I thought we had given both sides on the raw re prepared food debate - but as this reader thinks not, thought I'd share it... What do you think? I think John's views on raw need airing and if anyone wants to engage in debate, this is the place to do it!
Hi Beverley
Hope you don’t mind me emailing this. I wanted to post something on CWN blog but don’t think I can.
I have just finished reading March's Dogs Today, and after digesting (excuse the pun) your feature on "Read Raw and Still Feeding Cooked" I felt that I really needed to air my views.
Every month I look forward to reading your magazine, but I also get very irritated at "expert" advice on feeding by Mr John Burns. It is more than obvious that he is very against Raw Feeding and I found that article very one sided. John Burns manufactures his own dried food, and hence has more than a personal interest in dishing a raw diet. Why wasn’t a nutritional expert without any vested commercial interest asked to comment, or a view given by Richard Allport to balance the article out?
Yes, I predominantly feed Raw, but also some cooked, some carbs and the occasional naturediet for convenience. I also advise on the feeding section on our forum and never ram Raw down people's throats because I know it's not always for everyone. I tend to advise on the importance of food labelling and value for money versus quality on complete foods. However I find John's forever negativity on raw and the constant comments on the need for Carbohydrates very uninformed. A dog's digestive tract and teeth are designed to eat meat, and bones and they don’t have the digestive enzymes to break down complex carbohydrates like grains. That isn’t ramming Barf down anyone’s throat, that’s just Scientific Canine anatomy fact and as a vet he should know that.
Anyway, feel free to post it if you want to, but I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Many thanks
Cheers
Alison
Positive help to stop dog-on-dog attacks
9 years ago
12 comments:
Well said Alison, I'm not a complete raw food giver nor dried or tined, she gets a varied diet of all (to be honest, couldn't just give dried food, she turns her nose up at it and must admit so would I). It may be the easiet and cleanest thing to give your dog but not very apertising. Ask a wolf if he would prefer dried biscuit or a raw chicken and I think I know what it would like best, don't you !
Penny
I have to say I agree with Alison, I find John Burns answers about feeding to be a typical vet response to raw feeding. Totally against raw feeding with an I know best attitude. However, I do think on the whole Dogs Today does the best job of all the doggy publications, of offering good unbiased advice about raw feeding.
John Burns appears to be receiving free marketing opportunities in Dogs Today, not provided for any other food manufacturer. He is the only manufacturer mentioned by name in the "Read Raw..." article, and not long ago had an entire article devoted to him! I find his 'low protein' philosophy odd - I haven't heard of anyone else promoting this? What is the reasoning behind it?
John is right that our dogs lifestyles today bear little resemblance to those of wolves, but it takes thousands of years for anatomies to evolve, and they can't suddenly start to produce enzymes where they never have and in quantities they never have just because their life is easier - this just doesn't make sense.
I have experience of Mr Burns from other places and unfortunately his posts/articles always leave one with the feeling he has made the best use of an opportunity for his own business.
If you couldn't find an impartial person [difficult I know - strong feelings by most] then there should have been the view of a commercial feed person [Mr Burns] and 'also' the views of a rawfeeder like Tom Lonsdale, Catherine O'Driscoll, Richard Allport - Tom or Richard would've been ideal as both they and Mr Burns have the veterinary background....but have to say your mag is THE best, with holistic advice - keep up the good work !
I enjoyed both the articles on John Burns and I think he talks a lot of sense. I think it's fascinating what he's doing with his new food, can't wait to see it in the shops. I get a bit scared by radical raw feeders and they do tend to not like anyone disagreeing with them! Hear hear John, I liked what you said.
I thought two sides were represented in the article and John wasn't just flogging his own food.
Dogs and Cats are born with teeth for tearing, ripping and crunching they are not born with scissors and Can openers on their backs.
Commercial dried dog food is cooked at very high temperatures.
It's about the animals needs not what we think the food should look like, unrecognisbale stinky shaped
brown balls that swell in the gut and take up to twelve hours or longer to digest ....
Thanks to Alison's advice I now feed a 50/50 mix of Raw, NatureDiet & Orijen during the week. Although not a raw convert, mainly for convenience, I see the benefits of raw through two satisfied dogs, one 20mths and one 5mths old. Both are healthly, happy, regular and content.
