You 'Wouldn't Feed It To A Dog' : But Aren't You and Your Dog Eating The Same Poison
Our greater society, those who make money from our free society are abusing that freedom. And in so doing....we are all dying younger than we should from diseases that shouldn't even be on our radar. Remember the old time miners? They used to have a canary in the mineshaft. If the canary stopped singing and dropped dead~ the miners beat feet and ran out of the mine, before the toxic fumes could overtake them! Crude, cruel perhaps by our standards, but an effective warning system for the times.
As you know from reading my CV, my first service dog was Jet, we were a team less than four years, when he passed away from oral cancer. It was a year-long good-bye to another dog who breached the bounds of what could or would be expected from a service dog. It also has made me gun-shy when I hear about dogs dying prematurely from exotic cancers that well...just shouldn't be. Jet was case in point~ the biology of the tumor was all mixed up~ two different cancers, one growing in his mouth that yes, was oral cancer, the other some other form of cancer normally seen on dog's legs and pretty treatable! But why in the world would you ever find them mixed up together into some sort of 'super' tumor? The medical part of me rebels at this.
I recently did several articles on service dogs that went above and beyond what one would expect from dogs that we all can agree are exceptional to begin with. The last two articles got me cogitating on a few things that we should really all sit up a bit and listen to. It cuts across all demographics and religions, even cuts across whether you like animals as companions at all. What is it?
A fine police canine passed away suddenly from a 'previously undiagnosed condition'. Odd that. As anyone knows, our working dogs are loved deeply by their partners, and any strange symptoms would have immediately caused his partner to take him to the vet. Which he did, since apparently the dog pushed through the pain of his condition till he failed on the job~ and his partner raced to the vet...who had to put him down! As a canine partner I can't even imagine the horror of finding our your partner had to be put down right then and there! Horrid. What caught my eye was the dog was only 7 years old. That's barely middle-aged for a dog.
On the other end of the scale was the magnificent Bretagne, the search and rescue dog that worked the 9-11 site and Hurricane Katrina. She retired at 7 years old...but went on to work as a therapy dog in the community schools till this past Monday when she slowly walked between an honor guard of her fellow first responders and was put down due to renal failure. She was two months shy of seventeen years old!
What in the world was the difference here? I have a vested interest to know. My own sweet Frax, who is laying cuddled up beside me has just had his birthday in May, and turned six. We have been a team slightly over four years. I've been unconsciously holding my breath, because it was at this point that I had lost Jet~ right before we had been a team for four years...and for a year before he had been actively fighting cancer!
So, with the history I have behind me, and my service dog cuddled next to me, after I wrote both articles acknowledging both dogs as wonderful helpers in their community, it struck me the vastly different outcomes. I questioned what was the average age in the US when we consider a dog “old”?
Why is it that an 8 or 9 year old dog can have the energy and drive of a much younger dog, while a dog five years old is dying of cancer? Why are humans experiencing the same problems in the “developed” world? In a sentence?
What we eat kills us.
Why are so many young people dying of horrid cancers? Why are some 29 year olds being diagnosed with Alzheimer's for crying out loud? Why are people who are ostensibly healthier than the average person, diagnosed with Parkinson's at amazingly young ages...only to suffer for decades with it till it finally claims them? Why?
We all know why. But we either don't or won't admit it. Pick up a can of anything in your pantry. Read the label. Read all the preservatives and “extra” vitamins and things you cannot pronounce. That's what's killing your friends and family. It's also killing your dog.
I went and researched the top ten dog foods that don't use preservatives or unnecessary chemicals. There are only one or two I'd ever even heard advertised. None are carried in 'regular' grocery stores to my knowledge. If they are, it is very sporatic.
If you want to feed your dog an organic, chemical free diet you have to really want to. You have to research what the best dog foods are (look at the end of the article, I put my sources there). Then you have to figure out which ones are sold Why is that? Could it be that the deck is stacked when it comes to chemical free, nutritious dog food. Why? In a word: MONEY. Follow the money. It's always about that. Always, folks.
If you get nothing else from reading this article I would wish that you would read the labels on the food you get your family, and your furry best friend. If you can afford it, try to eat “as clean” as you possibly can. Why? Because you will be giving your children the greatest gift you can~ grandparents for their children, and a fighting chance against the toxins poured into them since they were born...before they were conceived actually.
I have tried to 'eat clean' for the past year. It's hard. Very hard. I've slipped grievously multiple times, and I'm sure I will again. I've got a terrible problem with sugar! Even when I think I've done well...I haven't because I didn't read the label, or was too tired, or whatever to figure out that what we were eating was loaded with sugar. It takes a huge commitment to eat clean. For one thing, it's more expensive. Why? Shouldn't it be less expensive?
