Feline Health and Happiness

Balinese beauty

2011-03-15T11:25:00.006-04:00

Well spring has arrived and Makena is eagerly watching the birds and squirrels each morning again. This has been my first Balinese Siamese cat and they certainly are endlessly fascinating. What most amazes me is her acrobatic ability. Her lithe body can pounce and jump and perform somersaults effortlessly. But it's her ability to jump 6 feet in the air that means I have to keep her on a leash when we go out onto the balcony (for her own protection). Here's a recent picture of my gorgeous Makena.

Makena at the cottage

2010-10-18T19:24:00.003-04:00

Here's Makena on her early morning jaunt at the cottage. "The dollhouse" provided perfect access to the cottage grounds and the lake for my beautiful Balinese. As you can see, she is happy and excited to begin her morning exploring....supervised, of course....

Siamese classics

2010-10-14T09:58:00.005-04:00

Manu and Makena's second trip to a cottage near Bancroft was just as enjoyable as their first trip. Here, my gorgeous kitties are lounging in the comfortable "dollhouse" cottage in the sun, performing cat yoga (yes it is true, yogis watched animals to create asanas).

Makena and Manu go camping

2010-09-01T14:32:00.004-04:00

Well along with raw diet, what cats need is fresh air. Makena and Manu loved camping on our recent vacation near Bancroft, Ontario. They had their own cabin to themselves and were very busy lounging, prowling through the grass and taking in the fresh air and the sights and sounds of nature. Take a look at Makena's homage to Matisse photo; and Manu lounging in the grass.

Makena Summer 2010 update

2010-08-02T09:41:00.008-04:00

Well Makena's vet is extremely impressed by her health and beauty. At 3 years, this girl weighs about 12 lbs. As a Balinese, she's extremely acrobatic -- she can easily jump 6 feet into the air, catch a fly, do a backward flip and land on all fours. Truly amazing to see.

After three years now on raw diet, Makena is proof positive that the natural evolutionary diet that felines were designed to eat is the best possible option. True, it takes a bit of effort for me to trek to the butcher every month and prepare her food, but the result is worth it.

She's a happy, healthy cat with absolutely no health problems. No parasites, no issues with salmonella. Of course, practising safe food handling is paramount.

Makena in 2010

2010-04-11T19:10:00.002-04:00

Makena is now almost 3 years old. Her birthday is May 15. We will be going for a vet check up soon to see the effects of three years of raw diet. She is healthy, happy and very eager, every morning, for me to open the screen balcony door so she can watch the birds and squirrels in the trees.

Canadian import pet food policy critique

2009-11-10T14:25:00.002-05:00

Well, after more than two years, the Canadian government has come out with its pet food import policy.

At first glance, it appears as if it will be harder for US companies to import pet food into Canada. There are some important questions posed to Canadian importers for permits to import commercially prepared pet food.

But what questions are NOT being asked in this document?

What influence did the corporate multinationals have in shaping this policy? It’s worth another FOI request to find out, a request I will be filing shortly.

Will this policy be applied equally to large multinational corporations as well as to small producers?

How will this affect the import of a new burgeoning industry, the raw food pet food market?

There are new regulations requiring all raw products to be endorsed by a full time, salaried veterinarian. Now this is really where the problem lies. As things currently exist, most veterinarian clinics are stocking species inappropriate kibble. Veterinarians receive very little in the way of non pet food company training and are, by and large, biased against raw food for pets. So how does this help?

In Ontario, veterinarians are not only the sellers of multinational kibble, they are the owners in the veterinarian distribution company in Ontario that distributes ALL pet food products. The Veterinary Purchasing Company Limited in St. Mary's Ontario, is owned by a large number of vets in south-eastern Ontario. The only thing that keeps this from being a monopoly is that there is a small agency in Northwestern Ontario that services that region.

Most Ontario veterarinians are shareholders and as such, they receive regular dividends from this company. This is a clear conflict of interest on the part of veterinarinans. This needs to be challenged and changed in provincial regulation. Veterinarians should not be selling pet food or profiting from the distribution of these products.

No where in this document did I see the term “species appropriate” as a criteria for ingredients for pet food. That’s a vital link that needs to be among criteria for ANY pet food product. We have seen the negative health impact of high carbohydrate laden products and how detrimental they are to pet health, especially cats.

The main concern on the part of the feds appears to be BSE. Well, despite the best efforts at enforcement, BSE has been in the food system in North America for years and continues to be.

As for cleaning, storage and processing at individual plants, we saw clearly from the Maple Leaf listeria scandal, that despite there being a CFIA inspector at the plant, there was still contamination that occurred. How will things be different with more inspectors?

In Canada, unlike the US in which there was a recent change to FDA regulations, product recalls are still VOLUNTARY on the part of industry. The Canadian government has no authority under which to issue product recalls. This fact alone should be of concern to every Canadian when it concerns the safety of our food supply system.

Although there are questions and regulations in this document that need to be asked, it certainly falls short of what is really required to reign in the multinationals that make such excessive profits from pet food. Or the veterinarians that profit from the sale of species inappropriate kibble.

New US food safety site

2009-09-13T10:26:00.002-04:00

US Federal site for food safety

All in one location, this site has many links with respect to food safety issues. If you type in "pet food" in the search box many different documents and sites will come up.

And....here's an important link: how to report a pet food problem:

How to report a pet food problem in the US

Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast

2009-09-11T14:49:00.003-04:00

It's the fall of 2009, and the CBC's Doc Zone re-broadcast this important documentary from Yap Films last week.

For those of you who haven't seen it, there's a blogger upload available at:

Pet Food: A Dog's Breakfast

There's a very clear demonstration on how kibble is made, which may serve to convince those of you still feeding dry food why these formulas are completely upside-down nutritionally for our beloved feline carnivores.

Food Safety bill passes in the US House

2009-08-24T15:07:00.004-04:00

Food Safety bill passes in US House of Representatives

At the end of July, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act, H.R. 2749. Now the ball is in the court for the Senate to pass similar legislation. There are some key things in here that are useful, if this act is actually enforced. As we saw from the pet food recalls and the plethora of recalls of processed food products since then, ensuring that there are adequate staff in place to enforce regulations is critical.

The article details several points in the legislation:

"• Inspections of high-risk food facilities at least every 6-12 months as well as inspection of lower-risk facilities at least once every 3 years (FDA currently averages inspections once every ten years.

• High-risk food facilities to submit the results of testing their finished food products for safety.

• All registered domestic and foreign food facilities to identify hazards and implement steps to prevent or reduce contaminants that may appear in food.

• Businesses to keep basic safety records in a standard format so they are easier for FDA to review.

• An FDA-mandated recall if a company fails to do so when requested.

• Food facilities selling to American consumers to register with the FDA and pay annual fees.

• The FDA to gather information and run a pilot project to set up a method to trace food back to its source in the case of contamination. Such a “traceback” system would have to allow FDA to trace food back to its source within 2 business days."

A number of these recommendations were directly a result of the pet food recalls. Remember how no one could identify the source of the melamine? And how the FDA was unable to issue recalls for tainted pet food products? At least these reforms are something and it's doubtful that these would have been passed in the Bush era.

Greater oversight and further legislative reforms are needed however. One-size fits all policies don't work in the context of our food supply system, particularly with respect to small organic farmers -- there are too many variables.

Obama Administration bans use of antibiotics in healthy livestock

2009-07-19T07:49:00.007-04:00

Article excerpt from Organic Consumers site/

Good news. Fantastic that Obama is dealing with so many of these kinds of every day issues that you know the Bush Administration would have NEVER even have considered. Of course it makes no sense to administer antibiotics to healthy livestock. Do you think his staffers and colleagues are reading articles like this one by Michael Pollan?

Our Decrepit Food Factories/

I'm careful, when dealing with local butchers and farmers, to ensure that I am dealing with people who do NOT administer antibiotics to the chickens, rabbits, turkey and cornish hens that I buy for my cats' food. I certainly don't want them being exposed to unnecessary antibiotics as part of their daily menu. All the more reason to ask questions and build a good relationship with your local farmer through your local farmers' market so you are familiar with their farming practices.

New Canadian pet food policy?

2009-07-16T07:57:00.003-04:00

Well, two years after the Menu Foods pet food recalls, the Canadian government is finally getting around to doing something in the way of regulating imports. Since that time we have seen continous recalls of food products -- both pet food and human food -- for various kinds of contaminants and toxins.

We have seen a flurry of press releases and announcements from PM Harper but no detailed concrete legislative action around insuring the safety of our food supply system in a world of globalized trade. Hmm...Harper's "action plan" -- how will this be enforced?

Will the government actually respond to public complaints about ingredients in pet food? Where is there mention of any kind of database tracking system for documenting problems with these products?

Are they even asking the right questions when there are so many issues with processed food products for pets and humans? What role did the lobbyists and industry play in this process?

Harper's spin on food safety

The new policies, which came into effect July 1, 2009 are not actually available for public scrutiny at the moment. Keep checking this link -- when the policy is finally released this is where it can be downloaded.
AHPD-DSAE-IE-2001-9-6
Pet Food

Chemnutra pleads guilty to melamine in pet food

2009-06-17T11:47:00.007-04:00

Chemnutra was identified as the source of melamine for the 2007 pet food recalls. The recalls occurred because all the major multinational food companies were using the same supplier. The Millers, a married couple who are the CEOs of ChemNutra, are getting fined and may be going to prison. So that lets the big multinationals off the hook -- the ones who were clamouring for a cheaper price on gluten. Never mind that glutens are not an advisable source of protein for cat.... or that many people have developed gluten sensitivities.

So now the CEOs of the multinationals can say, well see, it wasn't us. Just like Royal Canin is claiming that they were "victims" of fraud themselves. I don't think this argument will stand up well as a legal defense.

Here's the PDF of their guilty plea:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/06/miller_plea.pdf

What's even more troubling is how pervasive melamine is in our food supply system -- not only wheat and corn gluten in pet food, but biscuits, infant formula, chocolate bars, Canadian cocoa, coffee...the list goes on. And when the FDA thought people weren't looking (yes it was true everyone was watching the US presidential race at the time) they quietly APPROVED melamine for the food supply system? Hello? Poison in our food and our kitties' food is okay?

I'm not joking. You can read the FDA report here.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2008/ucm116960.htm

Makena in June

2009-06-15T11:30:00.005-04:00

Okay cat gallery fans....you keep asking me for more pictures. Yes this kitty is something special. Makena's diet serves as a positive counterpoint to the globalized multinational pet food industry menu. Many people say they don't have the time to invest in feeding their cats a more natural diet but do you have the time to deal with a sick kitty and thousands of dollars in vet bills when your cat becomes ill from species-inappropriate commercial pet food formulations?

