What Vets Say
A selection of quotes and resources from pet medical professionals
What the pet scientists say!
VETS ON RAW PET FOOD
Give a dog something natural that their whole body has evolved to deal with for millions and millions of years and they will thrive but if you give them something unnatural, of course they get ill. The reason I kept on doing it is people consistently came back and said their dog was brighter. And the coat is probably the thing you see changing first.
Dr Geoff Johnson
MA Vet MB MRCVS VetMFHom RSHom PCH
https://www.petwelfarealliance.org
We know that in people, the more processed a food is, and the more of it is fed, the less likely it is to support optimal health in the short, medium and long term. This is the same for all species, including our pets. Raw food works both in theory, and also in practice as it has shown in millions of cases to make our pets obviously and measurably healthier.
Dr Nick Thompson
BSc (Vet Sci) Hons, BVMS, VetMFHom, MRCVS
It has become clear to me: modern feeding methods have become an obstacle to cure. They need to be altered and raw feeding is the way dogs should be fed.
Dr Peter Gregory
BVSc, MRCVS, VetFFHom, CertIAVH
Periodontal disease is the No. 1 dental condition in dogs and cats. By the age of 3, most pets already have early evidence of this condition, which can progress into oral pain, bacterial infection and systemic health problems including damage to the kidneys, heart and liver.1
A nutritionally optimal, species-specific, fresh food diet, raw, if possible, is best for your dog’s teeth, because the raw meat acts as a kind of natural toothbrush and dental floss.
Dr Karen Becker
DVM, certified in animal acupuncture, homeopathy and rehabilitation
https://www.drkarenbecker.com/
Our own medical Doctors extol the virtues of eating fewer processed foods and adding more fresh foods to our diets if we wish to enjoy good health. Certainly, our dogs and cats deserve the same consideration.
We know that good, fresh ingredients is central to our health, the health of our zoo animals, livestock and every animal on the planet, to everyone except our dogs? Are we to believe that the same companies that have failed to make a suitable alternative to fresh food for humans have somehow managed to do it for our dogs?!
We’re here to tell you that they absolutely have not. The ones saying otherwise either make the stuff or sell it. The truth is dogs are carnivores. They need fresh meat, and are significantly healthier when fed upon it.
Dr Conor Brady
BSc (Zool) Hons, PhD Animal Behaviour
RAW FEEDING VETERINARY SOCIETY
The RFVS is a group of motivated vets and vet nurses with a common interest in raw feeding and species appropriate nutrition in dogs and cats.
Our Mission
To promote the principles and practical aspects of species-appropriate nutrition, through education of veterinary professionals and the pet-owning public.
As practising veterinary surgeons it is important we give clients clear, practical feeding strategies they can follow in their busy lives. In a biologically- ideal world every hunting carnivore would be fed on live prey. Clearly this is socially un-acceptable, morally questionable and impractical. A spectrum of ‘lesser’ alternatives are available, and there will always be a trade-off between convenience, ideology, cost and practicalities. What is right for one pet owner may not work for another.
So let’s not talk in ‘definites’ – there is no right or wrong, simply different ways of improving our pets nutrition to greater or lesser degrees.
It is UK based, but we welcome any veterinary professional from around the world. Formed in 2014, it represents another step in the evolution of the recognition of feeding pet animals food they would, logically, have adapted to over millennia in the wild. We are committed to professional, responsible communication, education and research on all areas of nutrition in dogs and cats
Dr Ian Billinghurst
Veterinary Surgeon B.V.Sc.(Hons), B.Sc.Agr., Dip. Ed.
Nutritionist, Acupuncturist, Agricultural Scientist, Author, Lecturer, Nutritional consultant and RAW Pet Food Producer.
Dr Ian Billinghurst has worked in companion animal practice since 1975. In the mid 1980’s, following years of clinical research, he was shocked to realize the devastating effect that commercial foods had on dog and cat health and amazed at the dramatic healing power of RAW. From this clinical research came Dr Ian’s first book, “Give Your Dog a Bone”, which was the original RAW food book for dogs. This book, together with his lecture tours to the UK, US, Canada, Japan (and further books), became the spark, which ignited the worldwide RAW pet food movement. Dr Ian Billinghurst is recognized as the “Father” of “RAW” and the founder of the BARF (Biologically appropriate Raw Food) Diet. Dr Billinghurst remains as passionate as ever about Health—through Evolutionary Nutrition—with his current lectures and writings emphasizing the basic truth… “Nutrition… it’s absurdly simple.”
Roxanne Stone
MSc Nutr. Food Sci.
https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/author/roxannestone/
Roxanne earned her master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Science with a minor in Chemistry from Utah State University. She has over 12 years experience within the human food industry, specialising in research, product development, and quality assurance. Disenchanted by what she witnessed, she started her own food science consulting firm in 2008 and transitioned into the pet world while consulting for Answers Pet Food. Now, a full time partner with Answers, Roxanne is also a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
Dr Richard Patton
BSc (Anim Sci), MSc (Reprod. Physiol), PhD (Anim Nutr)
https://pattonanimalnutrition.com/
In October 2017, Dr Richard Patton was interviewed by Pippa Hudson on Cape Talk. He has with 40 years in the field, working as a consultant to government bodies, agricultural organisations, pet food companies, and zoos, formulating food formulas for animals from aardvarks to zebras where he explained very succinctly why kibble i.e. dry pellets comprising excessive cereals and grains bulked up with soluble carbohydrate, was a totally inadequate diet for cats and dogs.
It does not match their genetic machinery, the gut micro-flora that educates their immune system. (Although it may seem they are thriving on this unnatural diet) in the long term it is responsible for liver and kidney problems, cancers, sugar diabetes, arthritis and heart problems and in spite of all the hype about it being a balanced nutritional meal, domestic animals are not living as long as they used to, when they were fed pap and gravy and the left-overs from family meals
Dr Anuska Viljoen
BVSc(Hons) VetMFHom MRCVS
Dr Anna Hielm-Björkman
PI, DVM, PhD, CVA, PhD Equine and Small Animal
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Hielm-Bjoerkman
Kymythy R. Schultze
CNN, Author