The Fear That Strikes
With a Pet Food Recall
Innocence Gone... What Are A Dog Lovers' Choices?

DigitalDog's goal in this piece is to assist everyone challenged by the recent pet food recalls and the information that has come to light as a result. However, it would be very difficult to initiate such research or consideration without first acknowledging the wonderful companions that have suffered as a result of humane avarice and/or error. These animals, yet again suffered the brunt and as a result, have helped protect people. Clearly the new information and understanding of how these toxins entered the food chain will cause additional safeguards to be put in place. Will they be enough? What other consequences will result?

The news is a bit difficult to accept. First off, the FDA has little control over the ingredients of products brought in from other countries. Of course, they can test but ultimately they will only find what they look for and what they look for is limited to those ingredients that they know present problems and are generally commonly found in such ingredients. Additionally, funding for oversight is heavily focused on the handling of meat. Clearly the concerns over contamination of meat and such products raises a great concern because of the ease of introduction of toxins. As a result, inspections of facilities that handle only vegetable matter is essentially non-existent by comparison (meat packers are inspected daily, some vegetable facilities are inspected less than once every few years).

Clearly, increasing the number of inspectors and what they test for seems and easy and obvious solution with the downside being that this response would result in much greater cost for every bite of food that reaches the grocery store. The impact to many would then outweigh the benefit since they would then be forced to make less wise nutritional decisions based on budget. This could not be more obvious than in the area of pet foods.

The alarm for the pet food recall was initially raised in the most budget areas of pet foods. The 'no-name' brands offered by many of the mass merchants have the lowest level of accountability since it's not even easy to tell where it came from or who or how it was manufactured. The satisfaction enjoyed by those who fed premium foods was short lived though when even some of the most recognized premium foods were later identified as being manufactured at the same facility with the same ingredients.

The question becomes, in this area of restaurants on every corner and fast food on every block, how much do or can we trust those that are preparing food for ourselves or our pets? Perhaps the vendor (whether it be a hot dog stand or owner of a pet boutique) is above any reproach, but what about those that they purchased their supplies from? Or what about the farm that the raw ingredients derived from? The E.coli epidemic on fresh spinach seems to have been originated by the spinach fields being close to livestock yards. Prior to the deaths and illness caused by the contamination, who would have even suspected such a thing or held a farmer responsible?

As a society, many of us have come to terms with the idea of exchanging convenience for security and safety. It seems that is the option many of us will choose again. For those that are not so inclined, DigitalDog does have a few comments for consideration and options to review.

Despite the adamance of some parties to suggest that a home prepared diet is not ideal for dogs, there is very little such evidence. Much like people, canines have evolved to eat a variety of foods. As a wild animal, canines will consume a great variety of nutritional sources, greater than even the variety consumed by most people. With that in mind, it seems very likely that their digestive system like our own is developed to benefit from a huge variety of nutrients from a number of sources. Additionally, while not always safe, they are also willing to ingest foods that humans would typically refuse.

With that said, the greatest risk presented to a dog when his/her owner prepares their diet at home is how nutritionally sound is the owner? Certainly, people live on many overly processed and packaged foods the resulting health concerns prove it. This mindset is not well suited to preparing a healthy diet for the dog at home. Certainly in that comparison there is no benefit to a dog being fed overly processed human food devoid of nutrients over the overly processed prepared canine diets readily available in the grocery store.

This is not offered lightly. Many of us who do purchase quality foods, fresh produce and raw meaty bones for our canine companions diet have been met by people wrinkling their nose when we say what the purchases are for saying only "I'm not going to have my dog eating better than I do?" These folks are only highly offended when they are asked, "Well then, why aren't you eating this well?". It's not an issue of budget but rather one of preference. They'd rather have croissants and danishs for breakfast than fresh fruit. Still in order to rationalize their choices, they have to subject their dogs to a diet that is typically far from ideal.

Some nutritional elements are not readily available for digestion by dogs (partly because even in feeding raw meaty bones we are not feeding the entire carcass) and many supplements exist as well as sources of information for making them at home.

While you are mediating many of the sources of contamination and concern, most will not be raising their own food so the concern still exists. Ideally, one can obtain their products directly from the grower, either at pick it yourself farms or produce markets, etc. Consider buying in bulk and freezing for added convenience and savings.

Cost need not be an overriding concern. It is quite simple to feed your dog a far superior diet for $1 a pound (a common range for most of the better dog foods). This should not be surprising. How much of that $1 per pound on the shelf, in the bag, do you believe went into the food? There is overhead, shipping, marketing and mark up. Most pet foods must be LESS than $.25 per pound to produce (just ingredients) in order for a profit to be made. This is sobering. Is preparing your pet's meals at home the only option? Perhaps not, but to this point no one at DigitalDog has seen an option that is as sound.

Other options include looking for other sources of pet foods. With this new scare it is entirely possible that an entirely new industry will emerge of local dog food 'restaurants/caterers'. One can only imagine the potential rules and restrictions but if they can be waded, can you imagine stopping by and picking up your dog's food for the next week just as you do many of your other errands? Wouldn't it be reassuring to purchase it from the person who made it themselves, fed it to their own dogs and chose the ingredients as carefully? It may not happen. People may simply forget this scare as well and put their trust back into the government to protect us. Instead, we at DigitalDog feel this should serve as an warning to how fallible the best of such systems are and encourage people to take a more active interest and responsibility toward what they and their family (including their canine family members) eat.

The DigitalDog Forums are open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week to help you with questions and concerns. Visit DigitalDog's Forums to check out loads of information and suggestions in all areas of life with your dog!

Please note, the information and content of DigitalDog.com while offered by those with extensive experience training, rehabilitating, rescuing and rearing dogs, is the opinion of those individuals and not necessarily the opinion of DigitalDog. Our effort is to provide a valuable resource and research site for those seeking help in finding, adopting, rearing, training and enjoying their time with their own canine companion. DigitalDog makes no claims to the accuracy of information provided herein. We are delighted to offer links to websites of rescues, breed clubs and other nonprofit entities with information of interest to our visitors. Finally, dogs are individuals with experiences, history, personalities and other factors that influence their behavior. While generalities can be drawn based on breed, gender, age and more, every dog is an individual and every breed can and will have individuals that defy all generalizations. As a result, this site, while a valuable reference, should not be used to replace knowledgable dog training, behaviorist or other professionals who can observe you and your dog personally and individually.

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