I find I'm spending the same amount feeding a raw diet as I did feeding species inappropriate multinational veterinarian kibble. The price points are not the same as the 69 cents a tin people are used too, but once you do the math, you'll see you are getting better value for money feeding your obligate carnivore correctly.

And as you can see, feeding a raw diet gets you a beautiful kitty like this. Who could argue with this picture of feline health and happiness and contentment?

Cat treats with a difference -- another alternative menu recipe for cats

2009-06-15T11:17:00.006-04:00

Makena and Manu get homemade cat treats every day...in fact, they've come to expect these. Makena pokes her head into the fridge every night and points to the container I keep these jerky treats in. Her favorite is chicken hearts, which are loaded with nutrients that every kitty needs.

Dried meat treats are easy to make for your cats. All you need is a dehydrator. Here, I've tossed organic chicken hearts on one of the trays. You can load up multiple trays at once with different things if you wish or just dehydrate a single tray. I plug in the dehydrator, let it dehydrate for about 7 hours and then store in a container in the fridge.

It's best to do small amounts since there are no preservatives or added to these treats and they will only last a few days. Watch out for any potential mould that may develop and if that happens, just toss them.

You can experiment to see what your cat likes. Fish skins are popular here (and those will keep outside the fridge for more than a few days) as are chicken thighs, salmon, bits of lamb or goat pieces. Of course I get pieces of meat without the bone for dehydrating purposes.

FDA suspends temporary emergency permit of pet food company

2009-06-12T18:56:00.003-04:00

http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/NewsEvents/CVMUpdates/ucm166265.htm

Interesting. Maybe in the age of Obama the FDA's two staffers in the Centre for Veterinary Medicine (yes there are only two people working in that department) feel emboldened enough to start holding pet food companies to account.

That's doesn't change the fact that there are many regulatory changes and legal changes needed to reign the industry in. Governments in Canada and the US need the power to issue product recalls. Shockingly there is nothing in the law in either country that allows either government to do this.

Tainted pet food supplier to plead guilty

2009-06-05T08:48:00.003-04:00

Two stories I got in my google alerts this morning. Note that the importers were an American firm doing business with China, a critical fact often unreported or under-reported in the many stories about this case.

Tainted pet food suppliers to plead guilty/

Suppliers knowlingly imported tainted pet food/

The Feline Nutrition Society

2009-06-02T10:37:00.004-04:00

Here's a new site created by bloggers who have been reading and sharing information about correct nutrition for our beloved feline companions. Many of the links are ones that I have on this blog so it's good to see that the truth about feline nutrition is being distributed widely.

The Feline Nutrition Society/ stated mission is to advocate for raw feeding for cats.

Irradiated cat food banned in Australia

2009-05-30T08:25:00.005-04:00

Canadian irradiated cat food banned in Australia

So where's the Canadian government on this issue? It was Australia that discovered that this particular product, imported from Canada, was irradiated. But once again, simply calling a halt to what is considered a controversial practice -- sterilizing cat food -- isn't the solution either.

These species-inappropriate products just need to be removed from the market entirely. After all, if it can be done with Vioxx (where thousands of people died) it can be done with cat food too.

The recalls continue

2009-05-24T08:29:00.003-04:00

What did the settlement in the Menu Foods lawsuit resolve? Here's the latest recall. Really, the PFI cannot be trusted to produce products that are safe and healthy for a cat to consume. With the lack of effective government legislation worldwide on the pet food issue, the only solution cat guardians have is to take matters into their own hands and make their own food.

No cat should ever eat any form of dry food and the ongoing recalls just prove this point. And it's not just a matter of excessive zinc or potassium, as the company is claiming either. All dry cat food is "species inappropriate" since it is composed mainly of grain and made by the process of high heat processing and extrusion. Cats, as obligate carnivores, cannot tolerate carbohydrates.

A list of the products being recalled can be found here:
Recall of Nutro products

Winn Foundation hires 2 Hills vets to do study on raw diets

2009-04-24T13:34:00.004-04:00

http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Pages/WinnGrants2009p2.html/

Well well well....so the PFI is not content to totally dominate market share in the global pet food market. Now two veterinarians closely affiliated with Hills Pet Nutrition have been hired to carry out a study on raw diets for cats. How interesting that they choose to study kittens. Geez that was my inspiration for starting this blog! I thought it would be a "case study in action" to start my new kitten, Makena, on a raw diet and to post the results on this blog.

Good grief! Do we really need a study to prove that cats are obligate carnivores? Don't these people even watch all those documentaries on felines in Africa on the Discovery channel? Running tests to prove that cats are better off eating meat? What is the real motive of this study? Will they skew the results of whatever formulation they come up with to prove that cats should not eat raw meat?

The burden of proof really lies with the veterinarians and multinational corporations who are formulating species-inappropriate diets -- diets for cats that are NOT what Mother Nature intended. Do we need a study to prove that the earth is not flat? Really. "Complete and balanced" -- well, as we know from the recalls and from the many sites dedicated to feline illnesses such as FD, commercial pet food is anything BUT "complete and balanced".

Dr. Claudia Kirk, as some of you may remember, was the PFI apologist who appeared on the panel before the Congressional Investigation into the tainted pet food scandal in 2007.

What exactly will they be doing in this study? Will they screw up the formulations in order to "prove" raw diets for cats are bad? So-called "results-oriented science"?

I've emailed the Winn Foundation posing these very questions. No response to my email.

The latest from Makena

2009-03-03T13:00:00.004-05:00

Yes I do get picture requests. Here's the latest picture from Makena, who is now 1 year 10 months old. This girl is HUGE at almost 12 pounds -- and -- still growing. Her coat is so shiny and soft, our pet sitter asked if I was putting oil on her coat. She is a very active, alert and content kitty. Raw fed since I got her at 10 weeks. Don't let any pet food company vet tell you that a raw diet is dangerous -- Makena is proof positive that it isn't.

It's best to find a holistic-minded or -- the new term -- integrative medicine vet. They will not push veterinary kibble on you and will support safe health care alternatives for your kitty.

Pet food debate -- the real issues

2009-03-03T12:55:00.005-05:00

The recalls continue. See the latest recall of pet food containing salmonella.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/02/pb_king_recall20.html/

It’s pretty clear that this unregulated industry is producing products that are unsafe. Basically, given the total lack of effective government regulation, citizens need to take matters into their own hands in order to ensure that their beloved pets are fed real food. If it’s in a can or a bag – don’t buy it!

The debate is now hitting mainstream vet publications. I composed this letter to the editor as a response to questions posed about veterinarian ethics and the pet food industry, published in the Canadian Veterinarian Journal here:

Canadian Veterinary Journal
Volume 48, November, 2007

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?journal=202&action=archive/

This elicited a response from a Dr. Tony Buffington, a veterinarian with close ties to Hills Pet Nutrition. Notice how Dr. Tony dodges the issue of dry food. He doesn't outright say it isn't causing illnesses in cats, just dances around the issue.
You'll need to go to the Canadian Veterinary Journal again and search for it. It's in the CVJ June 2008 issue; 49(6), pages 561-563.

A further rebuttal by Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins and Dr. Marion Smart can be found in the same CVJ journal, October 2008; 49 (10) page 945

and on that same page, by Fiona MacMillan, UK pet food activist, and others...

The emperor truly has no clothes, but one can see how compromised many veterinarian academics have become when institutions are dependent upon funding from multinational corporations.

FOI Request - Terms of Reference

2008-10-23T13:41:00.008-04:00

Here are two documents that are part of an Freedom of Information request I filed.

It's really a travesty that publicly funded institution would have such an incestuous relatioship with a major multinational. Royal Canin is owned by candy bar giant Mars, a fact that the corporation has made great efforts to conceal from the public. They don't want candy bars associated with pet food in the public's mind.

It truly is pitiful that the government allows the universities to sell out our educational institutions and professional associations to multinational corporations in order to get funding for nutritional research and continuing education.

If all research funding monies went to a central independent or government controlled nutritional research funding body and this group included non-industry influenced academics and people with real nutritional knowledge to review research grant proposals, the process would not be tainted as it is now.

There would also be money for continuing educational programmes as well.

What a unique concept -- the government controlling the multinational's distribution of research and professional
association monies. The government acting in the public interest, instead of being at the behest of the multinational corporations. The multinationals could contribute but in a hands off manner -- their contributions could be recognized but
they would not be allowed any control over how the monies were spent or to influence research towards their own product lines.

In these documents there are also a gushing emails with a handwritten note on an April 15, 2008 letter to the RC CEO Xavier Unkovic from Joanne Shoveller, Vice President of Alumni Affairs. "We are delighted to be moving forward with this new Chair. Thank you for your support and vision."

Vision? And exactly what kind of vision would that be? The production and false marketing of massive amounts of species-inappropriate prescription diet kibble products?

Note in Appendix B how they refer to certain illnesses in cats as "naturally occurring", such as diabetes. Diabetes is not a "naturally occurring disease" in either humans or cats. See Dr. Hodgkins article: www.yourdiabeticcat.com where she states, quite clearly and eloquently, that FD is the result of the highly processed kibble products currently inundating the pet food market.

Take a look at these documents. Feel free to email me if you need to see originals and I can photocopy and mail them to you.

This agreement has nothing to do with feline health or correct nutrition for obligate carnivores and everything to do with massively obscene profits for Royal Canin. Any academic associated with this should be ashamed of themselves for selling out their academic integrity and ethics if they agree to be part of this in any way.

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH
ONTARIO VETERINARY COLLEGE
Office of the Dean

Terms of Reference

Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Endowed Chair in Canine and Feline Clinical Nutrition at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.

1. The Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Chair in Canine and Feline Clinical Nutrition was established through a gift endowment of $2,500,000 (“Endowment”) made to the University of Guelph (“UofG”) by Royal Canin Canada Company (“Royal Canin”).

2. It is agreed that the purpose of this Endowment is as follows:

To establish the Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Endowed Chair in Canine and Feline Clinical Nutrition (the “Chair”). The Chair will be filled by a canine and feline clinical nutritionist, who will be hired as a regular full time tenure track faculty member at the Ontario Veterinary College (“OVC”), for the purpose of veterinary and graduate student teaching and research in canine and feline clinical nutrition.

3. The expendable income from the Endowment should be sufficient to pay the appointee’s full initial term and prospective reappointment salary and benefits. The expendable income is determined in accordance with the UofG’s policy, “General Endowment Fund Management Policy” (see Appendix 1), as may be amended from time to time. If available, additional expendable income could be used as an expense allowance for research and appointment-related travel costs.

4. From time to time, Royal Canin will provide additional support to the Chair including research grant support (students and program funding). This research and student support will be considered as part of the overall package available to the appointee.

5. The UofG, OVC, and Royal Canin will collaborate with each other for their mutual benefit and the benefit of the stakeholders. This will include, but not be limited to, discussion on the needs for nutrition education and research and ways to meet those needs.