Yup, it should. That dog food should be in every grocery store, readily available and competitively priced. Why isn't it? Those delicious organic free-range eggs should be right front and center, up with the freshly caught wild fish and game. Why isn't it? It isn't as though our country is poor.
But our country depends on big business. Which is great. We all love rags to riches story. I know I do. There are lots of ethical businesses that anyone would be proud to work for and be happy to buy their goods. Somewhere along the line however, things got a bit twisted.
Obviously if you are in business, you are in it to make money. In the food business the money comes in when you can make a product more cheaply than your competitor, obviously. If your product won't go bad on the way to the grocery store you are ahead of the game, obviously. Preservation is a huge issue in a country that depends on huge quantities of food to serve up. We eat a lot in this country. In Los Vegas, they have very popular all you can eat buffets...24 hours a day! Who lives like that?
The buffets finally realized they were throwing out mass quantities of uneaten food due to rules and regulations about how long things should be out on the bar. They are giving the food to shelters, and other venues that can use it soon, to feed those who need food. But there's a short time that food, once opened and prepared is safe and even edible.
That's where big business got the idea about mid-century to start using preservatives. But, ya know, food that's artificially preserved for x amount of time starts looking, well, peaked. Enter in food coloring, even lacquers and agents that make food that is preserved artificially, taste, well, like food!
I'm all about keeping things simple, so the take away from all this is to “eat clean”. Get your food from the edges of the grocery chain food stores. Eat organic veggies and fruits, wild caught meats when you can, organic meat when you can't. Eat meat in general sparingly. Look it up online, humans really don't need the amounts of food we eat...we eat waaay more (and my tummy is proof!) than we should. Support your local farmers! Go to the farmer market nearest you, you'll be surprised what you will find. But a key~ get there early or you will miss out on some good stuff! Like organic eggs! Free range eggs people....all I've got to say is YUM! If you've never eaten a free-range egg, make it your mission to do so. (Side bar here~ I hated eggs as a kid...I used to cry when after Easter mom would say “you dyed it...you eat it!”) Had the eggs tasted like an egg, I'm sure I would have!
Interestingly, as I was finishing up these thoughts, I lost power to the computer (I'm using my old duct-taped beauty, a few last gasps before I do the onerous task of transferring a bulk of data to a waiting new one....one that is running windows 10, and might as well be running it in a foreign language!) So, I took the break to go and give Frax his night-time treat! Crunchy bone! Of course after what I'd written, I read the label: beef skin. Period. Yucky, but that was it. So be it. To each his own and all that.
After consumption of the crunchy bone (half!) and a swig of filtered water (he prefers it, don't we all!), he's snoozing on my aching legs. He feels that if he lies on my legs when they hurt...they will feel better! From an emotional standpoint he is point on. From a physical one....mmm, not so much.
I fired up my battle-scarred Dell, adjusted the empty water bottle underneath it where it's taped (primitive anti-overheating hack), and hoped that the computer gods would smile on me and this article would have survived. I didn't hold out any great hopes, however.
Obviously, it did. But it was during its reboot, when I was checking a news feed, I saw an article about a young singer from Brussels and his aging dog. He was feeling sentimental about his dog friend, who is fifteen, with a new cancer diagnosis. He found an old picture of his pup with him in front of his grandma's home when he was just a pup, and so was his dog friend. A bit more digging showed a picture of him holding his pup in the same sweater in front of his grandma's home, his big pup now fully grown and in his prime! He decided to reproduce the picture again. He had the picture taken, even in the same sweater, in front of his grandma's house (where there are other tenants!). After posting the three pictures with their story, they have gone viral...they've hit a cord with so many people.
It made chills go down my spine that this article had just popped up, when what I had been working on so closely mirrored what this young singer was going through with his dog chum. Then my article miraculously popped back up...and here we are! Serendipity!
Life's like that some times though. Apparently I was meant to write this little article tonight. I know it's difficult financially to eat clean, for humans and for the dogs they love. As much as you can though...do it. If everyone would consider even eating clean one day a week, can you imagine how corporate America would respond? Well...as I said~ follow the money. I know I'm gonna try, for all three of us, in Jet's honor. So that no one else that I love has to suffer like that...it would be worth it, don't you think?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/30/worst-food-ingredients.aspx
http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/food-health/food-and-health-news/what-is-clean-eating/
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/03/11/10-reasons-organic-food-is-so-expensive/
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/red-flag-ingredients/dog-food-preservatives/
http://iheartdogs.com/5-ingredients-you-never-want-to-find-in-your-dogs-food/
http://dogdaysofbirmingham.com/tyfoon/site/fckeditor/file/TOP%20Worst%20&%20Best%20Dog%20Foods.pdf
http://www.reviewjournal.com/trending/silver-state/knowing-vegas-where-does-leftover-buffet-food-end
https://gma.yahoo.com/man-recreates-childhood-photo-dog-15-years-honor-165105705--abc-news-pets.html
