July/August 2010 - Dogs Naturally Magazine

y: Erika Phillips
We are what we eat. Raw feeders take this simple statement
very seriously and eschew kibble for its dubious origins and
questionable ingredients. We rightly feel more comfortable
feeding foods to our dogs with known origins: we like to know
not only what foods are going into our dogs but where they
came from. Unfortunately, we might not know as much about
the origin of feed animals as we should.
The Times They are A-Changing ~Bob Dylan
For generations our food has been raised on soils rich in nutrients.
Cows ate grass, sheep ate grass. Chickens ranged and
ate worms and frogs and other meaty morsels rich with protein
necessary to produce wonderfully nutritious eggs. Pigs
received 80% of their nutritional requirements from rich and
living soil. Life was simpler and life was in our nutrient-dense
leaner and lower in calories, and higher in omega-3 fatty acids
food. Sadly, this does not ring true today: cows are now grain
and vitamin E. Grass-fed dairy products also have five times
fed with many of them never seeing a blade of grass, chickens
the levels of conjugated linoleum acid (CLA) than their grain-
are grain fed and factory raised without sunshine and never
fed counterparts. Grass fed cows also convert Chlorophyll that
seeing a bug or a worm, pigs are raised in concrete buildings
they get from grass into Vitamin D that they get from the sun
and sheep are normally pastured but too expensive to eat.
which in turn produces vitamin A found in the liver and other
The ramifications of industrialized farming have very real
health implications for us and for our dogs.
organs. Without grass Cow’s are not worth eating!
On factory beef farms the staple of the cow’s diet is corn and
soy which are not well digested by cows. In fact, cattle can
The cow is nothing but a machine which makes grass fit for us develop severe health problems from grains, some of which
people to eat. ~John McNulty
include liver abscesses and sudden death syndrome. For filler,
Cows are ruminants, and ruminants are designed by nature to
digest grass and only grass. They digest it first by eating it raw
and then by regurgitating it and eating it again in a partially
digested form known as cud. As ruminants, cows have four
chambers in their stomachs, and as a cow digests, the food
moves slowly from one chamber to the next.
factory farms will also add animal by-products to industrial
cattle feed, and these additions can transmit diseases like mad
cow to both animals and humans. Grains ferment in the stomach
and create serious bacteria overloads including salmonella
and e-coli. In large production facilities where the animals
stand and sleep in their feces, the bacterium is spread
throughout the herd and when the time comes for slaughter
Raising cattle on pasture not only makes sense for their diges- the feces/bacteria often remain in the meat unless bleached.
tive systems, but makes sense for humans too, by turning On top of that, run-off from factory farms and feedlots can
something we can’t eat (grass) into something we can (meat) contaminate surrounding crops with salmonella and e-coli and
and dairy products. Cattle raised on grass provide meat that is this has resulted in numerous illnesses and recalls.
Dogs...Naturally! July/August 2010