6. An Advisory Committee will be created to support the Chair and to assure that the canine and feline clinical nutritional educational and research programs and activities align with the mission mandate of the UofG and Royal Canin. The members will be approved by both parties and will include 2 representatives from the UofG and 2 from Royal Canin. Terms of reference will be developed by this Committee for approval by the UofG and Royal Canin.

7. The appointees will be hired as regular full time tenure track faculty member by UofG and be subject to its policies and procedures. It is acknowledged that as a tenure-track faculty member, the appointee has the academic freedom to pursue interests in addition to the mission and mandate of the Chair. The Chair will not participate in any outside consultation or media activities that create a conflict of interest with the UofG or with Royal Canin.

8. Research carried out through the Chair will be consistent with Royal Canin’s Research Policy (see Appendix B). If in future, a conflict arises between UofG’s policies and procedures and Royal Canin’s Research Policy, the conflict will be referred to the Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee will provide advice to UofG and to Royal Canin on possible resolution of the conflict.

9. The Chair will be expected to establish a successful teaching program in canine and feline clinical nutrition for veterinary students and graduate students. The Chair might also participate in undergraduate education as time permits. The Chair will maintain a superior program of research (as evidenced by publications and external grant support), and will play a leadership role in facilitating world-class research in feline and canine clinical research.

10. The home department for the Chair will be the Department of Clinical Studies. The Chair will have an appointment in the OVC Teaching Hospital (OVCTH) in canine and feline clinical nutrition. The Chair will provide learning opportunities for veterinary students, interns and graduate students in the OVCTH and will provide nutritional consultation for clinicians from other clinical services within the OVCTH (e.g. critical care, internal medicine, oncology).

11. The professional rank of the appointee may be at the assistant, associate, or full professor level depending on the available funding from the Endowment for salary and benefits and the qualifications of prospective candidates. The first appointee, based on available funding, will be recruited as an assistant professor.

12. Faculty searches follow normal procedures for the UofG. Designates from Royal Canin will have an opportunity to meet with the candidates during their interviews and will be invited to the candidates’ interview presentations.

13. In the event that the appointee leaves the UofG, UofG will fill the position as quickly as possible.

14. If the expendable income is insufficient to meet continuing appointment and expense costs, the Dean will consult with the Advisory Committee, the Provost, the OVC Director of Advancement and Royal Canin. A decision may be made to leave the position vacant intermittently, supplement the income from other sources, and secure additional investment or some combination of these measures.

15. During the period when the Chair is not permanently occupied such as when a candiate search is in progresss, after consultation with the Department Chair, the Advisory Committee, and the Provost will use the Endowment’s income to maintain the continuity of the research and teaching programs in canine and feline nutrition.

16. The capital gifts contributed to this Endowment shall be held in perpetuity.

17. This document may be amended by mutual consent in writing by UofG and Royal Canin.

Signed by the parties hereto this 22nd day of April, 2008.

Dr. Alastair J.S. Summerlee
President and Vice-Chancellor
University of Guelph

Xavier Unkovic
Chief Executive Officer
Royal Canin Canada Company

Appendix B
MediCal/Royal Canin (MCRC) Veterinary Diet Research Policy

Excellent nutrition contributes to the quality and longevity of a companion animal’s life. To maintain excellence, ongoing research is necessary in the field of veterinary nutrition. It is our mission to continue to evolve in the acquisition of knowledge in this field as it pertains to wellness and disease prevention in dogs and cats.

To this end: MCRC is governed by the following guiding principles:

1. Dogs and cats are important members of the family and they will be treated with respect and humaneness at all times.
2. There will be no involvement in studies requiring and resulting in the euthanasia of dogs or cats.
3. There will be no involvement in studies requiring creation of disease by inducing organ manipulation or damage.
4. All clinical studies will investigate diet efficacy in naturally occuring disease (for example, diabetes, osteoarthritis, urolithiasis, food allergies, obesity).
5. Studies will only be conducted to prove efficacy if existing research cannot answer the hypotheses generated from the research and development team.
6. The result of research trials must contribute to the health and well being of dogs and cats.
7. Clinical trials will be performed, if at all possible, on client-owned dogs and cats. The pets are kept in the home environment under the care of their owners. The client’s veterinary clinic of choice will be involved in the clinical trial to provide ongoing monitoring and care of the pet as required. A veterinary internist (ACVJM diplomate) will be available through MCRC for consultation on any aspect of the clinical trial.
8. The collection of blood, urine and feces and the obtaining of radiographs will be carried out in a humane fashion, meeting or exceeding the standards established by animal welfare guidelines.

July pictures Manu and Makena

2008-07-19T08:54:00.008-04:00

Okay you cat photo gallery fans here are a couple of the latest pics. See how healthy kitties on a natural raw meat diet look?
Great fur, shiny and soft. Strong and muscular. Active and alert -- these kitties are no couch potatoes.

Makena can jump up to 6 feet in the air and also jump 13 steps in a single bound. They usually get active around 9 pm -- hunting time -- and chase each other up and down the stairs vigorously. They do get fresh air every day -- supervised of course -- in a safe location where they get to watch the birds and squirrels in the trees.

Makena and Manu's gourmet dining

2008-07-19T08:45:00.003-04:00

Rabbit is the number one favourite for Makena and Manu. It's always a special treat. I rotate the food I give my kitties to ensure that they are getting a good variety. Cats of course, being natural gourmets, appreciate that. It's also so they don't get tired of their food -- would you want to eat the same thing every day? Well neither do they.

In the summer I find they eat less. Feeding a natural raw meat diet with minimal supplementation to them costs me no more than it did to feed species-inappropiate, corporate multinational expensive vet kibble.

At the moment, my cats eat a total of 3.2 ounces a day of food, divided between 2 meals.

When you first start to feed cats real food, they will eat a bit more initially, anywhere from 6-8 ounces divided between two meals. After a while, which is different for every cat, it will then level off.

I do also give them treats almost every day too, such as dehyrated chicken hearts or bits of lamb and goat with bone.

Makena's name means "happy one". Yes she is a happy kitty. Happy that she lives in a home that will never, ever feed her commercial cereal and additive-laden vet (or even supermarket) kibble.

Eat Wild

2008-07-03T12:01:00.005-04:00

For those of you looking to deal directly with a farmer who doesn't use hormones, antibiotics or chemicals in your kitty's food supply, here's a great link:

http://www.eatwild.com/

There's a directory of farms across Canada and the US here -- http://www.eatwild.com/

University of Guelph accepts funds from Hills

2008-06-20T13:59:00.007-04:00

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/343627

Twice already this year -- The University of Guelph gets the Poison Kibble award.

The University of Guelph just can't get enough of the pet food companies -- their money, that is. They've just accepted $5 million dollars for a "new primary health centre" to be built on campus. That's right, directly on the campus.

"Skills like communicating with clients and proper pet nutrition will be the new focus of the primary care centre." Like training vets in how to sell and prescribe untested and unregulated pet food products?

Once again, the University's Dean, Dr. Elizabeth Stone, insists that "we will retain academic freedom to teach the same way we do now."

Well I would venture to point out that that is the very problem. There is no academic freedom when a major multinational company gives this kind of money to a publicly-funded institution. Again, the University of Guelph is allowing their silence to be bought. Teach the same way they do now? Again, that's the problem -- vets prescribing and selling species-inappropriate, unregulated and untested pet food.

How is it that they are not seriously considering the major class action lawsuit launched by Maltzman Foreman in the US against Hills for misleading advertising? This lawsuit is currently headed to court. How can the university accept such a large donation when a company like this is being sued? Have they just chosen to ignore all these lawsuits and take the side of the pet food industry?

It's scandalous and the public should be outraged that their tax dollars are miseducating vets to be perpetual kibble pushers.

What many people are choosing to do is change vet clinics -- and send their vet a letter when they leave, letting them know that they will only be entrusting the care of their beloved pets to vets who do NOT sell these species-inappropriate, misleading advertising, prescription diet formulas.

Update on Florida class action lawsuit

2008-06-10T20:36:00.007-04:00

In the many daily email updates I receive on the pet food issue, this one stands out:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202422055276

The impact of this particular lawsuit will have major implications for the industry. The PFI has already attempted to have this case dismissed, but thankfully the judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit.

With Menu Foods settling, could it possibly be that this sets a precedent for the other class action lawsuits? It seems we now have what are called "cross border" settlements with respect to different jurisdictions in North America for dealing with these kinds of class actions. Another curious by-product of globalization.

"The defense claims the allegations in the lawsuit castigating the entire pet food industry are culled from the Internet."

What? Like all the blogs, discussion forums and websites talking about the illnesses caused by long term feeding of untested and unregulated commercial pet food products? And what, exactly, is their point?

That the public is talking about this openly on the internet? Well mainstream media certainly isn't covering the topic anymore, are they?

Mainstream media serves to only air all those glossy high production value ads claiming that pet food products are now being "reformulated." In these ads, the PFI are still blathering on about their formulations being "healthy and balanced" despite the fact that there are only short term acute toxicity studies, at best, being done on these products.

Mainstream media has dropped the story from the crawlers (which incidentially, seems to be the only form of reporting breaking news these days on cable news networks).

Is the defense claiming that the information "culled from the internet" means, in some way, that the issues being raised are not credible? That people's pets have not gotten sick from commercial pet food? That dry food isn't causing feline diabetes, chronic renal disease, cancer, inflammatory bowel syndrome, and urinary tract infections in cats? That people are learning that no cat should eat any form of dry food?

As people start to understand this, as they are on the blogs and discussion forums, dry food will start collecting dust on the shelves of health food stores, veterinarian clinics and supermarkets.

U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga says in this article:

"Defendants do not assert that the FDA or any other regulatory body has specifically approved the advertisement or statements at issue in this action, and nothing in the AAFCO standards authorizes defendants to engage in false advertising," Altonaga wrote in her order.

Keep it kicking, judge. It would be fabulous if this case would set a precedent.

All of these lawsuits demonstrate a desperate need for genuine accountability in the industry. But maybe if that happened, they wouldn't be able to continue to dump massive quantities of corn and wheat to produce grain-based kibble, which is the main "species inappropriate" ingredient in commercial pet food.

The PFI should not be regulating themselves. Governments in both Canada and the US need to be able to issue product recalls. FDA reform will be one of the factors critical to re-shaping the industry over the next two years, as decisions resulting from these lawsuits emerge.

Then again, people can make other choices -- like refusing to purchase any commercial pet food product.

If you need proof of how healthy a cat can be NOT eating commercial food, and only eating a raw meat with ground bone (and minimal supplementation) diet, take a look at Makena, who is now one year old.

Now, isn't she a gorgeous picture of health and happiness? Wouldn't you want any cat guardian you know to have the same kind of healthy kitty?

