We watch out for our pups like we do our own kids. We make certain they don’t run out into the street. We keep them from fighting, and stop them when they pick up some disgusting thing off the ground to eat. But your dog faces a danger every day that you probably don’t know about. Most commercial dog foods contain horrible, harmful things for your dog, and are likely slowly killing your dog. How can that be, you ask, when you’re buying a well-know, brand name, dog food in your my favorite grocery store? Because there is no real governmental regulation on dog food. The FDA is more than 50 years behind the times on dog food, and think what we used to put in our own bodies 50 years. For example, all the way up until the mid-sixties, companies advertised cigarettes as healthy and good, even using doctor endorsements!
[photos – cigarette ads]
It was not until the Surgeon General’s report in 1964 on smoking that we saw changes in tobacco use, and it still took decades more before cigarettes became heavily regulated. Dog food has never been under that microscope, and today is still virtually unregulated. Pet food companies say whatever they want, and say whatever sells the most dog food. It is the Wild West out there!
So what are the 4 deadliest things in dog foods? Putting them in order of quantity most likely found in your dog’s food bowl: Vegetation (Grains, Corn and other Plants); Processed Meats; Chemicals; and, Drugs.
Vegetation - Grains, Corn and Plants
Because we love our dogs so much, we tend to anthropomorphize our pups (humanize the dog, and apply what is healthy and normal for you as being healthy and normal for a canine). After all, he is one of our children! But that does not change the fact that he is a carnivore while you are an omnivore. Your pup is but a half-step from a wolf! For the last 55 Million years your dog’s ancestors have thrived on a wild meat diet, not grazing on grass or munching on carrots or being fed corn or grains like a cow in a feed lot. You will hear all kinds of different and confusing stories about what to feed your pup and why, but simply look at your dog’s teeth for the answer. In your dog’s mouth, you see fangs up front fangs for catching prey, with the balance as jagged teeth for tearing raw meat into pieces small enough to swallow. 55 Million years of evolution perfected meat tearing teeth all the way around your dog’s mouth – not a single, flat, herbivore tooth to be found! Now look at your own teeth. You have even, straight teeth all the way around, with nice flat molars in the back (just like a cow), for grinding up plant matter Herbivores have a digestive track that is up to 27 times as long as a carnivore, because you can’t get the caloric food value and protein from grass that you can from raw meat.
So why are most dog foods made of kibble? Two reasons, tradition and profit. Because 150 years ago, after sailing from the US to London (and before any animal science was being done), a salesman got the idea of making dog food out of the same formula as seaman biscuits on the boat: flour, salt and water. This kibble keeps almost indefinitely, is really cheap to make, and is really easy to feed to a dog. To get even cheaper, today dog food companies have moved on to corn from grain. Corn is the worst! Studies show that its higher levels of Omega-6 fatty acids increase inflammation in your dog’s body. This inflammation brings on a variety of problems, including: rheumatoid arthritis; diabetes; cancer; and just plain being fat. To get that corn and grain even more cheaply, it must be grown from a genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which grow faster, produce more gluten, and are bug resistant. Dog food companies grind it up with salt and water, bake it into kibble, spray it with a little fat to fool the dog into thinking it’s meat, and dogs eat it. It’s not good for them, but they like it.
Now compound that with the fact that vegetation unfit for human consumption is what is used for dog food, because it’s much cheaper. Finally, coat that industrial waste with all the chemicals used in raising crops (See Chemicals below), and you can see why studies show that a dog fed kibble instead of raw meat dies up to one third sooner. Imagine your dog living 18 years instead of just 12!
Processed Meats
Let’s start with the obvious economics, meat for human consumption sells for more than meat for dog food. And meat not fit for human consumption can still be profitable if turned into dog food (remember, there’s no regulation against it). To further maximize that profit, you feed the livestock the cheapest thing possible, to fatten them up as much as possible, in the shortest time possible, to maximize profits at slaughter. They are given growth hormones to make them grow unnaturally fast, and primarily fed grains and corn also not fit for human consumption, which are the cheapest food stocks available. Although livestock are herbivores, corn and grain were never part of their natural diet. Their natural diet is green grass and green plants. That’s like comparing white bread to a salad. From a rancher’s perspective none of these issues matter, since cattle are raised and slaughtered all in about 12 months. That is too short a lifespan for the problems to really manifest themselves, but those problems are then passed on to your pooch in the ‘meat’ in most commercial dog foods.
