw food. Fresh, wholesome cooked food? Yes. That is what he feeds any dogs that he cares for, it is what most healthy domestic dogs have survived on throughout human history. He said feeding dogs raw meat is risky at best and dangerous at worst. Unlike wolves their bodies have not adapted over time to eat and digest raw meat.

I also talked to my vet. She said she has had several dogs come in over the years who have been sick or hurt by eating raw meat. She cautioned me against it and said that if I want to feed them a good diet feed them whatever I eat.

While I think a lot of people in the raw food movement are well-intentioned, I also think they base their firmly held beliefs on pseudoscience and misunderstandings about the history of dogs and how differently they have evolved from wolves. Before feeding your dog or cat raw food talk to you vet, read some opposing viewpoints, realize that it might not be the healthiest choice.