"Animal Rights" Wrongs Animals (and People)

You can't talk food without eventually coming across "animal rights" activists that will tell you to go read PETA's website and you're an evil person if you don't fall into their militant belief system.

Even many everyday people, when it comes to the topic of animal abuse, will often say "I believe in animal rights, but..."

And that brings up a huge problem: many people fall into one of the next 3 categories

• Don't know what "animal rights" is really about
• Don't know the difference between "animal rights" and "animal welfare"
• Have been spoon-fed false or twisted information by groups such as PETA and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) - from information on nutrition to farming/ranching to hunting

• • •

So first, we need to differentiate between "animal rights" and "animal welfare":

Animal Rights  - Example groups: PETA, HSUS

• animals should not be 'used' for any reason: food, clothing, service, even companionship
• humans should not interact with non-human animals
• extinction of domestic animals

Animal Welfare - Example groups: ASPCA, local animal shelters and rescue groups 

• treat animals humanely
• do not abuse or neglect animals
• co-exist with animals
• if animals are to be used for food or clothing they should be raised in humane conditions and killed as quickly and painlessly as possible

The vast majority of people actually support "animal welfare" and would be appalled by "animal rights".



• • •

PETA

• against pet ownership
• against training pets, against crating dogs (anyone familiar with dog training or psychology knows both of those are beneficial things for the pets)
• against no-kill shelters (they want all animal shelters to be "kill shelters")
• against the use of police dogs 
• against the use of drug & bomb sniffing dogs in airports
• against the use of service dogs
• against dog shows, horse shows, etc.
• against the use of animals for food, even if the animal is unharmed such as the harvesting of honey, eggs, and milk
• against the use of animals for clothing, even if the animal is unharmed such as wool
• against hunting, even if necessary for population control
• against zoos, no matter how well the animals are kept
• against March of Dimes
• against World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
• in favor of breed-specific legislation (BSL) - banning certain breeds of dogs, which many times there isn't even a grandfather-clause, so pet owners are faced with the choice to either move or abandon their pet
• in favor of people feeding their pet carnivores (dogs & cats) a vegetarian/vegan diet
• supports Animal Liberation Front (ALF) - the group that burns down labs, puts bombs on researchers' doorsteps, and is considered by the FBI to be a domestic terrorist organization - and has given them over $70,000

PETA kills an overwhelming majority of the animals they take-in:

Year	Received†	Transferred	Adopted		Killed
2010	2,345	63	44	1.86%	2,200	93.8%
2009	2,366	31	8	0.34%	2,301	97.3%
2008	2,216	34	7	0.32%	2,124	95.8%
2007	1,997	35	17	0.85%	1,815	90.9%
2006	3,061	46	12	0.39%	2,981	97.4%
2005	2,165	69	146	6.74%	1,946	89.9%
2004	2,655	1	361	13.60%	2,278	85.8%
2003	2,224	1	312	14.03%	1,911	85.9%
2002	2,680	2	382	14.25%	2,298	85.7%
2001	2,685	14	703	26.18%	1,944	72.4%
2000	2,681	28	624	23.27%	2,029	75.7%
1999	1,805	91	386	21.39%	1,328	73.6%
1998*	943	125	133	14.10%	685	72.6%
Total	29,823	540	3,135	10.56%	25,840	85.9%
* figures represent the second half of 1998 only † Other than spay/neuter animals

PETA targets children and adolescents. They even go so far as giving comics to kids saying that their mom or dad will kill the family pet!

HSUS

• is less open about their extremism, but it exists nonetheless
• does not run a single animal shelter
• is not affiliated with any local animal shelters

HSUS took donations for hurricane Katrina animals long after they had pulled out of the area. The groups that were really doing the work were underfunded and overworked, while HSUS stood back and took the credit.








• • •

Quotes from animal rights groups:

"The cat, like the dog, must disappear... We should cut the domestic cat free from our dominance by neutering, neutering, and more neutering, until our pathetic version of the cat ceases to exist."
- John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic (Washington, DC: (PETA))

"Animal trainers, hunters, fishermen, cattlemen, grocers, and indeed all non-vegetarians are the moral equivalent of cannibals, slave-owners, and death-camp guards."
- Ingrid Newkirk, President, PETA

"...all other than human animals would be free of human interference, and dogs and cats would be part of the ecological scheme."
- PETA's Statement on Companion Animals

"He [Rodney Coronado of ALF] did something [firebombed a research facility at Michigan State University] that put him in prison for three-and-a-half years and I think that if we hadn’t provided him with a good legal defense he wouldn’t be back out doing productive things in the community again - like the good person that he is. "
- Ingrid Newkirk, PETA

"I don't want to see another dog or cat born"
- Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP HSUS

"One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding."
- Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP HSUS

"The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration."
- Michael W. Fox, Scientific Director and former Vice President HSUS

"My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture."
- John P. Goodwin, HSUS employee

"We are not especially 'interested in' animals. Neither of us had ever been inordinately fond of dogs, cats, or horses in the way that many people are. We didn't 'love' animals."
- Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethic for Our Treatment of Animals, 2nd ed.



