Natural ORGANIC dog Treats & dog food, are 100% meat, NOT VEGAN.
In this “Vegan-Slogan” driven age, I am distressed to find that even in this modern world, I am among a very few voices fighting for the rights for dogs to eat meat meals- a right that should be self-evident and inalienable.
It seems besides dog food makers wanting to make the highest profit, they are now joined by some vegan’s dogs (near 100,000 – looking at the CONCLUSION calculations). To set the record straight. I am totally against vegan dog food, but not vegans. This is like people blaming Christians for any of the Church’s scandals. HATE THE GAME, not the player.
My goal is maximum health for dogs. Therefore, I keep politics and human food ethics debate out of the solution – until dogs can voice their own opinions.
Unlike humans, there is no science behind bowel tests and cholesterol tests suggesting that dogs will do better on LESS meat. Mainly because the reverse is true. Dogs already eat the minimum meat that they can to just survive (based on dog food tables).
And that is via the voluntary standard that everyone takes as the bible because some enlightened group in America infiltrated by the big dog food producers have made it that way. Affco minimum protein (amino acid) standards are based on what keeps a dog alive, but allows bare minimum amount of meat, saving the dog food companies Billions.
The inadequacies of vegan dog food and treats
We have written our technical blog critique of the massive inadequacies of vegan dog food. Based on actual dog feeding trials and known science, let alone the enzymes that aid digestion that dogs miss out on by eating mainly a much less digestible vegetable food.
To read more about dog food digestion, you can read our another blog here.
VEGAN DOG FOOD ISSUES
But I want to go further into this dangerous trend that the pro-vegan movement is using to convert carnivore dogs. The whole idea of plastering the word vegan on dog food sites, and Google allowing vegan dog treats to buy ads space – while banning selling SHARK CARTILAGE on google AdWords in Australia is beyond ridiculous. This is no longer amoral but judgmentally based on financial gains.
The best way to look at this is to address the ‘positive’ points that these pro-vegan articles say about why dogs should give up meat, with the actual reasons that dogs must eat meat.
Just because one dog lives
There was a dog in England, a kelpie that lived to 25 and this one dog, out of the millions that inhabit Australia alone, lived to old age on a vegan diet? Ever hear about the human war vet drinking and smoking their way past being 100? And how some people like to hold them up as the poster boy for fitness and health?
Where Is The Hole
Wired magazine reports one vegan’s story about why they feed their dogs vegan food because essentially, they (not illegal yet) and some vets promote it!
Anyone in business knows that when a business person or a giant corporation sees an unfilled niche (regardless of ethical considerations to the health of the person or animal) and one that will make them millions, they will sell something to meet that need. Most of these companies are amoral at best (the nature of the profit-driven corporation) and the last thing to be considered is a moral imperative (giving a dog what it naturally needs) based on the true nutrition requirements of dogs.
Most dog food factories recipes are based on the lowest cost ingredients. They will also add tiny amounts of expensive ingredients like berries to impress owners with pictures on the pack (while adding almost zero cost). BUT above all finding ways to make bland grain and vegetables tasty to dogs to addict the dog to overeating product they would never eat in the wild.
Cats should NEVER be vegan, so why dogs?
With cat deaths around the world attributed to owner starving them of meat, because they are an obligate carnivore, you should understand how immoral the glib statement about pet food companies really is: “(vegan pet food) It’s not just dogs. From cats and ferrets to birds and snakes, traditionally meat-eating animals of every stripe are being made to go vegan, too.” Ref 1
Yes, companies are merrily creating and marketing VEGAN cat food to 100% obligate carnivores.
True, they can artificially ‘Frankenstein’ their over-processed concoctions, with a mass of artificially high levels of added vitamins and minerals that meat already has had to meet the absolute minimum requirements, but they are not in the right form to easily consume. And they have to boost taurine and the various amino acids found NATURALLY in meat at the right levels, but NOT natural in ANY vegetable source, just to keep the cats alive. “For every (vegan dog that lives), there’s a story of a vegan kitty wasting away on a diet of rice milk, potatoes, and pasta.” Ref 1
They have found a way of avoiding MEAT, purely because of profit. No matter what they try and tell you. And have the audacity to market it under NATURAL sounding brand names including the terms: Wild Earth, Natural, Nature Recipe, Evolution, etc. The heavy promotion of vegan dog food is highly reminiscent of when GPs used to recommend smoking to heal lung problems. Small self-interest groups making an extreme profit at the expense of the health of the many. In this case, those without voices or choice.
Why do vets recommend NON-MEAT DOG FOOD?
“Vets will often recommend meat-free diets for dogs and cats with digestive issues, but beyond that, it’s unclear how healthy—or unhealthy—veganism is for animals”. Ref 1
Yet you would think that if vegan dog food was unhealthy for dogs, that vets would not stock it. If this is so true, the knowledge that cats are OBLIGATE carnivores, NO VET with even rudimentary schooling, would ever sell grain or vegetable-based CAT FOOD on their shelves, but they almost all do. It is the least natural product you will find, either super concentrated livestock feed or regular grain or vegetables with a mass of minerals and vitamins and extra amino acids added, just to poorly mimic what meat-based food naturally just has.
