the dog food industry

While Penny was snoozing today and I was working at my computer on an article for Astarte's mega-zine, [This link no longer works, because the site was taken down after the sad death of the gifted editor, Stacey Apeitos] an online craft magazine (sorry about the non-dog advertising), I checked my email and found I had a newsletter from rawmeatybones.com. It was a treasure trove of information and I must admit I got side-tracked from my writing for quite a while.

Dr Tom Lonsdale reported that an article of his on pet feeding had been published in Nexus Magazine. It was not the entire text of the article, but the whole thing can be read at rawmeatybones together with many other press clippings about feeding of carnivores.

The link that I found fascinatingly awful was a long report in the New York Times about the petfood industry. It's definitely not for the fainthearted but I couldn't stop reading.

In reading Dr Lonsdale's work I was reminded that originally I intended to feed Penny whole carcasses, or as near to that as I could manage. I'm afraid that we have slipped from this - but she does get the major part of her diet as raw meaty bones.

However, we include some vegetable matter. It's mostly Vets All Natural grain mix and also left-over vegetable parts. I put them through our juicer in order to partly-digest them before Penny gets them.

I read somewhere that it is better to have a masticating juicer because the juicing process breaks down the cell walls of the vegetable matter and makes it more likely to be digested by a dog. My juicer is a Champion Juicer and works by that method.

In a discussion of juicing processes I read that:

the juice from a masticating juicer may be refrigerated and stored for up to 24 hours, while maintaining an acceptable nutrient quality

In fact, I freeze the juice, mixed back in with the pulp - I hope that still contains the vitamins that Penny needs.

The Vets All Natural site mentioned above has some interesting articles, especially the one titled 'Feeding Raw Bones to Cats & Dogs'

Jan Fennell the Dog Listener

Penny and I listened to Jan Fennell on ABC radio today. Well, I listened while Penny snoozed. Jan was interviewed by Richard Stubbs, one of my favorite radio hosts.
Jan Fennell believes that our relationship with our dogs is the key element in making sure they live harmoniously with us. She referred to four aspects when she was on the show:
1. Feeding
2. Perceived danger
3. The hunt
4. Reuniting after separation
I have seen her DVD but now that I've heard her speaking I think I'll watch it again.
She also mentioned her books (of course!) and I think I might send off for the one called The Seven Ages of Your Dog, which Jan says is not available in Australia. (She didn't sound very happy with her publisher about that!) When I originally read her other book, The Dog Listener, Penny was a small puppy and I concentrated on the information we needed for that stage.

Richard Stubbs questioned her quite critically about one point - she said that it is not necessary to take a dog for a walk every day. I had the impression that he was concerned that listeners would use this as an excuse for not walking every day. However, I think she was saying that walking is not necessarily the best way of keeping the dog happy and fulfilled. She seemed to mean that having active fun with the dog is just as fruitful.

I was so inspired by her ideas that I lugged out all the bits and pieces of agility equipment I have collected and set them up on the lawn and Penny and I did indeed have fun together. I must make a resolution to do this more often. To a certain extent it might be the easier option to just clip on Penny's collar, take a ball and go to the park. I've never thought of it that way - it seemed that it is my duty to go walking every day, hail or shine.

However, I might add that Penny also got an hour in the park, swimming and romping, so I think she got the best of both worlds...

dogs digging to bury bones

This afternoon I was at a weekend craft workshop and spent some time sharing anecdotes about Penny with another dog lover. We agreed that it is quite amusing that our dogs love to dig in the garden to bury bones.

I'm proud of myself that when I got home and saw the hole where my thyme plant used to be, I was still able to raise a chuckle.

Penny got a smaller evening meal than she might have, because I believe that if she's burying her meaty bones then we're feeding her too much. However, I got to wondering if that is true, or whether she might be placing her bones in the garden for another reason. I thought of three aspects: the sheer pleasure of digging holes; the possibility that the taste is better if meat has 'matured' in the ground; an instinct to save food in case of future famine.

