Is raw pork OK for dogs?

I absolutely would **not**.     I am not negative about raw feeding BUT A) - you're talking about pork and B) you're talking about 'feral'.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine had a LGD (livestock guardian dog) and a friend of hers gave them a hog that had been culled and butchered.  They'd been feeding the LGD raw and so they let her have access to the carcass.

The LGD had been vax'd properly for parvo and distemper.  But several days after leaving the carcass out for her, she came down with Parvo!!!

Essentially what they discovered was --- parvo is "mutating"  and there are strains out there that the vax don't cover.      It's not "huge" yet ... but it IS out there.

The following isn't something you are going to find "studied and tested" -- nor is it something any company is going to willingly admit to.  I got this information from a couple of holistic vet friends of mine (one a nationally acclaimed "teacher" of other holistic vets). In fact this so influenced him, that he has just not eaten pork now in several years.

BUT unfortunately pork, more than any other meat, is used for testing purposes.  This sounds awful but pork is more like human flesh than any other animals (gee, isn't that wonderful news?) -- so big companies that are doing   "testing" on various drugs (antibiotics, and other drugs given humans) for humans often as testing them on porcine flesh first.  It tells them a lot even tho pigs aren't a whole lot "like" us otherwise.  But it tells the testers how much of the drug is later traceable in the meat/flesh or how quickly it may be carcinogenic.  

And super unfortunately, often these animals are then "gotten rid of" -- they may be slaughtered (for testing) or they may then simply be passed off to whol3-salers or individuals.  Unfortunately  it's possible that the animals were exposed to all manner of diseases and if they didn't 'react' in a certain frame of time they were simply disposed of.    

One of the theories of how my friend's dog got parvo was that the hog in question had been used for some form of testing  and somehow it was fertile ground for one of the new strains of parvo, or that it had been exposed to it (thinking they would see if humans could get sick) and disposed of.  The pig may not have sickened but it certainly could have carried the bacteria..

Because what you've got is A) pork and B) you can't trace the background on a feral pig -- in honesty I would pass on it.  You can't assume that merely freezing it would kill sufficient bacteria - particularly  when you are planning to raw feed.

Sorry - not the answer you wanted -- but honestly after what I discovered when I tried to check the veracity of the above information made me uncomfortable enough that now *I* am not eating pork either.  *sigh*

Thanks for answering, if had been just about any other animal I probably wouldn't have bothered asking.  When you say disposed of, are pigs being released into the wild after testing? Cooking it all isn't a problem, it just seems like a great opportunity to give the dogs some great bones.  

I wouldn't worry about giving the dogs feral hog, meat or bones.   Feral hogs are extremely healthy animals for the most part.  The one in a million chance that you'd have a problem isn't worth worrying about.

No, I have no information specifically that they are being released into the wild  and I **did not mean to imply that** .  But honestly what I'm talking about isn't something that would be easily tracked.  

The situation I mentioned above with the LGD that got an offshoot type of parvo -- they had no way of knowing that hog's history.  Not where the people got it originally nor how long they had  it before they decided to cull it ... but when the origin of something is already unknown and knowing how sick my friend's dog became **when it was already properly vax'd and "boostered" (it cost them a ton of money to go all over to get her treated ) -- it wouldn't be my choice to feed pork like that having no clue where the animal came from originally.  

And you understand, I hope, that you can't cook the bones before you feed them (cooked bones of any kind are a 'no no' for dogs because cooked bones splinter).  

I'm assuming you meant cook the meat only ?? -- but meat will cling to the raw bones. -- So you've got two polar opposite responses -- you get to pick, I guess.  If it weren't pork I wouldn't be concerned.  But the fact that it is?  Says it all for me.  

Good luck to you ...

The connection between the dog eating feral hog meat and contracting Parvo, is not proof that the two are related.  Vaccines fail sometimes and that dog could have been exposed to Parvo from the most common source, dog feces.

I'm sorry but just because two "well known" vets claim something is true, doesn't make it true.  

I am aware that I shouldn't feed the bones cooked. I'm sure cutting the meat off the bone while raw would be less than fun, I may just cook them for convenience and look for a better source of bones for the dogs.  My 12 yr old mutt has eaten wild rat, armadillo, turtle, frogs, fish and whatever else he could find when he was young the only thing that really gave him digestive problems where the moldy brussel sprouts, the 11 month old border collie seems to have a much more sensitive stomach.

Some of my friends feed pork. I don't mostly because I've found it to be far to rich for one of my dogs. I've heard the same from others. But in theory, pork is fine.

Some of my friends feed pork. I don't mostly because I've found it to be far to rich for one of my dogs. I've heard the same from others. But in theory, pork is fine.

Eating raw or undercooked pork is not safe for dogs or humans, due to the parasite trichinella spiralis larvae, which can cause the parasite infection known as trichinosis. ... This more commonly affects humans than dogs