Royal Canin's spin

2008-05-27T10:03:00.010-04:00

http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/article/331960

Take a look at this article, published in the local Guelph paper. Royal Canin, owned by the multinational Mars candy bar company, has targeted Ontario as its base of operations for North America. It's building a brand new factory in the same town as the University of Guelph. Coincidence?

Royal Canin maintains that they will have "quality control" infra-red technology in place to spot contaminants. But this doesn't address the fact that all dry food is made with grains and cats cannot digest grains. Are they going to test products made of grains for grains? How useful is quality control for species-inappropriate ingredients?

You can see how ridiculous this discussion becomes. Is RC going to re-formulate their entire product line to be grain free and not made by the process of cooking and extrusion? And even if they did, the very existence of kibble products are like being told by your medical doctor to eat only diet bars for your entire lifetime. Or sugar frosted flakes. Yes, there is nothing good to be said about kibble.

What really needs to happen is that these products need to be removed from the market entirely. These products are untested and unregulated. There isn't even an iota of oversight into the pet food industry -- even Big Pharma has to engage in a more extensive testing process to allow new pharmaceuticals to enter the market. With pet food there is nothing in place. True, we know that even if regulatory changes are implemented, the PFI will continue to cheat.

Who in their right mind would believe that any living being can be healthy eating a lifetime of meat-flavoured cookies? Who would think they could live a long and healthy life without fresh food? Well the pet food companies claim that--- by saying that cats should only eat commercial kibble for their entire lifetime.

It's predictable that the industry would now start to talk about "quality control" measures, but it's really just their way to try create spin to get the public believe that their products are "healthy and balanced".

What is even more offensive is that RC is claiming that they are "victims" of the tainted gluten suppliers. That's hardly a credible or responsible position. It shows a total lack of accountability on behalf of this huge and secretive multinational corporation, which is owned by the Mars candy bar company.

So exactly what kind of research will this Royal Canin Research chair, at the University of Guelph veterinarian school, be engaged with involving feline and canine nutrition? How to continue to brainwash future generations of veterinarians into "prescribing" untested and unregulated kibble? Validating RC claims that it's okay to feed designer kibble with antioxidants, inculcating them into the false ideology of nutritionism?

"Prescription diets" -- are they a food or a drug? If they are being prescribed shouldn't they require a prescription and thus be regulated as such? If they are a food -- well, how is it that so many of these product lines are sold only in veterinarian clinics?

Would people continue to buy RC products if they knew their cat food was made by a candy bar company? Healthy and balanced? Hello?

I see Royal Canin talking about the problems the recalls caused them -- but I don't see a single word in the story about Royal Canin being sorry for all the pain and suffering they have caused. Or apologizing.

Menu Foods Canada-US cross border settlement

2008-05-27T09:47:00.006-04:00

So Menu Foods has settled for $24 million dollars. Better than nothing, I suppose, but what will that change? Cat and dog guardians will not receive any money for pain and suffering under this proposed settlement, to be signed by the judge May 30, 2008.

Here's the link for the US and Canadian settlement. The documents for the US settlement are all there; the Canadian ones have yet to be approved by the courts but will be posted here when they are.
http://www.petfoodsettlement.com/

The court dockets for the United States can be found here:
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-njdce/case_no-1:2007cv02867/case_id-203642/

And, once posted, on this site for the Canadian court dockets.
http://www.canlii.org/

Like many others, I want to read the fine print to see precisely what the terms of settlement are.

The industry will undoubtedly try to say that they now have new "quality control" technologies in place to spot contaminants. But will they detect species-inappropriate grains, which form the basis of these products?

Doubtful, since these products are primarily composed of grain, which cats, as obligate carnivores cannot tolerate. Grains, an ingredient which sounds benign to the average consumer, are the source of many of the difficult to diagnose health problems in cats. This is why there are so many reports of cats who continuously vomit dry food -- it is indigestible for them.

Plus, none of these reports address the issues of veterinarians selling these species-inappropriate formulations in their clinics. For vets to be selling commercial pet food is like a medical doctor selling cigarettes or diet bars.

The pet food battle has just begun. The emperor has proven he has no clothes and it is up to the public to keep the pressure on, not to "make kibble safer" as some people might want us to believe, but to have these unsafe, species-inappropriate products stripped of their American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) labelling and removed from the market.

These products are often untested (all manufacturers need to do is submit a "nutrient profile") and as we saw from the recalls, unregulated. The claims of "healthy and balanced" over the long term feeding of cat or dog cannot be substantiated on the basis of short-term AAFCO feeding trials.

There is no form of dry food that is safe or healthy for a cat to eat. Period.

Makena's bloodwork

2008-04-26T17:48:00.011-04:00

Makena has been on a raw fed diet since I got her, just after being weaned by her mother at 10 weeks old. She eats chicken, turkey, duck, cornish hen and rabbit with the ground bone and minimal supplementation. For treats she gets chunks of goat with the bone, chicken wings, chicken hearts and lamb stew bits with bone. She's a true gourmet kitty!

She has never eaten commercial cat food since I have had her and never will. Since I now know that any commercial cat food is like feeding a continuous diet of junk food, why would I ever feed my cat anything that would result in illness later on in life? And with all the reports of rotten meat, toxins, mouldy grains, carcinogens and other garbage being put into pet food, how can anyone who has actually read through these reports and stories justify continued long term feeding of commercial food?

Makena’s vet told me, “well I won’t be seeing you much, as long as you keep her on raw diet.” Then proceeded to tell me I was "totally compliant" with correct nutrition for an obligate carnivore.

It’s great to have a vet that finally understands correct nutrition for the cats and doesn’t sell poisonous dry vet kibble in his clinic.

How is it that these illustrious institutions like the University of Guelph Veterinary Program can’t retrain their veterinarians out of nutritional ignorance and teach them about correct nutrition for obligate carnivores? At the very least, they should not be allowing pet food companies to give seminars and free product to veterinarian students! This is the real scandal behind the pet food recall -- the miseducation of current and future generations of veterinarian professionals. There is definitely a problem in academia.

Are veterinarian universities so desperate for cash that they have to sell their integrity to the likes of Mars bar multinational Royal Canin? If people knew that a candy bar company was making their pet food, how would that change how they thought about the alleged "nutritional" value of these products?

How the University of Guelph and other universities across North American have handed over access to veterinarian students to the pet food companies, providing their only source of nutritional information, clearly demonstrates the very real problems of private-public partnerships. The end result is to produce generations of vets that have no training in nutrition. What's even more unsettling is that there is no documentation being done on the types of inter-generational health problems these products are causing -- cat guardians are left to discover that on their own.

In effect, the University of Guelph, by accepting a donation from Royal Canin, has allowed the silence of the academic community to be bought. The academic community should be the ones at the forefront of criticizing the poor quality, species-inappropriate ingredients in commercial pet food formulations, rather than doing research for the PFI and upholding the unproven claims of these products. Did we hear a single vet at the University of Guelph speak out during the recalls? Not one came forward.

Here are Makena's lab results at age 6 months, just prior to getting spayed.
Makena's CBC

Chemistry
ALT = 56. U/L (reference range 12-130)
UREA= 9.4 mmol/L (reference range 5.7-12.9)
TP = 71. g/L (reference range 57-89)
Na - 162 mmol/L (reference range 150-165)
K = 5.2 mmol/L (reference range 3.5-5.8)
Cl=125. mmol/L (reference range 112-129)

Hematology
WBC = 5.82 x 10^9/L (reference range 5.50-19.50)
LYM = 2.58 x 10^9/L (reference range 0.40-6.80)
MONO=0.42 x 10^9/L (reference range 0.15-1.70)
NEU= 2.43 x 10^9/L (reference range 2.50-12.50)
EOS=0.38 x 10^9/L (reference range 0.10-0.79)
BASO = 0.00 x 10^9/L (reference range 0.00-0.10)
%LYM = 44.3%
%MONO = 7.2%
%NEU=4.8%
%EOS=6.6%
%BASO=0.0%
HCT=38.6% (reference range 30.0-45.0)
RBC=9.6 x 10^9/L (reference range 5.0-10.0)
HRB = 14.5 g/dL (reference range 9,0-15.1)
RETIC=27.5 K/uL
%RETIC=0.3%
MCV = 40.1 fL (reference range 41.0-58.0)
RDW = 19.9% (reference range 17.3-22.0)
MCHC=37.5 g/dL (reference range 29.0-37.5)
MCH=15.04 (reference range 12.00-20.00)
PLT = 479.K/uL (reference range 175-600)
MPV=0.8%
PDW=16.2%

University of Guelph accepts funds from Royal Canin

2008-04-26T13:20:00.011-04:00

And the poison kibble award goes to -- the University of Guelph!

I'm sure that the folks at Royal Canin just want everyone to forget about the pet food recalls or all the class action suits against them. They seem to have convinced one group that you thought would be educated enough to know better: The University of Guelph Veterinarian College.

http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2008/week17/Wednesday/0423025.html

Royal Canin Canada Commits $3 Million for OVC
Some excerpts:
"Guelph - The University of Guelph today received a $3-million commitment from Royal Canin Canada Company to establish the Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Endowed Chair in Canine and Feline Clinical Nutrition and support independent research and graduate scholarships at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC).

"This generous gift is a wonderful example of the importance of private sector-university partnerships," said U of G president Alastair Summerlee. "Royal Canin Canada's investment in an endowed chair allows us to develop the area of feline and canine nutrition."

Unbelievable. A publicly-funded institution accepts money from a company that is being sued in a national class action lawsuit here in Canada (see www.rochongenova.com) and also numerous class action lawsuits in the United States for allegedly excessive vitamin D toxicity, melamine and cyanuric acid in pet food, misleading advertising and "unjust enrichment." Never mind that the words "nutrition" and "Royal Canin" represent an oxymoron in the same sentence.

If you think that this is as outrageous as I do, send letters to the Dean and the President of the University of Guelph.

Here are their emails:

Dean:
Dr. Elizabeth Stone - estone@ovc.uoguelph.ca
University of Guelph President
Alastair Summerlee - a.summerlee@exec.uoguelph.ca

Take a moment to also send an email letter to the new Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, who is responsible for doling out funding for this public institution.

MPP John Milroy - jmilloy.mpp@liberal.ola.org

There needs to be a continued pressure on these individuals with respect to these issues. The dean as much acknowledged that there are "questions" now being raised about pet food, but accepting money from Royal Canin is hardly the solution.

There is no effective regulation of the pet food industry--they regulate themselves --- and even that is a completely voluntary endeavour. But this incestuous link between the industry and the education of the next generation of veterinarians is something that needs to be exposed and changed.

What kind of Dr. Jekylls of veterinary medicine will this research chair produce? It's bad enough that most veterinarians in Canada are pushing these carbohydrate-laden, expensive, poor quality kibbles that are producing so many illnesses in cats and dogs, now they want to justify it by hiring yet another PFI academic iin order to buy the silence of the university? It's an absolute scandal.