At Old English Sheepdog.org there was a discussion of dogs that bury their rawhide bones in the couch. Everyone seemed strangely cheerful about dogs burying potentially smelly objects under the cushions on the furniture. I guess it wouldn't seem quite so amusing if it were meat that was being buried.

I think bones buried in plain air would rot more quickly than meat in the soil. The other day I was gardening and dug up a whole joint that Penny had buried the week before. It looked awful when it came up on my shovel but when I washed the dirt off and pulled it apart to smell it, it was quite fresh. I took a chance and left it for Penny to discover and she ate it. No bad reaction, thank goodness.

I've heard it said that meat/bones buried in soil don't rot as they would in the air and that this partly accounts for the fact that dogs can safely eat old buried bones. I don't know whether it is a myth or a fact. One interesting discussion has been collected by Mark S. Harris. It's a conversation about whether medieval cooks had a recipe for 'rescuing' rotting meat and whether that recipe included burying the meat for a time. One section says:

As I recall, the recipe is for a haunch of venison, which is a rather large piece of meat. Large pieces of meat may experience localized decomposition rather than general decomposition. Obvious tainted areas are removed and the bones and tissue around them are removed. Bones and connecting tissue tend toward early decomposition. The meat is then buried for a time, which exposes it to various nematodes to remove any remaining decomposing meat (think of treating a wound with maggots to remove gangrenous tissue). After being dug up, the meat is cleaned, trimmed, and cooked (which kills off parasitic nematodes). As long as the meat isn't too far gone to begin with, the recipe might work

It occurred to me that perhaps dogs can dig up and eat bones because when meat begins to rot in the ground, organisms in the soil eat the bad part. But that wouldn't explain the horrendous smell when Penny sneaks back into the house with a disgusting meaty bone from the garden.

At Barfworld there is a discussion of dogs' ability to eat food that would make a human ill.

The presence of bacteria in raw food often worries pet owners and vets. They assume these bacteria will make pets sick. However, dogs, being scavengers, have evolved to eat and thrive on bacteria laden food, requiring them for immune system maturity. Wild dogs eat the gut contents of their prey, and the feces of many different animals. They eat soil, contaminated meat, buried bones, infected meat and so on. These are all a source of microbes and any toxins they might produce. That is why the bacteria in raw meat are of little to no consequence to ninety-nine plus percent of dogs. This does not mean we recommend bacteria laden food for our pets.

Tom Lonsdale, in his book 'Work wonders; feed your dog raw meaty bones' says on page 55:

Dogs, like people, enjoy fermented foods. Bones fermented in the garden bed are a firm favorite - with dogs if not with humans. Soil bacteria seldom give rise to health problems. Although rare, the bacteria in putrefying meat can create digestive upset. Decomposing carcasses of chickens and ducks can be a source of botulinum toxin. Sufferers become weak and paralyzed and need urgent veterinary attention.

A chapter on 'The Dog's Digestive System' is available as an excerpt from 'Raw Food For Dogs - the Ultimate Guide for Dog Owners', by Morgens Eliasen. I found it an interesting read - it deals with the structure of the dog's mouth and the composition of dog saliva and dog stomach juices.

At Dogster Video I came across a cute video clip of a dog burying his bone. It was just like the way Penny does it. We think she looks hilarious when she comes in with a black face after using her nose to cover up the hole in the ground. She generally has a drink of water afterwards and I wonder if it is to wash her face.

kangaroos and dogs

There were said to be kangaroos in Darebin Parklands today so I didn't take Penny there. I thought we should stay right away if the story is true.

It would be wonderful to think that this iconic Australian marsupial could live just 14 kilometres from the inner city area and be safe, but as far as I know that isn't the case. Basically, it's a suburban area and people and kangaroos, let alone dogs and kangaroos, don't mix in such an enclosed area.

I think these kangaroos might be part of a mob that is being increasingly forced into urban area by what I consider inappropriate housing development on areas where they used to roam free.

I believe the plan was to rescue the kangaroos from the Park and take them somewhere safe. We can only hope for the best and I'll be interested to hear how it went.