If the vets that sell high grain and vegan foods and treats really knew about dog nutrition, they would not sell artificial composite treats (mainly grain-based) by the large manufactures or the green compressed vegetable chew sticks. They would sell genuinely NATURAL animal product treats like bully sticks, shark cartilage, kangaroo jerky and the myriad of healthy 100% meat options like we sell.But there is not as much margin in these, and they need better storage.
Most vets rarely sell anything but composite food and treat made by the big dog food companies If you are wondering about this, the simple reason is bad food and treats are stocked is all about basic economics. Big dog food company’s parents are in the top 30 companies in the world by revenue! Many vet schools are either sponsored by these companies or go to conferences in exotic places or any numerous back doorways that these companies weasel their way into the vet shelves in the waiting rooms.
The truth is that with this kind of covert sponsorship and the limited amount of course curriculum in vet schools devoted to dog nutrition, many vets don’t know better, or want to know better. They have a financial imperative to make a profit too and all those high margin bags of grain helps. They are great at healing dogs once sick, not necessarily what goes into the dogs.
Why are a few studies done on meat feeding or raw feeding dogs?
Simply because dog food companies make MUCH MORE MONEY in putting VERY LITTLE MEAT in dog food, and they had MAJOR INPUT into the affco nutrition tables, has everyone seemingly in this arrangement to the detriment of dogs.
University studies and papers are almost always sponsored by the big dog food companies. Big dog food companies struggle to make an all meat product (dry or raw) that they can make big money on. So all of the studies are made to look neutral or innocuous but are either aimed at discrediting raw feeding or promoting grain or vegan dog food. You would need a BIG butcher chain before it became worthwhile them sponsoring actual meat-based studies.
CONCLUSIONS
If you don’t know how to construct a nutritionally balanced home diet for your dog, DON’T. All I can recommend is you ADD MORE 100% meat products to their diet, and as varied as you can, and for the purposes you want, just a food supplement or a long-term occupier for when you leave.
The reason that many well-meaning owners get it ‘wrong’ when they know that commercial dog food isn’t ideal and want to do better for their dog, is that many basically try and feed their dog a Human plate of food. One-third rice, one-third vegetable and one-third meat (if the dog is lucky).
This means the dog gets about the same or less meat then they would in commercial grain-based dog food! There is little added protein benefit.
These homemade food diets don’t include OFFAL that is vital for several high potency vitamins and minerals not found sufficiently in meat flesh, and without feeding your dog’s raw bones, you won’t get sufficient calcium and phosphorous in the right amount or the right ratio, so the dog’s bones and teeth, etc become brittle.
These owners often add coconut oil because they read somewhere how good it was for all animals, not realising that their dogs actually need animal sources of Omega 3 and the right amount and ratio of Omega 6. I add these essential fatty acids separately on-top of my dog’s mostly raw animal-based diets. Coconut oil might be good for humans, but dogs don’t need the extra saturated fats that they are already getting from chicken or beef. I also use a vitamin tablet (at the right levels for a dog) and a very small amount of highest fiber kibble purely for intestine health (SCFA’s benefit). But again, you need to know the minimum and maximum allowable levels of these things not to cause health issues.
I have done a prolific amount of research and analysis and created articles in our NUTRITION tab on raw feeding and the benefit of meat offal and bones for a dog diet. But for many people, this is a journey that they don’t want to have to perform, just to feed their dogs.
Why am I going so hard on this topic? Something that is seemingly innocuous? Because that is precisely how bad trends like eating detergent pods began, by people posting and speculating how much of a good idea it could be, without understanding long term future consequences.
Consider this statement “When Dodd surveyed over 3,600 dog and cat owners online about their pets’ diets, around 2 percent said their pets are vegan—but 35 percent said they’d be open to it.” Ref 1
Some sources suggest about 4.8 Million dogs in Australia. If the 2% vegan uptake is true, then that means 96 THOUSAND dogs could currently NOT be being fed ANY MEAT, OFFAL or BONES. The exact things that they evolved to eat and their digestive system is still built to digest and extract nutrients BEST FROM.
The truth is that most owners don’t find you how bad their dog food and dog treat choices have been until a later stage of the dog’s life, when it’s too late. The proliferation of ulcers, cancers (including pancreatic), a rise in diabetes (because of the unnatural amount of carbs in a dog’s diet) might just be attributed to over-processed, HIGH SUGAR (carbs), LOW ANIMAL PROTEIN dog foods.
You will rarely see any unbiased research into meat-based diets for dogs as dog food companies DON’T makes money from them. And in 2019, everyone seems happy to promote NO MEAT (vegan) dog foods! This is the thin edge of the wedge being pushed into dog’s hearts everywhere.
It is no longer a question of IF dogs will be fed (and owners sold) highly inappropriate food dressed up as natural or environmental – NOW is when the ‘tipping point’ happens.
For your dog’s sake, don’t be one of those people swayed by dog food company ads on vegan dog food. And sure, consult your vet, but also have a look at how much NON 100% cat food they have on their shelves before you take their nutrition advice as gold.
