[Teegy]

By the mid to late 1980’s these revolutionary thoughts regarding nutrition and disease in cats and dogs had taken over my thinking. I had become obsessed. By the end of the 1980’s I had spent years questioning the owners of both healthy and unhealthy pets about their pets’ diets. I was told continually that healthy dogs lived and thrived on raw meaty bones. In Australia at least - Raw Meaty Bones were the major contributor to health in both cats and dogs. It was commercial dog foods that were the major cause of ill health.

I should point out that during our undergraduate years, we veterinary students accepted the proposition that disease in cats and dogs was inevitable. Rather like human beings! We accepted without question the idea that disease was not something that was in any way preventable. There were a few exceptions such as the small number of diseases we vaccinated animals for, and a limited number of specific deficiency diseases. Those aside, our training did not involve looking for any such basic causes of disease. Our job was to diagnose disease and on the basis of that diagnosis institute treatment using surgery and drugs.

It was not part of our training to look for basic (e.g. nutritional) causes of disease, and follow that up by instituting sound management (e.g. dietary) regimes as a preventative measure. Most certainly the idea of preventing the vast majority of the diseases we see in cats and dogs via nutrition was an unheard of concept. By contrast, the concept of disease prevention via nutrition was (and is) well accepted in farm animals being used to produce meat, milk, wool and eggs etc.

Disease prevention via nutrition is still an unheard of concept in small animal veterinary circles. However, by the mid to late 1980’s it had become obvious to me that those – never discussed - basic causes of disease had their roots in poor and inappropriate nutrition. I was also aware that while most medical practitioners and veterinary surgeons had no idea of this concept, many of the patients and clients of those two healing professions, had begun to embrace this approach to health for themselves, if not for their pets.

The word had to be spread! And who better to spread it - I thought - than my fellow vets. That meant telling them. I penned an article in a newsletter circulated by the Postgraduate Foundation in Veterinary Science of the University of Sydney. It explained to my colleagues my experiences with this evolutionary (revolutionary) diet. I outlined its enormous and far reaching implications for our patients’ health. This article reached every vet in Australia.

My thoughts were greeted (1986/7) with (almost) deafening silence. I received phone calls and letters from about ten vets all of whom wholeheartedly agreed. However, it was obvious that by talking to vets I was not about to set the world on fire. Being a slow learner, I did try once more. The next attempt was a paper circulated at a Postgraduate conference dealing with small animal and equine nutrition in 1988. This too passed without comment by the profession. I was totally ignored. Was I ignored because my ideas would reduce patient numbers and therefore income? Not at all. I was ignored because these ideas did not fit the current mode of thinking. The current dogma was – and still is – that small animal nutrition is something left to the experts employed by pet food companies. That the “so called” super premium products are the pinnacle of pet nutrition. If the manufacturers of super premium pet foods and the prescription diets don’t know the answers, then it would not be possible for any else to. On that basis, my thoughts on the matter did not deserve a moment of their time.

However, from my point of view the message was too important to let lie. Since the vets could not be persuaded to believe me, let alone tell pet owners, I would have to educate the pet owners directly. This required a book. The book’s aim was simple. It was to free pet owners from the tyranny of only being able or allowed or trained to feed their pets processed commercial pet food. I wanted them to know that there was a healthy simple cheap and viable alternative. I was also aware that most books on nutrition are deadly boring, difficult to understand and highly impractical. I was determined that mine would be easy to understand, highly practical and hopefully entertaining.

There was so much to be said! And not one of the books that I had read was saying what I was experiencing, particularly with regards to the importance of bones. I could not find one book which promoted the feeding of raw meaty bones. All the books on so called natural feeding relied heavily on grains and with the exception of the book by Levy specifically warned against feeding bones.

Because cats and dogs have different food requirements, (cats are obligate carnivores while dogs are omnivores with a carnivorous background)), I decided they each needed their own book, and that I would write the dog book first. Thus was born “Give Your Dog a Bone.” This book was launched at a 3 day Bichon Frise conference in western Sydney on the 17th November 1993. The book was advertised in all the canine breeder magazines throughout Australia.

“Give Your Dog a Bone” proved an instant hit, with many breeders adopting its ideas. Since that time it has been making steady inroads into the minds of breeders and dog owners throughout Australia and around the world. By 1995 Give Your Dog a Bone had found its way to England where it developed a steady following. This culminated with an invitation for me to be the principal speaker in a four seminar lecture tour in England during the month of September 1997. The seminars proved an outstanding success. They were well attended and began a strong movement of raw feeders in England. They also attracted interest in the United States.

By 1997 “Give Your Dog a Bone” was beginning to sell in ever increasing volumes in the United States. Following the success of the English tour I was invited to present an even more extensive series of seminars across the United States. The American tour proved an enormous success. It was during this US tour that I released my second book “Grow Your Pups With Bones.” This new book has formalized the concept of BARF, an acronym that stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw (or Real) Food. I wrote this book for breeders and the owners of large dogs. It covers feeding to prevent (and treat) skeletal disease in growing pups and feeding for breeding. When I wrote, “Give Your Dog a Bone” I was confident it would be successful in some limited sort of way. However, I had no idea that it would start a revolution in raw feeding that would sweep across Australia, England and more particularly North America the way it has.

Dr Billinghurst lives with his wife Ros, on a small farm on the outskirts of Bathurst, 10 minutes from their surgery. Their family consists of 5 children, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 1 budgie, 5 geese and 17 cows. Life is a busy round of working in their Veterinary practice, traveling, writing, and gardening. Most of their spare time is spent dealing with the many BARF inquiries. Theirs is a life of dedication, helping pet owners both at home and throughout the world, restoring health to their pets.

Let me wish you and your dog(s) - GOOD HEALTH