Testimonies

From Dr. Julie Churchill, College of Veterinarian Medicine, University of Minnesota:

I am very much against the raw food diets. Many dogs can do well on a raw food diet. However, they have the potential to be life threatening. Any food that can potentially kill even one animal is not worth the risk. Bones, even raw and ground ones can perforate the GI tract. This can lead to peritoinitis, severe infections, require emergency surgery, and many dogs die each year from this. As for dental health, there are no scientific studies supporting raw food over commercial or cooked foods to maintain dental health. Veterinary dentists recommend daily brushing and periodic cleaning for optimal dental health. Bones can, and do fracture teeth leading the pain and potential tooth root infections requiring root canals and or extractions. There is also a very good study done by my collegues (that will be published in the next year) who analyzed several different recipe's for raw food diets. ALL of them had nutritional deficiencies as well as some serious bacterial contamination. Have you had a veterinary nutritionist evaluate your recipe? These diets ARE contaminated with bacteria. This may not be harmful to a healthy dog......however, dogs don't come with a label saying which ones will be fine and which ones will get sick. Even if dogs do not get sick from the bacteria (such as Salmonella or pathogenic E. Coli- the Jack -in the -Box killer bacteria) they can become "chronic shedders". This means they are carriers of the bacteria which is shed in their stool, and becomes a public health risk to people who might be exposed. This can be esopecially serious if your dog is ever around any children, elderly immunosuppressed people (those on chemotherapy, HIV etc).

Sincerely,
J Churchill

From Gail, Willow Run Siberians, Leavenworth, WA

Hi Katie,

I got the pathology report yesterday afternoon from the vet. Kenai died as the result of puncture wounds. The pyloric valve (betw stomach and intes.) was basically ripped apart, like a "foreign body" had been stuck there. Other things looked highly irregular too--pancreas, etc. it was from the ONE chicken back I gave him. ONE. So I will forever live with the sad thought that I KILLED MY OWN DOG. Put a "tic" mark in the column for "one more dog killed with raw chicken". I think the vet has to share some of the responsibility.

I have learned a lot from this experience...And the Billinghurst book is as good as going into the garbage---If I pass it on to anyone, it will be with a long sad story attached. Unfortunately none of this will bring Kenai, who should still have so much of his life left, back to me. And I've cried buckets over it, as you might guess.

NOTE: This was the first raw bone, but Kenai had been eaten raw meat. I find that many of the dogs eating raw meat end up with pancreas problems early on. In addition, The president of the husky club she belongs to just lost a 2 yr old female dog while giving birth to 8 pups. She died because of ulcers...the toxins of the puppies absorbed through them or something like that. She had been on barf her entire life. Autopsy showed she also had an enlarged pancreas.

From Martha Kuhn,

Katie, I just found your website. I wish with all my heart I had found it five months ago. Maybe, just maybe, if I had, the most wonderful little dog I've ever been privileged to live with would still be alive, instead of having died, horribly, thanks to my stupid gullibility. She died after five meals--five--on the Kymythy Schultze "Ultimate" diet. Well, it certainly was the ultimate--as in last--diet for Linden. I've been living a nightmare ever since. If there is anything I can do to help you warn people about the danger of these crazy diets, please let me know.

A message from Martha to a person considering the barf diet,

I don't know what I can add to what I said in the e-mail that was forwarded to you. I killed my little princess, the love of my life, the culmination of a nine-year breeding program, by feeding her raw meat complete with bones. I read Give Your Dog a Bone and thought it was very poorly written and not at all convincing. However, I kept hearing from people on the net about how wonderful the raw diet was, and so when I heard that Kymythy Schultz was going to be giving a seminar fairly close by, I went. I read her book, thought about it some more, and decided to try it. I thought that if it didn't work out, I could always switch her back to kibbles. No one ever warned me that I might not get a second chance. I am here to warn you. You might not get a second chance. I don't know if I did something wrong with the diet, or if my sweet girl had some hidden (very well hidden) health problem that made her not a candidate for this diet---but if so, that's really odd because the zealots for the diet claim it cures everything, especially gastro-intestinal problems. Well, it destroyed the last six feet of her intestines to the point where blood was leaking out of them and pooling in her abdomen. She died of blood loss, despite a 1 AM trip to the vet emergency hospital. And this was after only five days on the diet. Her mother, who ate the same things she did, also got bad diarrhea, but she recovered. Thank God. I think I would have driven in front of a semi for real (instead of just thinking about it) if I had managed to kill them both.

If you think your dog's epilepsy is caused or exacerbated by something in what you're feeding, why not try a better quality kibble, like Innova, or Wellness, or maybe even home cooking--but I do mean COOKING, cook the meat and NO BONES. Or, if you are determined to risk your dog's life in this way, find someone close to you who has been doing it a long time who you trust and check with them every step of the way. At the slightest sign that something is wrong, back off. I can't tell you how I've tortured myself with "what if's"--don't put yourself into a situation where you can do this too. It's no fun. There are other holistic therapies you could try, too. I wish, looking back on it, that I had tried alternative therapies with my old girl who started seizuring. Maybe homeopathy has an answer for you. Please do more research, and as I say, if you must try this horribly dangerous diet, be extremely careful.

Good luck.
--Martha K.

Dear Katie,

I joined the k9health discussion list a little while ago. I did so because I have become increasingly concerned about the safety of routine vaccinations for my dogs, and in my travels on the web in search of more information about vaccinations I came across this list. I thought I had joined a discussion group of people who were serious-minded and interested in furthering the cause of canine health, but it seemed to me that I had instead fallen amongst a group of small-minded, mean-spirited zealots, a group which bore more than a passing resemblance to a cult. I do not believe that BARF is a good or a safe diet. I have given my dogs bones on occasion, but besides my misgivings about the very real dangers of raw meat I have not found that raw bones are universally good for my dogs. I have seen pancreatitis and colitis appear like clockwork in one dog whenever he ate bones; needless to say, I stopped giving him marrow bones for this reason.

Hi there, my name is [removed for privacy] and I live in Vancouver British Columbia. I have just returned home from a visit at the local pet holistic practitioner. Approximately 1 month ago my wife and I brought our 18 month old boxer (Taylor) to see this woman. We were advised that Taylor should be on a "raw meat" diet as her immune system was low. I trusted the advice and we commenced the new diet immediately. One month later Taylor became violently ill with hives all over, diarrhea and vomiting. She didn't eat for two days. This of course scared us both to death. We set up another appointment with the "witch doctor" and again were told to just stay on the raw meat. At no time were we informed WHY Taylor became so sick. At best it was suggested that she may have rolled in some fertilizer? I questioned that and then was advised to start giving her raw chicken wings as a source of calcium? Again I questioned that as I have always thought that at no time should a dog be given bones that are known to splinter. The answer I received was " a raw chicken wing will not splinter and is very safe, as well as an extremely high source of calcium". In any case when I returned from our last visit I searched the internet and cam across your article about raw meat. Well, to put it simply there will be no more raw meat for our baby. I feel disappointed that I did not investigate further. I'm sure the controversy over raw versus fresh will continue however until I see some noted facts from a qualified person, my dog will eat cooked meat, fruit, vegetables, grains and lots of water.