Dear Dogs Today,
Do other caring dog owners give thought to the dogs they don't see? The ones living in labs having new dog foods tested on them?
Some companies subject dogs to a battery of cruel tests like deliberately over feeding to make dogs obese and diabetic and making puppies develop allergies so they can test non-allergen food on them.
At the end of these tests the dogs are then put to sleep so that autopsy's can be carried out.
I posted a question about this on a dog answers forum (yahoo answers) and was shocked at how little anyone cared. Most of these answers were from owners in the US though so how do UK owners feel about this?
Do Dogs Today readers try to make ethical choices or do they only go for the cheapest, easiest food?
I am Vegan but even I can see that a raw diet is more ethical than one that tests on animals.
After all I wouldn't buy baby food that was tested on babies!
Kelly Basford
Hi Kelly
There are quite a number of UK pet food companies that are proud to say they don't test. Peta has a list and so do Uncaged.
I'm sure these lists aren't exhaustive and there are other small companies that don't know these lists even exist.
My impression is there are lots of caring pet owners and pet food manufacturers trying to do the best they can.
Best wishes
Beverley Cuddy, Editor Dogs Today
Yes Beverley you are quite right, this is my main reason for buying Burns dog food. And along with suiting my ethics, my dogs like it!
ReplyDeletewhat Fiona said
ReplyDeleteI use Naturediet for the same reasons. I chose very carefully indeed.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand why certain very well known and supposedly reputable pet food manufacturers feel the need to keep on testing. After all - all of these tests have already been carried out in other countries.
Firstly this kind of testing is quiet horrendous.
ReplyDeleteSecondly and most important it is for all dog lovers and owners to know that packaged and preserved food is the cause for higher incidence of immune related disorders like cancers in the man's best friend. A raw diet which isn't highly cooked and rich in green vegetables is the best for dogs and can eliminate the risk for a lot of diseases in the long run. The key over here is organic and not genetically modified.
Dr Joanna Budwig also recommends organic diet comprising of fresh fruits and veggies in her famous Budwig protocol.
I feed Naturediet and Arden Grange because I think they are good quality pet foods and because neither are tested on animals :-)
ReplyDeleteAngela
This is actually a huge and complex question. Many pet feeds are made by huge companies that also make other products and they might test those products on animals.
ReplyDeleteEven if a company doesn't test its products on animals, how do you know where the ingedients have come from? I doubt much of it is high welfare, unless the product is organic, but an organic label is no indication that a feed is good quality - it could contain a whole load of, for instance, grains, that might well be organically-grown but aren't really appropriate to feed a carnivore.
If you buy packaged raw meat from pet feed suppliers, how do you know whence they source their meat? It might well not even be British, let alone high-welfare.
Worms, can of......
This is certainly a very complicated subject. Obviously nobody wants to buy a pet food that has been developed through animal suffering but I wonder how specific prescription diets (kidney diets etc) can be produced without some sort of tests to make sure that they improve (or at least reduce stress on) kidney function. I'm certainly not defending these kinds of tests, but I would imagine that for those kinds of diets some testing is necessary. I also agree with Christine Bailey: unless those feeding raw foods are sourcing ALL their meat from 100% organic and welfare friendly farms (which is unlikely as the cost is often prohibitive for humans!) then even raw feeding is causing animals to suffer.
ReplyDeleteI was very interested in the Peta link that Beverley posted but was a bit shocked to see at the bottom a comment advocating feeding your dog or cat a vegetarian or even vegan diet! While a dog may survive a vege diet, I can't believe that an organisation which claims to have animals' best interests at heart would suggest such a feeding regime which would definitely cause blindness and suffering in cats....please please ignore Peta's suggestion if you have any felines at home
Hi, Kelly Basford here!
ReplyDeleteSo great to see so many caring UK dog owners!!
As for the vegan/veg dog food I'll just stick my oar in ;)
Nutritionally feeding one of these foods is no worse than feeding say a middle of the range prepared dog food. Many commercial dog foods are cooked in such a way that vitamins, minerals and taurin(sp?) have to be added in at the end!
Totally agreed on not feeding cats veggie, they are obligate carnivores and can't do well on a veg*n diet at all.
As I said in my post, I am vegan, my dogs meals are split into a fish and rice dry food and home made vegan food (veg/ rice/pasta/ nutritional yeast flakes/ soya mince/oils, although not all at the same time!) They do really well on this and it works for us although may not work for everyone :P
Thanks again for showing you care :)
I love dogs and I am getting a new whippet puppy in one month. I would never feed my new puppy or my past dogs any kind of food tested on any animals of the sort. I think it is cruel and unhumanely. I totally agree with you and I fed and will be feeding my dogs tripe with a mixture of dry food. Tripe is very good for your dogs skin, i thouroughly reccommend it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the comments here. It's not just a question of animal testing though, it's also about whether animals have been treated well during their lifetime, before slaughter... and the only way of being able to guarantee this on a large scale is through buying certified organic foods where animal welfare has been carefully monitored over time. It does come at a cost though. Balancing price is tricky - organic ingredients are very expensive, for example, our organic chicken fat which we use in our kibble for example is 24.00 per litre as opposed to non organic which is 0.24p per litre - a massive difference! We do work very hard to keep the cost of our food down but at least our customers know that what they are paying for is ethically sourced ingredients.
ReplyDeleteHi all, I have three dogs and i feed only home prepared diets for the reason that i can go to the supermarket and see the chicken or lamb and know it is in date, i would be concerned feeding a pet food that will contain meat that is not fit for human consumption because it may be rotten or the parts we would not eat, also the very ethical reason of animal testing, i add lots of vegetables to every meal so they are not missing out, i also use fish in their diets. why dont we spread the word about highly commercial pet foods that are trusted by dog lovers but test on animals, i have told people and i am astounded that they dont believe me!
ReplyDeleteSusan,