Let's not be deluded into thinking that there is some kind of "academic freedom" in place when a pet food company gives money to the University of Guelph for a research chair position named after the corporation.

The bottom line is that the research chair is bankrolled by a company with a strongly vested interest in ensuring nothing bad is ever said or concluded about its product lines.

Does anyone really think that any academic appointed as Royal Canin chair would ever criticize these species-inappropriate product formulations for pets?

What would Royal Canin do in the (unlikely) event that a Royal Canin research chair began to speak out about the truth of its product lines? Would Royal Canin say, "oh well, if our products are harmful, we can accept that being taught at the university?"

How can a university, a publicly-funded institution, be accepting funds for an academic research department from a pet food company that is being sued for allegedly excessive toxic and poisonous ingredients in its product line?

What kind of "research" will this chair be doing anyway? How about research into how commercial pet food is causing illnesses and intergenerational health problems?

How much research is really needed to understand that cats are obligate carnivores and should not be eating highly processed, "ergonomic" kibble (yes that's a Royal Canin term).

Pets for the Environment

2008-04-24T12:37:00.003-04:00

The non-profit NGO Environmental Working Group has taken up the issue of pet food safety.

http://www.petsfortheenvironment.org/

No one likes eating flame retardants and mercury. They currently have a campaign on to:

--test 10 brands of canned wet cat and dog food for chemicals like mercury, lead, and bisphenol A
--test 10 brands of dry dog and cat food for chemicals like flame retardants and nonstick chemicals
--protect pets and humans by pressuring Congress for better standards

The full report is here:
http://www.ewg.org/reports/pets

Did you know that as our cats and dogs are tested for contaminants, these tests are revealing high levels of toxic industrial chemicals?

"Cats: notably high levels of fire
retardants, high levels of plasticizers,
and grease-proofing chemicals
46 chemicals detected - 96% at higher levels
in cats than people"

See the site for the full study.

Centre for Science and the Public Interest White Paper

2008-04-16T16:58:00.002-04:00

http://www.cspinet.org/

The Centre for Science and the Public Interest in Washington, DC, has put out a sensible and realistic set of recommendations needed to reform the FDA.

"Building a Modern Food Safety System" discusses five points that need to be addressed for creating an effective food safety system for both human and pet food. It's obvious that the FDA is broken and needs major reforms. According to the authors, this would include:

-- Recalls -- The FDA currently doesn't have the power to issue product recalls (these rights have been left exclusively in the hands of the multinational corporations that make products);
-- Traceback -- The FDA has been unable to find the source of the tainted glutens in the pet food recall -- authority needs to be put into place to allow them to be able to quickly trace the source of contaminants
-- Detention -- If a product doesn't comply with regulations, then it should not enter into the food supply system (sounds obvious but there is no regulation governing this)
--Civil and Criminal Penalties -- Food companies must be subject to swift civil and criminal penalties if they violate food safety laws. Citizens who have suffered harm as a result of any violations should have the power to launch civil actions
--Whistleblower protection -- Federal employees should be able to report violations without the threat of loss of employment or any penalties

http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/fswhitepaper.pdf

GMOs in pet food

2008-04-11T17:24:00.003-04:00

http://gmoguide.greenpeace.ca/browse.php

Greenpeace Canada has put out a really valuable GMO Guide, available on this link.

So guess which pet food companies are on the list for including genetically modified organisms in pet food?
The list includes:

Colgate Palmolive
Hills Prescription Diet Pet Food
Hills Prescription Diet Pet Food
Science Diet Pet Food

Effem Inc.
Maltham
Pedigree
Whiskas

Nestle
Alpo Chomps (dog)
Alpo Snaps (dog)
Dental Diet (cat)
Fancy Feast (cat)
Friskies (cat)
Friskies Alpo (dog)
Friskies Alpo Chew-Eez (dog)
Friskies Alpo for Puppies
Friskies Senior (cat)

Take a look through the list to make sure that you aren't purchasing any other products for your household with GMOs.

If you want to learn more about GMOs, see this film: www.thefutureoffood.com

Citizens continue with pet food product testing

2008-04-08T09:12:00.004-04:00

http://www.pfpsa.org/

Even though there have been 160+ class action lawsuits in the United States and more than a dozen in Canada launched since the pet food recalls began last March, 2007, tainted glutens from China are still entering the food supply in the USA in both pet and human food.

This group has started on testing products and posting the results online. As you can see, as of January, 2008, there were still PFI products being tested positive for melamine and cyanuric acid. These glutens were destined for both human AND pet food products. Do you really want to be eating melamine?

How will the tentative settlement with Menu Foods address this issue?

How will the FDA change its regulatory policies to ensure the safety of the food supply for both pets and humans?

If you haven't already submitted your comments to the FDA, I would urge you to do so. This is part of a process that is supposed to result in new regulations within the next two years. Hopefully between the class action lawsuits and regulatory changes we will see unsafe products and ingredients stopped before entering the food chain.

FDA wants public comments about pet food

2008-04-05T16:32:00.009-04:00

After endless months and delayed launch dates, the form is finally ready to receive public comments on the FDA website.

I suggest that you print out these step by step instructions; or open up a separate page of your browser so that you don't get completely lost trying to find the comment form. It took me several hours of trying to find it, over several days.

It's important that we all let the FDA know what we think needs to happen on the regulatory front, since the Pet Food Institute is lobbying hard to keep its self-regulatory powers intact. As we all can see so evidently, self-regulation is NOT working.

Meeting Being Planned to Obtain Public Input for Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food
Docket Number 2007N-0487

GO TO:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp

In the Comments box type in "pet food"

This page will come up:

http://www.regulations.gov/search/search_results.jsp?css=0&N=0&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchall&Ne=2+8+11+8053+8054+8098+8074+8066+8084+8055&Ntt=2007N-0487&sid=11920417CA26

Type in the docket number: 2007N-0487

Another page will come up

Click on: "Send a Comment or Submission".

You can type your comments in here. You might want to get them ready in advance and either just send as an attachment, or copy and paste the info.

You will also want to sign up for the "Notification" part so you can keep updated on the submissions of the Pet Food Institute and other corporate multinationals who have taken the position that it's fine to continue to let the industry regulate itself.

Alternatively, you can email your comments to:

Walter Osbourne -- he's the head veterinarian at the FDA in charge of collecting these comments
email: walter.osborne@fda.hhs.gov

UPDATE April 8, 2008: Mr. Osbourne has informed me that due to instructions on posting being distributed online and by email, if members of the public want their comments posted they have to notifiy "Dockets" of this.

"My contact at Dockets has explained to me that individual comments from
consumers are not routinely posted for Internet viewing because the
agency has found itself having to remove them once commenters learned
that 'the whole world' can view them via the Internet. So, when
consumers specifically request that their comments be posted, Dockets
will honor that request. This morning, I have asked that your original
comment be posted, per your request. I suspect it should be viewable by
the end of the day."

A public forum for comments? Wasn't that the purpose of this to begin with? And shouldn't members of the public be able to see all these submissions from both individuals and the industry with respect to this important issue?

FDA allows contaminated glutens to enter into USA

2008-04-04T16:15:00.010-04:00

See this report:
http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9929.html

Are 160+ class action lawsuits not enough? The Pet Food Industry must think that class action lawsuits are cheaper to settle than actually changing the suppliers and ingredient formulations in their pet food; and the FDA is seemingly turning a blind eye.

PRODUCTS:
Wheat Gluten
Rice Gluten
Rice Protein
Rice Protein Concentrate
Corn Gluten
Corn Gluten Meal
Corn By-Products
Soy Protein
Soy Gluten
Soy Meal
Mung Bean Protein

PROBLEM:
Poisonous or Deleterious Substance
Unfit For Food
Unsafe Food Additive

"Despite its investigation into the matter, FDA has
been unable to determine who, in fact, the actual
manufacturer(s) are."

"As of April 26, 2007, FDA had collected approximately 750
samples of wheat gluten and products made with wheat gluten
and, of those tested thus far, 330 were positive for
melamine and/or melamine related compounds. FDA had also
collected approximately 85 samples of rice protein
concentrate and products made with rice protein concentrate
and, of those tested thus far, 27 were positive for melamine
and/or melamine related compounds. FDA's investigation has
traced all of the positive samples as having been imported
from China."

"The samples of vegetable proteins that have tested
positive for the presence of melamine and melamine
analogs have, thus far, been traced to two Chinese
firms, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development
Co. Ltd. and Binzhou Futian Biology Technology Co.
Ltd. Records relating to the importation of these
products indicate that these two firms had
manufactured the ingredients in question. There is
strong evidence, however, that these firms are not the
actual manufacturers. Moreover, despite many weeks of
investigation, it is still unknown who the actual
manufacturer or manufacturers of the contaminated
products imported from China are."

"All of the contaminated wheat gluten has thus far been
traced to Xuzhou Anying. According to the General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the Chinese government, Xuzhou
Anying purchased its wheat gluten from 25 different
manufacturers and Xuzhou Anying may just be a
supplier. Press statements by Xuzhou Anying state
that it did not manufacture the wheat gluten it had
shipped to United States that has been associated with
the outbreak, but that it received that wheat gluten
from other sources not named in the press statements."

One point that hasn't been made in the mainstream media is that although these glutens are imported from China, some of these companies are reputed to be American-owned operations who have set up operations in China. From this report, it's even unclear who are the real manufacturers of the wheat gluten. Where was the wheat or corn grown? In China? or the US? Was it GMO wheat and corn, as has been suggested by some veterinarians critical of the PFI?

Now, do you think that would stop Fox News from blathering on (as they did last year during the recalls) about "communist wheat gluten" if they simultaneously reported that these companies were owned by Americans?

China's contaminated products are an ongoing problem to be sure. But if US companies are going to continue to do business with them by setting up companies in China and importing these contaminated products, the risk to our health, and our pet's health continues unabated.

I'd like to see the list of companies who were waiting to receive these shipments. And how many of them are American-owned.

How will the US class action settlement with Menu Foods affect the industry?

2008-04-02T15:01:00.007-04:00

Press releases and news reports abounded yesterday with the April Fool's Day announcement that Menu Foods had reached a tentative agreement to settle the 116 class action suits in the United States.

According to a press release from the Menu Foods Income Fund:

"The definitive terms of settlement, together with a motion for preliminary approval thereof, are scheduled to be filed with the U.S. District Court on May 1, 2008, with the hearing scheduled to occur at 11:00 a.m. on May 14, 2008. The scheduling for Canadian court approval has not yet been determined, but is expected to occur in a similar time frame.

The settlement amount will be funded by the defendants, including Menu Foods and its product liability insurer. Menu Foods' estimate for recall costs remains unchanged at Cdn.$55 million."

