Letters to the Editor
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Raw Diet over Kibble
One huge point not mentioned in this article is the reason why Casey Maxwell started the S.F. RAW FEEDERS!!!!! This once a month gathering is for people that want to feed RAW that can't afford the retail prices!!!!!! Anyone can join as long as you can donate some of your time to help make this event happen! Casey is hardly rich & all 3 of her dogs are rescues! She is able to feed her dogs the RAW DIET by putting this once a month meeting together & making it possible for those who want to feed RAW & not have to pay the upscale prices!!!!!!!!!!!
You don't have to be rich to feed RAW! On the averge, it's about $5.00 per day. That is for an average of a 65lb. dog. If you get it at the S.F. RAW FEEDERS gathering, it is a considerable amount less!
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Management is Quite Concerned, Jeffrey
Dear Jeffrey,
Salon regrets to inform you that your use of 28 exclamations points (used in fewer than 10 sentences, we might add) has unfortunately left our server with a paucity of this punctuation mark for the rest of today's letter writers.
We would remind you that today is Sunday, and as such, none of the Punctuation Banks are open. We simply cannot get more exclamation points until tomorrow. I hope you feel suitably ashamed, because everyone who has a very important point to make for the rest of today will simply have to rely on cogent, well-chosen phrasings instead of having the luxury of falling back on lickspittle choppy diatribes punctuated with many exclamation points.
Just for the record, I believe 4 exclamation points is considered OK, but 5 is definitely "over the top," according to our crack team of preteen girl editors. They suggest that for the rest of today--as well as any weekend you may choose to write to us, that you fall back on using all caps and acronyms followed by an emoticon (for example, J/K ;) or OMG :p would do nicely and not waste exclamation points).
Thanks for your help during these belt-tightening times. Please visit us again next week when we tackle another hard-hitting expose on the use of synthetic fiber dryer lint in the creation of a so-called "organic" dryer lint show at the MoMa. Eyyellat Walkman is writing it; she's busy now padding it with references to her husband (Did you know he's won awards?) and the famous people friends of her have actually spoken with on the phone. We only hope she doesn't need any exclamation points until tomorrow.
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Amazing what people get worked up over
I find the debate between raw fooders and kibble feeders rather amusing, but it is obvious that there is a great mistrust amoung some of the raw food advocates who've posted letters towards veternarians which I do find distrubing.
As a former veternary sciences student who studied animal nutrition extensively, I can assure everyone out there that vets are not in the pockets of animal food producers and that they do understand the nutritional needs of animals. Certainly a raw food diet can provide all the nutrition that dogs and cats need, but so does high quality kibble and canned foods. If you feel better feeding your dog raw meat and chicken, that is fine but those who feed their pets good quality processed foods are giving their pets a more than adequate diet.
Natural diets don't work for all animals. I had worked with a geriatric horse that had suffered extensive tooth lose and if kept on a natural equine diet would have starved to death because he was not able to chew hay, grain and grass. We worked with a vet to formulate a diet of horse cubes (a processed equine food) that was softened with warm water so he could chew it, along with mashes, gruels and nutritional suppliements.
I also own a cat that was a rescue. She was a very sick kitten who had a herpes virus infection in her eyes, was underweight because she had been seperated from her mother before she was weaned and had severe ulcers in her mouth from a secondary viral infection. This cat was fed high quality cat kibble, canned 9 Lives Tuna (the only wet food she will eat) and a small amount of the same cooked chicken, fish, meat and other foods that I eat. This cat loves Chinese roast pork, mashed potatoes, pasta, rice, cheese of the stinkiest kinds and tomato sauce. Aside from a hyperative thyroid condition that is controlled with medication (a very common problem in geriatric cats), she has never been sick since we adopted her more than 15 years ago. She is still lively, active and in excellent health.
If you want to feed your animal raw food and have enough knowledge to ensure that they are getting all of their nutritional requirements satisfied, go right ahead. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with a good quality kibble. We have to remember that since we have been feeding our pets these nutritionally balence foods, they are living far longer and with better health than they ever had.
And please, do not forgo the vacinations. I have seen too many horror stories of cats with feline leukemia, dogs with heartworms and parvo virus that would have been entirely preventable had their owners bothered to get them properly vacinated. Remember, curing the disease is a lot more difficult on both you and your pet than preventing it in the first place.
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raw food, vets
Ravanne, I could not disagree with you more re: your comment about vets understanding the nutritional needs of animals. Many of us are distrusting of vets because of our experiences. We didn't just fabricate the distrust. In my own case, an experience with an animal hospital where the vets (supposedly "specialists") were incompetent, unkind and interested only in profit was my catalyst to look for something different for my cats. The mere fact that vets who know nothing about raw food diets are against them, and the fact that many vets continue to ignore the anecdotal evidence is further proof of their ignorance. Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that there is no instruction about raw food in vet schools, so the ignorance is perpetuated.
Thank you, Jeffrey, Zanna, Kzunell - it is absolutely possible to affordably feed pets a raw food diet and not be rich (despite what Bagheera25 thinks.) I didn't know I was rich, so thank you for telling me that. And thanks also for explanation on median. Perhaps the bacteria from feeding our pets raw food is decimating our brain cells? Actually, I have figured out how to feed my cats raw food without going into debt. I bike to work, grow a lot of my own food and I live in the metro Washington, DC area, so I don't have acres of farmland. I also barter with local farmers at the farmers markets. It takes some imagination but it's absolutely possible to make this happen.