"Although we have come to accept commercial foods
as being normal or natural ways to feed animals (and indeed ourselves),
in fact they are not. They are simply what we've gotten used to in the
last few decades. But nothing we can produce commercially ever can
rival those mysteriously complex foods manufactured for eons by nature
itself."
--Richard Pitcairn, DVM
As a blogger, I know it's my sacred duty to be posting about GannonGate, but I'm way too incensed right now over what I've dubbed "DogAge.comGate," in the hopes that it will become a scandal of massive proportions and bring down the Dry Dog Food Empire of the Modern World.
I have a good friend who takes such outstanding care of her dogs, I would like to be reincarnated as one of them. She told me she'd gotten a bad score as a dog mom on a quiz on a website called DogAge.com, which I'm deliberately not linking because I want you to read this before you go there.
I went over and took a look, and it was familiar to me from its human version, RealAge.com. It asks you some basic questions about how you take care of your dog and what your dog's health and lifestyle are like (and also for identifying information that they will use for marketing purposes, but that's a separate rant). The questions are fairly typical, and I was prepared for a certain "balanced diet and vaccines" bias. This site is, after all, run by Purina.
I was still somewhat taken aback by how upfront they are about those biases.
I filled out the form for a dog who is now gone to Doggie Heaven. I did, however, answer quite truthfully about her in the last year of her life. I was told that her "real dog age" was much younger than her chronological age, but not as young as it could have been.
I was "dinged" for several ways in which I deviate from norms of good animal care, as Purina sees them. I suppose having a basically healthy giant breed dog of TWELVE YEARS OLD doesn't count for as much as I'd have thought.
My first demerit was for not having given Lillie the following vaccinations:
- Bordetellosis (Kennel/Canine Cough) - a bacteria that is
involved with kennel cough, a condition that is usually spread in
boarding environments or dog parks.
- Coronavirus - a specific virus transmitted by the
ingestion of infected feces, which attacks the small intestinal lining,
causing gastroenteritis (inflammation of the digestive system).
I was scolded, "This means that your dog is at higher risk of developing these diseases."
That is simply untrue. Lillie's risk of getting kennel cough caused by the bordetella bacteria was roughly zero, and she would be at greater risk to get symptoms FROM the vaccine than from the disease itself. That's because, as they point out, bordetella is usually spread in "boarding environments or dog parks," two places Lillie did not frequent. The intranasal bordetella vaccine often causes mild symptoms of kennel cough after administration. Furthermore, the immunity to bordetella doesn't last very long, so even if she HAD been vaccinated for it, she wouldn't have had persistent immunity.
And coronavirus? In dogs, this virus does not cause clinical disease except in newborn puppies who are too young to be vaccinated. It has been described as a "vaccine in search of a disease." To suggest an unvaccinated adult dog is at any risk whatsoever of this disease, let alone an increased risk, is just flat out false.
The little robots at DogAge.com then tell me that I should consider vaccinating my dog for Lyme disease. Considering that not one veterinary college in the US recommends this vaccine, that it can cause an untreatable form of Lyme arthritis, that Lyme is a treatable bacterial infection that rarely causes any symptoms at all in infected dogs - well, you do the math. WHY should I consider using a very ineffective, high-risk vaccination for a treatable disease that generally does not cause any symptoms in infected dogs?
I was also aggravated when I took the test for another dog, my Borzoi Kyrie, and indicated that she had received a multi-component shot, but I wasn't sure what was in it (a true statement, because she had a multivalent shot from her
breeder before I got her and I don't remember anymore what was in it,
although I'm fairly sure it was DHPP). For this I was not dinged at all - for being such an idiot that I didn't even know what diseases my dog was vaccinated for - but I was dinged for making the very intelligent choice not to vaccinate Lillie against a harmless virus and with an ineffective bacterial vaccine for a disease she was at minimal risk for.
So much for immunology, let's try nutrition.
Since I checked "raw beef and/or bones" and a 100 percent homemade diet for both dogs, I was ready for a scolding. It was actually milder than might have been expected.
I was asked as I went along if I fed my dog "people food," which is a phrase I particularly loathe. What is "people food" anyway? Purina's last untapped market? When I answered in the affirmative, though, I was advised not to feed it, or if I had to, to limit it to "vegetables, rice, popcorn, pasta, fruit, cottage cheese, low-fat yogurt, hardboiled eggs, and cooked meats." And always, they cautioned, "be sure to include dog food to ensure that your pet gets proper nutrition." (Not prefaced, but should have been, with "And now for a word from our sponsor, Purina!")
I was also treated to a little lecture on the evils of dietary fat for dogs, and encouraged to feed a low fat diet. This, from people who want me to give my little domesticated wolves popcorn? Only in bizarro world is it reasonable to give a dog pasta and popcorn, but to restrict dietary fat! Dogs have no dietary requirement for carbohydrate at all, but most definitely do require dietary fat. Why are we listening to a company that makes cereal-based foods for dogs and cats about carb vs fat ratios in a diet, anyway?
Last, I was also dinged for saying I walked my dog without a leash, even though I clicked "my dog does not need a leash." I didn't say she didn't need a leash because she is so well trained, which would have been untrue for either dog. I said it because the daily walks my dogs receive are on my own securely fenced land. However, this is a minor point and I don't really object to it.
I suppose as outrages go, this one doesn't really amount to much. The human version of this test, which I took several years ago, has a strong bias against the way I eat too - they are firmly in the "dietary fat is evil" camp for all species, it seems! But the bias that is built into this little software program is a real one, and a pervasive one: Responsible owners vaccinate their dogs up the wazoo and always feed their dogs kibble. If you have used your own mind and ability to research vaccines and diet and made a different choice, you are costing your dog years off his or her life.
As someone who has extended her dogs' and cats' lives dramatically over the last 19 years by going against the conventional wisdom on diet and vaccination, I truly resent the underlying assumptions that are everywhere in the veterinary world, not just in this relatively innocuous online quiz.
Even if you don't get rewarded for it by public approbation, consider taking the path less traveled when making care decisions for your pets. I won't tell you they'll never get sick, I won't tell you there are zero risks, but I will state with confidence that you can improve disease resistance, lifespan, and dental health dramatically with natural methods, especially by feeding a high-quality, fresh, wholesome home-prepared diet and using minimal, rational vaccination. And if Purina doesn't like it, you must be doing something right.
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