Raw Food Diets May Be Dangerous for Pets

Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 11:45am





  • Practice regular hand washing before and after feeding pets.
  • Practice appropriate disposal methods when cleaning up pet feces.






Let's just not get mad at each other over this!









Teresa F. Roberts



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Safe raw diets are actually really simple. Just choose your meat source carefully! Factory farms are notorious for sending feces-smeared and sickly animals to slaughterhouses. The feces on these animals gets into the meat, and that's what makes people and pets sick when it's eaten raw. Instead of getting meat from the grocery store or butcher, get it from a local farm. Your farmers' market will have plenty of local farms, or, better yet, get a CSA subscription from the farm of your choice (this is cheaper than buying by the pound). Small farms that don't utilize feedlots have happier, healthier, and CLEANER meat. Feel free to inquire about their husbandry and slaughtering practices; most farmers are happy to give you the details or even let you visit to see for yourself. If you'd like, you can even swab some meat and have it lab-tested to be sure that the bacteria count is low, but really, if they're using a small local slaughterhouse or slaughtering themselves, and if they're not using feedlots (they should have "grass-fed" or "free-range" or "pastured" meant), their meat will be MUCH safer. I have actually eaten raw meat from a local farm as part of a gourmet meal. If I trust them to feed me safe raw meat, I trust them to feed my pets. Plus, it's more humane to buy meat from places like these. The livestock on small farms generally is happier, healthier, and allowed to live comfortably until they're slaughtered, and small local slaughterhouses treat them MUCH better than the processing plants that grocery store meat comes from.


People get so heated about raw vs. cooked diets that it sometimes makes me angry just reading what people write! Advocates of raw diets are so adamant about their viewpoints without providing much empirical, scientific evidence but instead basing their claims on personal experiences. I haven't yet made up my mind yet about whether raw is better for dogs, but I'm leaning more towards cooked just to err on the side of caution against parasites, bacteria, etc. I've done a lot of research on this issue, I have discussed dog evolution with professors, and I have a BA in Biological Anthropology and Evolutionary Psychology. Some points I'd like to make and questions that I'd like to find out the answers to, regarding raw and cooked:

Are the improvements raw-advocates see in their dogs from feeding raw, or from feeding fresh human-grade meat?

Wolves have much shorter lifespans. Dogs can live 15+ years, even without veterinary care and modern medicine to treat illnesses. BUT obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases is a recent phenomenon. I attribute this to lack of exercise and inappropriate diets (sugar, grains, artificial preservatives, etc.)

Dogs are no longer wolves. Humans have spent tens of thousands of years selectively breeding dogs. Dogs are humans' oldest domesticates, before any crops or any other animal.
So how much has the dog changed since its evolution from the wolf?
One crucial point: dogs have lost their ability to hunt; they are mostly scavengers. How has that effected their bodies, and what is their (now) ideal food source?

The dog's ideal diet may indeed be what it has evolved to eat, which may be what humans have fed it for thousands of years, instead of what the wolf ate. But what did people feed dogs over the course of their evolution? This may be breed-specific. Arctic dogs were fed raw meat, but probably not so much lap dogs.

Humans have shorter digestive tracts than other omnivores. This is because we eat cooked foods, which are easier to digest. So dogs' short digestive tracts may be a combination of their history as carnivores AND their history of benefitting off of the digestibility of cooked foods (fresh, not kibble).
The digestive tracts of smaller dogs make up a larger proportion of their bodies than larger dogs. Years of selective breeding may have messed up their ability to safely process raw meats.

Humans greatly benefitted from cooked foods. Hominids once ate raw foods too. Cooking food increased the bioavailability of nutrients and aided in the development of larger brains in humans. Maybe animals in the wild would benefit from cooked foods too, but they haven't been able to man fire yet! (It's possible that cooked foods also allowed dogs to have increased cranial capacity and become more intelligent too).

It's true that cooking destroys some nutrients. But it also makes others more bioavailable, producing certain enzymes and allowing nutrients to be more easily absorbed.

I believe fruits and veggies should be cooked for dogs to allow for easier digestion and proper absorption of nutrients.
There are numerous studies showing that dogs who eat raw meat shed Salmonella and E. Coli in their stools but don't show clinical symptoms. I'm sure dogs can handle raw meat and its bacteria.
I'm not so sure about parasites, which have evolved to be able to survive stomach acid and attach themselves to the lining of the intestines.

I do NOT believe dogs should be fed any grains, especially not wheat, corn, or soy. Humans do not even do well on these cereals, which have spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving defense mechanisms to prevent mammals from ingesting them. Wheat makes mammals' digestive tracts more permeable, allowing larger food particles to pass through and be recognized by the body as foreign antigens. Thus, the large incidences of food allergies in dogs to things they should not otherwise be allergic to (beef, chicken, lamb, etc.).

And now for the personal anecdotes lol. I have two dogs: a chi-jack russell mix and a chi-doxie-terrier mix. My dogs LOVE cooked meats. They don't seem to like raw meat for some reason. Is this because they are less "primitive" than other dog breeds (Chows and Shibas for instance)?

I NEVER feed them any grains, and I feed them high animal-protein diets. They have full, soft, lustrous coats (for wiry hair!) and no bad breath whatsoever. Their vets always compliment their white, plaque-free teeth. (Btw, vets know NOTHING about nutrition! I've seen two vets and they feed their dogs Science Diet and Purina!) Little dogs have a lot of problems from selective breeding, such as dental problems and environmental allergies. They are very far removed from their wolf ancestors.

I take my dogs hiking a lot, and they drink from the streams when they are thirsty. I discovered this is a bad idea. One of my dogs contracted giardia and at least two other parasites, I'm assuming from scavenging (they tend to pick up meat, bones, other food on walks and parks) and drinking contaminated water, as they don't eat poop. So dogs can easily pick up parasites! Another reason I am very careful with raw diets, although I do feed seared meat and some raw meat. (Raw chicken bones, at least the leg bones, DO SPLINTER!)

Pet parents, please do your own research before making assumptions and believing unfounded facts and testimonials not based on empirical research and primary scientific studies (NOT the reporting/synopsis of the studies on websites, especially not dog food company or government sites).


The list of foods supposedlydangerous to pets is so bogus. I agree that grapes and raisins shouldn't be fed, but they don't list onions which should also not be fed. But my dogs love fruit of all kinds. I've been feeding my dogs a raw meaty bone diet with various supplements since the late 90s. I never have to have their teeth cleaned and never have any anal glad problems. Canines eat raw food in the wild. It's a fact that cooking, regardless of rendered or baked commercial foods are NOT good for canines because it's highly processed food. Canine digestive systems are very different from our own in that theirs are designed to eliminat waste rapidly. So the E Coli and Salmonella issue is not a problem for canines. It never has a chance to take hold. The one exception is if the canine has a comprimised immune system. I would not and will not ever feed my dogs commercial food again. You really have no idea of what's in it. They can move the ingredients up and down the list with no repercussions. They are big business and they do NOT have your pet's interest formost in their agenda......profit is their agenda. Even veterinarians are somewhat brainwashed to feed commercial foods. But then who pays for scholarshipe etc for vets at the vet schools. Ask yourself that?