The Nature of Animal Healing

The issue of raw-meat feedings to pets in a contentious one among holistic veterinarians. It's true that raw meats do accord with pets' natural diets and supply, among other nutrients, the amino acid taurine, found only in flesh-based protein. My hesitation is that I don't trust the meat . The E. coli outbreak that led to a huge federal recall of frozen hamburger patties in 1997, the widespread incidences before that of salmonella in chicken--these were, I feel, only the latest indications that our meat is unsafe. So I cook my pets' meat as a rule. Then, to compensate for what has been destroyed by cooking, I add specific supplements and enzymes. If you have a source you trust, though, you might give organic raw meat a try--as I did, sort of by accident.

I kept my own pets away from raw chicken when I first began cooking for them, even though I used only free-range chicken. Then one evening I had to rush out on an emergency call and left a nearly defrosted raw chicken on the kitchen counter. I came back to find parts of a picked-clean carcass on the floor, with five very self-satisfied dogs and cats munching on chicken bones in the living room. I was sure that if the meat didn't poison them, they'd choke on the bones. Guess what? They were fine.