As I feared, AVMA passed its policy advising against feeding raw.

I know that AVMA has a lot of policies that I’m not in agreement with and they certainly aren’t forbidding anyone from feeding raw, but I still am very wary of what impact this policy will have in the future. What bothers me the most is this paragraph that was taken out:

The AVMA recognizes that some people prefer to feed raw or undercooked animal-source protein to their pets. The AVMA recommends that veterinarians inform pet owners of potential risks and educate them on how to best mitigate the risk of pathogen exposure in both handling the food and in managing pets consuming undercooked or raw animal-source protein diets.

It’s wishy-washy at best so with or without the paragraph I’m not copacetic with the policy, but if I’m understanding it correctly without these few sentences it seems AVMA is more firmly on the side of not feeding raw. This takes away the acknowledgement that people can choose to feed raw even though AVMA discourages it. Mostly I am confused by the veterinarian bit because either way it seems ambiguous.

Frankly, it bothers me that so much stock is put into what a vet’s opinion is anyway. Nothing against any specific vets, but being a veterinarian does not make one an expert of pet nutrition. Of course, I’m not saying there aren’t vets knowledgeable on the subject. However, in my personal experience vets tend to push the food that just so happens to sponsor them rather like many doctors tend to suggest prescriptions they got as a free sample. In fact, I’ve had vets suggest foods that aren’t just subpar in my opinion, but were in fact unhealthy for my dogs. The whole thing gives me a headache.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that you need to do what works for your specific pet. Not every diet will work for every pet any more than every diet works for every human. My best advice is to do your own research and learn about what the healthy foods are and which are the foods you want to avoid.

EDIT #5: The policy was passed.

Three posts in one day is a rare thing around here, but I wanted to share this post, which details information regarding an upcoming vote by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine to create a new policy that will ”discourage the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans.”

The article author urges all concerned parties to act on this and contact the AVMA. Her sample letter contains a lot of pertinent information about feeding raw and I urge everyone to please read it and then shoot off an email or letter to AVMA via the contact information she has provided.

Also, there’s a petition that you can sign.

Please share this with others! This potential policy could have extreme impact and it will only be through educating others and bringing awareness about raw pet food that we’ll get anywhere with this.

EDIT: AVMA’s post regarding the policy, including the official “exact document that will be considered.” My thoughts on this are that so far as I’m privy to information there were no outright claims that AVMA was working with pet food companies and/or setting any law precedents. The concern is that this decision itself will be the beginning of such things and that will certainly greatly impact raw feeders. Also, their “scientific studies” only show one element of fact and don’t quantify the risks other types of food present or the fact that raw pet food is no more or less a risk than handling raw human food.

EDIT #2: Dr. Amy Nesselrodt  has posted a letter to AVMA on Facebook. Also, I’ve now made this post a sticky and I’ll continue to update as I come across information.

EDIT #3: Susan Thixton has another post on Truth About Pet Food going into some further detail of the history of the raw food backlash and her theory on where AVMA’s proposed policy could lead.

EDIT #4: Dr. Karen Becker has posted a very thorough summary of the proposed policy.