But it gets worse! The large processing facilities process 400 or more cows per hour. To help address the issues of contamination and disease, they will use irradiation and chemical baths on the carcasses. I don’t want to make you sick with a detailed account of a slaughterhouse, but if you have the stomach for it (pun intended), then just Google it. Once all the steaks and roasts, or breasts, wings and thighs have been cut away to go to your grocery store from the animals fit for humans, what do you think happens with the remaining guts, organs, bones, feathers, feet, etc.? Most likely that is what is being fed to your dog! Industrial waste. Look at your dog food packaging and read the label. Does it say ‘NY steak’ or ‘beef by-product’, ‘chicken breasts’ or ‘chicken parts’, or does it just say ‘animal protein’? From the perspective of many dog food manufacturers, protein is protein. It doesn’t matter where it comes from, as long as it counts as ‘protein’.
But it gets worse! Have you ever heard of 4D meat? Many dog food manufacturers use Dead, Dying, Disabled, or Diseased animals to get their protein. Ever wonder what happens to that poor dead dog, cat, or raccoon lying on the side of the road, or that cow that died in the field last week, or that horse too old to ride, or that diseased pig, or rabid fox? Salvagers pick it up and sell it for pet food protein. How about all the pets that vets euthanize in veterinary hospitals? Same thing. Is that really what you want to be feeding your beloved pet?
Chemicals
To get that corn and grain even more cheaply, it must be grown from a genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which grow faster, produce more gluten, and are bug resistant. Then that corn and grain needs to be sprayed with pesticides to keep insects from cutting into the production quantity. Then it is frequently sprayed again to keep vermin out of it during storage. You wash the vegetables that you take home from the store for your family, but the sheer volume of corn and grain used for domesticated animals cannot practically be washed – so it isn’t! To further reduce the price, they use corn and grain that is deemed unfit for human consumption to make the kibble. As some call it, ‘the industrial waste of the food industry’.
Drugs
Setting aside all of the pesticides and sprays, there are remnant pharmaceuticals in many dog foods. To get a cow from being born to the maximum size for slaughter in just 12 months, they are given growth hormones to speed the process to get them ready for market. Next, to help maximize the profits, huge numbers of livestock are crammed together in tight spaces, greatly increasing the chances for disease and illnesses. So antibiotics are poured into their feed, because pharmaceuticals are cheaper than spreading out the animals as they would be naturally. If your dog food has non-descript ‘meat protein’ in it, it is likely to contain 4D animals, many of which had drugs to try and heal them, and ultimately drugs to euthanize them. Boiling the 4D meat might kill all the bacteria, viruses and diseases, but it does not remove the drugs that were in the animals’ systems at the time they died. There is no way to remove those drugs, and the only way to avoid it is to use only healthy animals for the meat protein.
There is only one dog food on the market that is truly made from only WILD, raw deer and elk meat, Raw Wild®. No other meats are added to their product. There are no growth hormones, no antibiotics, no fillers, no preservatives, no grains, rice or corn, no pesticides, no GMOs, no animal by-products, no farmed or ranched animals, no downed animals, no 4D meats. Raw Wild® is 99.4% WILD deer and elk. The remaining 0.6% is a premix of vitamins and minerals, designed by an industry leading expert with over 30 years’ experience in formulating pet foods. The premix is highest quality and all USA-made with the exception of three vitamin sourced from Switzerland accounting for 0.013% of total volume. This because under FDA rules, Vitamins A, D and E cannot be manufactured in the USA at all. Unlike most dog food manufacturers, Raw Wild® contains NOTHING FROM CHINA.
You’ve always said that you’d do anything for your dog – here is your chance! Try Raw Wild® today!