Apparently Canberra also has had the issue of kangaroos being forced by drought into inappropriate areas. I found a report dated 2004 about kangaroos killing pet dogs but I don't know how accurate is is. Strangely, it is from a site in the US. I did find the same reference at Asian Economic News, which seems reputable.

I have spoken to someone who told me of an encounter between her dog and a kangaroo in which, sadly, both animals fell down a bank into a river and drowned.

I'm going away for a couple of days without Penny so I'll leave it to the rest of the family to keep her safely away from the park both for her sake and for the safety of the kangaroos.

Here are a couple of links about kangaroos and dogs. I debated whether to include them in this post and decided to do so because we need to be aware that dogs and Australian wildlife can only interact if the dogs are under complete control.

WARNING - THEY ARE DISTURBING TO ANIMAL LOVERS -DON'T LOOK AT THEM IF YOU WILL BE UPSET BY PICTURES OF DEAD AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE OR OF DESCRIPTIONS OF KANGAROO HUNTING WITH DOGS IN EARLY COLONIAL DAYS:

a page about kangaroo hunting from The Edinburgh Literary Journal
a report of fatal attacks on a baby kangaroo and a koala by dogs

ethics and the feeding of dogs

Penny eats a lot of chicken. I'm fortunate that my local butcher sells free-range chickens and will cut them into pieces for me. I've also found a company, Belmore Biodynamic Meats, that sells a variety of free-range meats.

I'm prompted to post on this topic because there was an article by Veronica Ridge in The Age Newspaper yesterday headed "Food that won't cost the Earth - a guide for the ethical eater". I thought the points made could be applied to feeding our dogs as well as ourselves.

Eat unprocessed - the more processed or refined a food is, the more energy and water is used to make it.

Choose local - the more miles a food has travelled, the more greenhouse gas it has generated.

Enbrace the season - buy what is in season in your local area.

Unpackaged food - don't buy food with high-embodied energy such as snacks with aluminium-lined packaging or individually wrapped biscuits.

Reduce waste - our throwaway culture wastes water, energy and other resources used in food production. Australians threw away $5.3 billion of food in 2004.

Eat less meat and dairy - the world slaughters about 60 billion animals a year for food.

Choose fish wisely - don't buy species that are overfished. Farmed fish are not necessarily better, because often more wild-caught fish are used to feed them.

Have a social conscience - buy products such as coffee or chocolate only if the farmers have received a fair price.

Buy organic or free-range - uses no synthetic chemicals and focuses on the health of the soil.

Consider animal welfare - intensive farming to produce milk, meat and dairy products causes suffering to animals.

Of the ten points, I think I am okay on some, but I've still got a long way to go on others.

Of course, I can ignore the coffee/choclolate one; organic and free-range I'm working on; I always avoid meats from industries that have a horrible reputation - for instance, I haven't found anyone to sell me free-range pork and I don't know if that is even possible in Australia. I try to feed raw as much as possible, and buy from a butcher rather than a supermarket, so that makes for less packaging; I juice and blend our vegetable scraps, so that cuts down on food waste.

But I'll still have to work on the other points, for the humans in the household as well as for Penny.

I'll add the link to the article here but I'm not sure how long newspaper articles stay on the site for general reading.

Likewise, the British newspaper, The Independent, has a long discussion of the ethics of feeding pets, called "Is commercial pet food ethical or even healthy?" and here is the link, but it might disappear after a while.

was a local dog killed by a platypus?

Each Tuesday Penny and I travel to Lilydale in the Dandenong Ranges, about 40 kilometres from Melbourne for training at K9 Kompany.
Today, after having lots of fun playing (uhh, I mean... working) at agility, we went to Lillydale Lake for a romp. By the way, it beats me why the township's name is spelled differently from the Lake's.

Anyway, Penny ran around chasing balls and then we wandered over to the creek - Olinda Creek - to have a look and Penny, following her unruly habit, jumped in without looking to check it was safe.

She was still on lead, which might have hampered her style, so she sank to the bottom and came up looking surprised. It took a lot of scrambling and struggling before she could clamber up the rocky bank. I took her off lead and tossed a ball into a safer-looking spot and she happily swam out to get it, so obviously she wasn't disturbed by her underwater adventure.

