Dog Food Companies and Veterinarians

The University of Florida appointed a dean for the College of Veterinary Medicine who has spent the last few years working for a dog food company. Dr. Glen Hoffsis will become dean of the Veterinary College in Gainesville in October, 2006. As dean, Dr Hoffsis takes charge of the education of Florida veterinary students. One aspect of veterinary education is nutrition. The recent controversies regarding home cooked diets, raw foods, and commercial foods should be covered in nutrition lectures. Will Dr. Hoffsis promote clear thinking and careful evaluation of the benefits of these different diets, or will he be biased in favor of commercial pet food? What do current veterinary school practices suggest will happen?

The relationship between pet food companies and the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which represents veterinarians and veterinary colleges, is such that

The standard book used to teach nutrition to veterinarians was written by a pet food company.
Research in nutrition is paid for by pet food companies.
Veterinary students receive free dog food while in school.

These points illustrate what a strong role dog food companies play in veterinary education. In addition, lectures on growth and development are often given to vet students by pet food companies. In fact, Dr. Hoffsis’ job at Iams was arranging educational activities for veterinary colleges. Given the current relationship between pet food companies and veterinary colleges, what would show the tax payers funding higher education whether the dean of a college had a balanced approach toward nutrition?

If Dr Hoffsis is biased toward the use of commercial pet food, he will say that pets fed “table food” are prone to illness, and that pets fed raw food are candidates for bacterial infection, such as salmonella. He may also say that pet guardians who handle raw food will also develop salmonella. He may say that everything pets need to be healthy is contained in cooked kibble.

On the other hand, if Dr Hoffsis is unbiased, he will say that nothing is guaranteed free of illness-causing bacteria, including commercial pet foods. He will cite the AVMA journal article that found bacteria in commercial kibble, commercial canned food, and in raw food. He will say the study on cats fed homemade vegetarian diets found cats did ok and did not have vitamin deficiencies, much to everyone’s surprise.

If unbiased, Dr Hoffsis will say, lots of foods are healthy for pets just as they are for us, and that the healthiest foods are those that can be recognized by color, taste, and smell. If it is not possible to look at a food and know what it is, the food has been processed to the degree that its essential nutrients are missing.

Can you recognize any meat in commercial pet kibble? Any fish? Eggs? Oil? Rice or carrots? Can you count any blueberries? If there is yogurt in the pet food, is it still white, creamy, and tart? If not—if you cannot look at the food and tell exactly what it is—the ingredients have been heated, baked, and stored in a manner that robbed it of precious nutrients. To provide for the loss of nutrients, artificial vitamins and chemical ingredients are added. Some commercial foods are dolled up with dyes and perfumed with beef tallow to give them the appeal that raw foods have. After this, many commercial pet food companies add preserve the kibble so it can sit safely on a shelf for a year or two without molding.

This is not to say that all kibble is bad. Some kibble is good. Azmira makes good kibble. Azmira uses range-fed beef and lamb raised without hormones and growth promoting medications. Most pet food companies cannot make this claim. Azmira uses whole grains, not grain waste products such as corn gluten meal or rice flour. Learn all you can so that your veterinarian, who may have been educated by commercial pet food companies, does not intimidate you into buying products not in your pet’s best interest.