Dear Sir,
Drs. Daniel Joffe and Bernard Rollin both replied negatively to the ethical question regarding feeding dogs raw meat diets ( Can Vet J 2003;44:449-450). In our practice, we support owners who feed bones and raw food (BARF) and other raw meat diets. Sometimes we recommend home-prepared diets, which some owners elect to feed raw. We are comfortable and confident in doing this, because we have educated ourselves in canine and feline nutrition. We formulate the diet specifically for each pet's health status, so that the diet is complete, balanced, medically appropriate, and of high quality. In addition, we educate owners as to food preparation, food handling safety, and feeding practices during a 30- to 40-minute consultation with our nutritional consultant. They are given typed instructions for the diet, food handling safety and preparation, and a shopping list. We charge $45 for this service.
Becoming competent in nutrition requires a great deal of reading and research — most of which is boring, contradictory, and confusing. We understand why the majority of veterinarians do not elect to spend their continuing education time on studying this field; it's so much easier and more efficient to recommend a bag of commercial pet food.
With regard to the safety issues of feeding raw meat to pets, safe food handling is essential, whether the meat is to be cooked for human or pet consumption or fed raw to dogs or cats. We advise our clients not to feed raw pork, fish, or wild game offal. We advise them in the safe and hygienic clean-up of all pet feces, irrespective of what they are feeding.
To our knowledge, feeding home-prepared cooked or raw diets has not been proven to control medical problems, based upon prospective, double-blind, statistically significant clinical trials. However, we find that we can control a number of chronic digestive, allergic, and metabolic problems by using home prepared diets. We find that we can prevent a large number of problems from occurring in our feline and canine patients, including bladder stones and feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), intermittent vomiting or diarrhea, seborrhea sicca, and recurrent ear infections. These diets are individualized to the particular pet and its medical diagnoses, formulated with informed nutritional knowledge, and presented to the owner with nutritional and food safety education. We disagree with the opinions of Drs. Daniel Joffe and Bernard Rollin.
Dr. Lea Stogdale, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM
Dr. Garcea Diehl, DVM
Aesops Veterinary Care
192–2025 Corydon Ave
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 0N5