Not long after, we met a local guy who told me I should be careful letting her swim there because his friend's dog had been killed by a platypus. He said the dog died not long after getting out of the water and a platypus spur was found in the dog's leg.

Having looked around on the internet I've come to the conclusion that it would be unlikely the spur from a platypus was found in the dead dog - the male platypus does have a moveable spur on its hind leg which could inject enough venom to kill a dog, but I didn't find any mention of the spur breaking off.

It might be possible a local dog was killed by a platypus but I don't see how they would have worked that out - maybe by the symptoms? Yet an article from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics suggests the symptoms would be similar to a snake bite:

When a platypus feels inconvenienced, it digs its spur into its victim and releases its venom. Since it is only the male platypus that has the use of such artillery, it is thought that the spurs are probably used as an offensive weapon to assert dominance during the mating season and to lay down territorial boundaries. Venom production does indeed increase during the mating season, which sustains the theory. The venom has probably a defensive role too though the aim seems less to kill than to induce intensive pain. Human poisoning is not rare and results in excruciating pain accompanied by massive swelling. Snake venom and platypus venom do seem to cause the same physiological discomforts though snake venom is far more virulent. However, it has been shown that platypus venom can kill dogs when injected intravenously.

Even I, one of the all-time champion worriers, don't think I need to be on the look-out for platypuses in the water when Penny swims - however, it is an interesting topic to me because we are eagerly waiting for the return of platypuses to our local creek in suburban Melbourne. They've been missing for many years because of hunting and pollution.

I seems that platypus poison could be a useful substance because of its implications for pain relief in humans (and in dogs, one would hope).

Recent research shows that the venom could actually be useful as a new type of painkiller as it acts on pain receptor cells, which is a property unique among venoms but shared with the active ingredient of chillies.

Here's the address of a platypus fact file.

why do dogs eat grass?

I noticed Penny eating grass in the garden today and it occurred to me it's lucky our garden has weeds.

The clump of grass included some panic veldt grass (ehrharta erecta) and what I think is prairie grass (bromus unioloides).

When I looked at a few sites to check out what types of grasses dogs usually eat, I came across an Australian article by Justin Huntsdale about Sam Bjone, who is studying the eating of grass by dogs - this was accompanied by a photo of dogs eating kikuyu (pennisetum clandestinum).

Green Foods has a report on this study also. Interestingly, they say they are excitedly awating the results because

We at Green Foods believe that dogs and many other carnivores, including cats and bears, eat cereal grasses because cereal grasses contain nutrients not found in meat that are essential for the animals' good health.

Of course, this raises the great debate about store-bought dry food, which is often criticised by raw feeders and barf (bones and raw food/ biologically appropriate raw food) feeders, who say that canines don't naturally eat cereals.

One organic site suggests that eating grass occurs because wild dogs would eat the entire body of their prey and this would include the stomach contents of a grass-eating animal. The author recommends growing rye or barley sprouts (not wheat sprouts) and including these in the daily diet. I can see that this might be useful but I'd want to cross-reference it with other authorities before I did it. After all, as long as I make sure our garden includes weedy varities of grass (not too hard to arrange!) Penny can choose the amount and type of grass she eats.



April Holladay, at WonderQuest (Solving Mysteries People Wonder About) , discusses the various theories briefly . She says

Finally, dogs may appear to eat grass, says Feiler, when they are just running the blades through their mouth to gather information. Their sense of smell and taste may act together to detect if other animals have walked through their area or urinated on the grass.

I must say, I enjoyed the cynical discussion of commercial supplements that are designed to enhance an apartment-dwelling dog's diet. I laughed out loud at the last sentence. Suffice it to say that Penny loves visiting a friend of mine who has lots of cats. Penny zeroes in on the kitty litter tray to check for enticing feline poo.

She also races out each morning to check the garden for possum poo. So, if I move to an apartment I just could be a customer for an intriguing type of dog-food supplement...