There seems to be a growing debate about whether you should feed your dog raw meat or not. It is a popular trend that is all over TikTok with pet influencers and is encouraged by some holistic veterinarians, but is it all it’s cracked up to be?
What is the “Bones And Raw Food” diet?
In the past few decades, it has become more common to feed dogs heat-treated processed food. Now, some pet owners are bucking the more popular tinned dog food trend and going for the raw meat-based diet also known as “Bones And Raw Food”, which gives the delightful acronym of BARF and is marketed as more “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food”.
This diet includes uncooked ingredients that can come from wild animals or livestock and people can either purchase these commercially or prepare them at home. In one 2016 survey, it was found that 3 percent of dog owners in the United States purchased raw pet food and 17 percent of dog owners purchased raw or cooked human food for their beloved furbabies.
While a raw meat diet can meet the nutritional needs of the pet if it is balanced, there is not really any clear evidence that it is better for their health. There are also some potential risks to feeding the animals raw meat.
What do the experts say?
There are many different associations that discourage a raw meat diet for pets. These include the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which opposes feeding this diet to cats and dogs because of the risk to human and animal health. They recommend cooking or pasteurization of the product until it reaches a safe minimum internal temperature which will reduce or eliminate any pathogenic organisms.
Even the Delta Society’s Pet Partners Program excludes animals that eat a raw meat-based diet from participating in their therapy animal program. The reason is that the diet could pose a risk to humans, pets, and other animals.
What are the risks?
Transmission of pathogens to pets
The whole world is full of microbes and some are more harmful than others. Many scientific papers have shown that any animal-sourced protein can be contaminated with different pathogenic organisms, including; Enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp, and Clostridium spp. This can result in the animals developing foodborne illnesses.
Transmission of pathogens to humans
If we are feeding our beloved companions with the food then there is also a risk of us getting illnesses as well.
This could either be from the actual handling of the meat itself, as some of the pathogens could be transferred over to humans, or it could be from the dog. There has been evidence that has shown that seemingly healthy dogs can develop subclinical infections that could be passed on to people, especially elderly, pregnant, young, and immunocompromised people.
Antibiotic resistance
One study found that feeding your dog raw food could also contribute to antibiotic resistance. Scientists looked at poop samples from over 600 healthy pet dogs and found that there was a high association between feeding dogs uncooked meat and them having E.coli that was resistant to one specific antibiotic (fluoroquinolone).
Why do some people like the BARF diet so much?
There are some purported benefits that people who favor this diet for their pets tout, but despite this, many claims are largely unproven, not based on scientific evidence, and are anecdotal.
Their claims include:
- Cleaner teeth: there is limited evidence that raw feeding reduces tooth disease.
- A more natural diet: One thought process that is used by people who tout the need for a raw food diet is that wolves need raw meat as they have a limited capacity to digest dog food, which often has a large component made of carbohydrates. The domestic dog is genetically altered from its wild ancestors so can eat an increased starch diet.
- Avoids potential contaminants that commercial food may contain: In the past, there have been recalls due to contaminants in processed dog food.
- Better taste: As with human food this can depend on the brand that the dogs are fed and the animal’s taste. However, this cute pooch seems to enjoy it:
Further research is probably needed before it is decided whether raw dog food is better or worse than cooked alternatives. But if the advice of the AVMA is anything to go by, it might be best to stick to cooked food for now.
