Originally Posted by Melcakes  Do we know if those fed kibble and home-cooked are living longer? The problem is that those studies for raw fed dogs don't' exist and they also don't exist for kibble and home-cooked fed dogs either! Just because there is "no scientific research" performed by institutions like the American Veterinary Medicine Association, raw diets should not be fed?!? This 'no scientific research' declaration is a cop-out claim that has been used to "debunk" raw diets and suppress the truth. But one must realize that there is NO evidence whatsoever to prove that kibbled, processed or home-cooked foods are good for your pets. The only research that has been done into processed foods was performed to see a) if dogs could be fed a grain-based food, b) if dogs could survive acceptably on these processed foods for a short period of time, c) if X brand of food can do such-and-such for the dog (help with kidney disease, help with diabetes, help with obesity), and d) if X brand of food is "better" (more palatable, better liked, less total stool volume, etc.) than Y brand of food. No research has been done to determine the long-term effects of feeding kibble, nor to determine if it is actually healthy for your dog (it is just assumed healthy because it has passed a 6 month feeding trial, and then manufacturers falsely advertise their product as healthy.).
But as for raw diets: one million years of evolution apparently is not enough evidence for those citing lack of research and lack of studies in scientific literature? Neither the anatomical and physiological evidence of dogs, nor mtDNA evidence, nor circumstantial and statistical evidence of diseases in processed food-fed pets, nor anecdotal evidence are enough from those becrying the lack of "studies" and "research". Anecdotal, eyewitness evidence is dismissed because it is scientifically "unfounded" and anecdotal, even when the evidence is standing right before their eyes in easily seen, wonderful health (It is interesting to note that eyewitness evidence is enough to help condemn a man in a court of law, but is not enough for the "scientific" community composed of pet food manufacturers).
Raw feeding has been around a heck of a lot longer than kibbled and homecooked foods: one million years of raw to only 100 years—at the most—of kibble. Pelleted, processed food is the real fad.
If you were to ask me those dogs fed kibble and home-cooked are living far shorter lives and experiencing in increase in new found diseases. That's not to say there aren't dogs living a fairly healthy live on kibble and/or home-cooked or are not dying outright from starvation or malnutrition. Sure, you certainly can get dogs with glossy coats and healthy bodies (healthy being used loosely) that live well into their teens while being fed kibbled and home-cooked foods. Yet the veterinary community has been seeing increases in things like cancer, obesity, diabetes, unilateral hip dysplasia, dermatitises, food allergies, kidney problems, pancreas problems, and liver problems. Just about every system in the dog has been affected in some way, shape, or form by some disease or problem that did not 'exist' prior to the advent of kibbled foods or was not recognized as a big issue. Part of this increase is due to the fact that more people own dogs today and that illnesses are more quickly diagnosed nowadays, but many of these diseases have been shown to have a VERY strong links to DIET—particularly in human research (like adult onset diabetes and obesity and cancer, for example). Many of our pets' body processes parallel our own, so who is to say that processed food will not affect them similarly?
So what about all these arguments against raw feeding put forward by other pet owners, veterinarians, and pet food companies? Is there any validity to them? Since this is an honest and candid look at raw feeding, I will be frank: yes, these claims may have some validity to them, but the 'problems' with raw feeding are not the problems of epidemic, drastic proportions that they are made out to be. There are risks to feeding raw, just as there are risks to feeding kibble and home-cooked. No one seems to mention the risks of feeding kibble, or homecooked perhaps because pet food companies and others that homecook have been very good at making people believe kibbled and homecooked food is a risk-free diet for their pets. |