• • •

Please support animal welfare groups, not animal rights groups. And please research any group you are considering donating to.

Animal Rights is detrimental to both animals and humans!

What My Wolves Used to Eat

I posted last month about My Pet Wolves. My dogs didn't always eat a raw diet, they used to eat kibble. And I'm aware that not everyone is wants to or is able to feed a raw diet to their dogs. So this post is about what I looked for when I fed my dogs "dog food".

Higher quality food may seem more expensive at first, but it evens out. The higher quality the food, the less fillers eaten (and therefore the less poop comes out the other end). Your dog eats more to try to get the nutrition it needs, and most of the food just passes right on through. Also, it will make your animals healthier, so you save money on vet bills in the long run.
And sometimes, the higher quality foods are actually cheaper. For example, CostCo's brand Kirkland is actually better dog food than Science Diet or Eukanuba!

Remember: There is no single food that is "best". The goal is to find high quality food(s) that your dog does well on.

Here's a short list of rules I came up with for choosing dog kibble:

1. High meat content.
   
   This is first and foremost. Dogs are carnivores, carnivores eat meat.
   
   Preferably at least 2-3 out of the top 5 ingredients be meat or meat meal (first ingredient must be!). Don't confuse "meal" with "byproducts". Meal is simply the meat with the water weight removed. So for example, on the ingredient list, "chicken meal" is actually more quantity of chicken than "chicken".
   
   A dog should never be on a vegan diet. And the only time a vegetarian diet should be considered is if the dog has severe allergies and all normal and exotic protein options have been exhausted. Most kibbles are chicken, lamb, duck, or beef; but you can find exotic proteins like pheasant and kangaroo as well. Also worthy of mention is that there is a different between cooked and raw proteins, if your dog has allergies to a cooked/processed meat, it may not have a reaction to the same protein as raw meat.
   
   
2. Higher quality grains, such as barley, brown rice, and oatmeal. No wheat or corn.
   Or an alternative starch/carbohydrate such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, or tapioca.
   
   Dogs have absolutely no need for carbs and starches. The reason these things are included in dog kibble is because a starch is required to have "kibble", it holds the pieces of food together, else it would be "crumbles".
   
   
3. No byproducts.
   
   While there is nothing inherently wrong with dogs eating the things included in "by products" (organs, bones, feet, etc), the problem is that the term "byproducts" is a catch-all. You have no idea exactly what the byproducts are.
    
4. Minimal fillers.
   
   Fillers are things like brewers rice, beet pulp, etc.; used to bulk up the food but add no benefit to either the dog's health or the manufacturing process.
    
5. No carcinogenic preservatives (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin). 
   
   
6. No artificial colorings such as the Red, Blue, and Yellow dyes. 
   
   Your dog doesn't care what color the food is, dyes are only added to make it look pleasing to the human buying it. And dyes have been linked to hyperactivity and health problems.
   
   
7. No added sugars (sugar, corn syrup). 
   
   Dogs don't need these. These are only included to make crappy food more palatable to the dog.
   
   
8. No mystery meats (meats identified only as "meat" or "poultry".)
   
   Your dogs' food should always tell you exactly what type of meat you are feeding.

Dog Food Analysis has reviews on many different types of dog food, and the ratings are pretty much in-line with the rules I listed above. I recommend sticking to the 4, 5, and 6 star foods.

And good site to research dog food ingredients is Dog Food Project.


Stay away from grocery stores brands. They are low-quality foods chalk full of fillers, preservatives, dyes, etc.. (Grocery store foods are those like Beneful, Old Roy, Kibbles'n'Bits Alpo, Pedigree, etc.)

Also beware "premium" foods. "Premium" does not mean good nutritionally, and is not a nutritionally high quality food. It has the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients. (Premium foods are those like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, etc..)

Another thing to be wary of: A lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit from the brands they keep on their shelves, that's why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don't focus a lot on nutrition. I'm NOT saying that a vet is a bad vet because he/she recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told "this is good food", so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Vets are busy people! And required to deal with so many issues and so many different species! Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it's good as well. Here is a quote from Hill's (makers of Science Diet) website: "Hill's scientists author more than 50 research papers and textbook chapters each year and teach at leading schools of veterinary medicine."

And don't be taken in by breed-specific foods. It's just a marketing tool. Very few breeds require different diets than the average dog. (Dalmatians come to mind, and you don't need "dalmation food" for them, you just need to know what to look for in foods that work best for a breed with specific requirements.) But in the vast majority of cases, it's pointless. And typically the brands marketing breed-specific foods are selling lower-quality foods. A chihuahua can eat the same food as a boxer, and they can both eat the same food as a cocker spaniel, a poodle, and a golden retriever.


