IS KIBBLE DOG FOOD MAKING YOUR DOG SICK

Let’s recap. Here are the key takeaways from the video:

This wasn’t the worst part of the lost art of bread making though.

We didn’t just lose the way real bread was made passed down from generation to generation, but we almost lost the original ancient grain used to make bread.

To learn more about Einkorn, the original unhybridized ancient grain eaten for thousands of years by humans, you can look up Carla Bartolucci owner of Jovial here.

But now let’s dive into the real conversation we are all here for ….

What does this have to do with dog food?

What is really in our dog’s food?  How safe is it?

If our own food supply can be so defiled and corrupted, what hope is there for animal food? 

Are there any regulations in place to safeguard pet parents?

It’s a somewhat sobering moment when you realize you’ve never eaten real bread before.

But it’s even more of a revelation when you consider that most of our companion animals haven’t eaten real food EVER in their lifetime.

How our grandparents and great grandparents used to feed the family dog

How did the American industrial revolution change the way we feed our dogs today?

And what is the correlation between how we feed our canine companions now and the emerging new diseases sprouting up?

The culmination is simple.

We have forgotten how to feed our pets a species-specific diet. 

We are used to opening a bag of dry dead bits to put in their food dish. 

Worse yet, we have been conditioned to feed them this same meal every day of their life with us. 

We took a deep dive into the documentary, Pet Fooled, and strongly encourage you to watch it as well (available for free on YouTube and Amazon Prime).

While it is a longer video, everything you need to know is in the first 20 minutes.

Here is the basic timeline for the creation of Kibble dog food:

We took the following excerpt from Animal Wellness Magazine written by Gary Tashjian (the owner of Darwin’s Raw Pet Food).

• • Before the 1920s: Most dogs and cats were fed fresh “human” food in the form of table scraps or even freshly-prepared meals. As early as 2000 BCE, we have recipes for raw meals for dogs, consisting of fresh meat, bones, barley, and milk.

• • 1920s: The first generation of canned pet food hit the market. Ken-L-Ration, taking advantage of the low cost of horse meat, developed the first canned dog food and kicked off the industry we still see today.

• • 1940s: During WWII, meat and aluminum were both rationed, but the demand for convenient pet food remained high. Attracted by the large margins on pet food, cereal companies began creating dry pet food from leftover by-products and grains.

• • 1956: The first commercial kibble was invented, using a process called “extrusion”. Still used today, this process pushes dough through a high pressure, high heat extruder to form kibble. During this process, the food is sterilized, artificially preserved, and nutrients are degraded. But given how cheap it is to produce pet food this way, it was embraced by most manufacturers and promoted as the most convenient way to feed dogs and cats.

• • Today: While commercial pet food remains popular, it’s important to note that the only reason they were invented was for the convenience and profit of manufacturers, not for the health and well-being of dogs and cats. 

The history of fresh and raw pet diets dates all the way back to the initial domestication of cats and dogs 16,000 years ago, while the history of kibble dates to only 1956.

Almost exactly one generation ago. If you were born in the 60s straight up until today, you only know Kibble as a food source for dogs and cats.

 That is an astounding fact when you really sit with it for just a moment.

Some might argue in return that cats and dogs have been eating this way for almost 70 years now.

While we agree, it’s also hard to ignore the glaring fact that within that same timeframe, our furry companions have become sicker and sicker.

They now share in all of our diseases, from heart disease to cancer to diabetes and everything in between.  

With each new boutique food there came a new boutique disease never experienced by the cats and dogs that came before them. 

In essence, we unwittingly turned our food supply and theirs into a chemistry experiment.

And now our pups are in the same sinking boat of malnutrition, obesity and chronic disease as the majority of humans are today.

Is anyone looking out for the consumer?

If you finished the documentary above, you also learned that there are only a handful of Kibble companies (at the time of writing of this article, the largest being Mars, Nestle, Hills, Smucker’s, GM, Diamond).

 Yet there are many different brand names to choose from when you walk into any large chain pet food store, giving you the illusion of choice.

This is very confusing. Mars alone owns over 41 different brands.

With such a monopoly, who is regulating this multibillion-dollar industry?

To answer this question, we will visit the website Truth About Pet Food run by Susan Thixton

Here is an excerpt from her article:  

FDA Admits Some Pet Food Sourced From Diseased Animals.

“In a March 2016 meeting with FDA, the agency openly stated they will continue to allow pet food to violate federal law. “We’re going to allow animals that have died other than by slaughter that are further processed; we will allow those ingredients in pet food.”

