What a well thought out and reasonable presentation of your opinion. I literally agree with every thing you said. I am not a scientist, but I am a woman with a lot of life experiences with terminal illnesses, pyschological disorders in people close to me, and just general life experience. I too have come to know that the cure is not the same for every circumstance. Medications can have the opposite effect on a certain percentage of patients. So to think there is only "one" right way to see anything is very narrow minded, in my opinion. Like you, I totally feel everyone has a right to their opinion, and to express it freely without fear of being verbally beat up. No one likes to be humiliated for their thoughts or beliefs. Many times doctors in all specialties have to experiment with treatments to find the one that works for someone. The same goes for vets. How many of us have been told to take a certain medication, only to discover we have an allergy to it? Personally, I can't take Tylenol, Benadryl, so many OTC's and prescription meds that may have forms of that in them. Because of this I ended up seeking out more natural remedies to prevent situations that may end up requiring medicine. So, yes I feed my family organically and have for years
I have had many wonderful animals in my lifetime. I have always followed the guidelines given to me by my vet. Always, yet I've lost too many dogs to diseases that I couldn't do anything about. I'm losing one now to cancer and CF. I've made a choice to offer him palliative care at this point. I am not subjecting him to a horrible course of medications that even the vet admits at this point will at best give him a few months. Should I make his last months miserable? No. I've chosen not to do that. He's not in pain yet. He's not ready to go.
Why I am interested in providing the best possible diet to my dogs is because I personally do believe that the dog food world has become so money driven that its almost impossible to be able to trust what we are giving them. I do think the dog foods of the last 20 yrs have changed and as a result we are seeing an increase in cancers, heart diseases, thyroid conditions, digestive disorders etc. When I grew up we had a little chihauha that my mom literally only ever fed table food. He had everything that he probably shouldn't have and yet he lived to be 19 yrs old!! My late husbands childhood dog lived to be 21 and he lived on pasta and table scraps too. Back then we really didn't go to the vet unless it was a dire emergency. Just makes me think about what has changed so much since I was a child. We try to do better by feeding the best dog foods on the market, we bring them to the vet religiously, they are given shots and preventative meds, and yet dogs aren't living as long really.
So, I agree that everyone has a right to their opinion. No one is right or wrong. We all have reasons for why we make choices to do things one way or another. I'm very happy to have read your open letter, and appreciate the time and thought that went into it. Thank you.