Petco and Petsmart are slowly starting to get some of the better quality foods, but your best bets for finding quality dog food are:

• small, locally owned petstores
• dog boutiques
• farm supply stores

And remember, when you switch your dog's "dog food", do it slowly. A dog's digestive flora get used to digesting only one type of food day after day after day that the gut flora needs time to adjust. Only switch about 25% at a time and feed that for a few days. If there are no issues (vomiting, loose stools, excess gas, etc) then increase another 25%. And so on. And remember, not every dog does well on every food, so if you are still having issues a couple weeks into trying to switch, that food simply may not agree with your dog.

I do not subscribe to the "feed a dog the same food until it dies" method; that is propagated by dog food companies so you'll stick with their brand and their brand only. There are also benefits to rotating a dog's food. It reduces the risk of allergies developing, and it also keeps the you on the up-and-up when formulas are changed or there are recalls. Variety is the spice of life!

Do your research, be confident in your decision, and read the back of the bag not the front!

My Pet Wolves

Yep, you read that correctly: I have pet wolves.

Okay, so they don't look or act like wolves, but they are wolves nevertheless.

Wolf = Canis lupus
Dog = Canis lupus familiaris

What do wolves eat? Not dry kibble or mush from a can. They eat meat.

I'll admit, I was a little intimidated when I first came across the idea of a raw diet for dogs. Intimidated, but intrigued. I toyed with the idea on-and-off for nearly a year before I decided to jump in with both feet.

I was surprised at the change in my dogs after switching them to a raw diet. I was feeding top-of-the-line kibble before, but I guess even top-of-the-line kibble is still processed food! I wish I had decent before & after pictures of all of them, but I only have good comparison pictures of Stormy. The first picture was taken shortly before I switched them to raw, the second picture was taken 4 months after being on a raw diet.

The diet I feed my dogs is called "prey model". The goal is to mimic the prey that they would eat in the wild. This is accomplished by feeding a diet that is approximately 80% meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs.

Meat is, you got it: meat. Chicken, turkey, pork, beef, goat, lamb, ostrich, duck, salmon, venison, rabbit, pheasant, quail, kangaroo, whatever you can find. The more variety you can [slowly!] work into their diet, the better; but even if you can only get your hands on a few proteins, it's still a good diet. I try to feed at least 50% red meat; red meat being 'mammal meat', so pork, even though it's called "the other white meat", is actually red meat.

Bones are a little trickier than meat. We've all heard "don't feed the dog chicken bones!", but this actually requires more explanation. It should be "don't feed the dog cooked bones, be it chicken or beef". Raw bones (yep, even chicken bones) are soft and digestible. Cooked bones (yep, even beef bones) become brittle and can splinter into shards. That smoked ham bone at the petstore is actually more dangerous for your dog to eat than raw chicken bones. The main bones my dogs eat are chicken bones, along with a few pork and lamb bones. Note: weight-bearing bones of large herbivores are too hard for dogs, so bones like a cow femur are no-no's.

Bones are also "nature's toothbrush". Dental care is just as important for dogs as it is for people. 80% of dogs over the age of 3 have periodontal disease; which not only is a problem of unattractive teeth, it affects the internal organs of the animal.



My dogs' teeth on a raw diet


Liver is liver. Beef liver, pork liver, chicken liver, etc. That was an easy one!

Secreting organs are *drumroll* organ which secrete. Examples: kidney, spleen, pancreas, thymus, brain. The non-secreting organs, such as heart and gizzards, are fed in the "meat" portion of the dog's diet.

A raw prey model diet does not require any supplements, it supplies all the nutrients required by dogs. I do, however, give my dogs fish oil for Omega-3s to make up for the fact they do not get organic grass-fed beef or much wild game meat.

The amount to feed is based on your body's ideal adult body weight. The starting point is about 2%-3% of the dog's body weight, then adjust as necessary. (It's on a dog-by-dog basis depending on the dog's metabolism and activity level. One of my dogs eats nearly twice the recommended starting point!) I use a cheap kitchen scale to portion out my dogs' food.

Where do I get meat for my dogs?

• Grocery store - watch those sales!
• MyPetCarnivore.com
• Expired or freezer-burned meat from family and friends
• Hunting scraps

If you are interested in feeding your dogs (or cats or ferrets) a raw diet, here are some resources to get you started:

• Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale DVM
• Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health by Tom Lonsdale DVM
• Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog by Carina Beth Macdonald
• Myths About Raw Feeding
• Anti-Raw Article Rebuttals
• RawFedDogs.net
• Raw Learning
• Dogster's Raw Food Diet Forum