I have wanted to write this Blog post for a while but fear has always held me back. As someone who only ever wants to do the right thing and like so many of as highly sensitive people, we are acutely aware of what others may think; I really felt frightened to write this. The pet food corporates are so big and so powerful and I felt so small and my voice so insignificant....but you have changed all of that!
You support me by sending me stories of incredible changes in your dogs when they transition to plant-based and every success story that I receive makes me feel a little less intimidated by the large corporates and more and more empowered to tell the truth, so here it is......
I spoke at the London Vet Show in 2023 to educate as many vets there as I could about the huge health benefits of a plant-based diet in our dogs. Very sadly, the symbol for the London Vet Show in 2023 was a pig (as shown in the image above), and how ironic as one of the sections of my talk on the day was explaining about this published article -
Toxic element levels in ingredients and commercial pet foods
Quote from the article - “The highest toxic metals concentrations, in general, in animal-based ingredients than plant-based ingredients could be attributed to the potential for the accumulation of these elements in the animal organism. Some elements can accumulate in animal tissues, such as bone tissue, skeletal muscle, liver, kidneys, and spleen, as well as in animal products such as milk, reaching critical concentrations that may imply adverse effects on the health of human beings or pets who consumes these products.” - published in Scientific reports October 2021. Read full study here
What the published article highlights, is the process of BIOACCUMULATION that occurs where small ocean caught fish full of heavy metals are ground up and fed to chickens to encourage growth for their slaughter at 6 weeks. The chicken livers will have the accumulated fish toxins as these are the bird's excretory organs, and these livers are then crushed up and used to feed to pigs who are omnivores and also need to grow rapidly for slaughter at an early age for their bodyparts.
Yet again, the toxins will bioaccumulate in the pork fat, and in the liver/kidneys (byproducts and excretory organs of the animal). Read more about bioaccumulation in our article about cancer and a dog's diet in this Blog post.
The article I highlighted at the London Vet Show exposes some very worrying statistics. Here is a section from the article -
Hills, Purina and Royal Canin (who had sponsored the London Vet Show as they do alomost every vet show!), add pork fat or pork by-products to almost every one of their expensive foods, including their prescription diets specifically the Hills Oncology Diet ie those for dogs with cancer, and Royal Canin Renal Diet ie those dogs with kidney disease being fed even more toxins for their diseased kidneys as shown below!!
With the Royal Canin kidney diet, where the food contains Grade 1 carcinogenic ingredients with the inclusion of pork by-products, these toxins in the pork will need to be processed through the dog with already ailing kidneys and could hasten the onset of further renal disease in a dog, instead of benefitting the dog!!!
The published article states that "The highest toxic metals concentrations, in general, in animal-based ingredients than plant-based ingredients could be attributed to the potential for the accumulation of these elements in the animal organism."
**IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT A PLANT-BASED DIET SUCH AS ANY OF THOSE WE SELL IN OUR JUST BE KIND SHOP WILL CONTAIN NONE OF THESE TOXIC ANIMAL BY-PRODUCT CARCINOGENS!**
What about products made by Nestle Purina?
Let's look at the highly processed ingredients in Purina HA dried food (taken off the Purina website)
These ingredients are very concerning as the sugar component (yes pure sugar is the 5th ingredient which we don't even want to imagine what that will do to a dog's teeth and hormones long term!), is from corn.
The corn starch ingredient and soya protein used would come from exactly the same source as used to feed our livestock animals. These 2 ingredients - corn and soya are used so much globally as animal feed that they have been genetically modified to withstand pests that damage the crops. This means that the vast fields will be sprayed with pesticides to kill the weeds that grow amongst them, but the GMO corn and soya will survive due to their genetic modification.
So in effect, ANY dog food that contains soya or corn (maize) which does NOT mention that it has been organically and sustainably sourced (such as Noochy Poochy puppy food that we sell); will contain genetically modified ingredients affected by pesticides which are toxins to our dogs and will shorten their lifespans!!
This can be one of the most important factors as to why vegan dog foods were shown to lengthen the lifespan of a dog by up to 18 months!! (See published research on Dogs Go Plant-Based website)
Here is an interesting article about how pets have fallen ill eating Purina foods but no bacteria were found, so is it just the ingredients that are causing the issues?
Are Hills, Royal Canin and Nestle Purina threatened by Vegan Dog Food?
ABSOLUTELY they are as they compete with each other as all 3 are multi-billion companies that float on the stock exchange and a lot of money is at stake to keep their shares bouyant and competitive!
Hills is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, and in February 2024, a lawsuit was filed against the companys' vets for making false statements linking “boutique, exotic and grain-free” diets to a greater risk of dogs developing Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Read more about this multi million pound court case here that is still ongoing.
Royal Canin is owned by Mars Petcare (who also own over 1000 veterinary practices in the UK - mainly specialist veterinary practices as shown in this article). Mars Petcare funded a study at the Liverpool Veterinary School using one of their Royal Canin vets Dr Alex German, to attempt to contradict Prof Andrew Knight's very thorough and non-corporate funded study into the benefits of vegan dog food diets. A fresh row erupted as shown here, with Royal Canin unable to show that dogs on a vegan diet did not benefit. How sad that Mars Petcare sought to fund this study to rundown Prof Knight's valuable studies, instead of focussing on the very harmful rise in the number of people feeding their dog's a raw food diet that has had NO studies showing any positive effects, only 85 studies (!!) showing how dangerous they are to our health, our dog's health AND our future's health!
Nestle Purina own Lily's Kitchen that make 2 brands of vegan tinned food - Lily's Kitchen Vegan Stew and Burrito Bowl. They also own Purina HA prescription foods (shown above to contain GMO corn and soya), and instead of advertising their Lily's Kitchen vegan products to vets that are far healthier for dogs without the inclusion of any genetically modified and highly processed ingredients, they ONLY stock Purina HA in vet practices - WHY IS THAT as surely vegan dog food that dogs can stay on indefinitely is a far healthier option than highly processed genetically modified corn and soya?!
It is down to the fact that like Mars Petcare owning over 1000 vet practices and using these practices to sell Royal Canin; Nestle Purina own a share in the largest veterinary corporate IVC Evidensia that now owns over 2500 veterinary practices in 20 countries but mainly in the UK, and they all sell Purina HA!
We all know that corporate companies that float on the stock exchange do not have the health of our dogs or our planet at heart as we do as with any corporate it is all down to the money, not kindness and doing the right thing!