Let's see what further details emerge over the next few weeks, if the negotiated settlement is a joke or if there is any real justice for the thousands of pet owners who were deceived by claims of "healthy and balanced" pet food products. You can see what my kitty Makena thinks of Menu Foods (her pic is above).

Will it result in a change of pet food formulations? Set the stage for changes to FDA regulatory changes involving the listing and inspections of ingredients at pet food company plants? Will it stop the formulating of carbohydrate-laden, species-inappropriate "formulations" that are being pushed by veterinarians so aggressively that have caused so many illnesses in our cats? Or will it merely mean that Menu Foods will be getting their glutens from another supplier?

If you haven't read the third amended legal brief by the Florida law firm that launched the US national class action on the basis of misleading advertising, you can read it here.

http://www.mflegal.com/petfoodlawsuit.html

Really, as Don Hamilton, DVM and author of "Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs -- Small Doses for Small Animals" says, raw diet is really the "only solution" for feeding safe and healthy food for your beloved pet.

The industry has failed us. Just because they are being forced to pay for the pain, suffering, illnesses and deaths caused to thousands of pets doesn't mean that everything is fine on the pet food front.

If you haven't switched to a good veterinarian that is trained in homeopathy, now is the time to do so. At least you won't have to argue with your vet about feeding a raw meat diet -- homeopaths understand the importance of diet in pet health and longevity, unlike many mainstream vets who unquestioningly believe the biased and untruthful pet food industry propaganda training they received in vet school.

What's really in cat food -- wet or dry?

2008-03-18T12:59:00.012-04:00

Commercial cat food products are filled with the garbage and remnants that the leading multinational pet food companies need to dispose of. The pet food industry is an industry that "regulates" itself. How effective has that been?

Since there is no effective or comprehensive regulation or inspections concerning what goes into pet food, companies get away with using pet food as a dumping ground for contaminated and cheap ingredients.

If you haven't read Justine Patrick's article, read it here. Take an hour or so and make your way through it -- it's a thoughful, provocative piece that points out precisely where the regulatory problems are.

Justine Patrick is now a lawyer with a Pittsburgh law firm. This was part of her graduating thesis from Harvard.
http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/784/Patrick06.html

Cat guardians have learned -- often the hard way -- the dangers of feeding grain and carbohydrates to obligate carnivores such as cats -- over the long term, they develop FD, CRD, IBD and cancer since there are no long term tests done on any of these commercial products, which are laden with questionable preservatives and chemicals to make them "shelf stable." Feeding tinned foods for a lifetime can cause hyperthyroidism, which is documented in this article in the Science Daily.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070815122354.htm

The globalized, multinational companies that constitute the the Pet Food Industry want to convince members of the public that they should never, ever consider just feeding basic ingredients: ie a raw natural diet. They have spent extensive money lobbying against natural diets. In fact, at the time of the tainted pet food recall in March, 2007, the PFI, along with the FDA, was targeting the small and burgeoning raw food industry.

Tins themselves carry Bisphenol A which causes cancer. Aluminum poisoning is also an issue with eating anything from a tin over the long term. Cats are extremely sensitive to chemicals in our environment -- anything we can do to prevent their exposure to toxins, additives and chemicals is critical for maintaining a healthy and happy cat.

What's even worse are the ingredients in wet cat food and many jerky products: 3D and 4D meat. What is that, you might ask?

3D = dead, diseased, dying animals -- this can include (yes) roadkill, cats and dogs or any other animal
4D = decaying

Now any cat, in their natural habitant in the wild, would refuse to eat dead, diseased, dying or decaying (rotten) meat. But after the PFI gets through cooking it and adding chemicals in the lab to trick a cat into eating it they do.

Other poor quality ingredients, routinely dumped into wet food and cooked:
--stale bread (with the plastic and styrofoam wrapping still on it)
--wood chips
--dirt
--gravel
--sawdust

In tests done on pet food products during the recalls the following ingredients were identified:

--pentobarbital
--salmonella
--e. coli
--endotoxins
--melamine
--cyanuric acid
--acetaminophen
--acrylamide
--lethal amounts of glycoalkaloids
--BSE (mad cow disease)
--BHA and BHT -- preservatives used in packaging, rubber, petroleum products
--ethoxyquin - a rubber stabilizer

Note that the FDA asked the pet food industry, in 1997, to reduce the use of ethoxquin, which studies have linked to sterility, deformed offspring, cataracts and lesions of the liver, bladder and kidney in animals. Of course, reducing this toxin was only VOLUNTARY on behalf of the manufacturers. It has never been tested for safety in cats.

Commercial cat food is full of adulterated chemicals, additives, toxins and contaminants.

The price may be cheap -- 50 cents a tin -- but how cheap is it to feed your cat something that in the long term, causes health problems such as cancer? The vet bills alone are staggering, as the thousands of people affected by the class action suits can attest to.

Mainstream vets do not think of commercial food as a leading cause of illnesses in cats -- but they are happy to keep running the bill for test after test, or string you along with ineffective and costly "treatment" plans. Remember, vets are trained by pet food companies and the only nutritional information they receive as vet students are that from these corporate multinationals. Obviously veterinarian curriculum needs to be revamped -- PFI companies should not be tallowed any access to or way to influence veterinarian students. Since veterinarian colleges are publicly-funded institutions -- this is where the public has a role in writing letters and raising concerns to your local vet college or university.

A lawyer for one of the class action suits here in Canada was astounded by the veterinarian bills that resulted from the pet food recall. Note that these recalls are still ongoing. This is a firm that charges $750 an hour. Now, can you imagine? A lawyer being astounded by high bills?

I know people who have run up vet bills in the range of $5,000, $8,000, $10,000, $40,000. All trying to save their cat from the effects of poisoned cat food -- wet and dry.

My own bills for trying to save my beautiful 10 year old Siamese came to more than $5,000. Nothing the vets told me to do worked. None of them identified poisoned pet food as the cause of her illness and subsequent death.

Here's some info from Stats Canada on the Pet food industry:

"Canadian pet food imports substantially exceed exports and supply roughly one-half of the total Canadian pet food market. Total imports of dog and cat food (HS230910) in 2004 amounted to US$290 million. Imports from the United States alone totaled US$286 million, which accounted for 98% of the import market in 2004.

Total exports in 2004 of dog and cat food were US$137 million. The United States is Canada’s largest export market for dog and cat food, with exports to the U.S. totaling US$102 million in 2004. Japan was the next closest country for exports at US$9 million, followed by the Czech Republic at US$7 million and Germany at US$2 million."

Due to NAFTA, anything can get across the border into Canada. Virtually anything. Most of the pet food we have on the shelves here in Canada comes from the US.

Do you really want your cat eating 3D or 4D meat that is in most tinned foods? If you knew that, would you even buy it?

Raw Food Recipe with Real Bones for Cats - Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Cornish Hen, Rabbit

2008-03-13T14:14:00.012-04:00

I've been told by many people visiting this site: great blog -- would love to see the recipe.

The recipe I am using comes from Anne at http://www.catnutrition.org

Anne's website completely changed my thinking about what I was feeding my cats. After reading her site, I stopped feeding all commercial cat food products. That was more than 1 year prior to the pet food recall scandal of March 2007. Obviously many cats have been getting sick from commercial pet food for a lot longer than when the companies finally, reluctantly, started recalling tainted pet food from their shelves.

If you can find a local butcher who will grind up a whole chicken, turkey, duck, hen or rabbit for you -- great. If not, you'll need to invest in a grinder to be able to make your own food at home. Getting a grinder is also relatively inexpensive. I have the Tasin 108 from www.onestopjerky.com. It's a strong enough grinder to handle grinding the bones.

The time and money you invest in feeding fresh real food to your cats will pay off in the long term. There is a bit of organization and a new routine to ensure your cat is always eating fresh -- or fresh unfrozen food -- but you will be amazed at the results. Your cats will be strong and healthy and will not suffer from any of the difficult to diagnose illnesses caused by commercial pet food. You will not have big vet bills and a sick cat to deal with, nor any of the attendant stress that goes along with that.

Remember there are no long term studies guaranteeing the safety of commercial cat food. There is no regulation of pet food ingredients in either Canada or the US.

By feeding a raw diet, all you need to do is look to nature: 40 million years of cats eating and thriving as obligate carnivores clearly makes the point. Cats do not need -- and cannot tolerate -- rice, soy, corn, wheat, fruits or veggies. Any cat food that has these items in it -- or anything called gluten -- is not something that they would search out and consider to be food. To counter this, the PFI companies spray chemicals and meat-flavoured digests on kibble to get cats to eat it.

Print out a copy of this recipe and put it on the counter every time you get ready to make food. Get all your supplements ready and at hand before grinding the meat -- that way you are organized and ready. I can make this recipe in less than 1 hour and that includes travel time to and from the butcher.

Remember if you are using this recipe to make rabbit, adding extra taurine is essential. Don't leave it out -- it's an essential amino acid for cats and rabbit is low in taurine.

Here's the recipe.

Raw Food Diet Recipe Made WITH Real Bones for Cats
2 kg [4.4 pounds] raw muscle meat with bones (chicken thighs and drumsticks or, better, a whole carcass of rabbit or chicken amounting to 2 kg; if you don't use a whole carcass, opt for dark meat like thighs and drumsticks from chicken or turkey)
400 grams [14 oz] raw heart, ideally from the same family of animal (in other words, don't use beef heart with a chicken recipe, use chicken heart with chicken; if no heart is available, substitute with 4000 mg Taurine)

200 grams [7 oz] raw liver, ideally from the same family of animal (in other words, don't use beef liver with a batch you're making of chicken; use chicken liver with a chicken batch; if you can't find appropriate liver, you can substitute 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D--but try to use real liver rather than substitutes)

NOTE: If you cannot find the heart or liver and decide to substitute with the Taurine/Vitamin A and D, then remember to REPLACE the missing amount of organ meat with the equivalent amount of muscle meat. In other words, if you cannot find heart, you add another 400 grams of the meat/bones. If you can't find the liver, add another 200 grams of meat/bone.

16 oz [2 cups] water

4 raw egg yolks (use eggs from free-range, antibiotic-free chickens if you can)

4 capsules raw glandular supplement, such as, for example, multigland supplement by Immoplex

4000 mg salmon oil (see note at bottom of recipe*)

800 IU Vitamin E ("dry E" works well)

200 mg Vitamin B complex

(optional: 1/4 tsp. kelp and 1/4 tsp of dulse -- 1/2 tsp total; skip these two ingredients altogether if you're using free-range, 'organically raised' meats, as the nutrients they are meant to supply are amply available in the bone of truly healthy, non-conventionally-raised, so-called 'organic' meats)

(optional: 4 tsp. psyllium husk powder (8 tsp. if using whole psyllium husks; see note at bottom of recipe**)

NOTE: If you will not be using the food immediately and freezing for more than a week or two, toss in 4000 mg of additional Taurine to make up for what may get lost during storage. It is also not a bad idea to sprinkle extra Taurine from a capsule on the food as you're serving it two or three times a week, just to be certain your cat is getting plenty of this critical amino acid.

