Freedom
Posted : 10/1/2012 5:16:29 PM
I agree, it is sales driven, rather inflammatory.
Much of what he is says at the start is valid, and you can verify it if you start researching dog foods online.
Ethoxyquin: is used to preserve fish and is applied prior to the dog food manufacturer obtaining the ingredient; so it is not listed on the bag. Taste of the Wild is an example; ethoxyquin is in most if not all of their formulas, but not listed on their bags.
Deceased animals used in pet food: there was a huge expose' about this sometime in the past. Don't know if it still true or not, but I remember when this was in the news, so maybe the 1980's????
I think the important thing is to educate yourself. Learn how to read pet food labels (yes, this applies for cats too) What "may" be included in vague terms like 'meal,' 'digest,' and other terms. Make a decision for yourself and your pets as to what you will and will not feed.
While I think cooking for my pets would be best, I can't do it regularly. So I choose to buy foods which use human grade ingredients, and foods which are prepared at human food processing plants.
There are lots of good recipes available is you want to cook for your pets. "The Whole Pet Diet" by Andi Brown is one of my favorite books, because she spends time explaining what the ingredients and each herb does, what value it provides to the pet. Her book has been reviewed by The Whole Dog Journal, and their one complaint was that she does not discuss the importance of calcium enough, especially for puppies. Her recipes were fine, as they DO include calcium in proper amounts; she just doesn't explain it enough that you can go off and experiment on your own and get it right. You can find this book at most libraries.
Maybe you've heard this in other settings: consider the source. What is the purpose the author / speaker is aiming at? What is that person / company's bias? In the case of the video, he is trying to sell his book, so he takes lots of things out of context, imo.
He says you can learn from his book if a can or bag is a good food in 3 seconds with his technique. Well, what he is going to do it explain what the terms mean. You can start learning that stuff by going here: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ Read some 6 star reviews, then read some 3 star reviews. You will catch on and then you too can look at any can or label and decide in 3 seconds if the food is something you want to feed or not. AND you didn't have to spend $57 for his book, to do it.
A book which I believe you can find at any library, Food Pets Die For, is also a good base; I've not read it as I've heard enough about it to know I will get much too upset by it, so I learned what the terms mean, and did research without actually reading that sort of book.
Hope this helps!