In early March, I sent FDA questions asking the agency to define what ‘animals that have died other than by slaughter’ means. In several back and forth conversations, finally the FDA responded with this (received today 4/11/16 – bold added for emphasis)…

The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled. Processed pet food, including pet food consisting of material from diseased animals or animals which have died otherwise than by slaughter, goes through a kill step, such as heat processing, which is designed to kill harmful  bacteria.

In addition, canned pet foods must be processed in conformance with the low acid canned food (LACF) regulations to ensure the pet food is free of viable microorganisms. Before processing, these commodities may be considered in violation of 402(a)(5), however, when properly processed in accordance with these regulations, CVM considers canned pet foods, otherwise not in violation of the statute or regulations, to be safe and suitable for consumption by pets regardless of the origin of animal tissues used. CVM considers the retorting temperatures involved in the canning process adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms. LACF regulations define the process as adequate under the conditions of manufacture for a given product to achieve commercial sterility, either by 1) the application of heat which renders the food free of microorganisms capable of reproducing in the food under normal nonrefrigerated conditions of storage and distribution and free of viable microorganisms (including spores) of public health significance, or by 2) the control of water activity and the application of heat which renders the food free of microorganisms capable of reproducing in the food under normal nonrefrigerated conditions of storage and distribution.

The Center will consider regulatory action based on low acid canned food violations alone where the report indicates a probable hazard to pets. CVM will also consider regulatory action against canned pet food on the basis of use of decomposed animal tissues or use of tissues containing violative drug residues.

Here is an excerpt from another Truth About Pet Food article:

Dog DNA Found in Pet Food

“This is the third time in 4 years dog food has tested positive for dog DNA. (The first evidence of this horror was DNA analysis included in a lawsuit against Rachel Ray Nutrish dog food.)“

Everything but the kitchen sink.

“The DNA analysis of these six dog foods found that every single pet food included multiple ingredients NOT DISCLOSED on the label. Federal and state pet food regulations require disclosure on the label of all ingredients included. If an ingredient is not disclosed/listed in the ingredient panel, the pet food would be mislabeled. All six of the pet foods tested were mislabeled.“

It would seem that there are more ‘self-regulations” than there are actual rules set forth for the pet food industry.

And for the few regulations that do exist, there seem to be no ramifications for bypassing them in the name of profitability.

But it’s not just the lack of transparency or the mystery meats and highly questionable ingredients.

There is the problem of synthetic vitamins sourced from China, dangerous preservatives to prolong the shelf life, moldy grains, GMOs, high pesticide crops, chemical additives, high pressure heat processes culminating in the forming of cancerous carcinogens, waste by products and food waste purposely added to buffer profitability; among other issues.

Where do we go from here

WE HAVE CHOICES!

Just as you don’t have to continue to eat a processed food made to resemble bread, you don’t have to feed your dog a highly processed and inflammatory food source.

Susan Thixton started an entire website dedicated to verifying the ingredients in Pet Food.

She now offers a List of trusted pet foods every year so that you have 3^rd party verification. Proof that what you are buying is actually what is listed on the dog food label.

There are independent pet food stores opening up all across the country that now carry a wide variety of biologically appropriate real dog foods found on Susan’s List.

On top of that a host of other canine advocates and experts have stepped forward to offer solutions or create recipes that you can make yourself. 

Like Dana Scott who owns Dogs Naturally Magazine and offers a great line of dog supplements … Dr Karen Becker who just released the book ‘Forever Dog’ …. Or Patricia Green who started the raw dog food company Raw Bistro after losing her dog to illness …. Dr Harvey who offers dog food specifically targeting different maladies …   Dr Jean Dodd who created an accurate test for food allergies in canines … and the list goes on (see our resources page for more canine advocates).

 These are just a few examples of the growing movement towards REAL canine nutrition and/or natural solutions to the problems pet parents are facing today.

“Let Food Be Thy Medicine.”

It is said that over 75% of pet owners today now incorporate some fresh and real foods into their pet’s daily diet.

Can going back in time and providing a species-specific diet to our animal companions really make a difference?

We only have to look at the example of some of the oldest living dogs to answer that question.

Bobi (still currently living at the time this article was published) in Portugal (31), Bluey (30) from Australia, and Taffy and Adjutant both from the UK (27) (among other examples) were all fed fresh foods (most lived on farms) and never a processed diet. 

There are tantamount undeniable takeaways from observing how these dogs ate.

Very similar to studying how people in Blue Zones that live well into their 100s in good health is useful information for our own daily nutritional decisions.

With processed foods being linked to higher mortality rates in most species, it’s a great time to seek better information even if that means looking to the past.

Here at Everything Dog, our passion for canines motivates us to publish articles tackling common pet problems with natural common-sense solutions.

Knowledge is power and it’s time for pet parents everywhere to take their power of the purse back. 

Here’s to more tail wagging walks in the morning sun with your best friend.