Multi-billion-dollar pet food fraud by Dr Tom Lonsdale

As someone fully aware of the damage a highly processed diet can do, I was appalled to discover the same issue lies in pet food.

I can thank Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud by respected vet Dr Tom Lonsdale for opening my eyes to a shocking issue with serious implications for the health and wellbeing of our furry friends.

It provides a damning exposé of the global ‘junk pet food’ industry, which the author accuses of putting profits before science in producing industrialised pet food that, he says, can actually harm pets and impact their lifespan.

Specifically, it sets out to show how processed pet food is directly linked to gum disease and visible dental disease in dogs and cats, which can lead not only to bad breath and bad behavioural traits but, as with humans, to numerous debilitating chronic health conditions including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

Based on three decades of ground-breaking research, Dr Lonsdale, who ran a thriving veterinary practice in Australia for more than 40 years, insists that dogs and cats should,

instead, be eating a diet of raw meaty bones – similar to what their ancestors would have eaten in the wild.

Raw meaty bones, he says, properly massages gums and cleans teeth – preventing gums from becoming sore and inflamed, and preventing the host of diseases which we know can affect humans who suffer from poor oral hygiene.

After identifying the problem and recommending the solution, as he sees it, the author, dubbed the ‘whistleblower vet’, sets his sights on the purveyors of this junk pet food.

After all, knowledge is power, and Dr Tom Lonsdale blows away the confusion so you can best protect your pets.

Accusing the wider pet food industry of “relentless junk food propaganda and advertising”, he attacks their attempt to portray their food as wholesome when, Lonsdale says, they are aware of its multiple failings, especially the failure to maintain dental good health.

He also highlights the connection of multinational pet food companies to many veterinary schools and practices, and the questionable financial incentives given to these institutions.

The book traces the problem back to the beginning of the pet food industry in the 19th century, founded by businessmen and entrepreneurs with little knowledge of nutrition.

Today, the sector is worth a whopping $128billion worldwide but in Dr Lonsdale’s view, this is only because of a tacit agreement between vets, veterinary schools, governments, and others to keep the ill effects of junk pet food from becoming common knowledge.

Dr Tom Lonsdale is the father of the raw meaty bones diet and since first noticing a potential connection between diet and health in pets, his crusade to challenge the status quo has had the

backing of many pet owners who attest to the transformation in their pets’ health after swapping to raw meaty bones.

His position reminds me greatly of those brave lone voices who dared to take on the tobacco industry decades prior.

Having authored two previous books, 2001’s Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health and 2005’s Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones, which have just been republished through Rivetco in conjunction with the release of Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud, readers have a wealth of resources to help them introduce their pets to a raw meaty bones diet, should they find the author’s position on industrialised pet food persuasive.

It is, though, up to the reader to decide and that’s where Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud really shines. It is polemic in its indignation but is not attempting to create disciples. Rather, it is presenting a rarely aired counter view, with reams of supporting evidence, to let pet owners do what they think is right for their pets.

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. Return the favour by reading this book.

Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud: Hiding in Plain Sight by Dr Tom Lonsdale is available on Amazon in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats, priced £13.59, £7.99 and £8.48 respectively. For more information, visit www.thepetfoodcon.com or follow Dr Lonsdale on YouTube 

Q. Why can’t pet owners rely on pet toothbrushes, or hard chews like hide chews, rather than raw meaty bones?

A. If pet owners reflect on how carnivores in the wild ‘brush’ their teeth – by ripping and tearing at their prey – they’ll realise it takes concerted effort over a long period of time on a regular basis to effect proper cleaning of teeth and massaging of gums. Even down to your diminutive house cat, have you thought about the physical forces needed to eat a rat?

Q. Are there any risks to feeding pets raw meaty bones?

A. Risks need to be acknowledged (education) and managed (practical application). Procurement, handling, storage, and administration of nature’s safest, most effective, most gentle medicine needs to be thought through. Raw meaty bones commensurate with the size of the pet should be fed. The less processing the better. Feed complete with fur, feathers, and fins if possible. Do not chop meat and bone into bite-sized chunks that can be swallowed whole and get stuck.

Risks of bacterial contamination tend to be overstated. The chicken you feed your dog or cat is the same as you keep in the fridge.

Q. Your treatment of thousands of pets has included introducing raw meaty bones into their diet. What has been the most remarkable turnaround in wellbeing brought about by the introduction of this diet?

A. Stopping the feeding of junk food removes multiple harmful factors and straightaway does good. Legions of chronic diarrhoea and chronic skin disease cases clear up within days. The sheer number of such cases is indeed ‘remarkable’.

Q. How can you be sure that gum disease in pets is connected to their diet?

A. Try eating canned sludge and hard biscuits and never brushing your teeth. This provides enough personal experience to convince any sceptic. Couple that with the contemplation of how wolves and cats in the wild and in the zoo don’t have gum disease and the evidence is overwhelming. There’s plenty of ‘scientific’ information in the literature discussing this very aspect. Junk pet food companies and their vet apologists admit and agree that the modern diets are at the root of the problem.

Pet owner observations recount the dramatic improvements of their pets’ halitosis and gum disease upon switching from junk food to raw meaty bones.

Q. Is there any difference between the raw meaty bone diet for dogs and cats?

A. The main difference is the size of the whole carcasses or raw meaty bones fed to each species. Raw meaty bones need to be fed in large pieces requiring the maximum ripping and tearing for maximum medicinal benefit. For large dogs that could be pig heads, lamb necks, whole chickens or chicken frames with the meat mostly removed for human consumption. Cats and tiny dogs do well on quail, fish, chicken wings and necks.