1. Remove the skin from the muscle meat. Chunk up (i.e., cut) as much of the muscle meat (minus most of the skin if using chicken or turkey, but leave skin on if using rabbit) as you can stand into bite-sized (nickel-sized, approximately) pieces. Save the chunked meat for later. Do not grind it.

2. Grind up the raw liver, any skin, raw meaty bones, and raw heart. Once ground, stir this meat/bone mixture well and return to refrigerator.

3. Fill a bowl with 2 cups of water and whisk everything (non-meat) except the psyllium. If you had to replace liver with Vitamin A/D or replace heart with Taurine, add the substitutes now. Add psyllium at the end--if you're using it-- and mix well. Finally, put the three mixtures together--the "supplement slurry" that you have just mixed, the ground up meat/bone/organs, and the chunks of meat that you cut up by hand. Portion into containers and freeze.

Don't overfill the containers. The food expands when frozen and you don't want lids popping off. Thaw as you go. The food shouldn't be left thawed in the refrigerator more than 48 hours before serving. To serve, portion into a 'zipper baggie' and warm under hot water in the sink. NEVER microwave the food. Cats like their food at something approximating "mouse body temperature."

*Every two or three days, I suggest sprinkling a few drops of fresh salmon oil from a newly-opened capsule on to the cats' food. The Essential Fatty Acids in salmon oil are extremely fragile, and since we do not know exactly how much gets lost during freezing, I think it's wise to use a bit of fresh salmon oil directly on the food a few times a week. Most cats love the flavor.
**Not all cats require additional fiber (psyllium) in their diet. If your cat has been eating low-quality commercial food for several years, especially dry food, she may have lost bowel elasticity and may benefit from the extra fiber. As a general rule, I recommend using psyllium when an adult cat first gets raw food. I rarely add much psyllium to my adult cats' diet. Bear in mind that some cats seem to get constipated without additional fiber, whereas other cats seem to get constipated if they get too much fiber. Each cat is unique, and you'll have to judge what works best for your cat.

Makena at 9 months old

2008-02-03T16:32:00.008-05:00

Makena is now 9 months old. I had her spayed in December. As much as I would like to breed Siamese cats, now is not the time.

Makena's name means "happy one." Happy that she lives in a house that will never, ever feed her poisonous dry, species-inappropriate vet kibble. Happy that she has a cat guardian who is aware of the dangers of vaccinations and will not be getting any -- and that her veterinarian is supportive of this choice.

I wanted to report that after Makena's spaying, she only used homeopathy to recover -- a homeopathic remedy combination that included arnica, staphisagria and hypernicum. In less than 36 hours she was jumping up on the desk again and back to playing. It's just more proof for me that cats and homeopathy work so well together.

Makena has recovered very well after her spaying, which is, of course, major surgery. In the days following her operation, she got special treats that included organic raw chicken hearts, raw lamb stew bits and chicken wings.

Makena cleans her teeth by eating chicken wings on "prey night", which we do once a week or so. She especially loves the wing tips. I give them to her supervised and she crunches them down, bone and all. Perfectly safe but a bit messy sometimes. If I see her dragging it around I pick her and the wing up and put her in the shower stall so she can finish eating.

I just wish that I had known about raw diet for my cats many years ago. I strongly believe that my two other Siamese cats wouldn't have died from the illnesses caused by dry cat food. That includes all these prescription diet formulas pushed by the veterinary world. Not only do these prescription diets not work, but they are causing all kinds of illnesses in cats over the long term.

Critics will argue that the Pet Food Industry does short term testing. A couple of issues with that:

--the short term tests done by the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO are 6 months, at most;
--as long as 6 out of 8 or so cats do not lose more than 15% of their body weight and pass a few blood tests, the food is deemed to be "complete and balanced";
--if, out of the 8 or so cats tested, 2 of them die, that's still considered acceptable for a food to be put on the market;
--claims of longevity, reproductive or multi-generational health cannot be substantiated by this methodology

How is it that veterinarians cannot comprehend the basic diet -- raw meat -- that felines have existed on for more than 40 million years -- is what they should be eating now? Are they really so blinded by the "bottom line" of sales of dry cat food in their clinics that they continue to remain so disconnected with respect to this fundamental basic of feline nutrition? It's really not difficult to feed your cat a species-appropriate healthy diet.

There's really no excuse for their ignorance, particularly with indictments now being handed down in the United States for a mixture of melamine and cyanuric acid in cat food.

As cat-guardians become more informed that a dry food diet is a junk food diet, the people they will blame are not the pet food company representatives or CEOs, but the veterinarians who prescribed and sold these poor quality, junk food prescription diet formulas that are making so many cats sick.

What will it take for the vets to wake up to their role in this massive consumer fraud?

Litigation?

Letters to vet clinics from pet owners saying they will take the business elsewhere unless the clinics stop selling this kibble and carbohydrated laden canned foods that are making so many pets sick?

Regulatory changes to the FDA to institute effective pet food company plant and ingredient inspections?

A boycott campaign?

All of the above -- and more?

Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs

2007-09-27T13:13:00.002-04:00

Here's another link that is a must-have for your library.

http://www.amazon.com/Homeopathic-Care-Cats-Dogs-Animals/dp/155643295X

Homeopathic Care for Cats and Dogs: Small Doses for Small Animals - by Don Hamilton, DVM. Don is an American vet who states that raw diets for our cats is really "the only solution." He recommends that all pet owners to feed their beloved pets fresh food: raw natural diets.

This book also details the major illnesses our pets may experience and provides with safe and effective homeopathic remedies as solutions to these problems . He also has a thought-provoking chapter on the dangers of vaccination where he takes a position against vaccinating.

Pottenger's Cats

2007-09-10T13:14:00.001-04:00

Anti-raw food diet for cats zealots (frequently pet food company sales people or vets who sell dry cat food in their clinics) claim that there have been no studies about the effect of raw food on cats over a lifetime of feeding.

Well, they are incorrect. There is a study -- quite a famous one, in fact -- that was carried out on 900 cats, over 4 generations, over a 10 year period from 1932-1942, using the scientific standards of that time.

Dr. Francis Marion Pottenger, Jr. conducted this study, in which 2 different groups of cats were fed different diets. The results were conclusive -- cats being fed raw meat were many times healthier than those fed cooked food.

You can still order the book, called Pottenger's Cats: A Study in Nutrition here -- http://www.ppnf.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=228&osCsid=092c54af54990e5e49cf1487221f35bf
_________________________________________________

Here's another great article (be sure to hand this one to your vet)
The Carnivore Connection to Nutrition in Cats by Debra Zoran, DVM, PhD, DACVIM
http://www.catinfo.org/zorans_article.pdf

The class action lawsuits against the Pet Food Industry

2007-09-10T11:13:00.006-04:00

In the spring of 2007, the tainted pet food scandal generated over 100 class action lawsuits in the United States and more than a dozen in Canada. The recalls, which involved more than 60 million products, was the largest recall of any product in the history of North America.

This may be what it takes to get some action on the pet food front and to get unsafe products removed from the market entirely.

Here are links to a few of them:

http://www.rochongenova.com/
There are 2 main lawsuits in Canada-- one against Menu Foods and a second, less-well-publicized lawsuit against Royal Canin/MediCal. You can download the Statement of Claim and read the story of the plaintiff who launched the suit against Royal Canin/MediCal. It's a sobering story.

Here's another firm with several class actions against Menu Foods, Royal Canin/MediCal, Hills and Petsmart
http:www.menufoodsclaim.com/index.html/
Again, you can download the Statement of Claim and read the stories of members of the public who suffered through high vet bills and the death of their beloved pets as a result of poisoned pet food. This is yet to be conclusively proven in court. However there are many reports and considerable research about the problems with commercial pet food, along with the fact that these companies were forced to recall many products, shows that they were aware that pet food was causing illnesses in many pets. The pet food recalls represent the largest recall of any product in North American history.

In the United States:

This is the Florida firm that has taken a slightly different tact -- focussing on the misleading advertising that leads all of us to believe that commercial pet food is healthy and safe for a lifetime of feeding your pet (not!).

www.mflegal.com/petfoodlawsuit

Government regulations in both Canada and the United States are ineffective. It's up to us as pet owners to educate ourselves about diet and ensure that what we feed our pets will not cause illnesses in the long term. I will never feed or recommend any commercial pet food product again. Due to poisoned vet kibble, I lost my beautiful 11 year old Siamese Mari. (see her picture above). The PFI and mainstream vets have completely lost my trust as a client and cat guardian. The tainted pet food scandal is just the beginning when you start to read about all the poor quality ingredients in pet food.

Makena in September

2007-09-10T11:07:00.002-04:00

Here's Makena's September picture. She's now 4 months old. As you can see, this kitten is getting big and strong from being fed a natural diet. Fortunately I now have a vet that supports raw diet and appreciates that I have researched the truth about feline nutrition. He told me that if I keep her on raw diet I will never have to worry about her getting any of the illnesses that are associated with commercial pet food. He mentioned that he wishes he had more clients like me who would stick to a raw diet.

This is Makena's vet -- http://www.holisticpetvet.com/eyacf.htm - Dr. Paul McCutcheson, who upon examining Makena for the first time, proclaimed her to be "absolutely adorable."

http://www.holisticpetvet.com/

And Makena? This girl LOVES her meat -- chicken, duck, turkey, cornish hen -- and the household favourite -- rabbit!

Makena at 15 weeks

2007-08-27T10:50:00.001-04:00

Watch this site for progress of how a raw food diet ensures that a kitten turns into a full grown cat with optimum health.

This is Makena, female Siamese/Balinese mix, 15 weeks old. This kitten has only ever eaten raw diet and will never, ever ever eat poisonous dry vet kibble!

Dry cat food -- a conflict of interest on the part of veterinarians

2007-08-15T12:02:00.007-04:00

For many years, like the majority of pet owners in North America, I fed my cats an exclusive diet of dry food.

I was told emphatically and insistently by my veterinarian that this was “the very best food that you could feed your cat.” Further, I should never feed my cat anything else other than one of these veterinary prescribed diets.

Unfortunately I believed my veterinarian. Why wouldn’t I? Don’t they get trained by impartial nutritionists in their program of study at one of the most illustrious institutions in Canada, the University of Guelph? I have since learned that the answer to that question is a simple “no”.

Veterinarian and veterinary students receive very little in the way of non-pet-food-company-sponsored impartial scientific training in nutrition, although many are embarrassed to admit this. What little information they receive in their formal training comes from the pet food industry themselves, who aggressively do everything they can to win the hearts and minds of veterinary students.

