Canine Nutrition and the AVMA

What the AVMA thinks about canine nutrition, the barf dog diet, pet food recalls, manufacturers and the intelligence of pet owners will shock you. Will you speak up or lie like a dog?

Apparently they are convinced we pet parents know nothing about canine nutrition, cannot read and are incapable of preparing truly nutritious dog foods and washing our hands to kill raw meat bacteria.

In a vote to be held August 2nd or 3rd of this year 2012 the American Medical Veterinary Association will determine our ineptness or perhaps our gullibility.

They will vote that overcooked manufactured dog foods with dubious ingredients are far more nutritious for our dogs and cats than a fresh raw organic free range chicken with bones and minced fresh vegetables.

While I am not that gullible I worry about all the people who love their dogs and blindly follow their vet's advice. If this vote goes through, veterinarians will need to tell their clients that only manufactured foods - those responsible for thousands of dog deaths, the illness of countless others are the wisest choice for dog health.

The AMVA is not yet voting to ban that we cook for our dogs but there are guidelines for that as well.

Interesting. Moves like this push me further away from medical veterinary clinics and trust in the profession. This means I will seek only holistic veterinarians and self treat. It has worked well so far.

What bothers me most are two things.

1. It's rather obvious this is backed by the dog food manufacturers because they are losing some of their customer base and they have a large presence in veterinary medical schools, giving them clout. Money does that, doesn't it?

2. Canine nutrition is not seen as the highly important subject it really is in veterinary school so well meaning veterinarians are in the dark as well, unless they study pet nutrition on their own.

For more information, here is an excellent article at Dogs Naturally Magazine's free newsletter.

If you feel the AVMA’s proposed policy against raw feeding impacts canine nutrition and has the potential to negatively affect the health of your pet or your freedom to choose how to feed your dog or cat, let your voice be heard before the August 2/3 vote.

To contact the AVMA …

Headquarters:

1931 North Meacham Road, Suite 100
Schaumburg, IL 60173-4360
Phone: 800.248.2862
Fax: 847.925.1329
Governmental Relations Division:

1910 Sunderland Place, NW
Washington, DC 20036-1642
Phone: 800.321.1473
Fax: 202.842.4360

Email: avmainfo@avma.org (include in the subject line: AVMA Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine)

The AVMA’s July 18th blog post is also open for comments. The following is the post I made at their blog and also in an email.

The link to respond to the blog post is:

http://atwork.avma.org/2012/07/18/the-facts-on-avmas-proposed-policy-on-raw-pet-food-diets/#comment-4673

If you still think this has no affect on you or anyone you know and love, read below my letter about service dogs.

Dog Food Manufacturers Strike Again

While this all seems ludicrous and that we shouldn't bother with a response, dog food manufacturers are protecting their interests with more than canine nutrition at stake. Many service dogs are no longer allowed to do their jobs.

Why? How? An organization called DELTA Pet Partners (therapy, service and companion animals) who was given a rather large donation by Purina decided any volunteers feeding a raw food diet for dogs could no longer participate in their organization. As you can see by the following, the problem is spreading.

Here is a reader response to the above mentioned article in Dogs Naturally magazine:

"My wonderful pet-assisted-therapy dog has already been banned from participating in our local therapy-dog program! I had planned on starting my other dog in the program when HABIT’s decision came down that they were going along with DELTA and excluding raw fed dogs (or even dogs that lived in a home where another dog was raw fed!). Even though none ever got sick from my raw fed dog’s visits. He visited an Alzheimer’s facility and did a reading program weekly at our local school and LOVED it and everyone loved him.

My dog’s health is much more important than volunteering, and without a moment’s thought I pulled him from the program immediately!

I thought it “odd” that these *dangerous* raw fed dogs could continue their volunteer visits for more than a month before the date the policy became effective… If they were such a risk, why not make the policy effective immediately? *sigh* "

Please let your voice be heard. It only takes a minute.

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