Sadly, nothing in life is 100% risk free. Everything, from crossing the street to taking a shower has some amount of risk associated with it. Millions of people walk across a road every day on this planet and yet there will be someone someplace that dies today as a result of the choice they made. Statisticians will tell you the odds or risk of that happening to any one individual is very very small ... and yet it happens. Everyday we assess the risk of doing things. Many things we do so often and have done them for so long that we don't even think about the associated risk at all ... like when we simply walk across the road. The trick in all things is always in finding that balance between the risk taken and the benefit for taking that risk.

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about a diet for Humans or a diet for our pets, there are a great many experts both for and against each and every diet for one reason or another. You will find acolytes and zealots for any form of diet that are absolutely convinced that their way is the only way to go and that you are a complete fool for not doing exactly what they do. We hope that no one will ever put that label on us! We have read a great deal, spoken to many people, added our own thoughts to what others have said and for us a raw food diet is the right diet for our pets. We do however recognise that it is not the diet for everyone or for every individual dog or cat.

There are risks associated with all pet food diets. Period! The arguments come in when we talk about the relative risk between one diet over another. Our hope is that we can help you to develop a better understanding of the risks involved so that you can make a better more informed choice about the type of diet you feed your pets. Life is a journey, not a destination! The same thing applies to our pets diet. We strongly encourage you to read more about and speak with others about the different types of diets available.

We can't list here every possible argument, for or against any particular diet, for two reasons; a) we don't know all the arguments and b) we don't have the energy or time to type them all out. We can attempt to give you the major points about the more common types of diets. Please be aware however that most of the arguments, both positive and negative are largely anecdotal with very little hard scientific data being available. What do we mean by that? Well, while there are many published studies about the effects of specific chemicals or specific minerals or specific vitamins on either the human or the canine or the feline body, there is no study that claims to have discovered the perfect diet. If you come across one, please let us know! Humans, canines and felines are multi-cellular, highly evolved, incredibly complex organisms and while a great deal of very valuable research has been done and a great deal more continues to be done, the challenges of studying any particular aspect of diet for both short-term and long-term effects are immense. Every study, whether it supports or refutes your point of view, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It is always important to understand how a particular study was conducted, how many individuals were studied, whether it was looking at short-term or long-term effects, whether you feel the conclusions drawn are valid based on the evidence presented, etc.

While the arguments against the usual comercially prepared pet foods are many and varied, in general they can be summarized in that it is a food of convenience with a focus on low cost, not nutrition. Some of the ingredients used are questionable and chemical preservatives are added for no other reason than to produce a long shelf life in the stores. For a more in-depth look at some of the ingredients used in commercial pets foods have a look at ... Some definitions of common dog food ingredients From the risk perspective commercial pet foods are cooked at high temperatures which kills any bacteria & pathogens and renders the product inert, so inert that any vitamins and anti-oxidant have to be chemically sprayed on just before packaging. So like most things a two-sided coin, kills the bacteria, but also kills many of the nutients. However, not even the commercial pet foods are 100% risk free ... Click here to read the CBC article

The arguments against feeding a raw pet food are also many and varied, however in general they can be summarized as a concern over bacteria & pathogens and not being complete in terms of the nutritional requirements. Have a look at Myths about Raw Feeding for a discussion about the counter arguments. As to the risks, yes there are some, the problem is quantifying them. Again that two-sided coin, the natural nutritional benefits of the raw un-cooked food versus the risks of bacteria & pathogens. All raw food has bacteria and some wild meats like venison and salmon have higher risks of pathogens, however there are some common sense things that can be done to reduce the risks as much as possible. First off using quality ingredients, freezing the food and practicing proper hygene when handling raw foods all help to reduce the risk of problems. However, nothing is 100% risk free and we strongly encourage you to check out the websites on our Links page and read some of the books on our Reading List to help you better gauge & understand the risks & benefits of feeding a raw food diet to the pets you love.

Suspect we will never really be finished with this page ... or completely happy with the wording ... consider it a work more or less constantly under construction, so please for the sort of information you would like to see presented here.