I find it rather insulting to your readers intelligence that a manufacturer is asked to give food advice, when its blinding obvious what he will say!! Unfortunately the feeding debate seems to be either you are a raw feeder or not. I have pulled on the best advice I know and chosen to use the best raw, and the best dried food I could find. Raw isn't an 'alternative fad or radical', its a great diet that isn't to be afraid of, whether as 100% feed or a variation to an existing diet.
What I would like to see published in your magazine are daily meal guidelines for those who are confused or unsure about what they could feed, and quantities to provide.
Am I missing something? Who is Alison and why should we do what she says?
Could John Burns explain his low protein theory before you all trash it?
I happen to believe in moderation, not radicalism. We all want the best for our dogs but I like to listen to everyone before I make up my mind what to do.
I know John Burns is a vet who started a pet food company because he had concerns about prepared food. Sure, he has pride in what he does - doesn't make his opinion worthless!
But who is Alison? What is her position in the market?
Pet owner, campaigner? Please introduce yourself so we know where you are coming from.
Converting people to raw will never be achieved by bullying.
Logical argument, yes!
Alison (Me)is just a Dogs Today reader that has posted a comment regarding that article??? Im not the annonymous one am I??
Bullying??? Sorry im really not with you??
It was just a comment on having a dried food manufacturer being selected to expertly review raw feeding types of diet. Nothing more and the other bloggers have understood this.
Please leave the personal digs to where you usually do them !!
Anonymous, Mr Burns low protein theory might be interesting, but because I have done my own research - I know what type of digestive system etc. dogs have and that it is still the same as the wolf, I know what type of classification the wolf has, and therefore what the dog is [a carnivore], and I have done my own homework and therefore know what kind of diet is best suited to most dogs, the exception being a very few sighthounds and those too damaged to be able to work properly in the main, I am responsible for my dogs and take learning what's what to enable them to have the best diet possible as seriously for them as I do for my human family, I donot believe anyone who advocates the feeding of carbs knows these basic simple facts - yes, their digestive system is what it is, we can't argue that - it is Fact, or they know it but have other agendas....to be honest, it really doesn't matter who Allison is, what matters is who is speaking truth - and you will only find that out by doing your own research, don't trust anyone just because they have letters after their name - no-one cares as much for your dog as you, and if it all goes wrong, the buck stops with you and it is only if you do your own research and take full and serious responsibility for your pet that on that day you can know you did the best you could, also, people who learn in their own time but may not have letters, can still know just as much as those who do because they did it out of need/necessity [which is why some of us do feel strongly about it, cos our journey to this point involved much upset and suffering of ours or others beloved pets] - try here for a start:
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/
Well said Julie...
The thing is at the end of the day on pet food bags it say's Duck and potato, chicken and rice blah, blah, blah etc, etc, just take a good look at the food, it certainly does not look like what it says on the packet, if I want mine to have chicken and rice, or duck and potato that's exactly what they would get not some brown looking shape that smells rank.
I appreciate that not all dogs and cats can tolerate raw food, not suprised with all the chemicals that are shoved into them, nutritionists promote healthy eating fresh meat, fruit and vegetables, healthy life style, so what happened to the dogs and cats then ? all they get is a shelf life sell by date ...NICE !
what a contridiction in terms as regards animals, you don't see the big cats at wild life parks and zoo's being fed bags of dried nor the wolves and Hyena's one must remember that FOOD is the essence of life..
It's not about what's easiest for us or what looks attractive to us in the bag, it's about the animals need's....wholesome nutritional
food..I'm sure if I put dried food in my lots food bowl they would roll around the floor laughing..
Your joking right ?
There are far too many internet experts around whose expertise is not based on a full education in matters dog but on one or two short courses, some of these are just done online. No way would I proclaim my own feeding methods as based on expertise but simply on the experience of decades. It is simply wrong to declare all barf right or all complete right. The fashion for feeding large numbers of chicken wings with dubious supplementation on the one hand or any old rubbish from the supermarket on the other hand is equally bad for the dogs in my experience. A barf diet as it was originally understood, ie whole rabbits and freedom to graze in the local feeds resulted in healthy dogs, there are also very many healthy dogs fed nothing but good quality completes.
Lets just look at the dogs and see how they are in reality on the food they are fed.
I feed my dogs mostly raw offal and some biscuit or potato, in 40+ years this has caused me and them no probems at all.
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