For American cat and dog owners

And anyone else who cares.

The American Veterinary Medical Association is considering putting into place a policy officially frowning on the feeding of raw diets to household pets.

Now yes, the AVMA does not make the laws in this country, it would “only” be a policy.  Yah right.

First up: as a raw feeder myself, I can tell you the frustrations of trying to get a vet to tolerate the concept of a raw diet.  If this policy is passed it will become yet one more stick to beat you with when you tell them you feed raw.

2nd: The AVMA is a highly regarded association.  If THEY pass the policy who else is going to follow suit.  Already two separate Therapy dog organizations do NOT allow raw fed dogs to be certified.

3rd: The stated reason the AVMA is considering this policy is because one of the above mentioned Therapy dog organizations asked them too.  Why would they do that?  Well, Purina’s Marketing Director just so happens to serve on the board of said Therapy dog organization.

4th: A HUGE percentage of the money donated to the AVMA’s charity arm comes from petfood manufacturers.

You gunny people ought to see where the real concern is.  Alot of the pet people just aren’t getting it.  “The AVMA doesn’t create laws, so whats the fuss?  They can’t stop me from feeding what I want to my dog.”  Nope, the AVMA can’t.  That’s correct.  But how long before some one in government notices the AVMA policy and figures if its important enough for the AVMA to make a policy then maybe it ought to be law?  How long be fore someone in Child Protective Services notices the AVMA policy and decides that someone deliberately feeding raw to a pet in the household where a child lives is “knowingly putting the child in danger due to exposure to pathogens”?

Oh yes, “pathogens”, such an ugly word.  It conjures up a horrible list of bacterias and pests.  And certainly raw meats do carry the risk of some of this.  Even raw meat headed for human consumption.  However, human grade raw meat has a lower risk of such than many, and when its the human grade foods there’s a HUGE push to get it recalled in a timely manor.  There’s no such push with processed pet food.

Oh yes, processed pet foods, kibbles and canned foods.  The stuff the AVMA apparently wants you to feed to your cat or dog instead of that evil germy meat.  The stuff that sent a total of 49 HUMANS (and god knows how many animals cause the FDA doesn’t keep track of that), to their doctors for medical treatment just this spring.  And thats just the folks who required medical treatment.  Who knows how many people got sick and never went to their doctor cause it wasn’t THAT bad.  And Diamond’s recall is by no means the first to cause sickness not only in the pets who eat it, but in the humans in contact with those animals.

I can think of quite a few pet food recalls where a significant number of humans got sick too, on top of the sick and dying animals.  I’m unable to come up with a single pre-packaged raw diet that caused the same wide spread problems.  And although human grade meats DO get recalled, I can’t think of a single instance where that meat was fed to an animal, and anyone other than the animal’s immediate caretaker (and possibly their household & attending vet) got sick.  And the instances of the animal them self getting sick from “contaminated” human grade meat?  Even fewer.  Carnivores have been designed, (via evolution or God, your choice) to eat raw meat that may not be completely safe, their bodies are MADE to handle it safely.

Links:

Truth About Pet Food article 1

Truth About Pet Food article 2

The actual text of the proposed policy

The AVMA’s response to the uproar

Additional article on the subject

Additional article on the subject

Change.org petition

Oh, and for anyone running across this, this policy is NOT specifically limited to “prepackaged raw” only.  The policy text specifies ANY raw and unpasteurized foods, also:

So please stop trying to tell me how the policy isn’t going to effect you….