Free pet food to veterinarian students is standard practice. Business marketing plans are targeted towards lucrative incentives for veterinarians to encourage a lifetime of feeding commercial dry cat food. Most veterinarians are, in essence, “on the take” from the pet food industry -- they have effectively become pet food company sales representatives. The sale of dry cat food often comes to as much as 35% of a veterinarian clinic’s income.

After 10 years of continuous, day in day out feeding of these dry cat food formulations, my first female Siamese, Baby X, developed kidney problems and my second Siamese, Baby X, developed feline diabetes and eventually died of suspected kidney failure. It was only during the illness of Baby X that I researched cat nutrition and discovered that dry cat food is essentially nothing more than meat-flavoured cereal -- corn, rice, wheat laced with questionable additives and preservatives. I also learned that cats should not be eating ANY carbohydrates at all and that ALL dry food is too high in carbohydrates. Many of these veterinary prescribed prescription diets are as much as 40% carbohydrates! So it is quite clear -- there is NO FORM of dry food that is acceptable for a cat to eat.

Further, I discovered many shocking things about how this dry cat food is made -- these cereals are cooked in large vats and created through a process of extrusion that molds it into cereal-shaped kibbles. The food is so unpalatable to cats -- who have reputations as discerning gourmets -- that the manufacturing process necessitates spraying “digests” -- fermented meat by products--- onto the outside of the kibble. This is the so-called "healthy and balanced" "food" that the industry claims on every label on every bag of dry cat food? False and misleading advertising, indeed!

Cats are obligate carnivores -- no veterinarian would dispute that scientific fact. So how is it that so many veterinarians exclusively prescribe, promote and sell only these prescription diets?

How has the pet food industry influenced both the training of veterinary students in the universities, as well as the veterinarian profession at large, into the false belief that it is acceptable for cats to eat meat-flavour-coated, preservative-laden commercial cereals -- and only this food, nothing else -- for an entire lifetime? It's like a general practitioner telling a human client, "you must eat ONLY these diet bars I sell to you for an entire lifetime -- no fresh food ever."

There is currently an epidemic of illnesses in cats -- feline diabetes, chronic renal failure, inflammatory bowel syndrome caused by these species-inappropriate formulations that constitute dry cat food. Grains are indigestible for cats and dry food products are heavily constituted in grain. Even those that are "grain free" are still made by this dubious process of extreme heat processing and extrusion to make them into breakfast cereals.

Pet owners find themselves in a situation where the very food that their veterinarian prescribed and sold to them creates illnesses that endangers the health of their beloved cats. This pet food company created marketing ensures a steady business for the vets in the way of repeated vet visits, tests and expensive (and usually ineffective) treatment plans.

Veterinarians do not seriously consider vet kibble as a source of many of the illnesses they are seeing in cats in their clinics. There's a serious disconnect happening here! By overlooking this problem, veterinarians become part of the problem. They are, in essence pet food company representatives, not impartial scientists who keep up on the latest research. Veterinarians selling commercial multinational pet food constitutes a conflict of interest.

The claims of “health” on these products cannot be verified over the long term health of a cat since any studies done are short term for acute toxicity only. Our cats have effectively become “experimental animals” (Hodgkins) and the only real long term tests are those done by cat owners who feed these dry commercial pet food formulations for the lifetime of their pet -- as their veterinarians insist!

Pet food is a highly profitable business -- more than $40 billion dollars a year in North America alone. It’s certainly cheaper for the industry to make cat food from cereal rather than meat. Higher profits and easy to ship and store, but more ill health for our pets.

As cat guardians become more educated that dry food is causing many of the illnesses in their cats, the people they will blame are NOT the faceless corporate pet food company executives and shareholders, but the veterinarians who recommended, prescribed and sold them these species-inappropriate, meat-flavour coated cereals with preservatives and chemicals.

Veterinarians have an ethical responsibility to their clients to upgrade their education and knowledge about nutrition from non-pet food company sources.

There are progressive veterinarians that are keenly aware of this problem and who are not only speaking out about it, but encouraging their clients to feed natural diets. Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, Dr. Lisa Pierson, Dr. Marion Smart, Dr. Ian Billinghurst, Dr. Tom Lonsdale, Dr. Paul McCutcheson and other holistic vets strongly encourage pet owners to feed raw meat -- a cat’s natural diet. Remember mice and birds? Well, they need to eat a diet that is as close to that as possible.

Unfortunately, despite its esteemed reputation, the University of Guelph is failing miserably in this respect. Pet food companies teach veterinary students that nutrition is all "in the bag" for all cats.

Most veterinarians, although unqualified to advise on nutrition, routinely aggressively discourage the feeding of raw meat -- a cat’s natural diet -- while parroting the pet food industry propaganda to owners that they will kill their cat with salmonella poisoning if they do so.

Safe and effective handling of raw meat is of course paramount, and pet owners are not uneducated simpletons who cannot understand how to put together a nutritionally balanced formulation when provided with the correct information. The problem is that the multinational pet food industry has effectively indoctrinated veterinarians into believing their pseudo-science and provided lucrative incentives for them as part of this process. Many veterinarians are, in essence, ”embedded” within the pet food industry through their practices and clinics across North America.

In the meantime, legislative changes are needed to strip the claims of “health” from dry cat food; remove offending products from the market and effectively educate owners how to ensure the health of their cats by feeding natural diets. Vets should not be allowed to sell dry food -- or any multinational corporation's commercial food -- to cats.

Are they a "food" or a drug? If they are a "food" then how is it the need to be "prescribed"? If they are being "prescribed" how is it that they are not being tested and regulated the way drugs are?

Tainted pet food is but the tip of the iceberg: the real scandal is how dry cat food formulations, most of them veterinarian prescribed and sold, are causing so many illnesses in our cats.

NO CAT SHOULD EAT ANY FORM OF DRY FOOD EVER!

NOTE: An edited version of this blog post was published as a Letter to the Editor in the Volume 48 (11) November, 2007 edition of Canadian Veterinary Journal - read both and note what they edited out -- any criticisms of the university's role in perpetuating this problem.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/tocrender.fcgi?iid=152541

Welcome to Natural Cat Health for Feline Health and Happiness

2007-08-14T09:45:00.009-04:00

Welcome to this site. I'm sure, having found your way here, that you are a cat lover like myself and want only the very best for your cats.

I've put together a collection of links, posts and photos that I thought other cat lovers would find helpful. I have two beautiful Siamese cats and want to ensure they live long and healthy lives. To that end, over the past year, I've done a lot of research about feline nutrition. This site will give me the opportunity to share that information with you.

http://www.catnutrition.org-- Learn how to properly feed a cat. Anne's site is thoughtful, provocative and educational. After finding this site I stopped feeding my cats commercial food.

http: www.felinespride.com

If you don't have the time to make your own cat food, or while you are getting together the supplements and supplies to do so, you can order some Feline's Pride, which is the same formulation. This is absolutely, positively, the very best raw food on the market for your cat -- I give it 5 stars.

http://www.catinfo.org/- Dr. Lisa Pierson's site, another progressive vet who argues that cats need to eat a natural diet, with great pictures to show you how to do it

http://www.yourdiabeticcat.com/ -- I hope you never have to suffer through the stress of having a diabetic cat, but if you do, this is the very best place on the web to find help and support. Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins is a Feline Diabetes expert and her protocol is light years ahead of the thinking of conventional veterinarian practice. Most vets will tell you they will try to help you "manage" your cat: Dr. Hodgkins' protocol is based on getting your cat into remission. The most important factors? NO DRY FOOD, hometesting, correct insulin (PZI) and giving insulin based on a sliding scale.

You will also want to get a copy of Dr. Hodgkins' book: Your Cat: Simple New Secrets for a Longer Stronger Life, available from Amazon. If you want to know why no cat should ever eat ANY dry food get this book. Dr. Hodgkins recommends feeding all cats a natural all meat diet -- which is what she feeds her own cats as a breeder of beautiful Ocicats.
http://www.all-about-cats.com/your_cat.htm

You will also want to read Dr. Hodgkins testimony at the April 12, 2007 Congressional Investigation. She was the only non-pet food company vet to provide testimony at this hearing.

http://appropriations.senate.gov/Hearings/2007_04_12_Testimony_of_Elizabeth_Hodgkins_at_the_April_12_Hearing_on_Pet_Food_Safety.pdf?CFID=18387931&CFTOKEN=98966695

Deconstructing the Regulatory Facade: Why Confused Consumers Feed their Pets Ring Dings and Krispy Kremes - If you still need convincing on why pet food is so bad for your pet's health, read this article. Warning: don't read this article after eating. http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/784/Patrick06.html

Here's one from a Canadian vet, Dr. Marion Smart: Pet Food and Nutrition: A Necessary Review for Veterinarians, M.E. Smart, C. Haggart, J.A. Mills

http://www.petfood-bad.blogspot.com/

What's Eating Kitty? NOW magazine article:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-05-31/news_story5.php

And yet more evidence of why dry food is so bad for cats from a breeder and author of

Raising Cats Naturally -- Michelle Bernard - http://www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/

http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html

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PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE
Mary Aspinwall Homeopath in Ireland
Homeopathy -- anyone can take the free course on this site and learn how to do first aid and preventative health care for your cat. I highly recommend homeopathy. It's safe, effective and inexpensive and will save you many costly and unnecessary vet bills.

Everyone should know how to take care of themselves (yes you can use these remedies for yourself too) and homeopathy is especially safe and helpful for our feline friends. You can use the free remedy finder below for diagnosis and identifying the correct remedy.
HomeopathyWorld.com/petpack.htm

http://www.abchomeopathy.com

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Politics:
Want to do something about changing what our cats eat?

Check out: http://www.petfoodcampaign.blogspot.com/

Lots of fabulous links and articles. Get a binder and start printing these out for yourself and your friends. Feel free to share this information with all your friends and with any cat lover you meet.

It's important that we become educated on how to properly feed our beloved feline friends. For all the unconditional love and companionship they offer us, they deserve the very best food we can feed them for optimum health and nutrition. That food is raw diet -- chicken, duck, turkey, cornish hens -- or the special favourite -- rabbit.

I can only highly recommend raw diet -- my cats love Feline's Pride but I also make my own. Just find a local butcher who can grind up a whole chicken, turkey or rabbit for you -- tell them to put it through the grinder twice. Mix up and add the supplements, portion into glass mason jars, into the freezer and that's it! It takes me less than an hour every 6 weeks or so to make my own cats' food.

Not only are they getting the very best diet but I know exactly what is in it. It's pretty easy to make your own food at home. The investment in time and effort you make on this front will pay off in big dividends. Your cats will love you for it and you will ultimately save on needless health problems and trips to the vet.