In a veterinary world dominated by big pet food corporates, none of which offer any sustainable plant-based options and all of them vying to be seen by vet students so that they become the 'sellers' of these meat-based pet foods in veterinary practices; how fortunate and excited I felt to be invited yet again to speak in front of 450 students at the Glasgow Small Animal Nutrition Symposium!
I was invited last year and had my 20 minute slot to speak in between Nestle Purina and raw vet (yes incredibly and VERY sadly, there is a vet who passionately advocates for the dangerously worrying raw feeding of our dogs and cats, as does UK Petfoods who spoke before me agree that it is safe for our pets!!). I confess to shutting down completely when raw vet spoke as I was SO shocked by what he said to the students (see what he answered below when questioned by very concerned students!!)
This year; I had SO much more to share with the students - SO much positivity!!
I thought that I would share with you exactly why me being there was a HUGE SUCCESS for our future and the future of our dog and cat's health as these are the slides and information that the students heard instead of the other speakers concentrating on the extremely damaging and worrying animal agriculture industry.
Here is my talk in slides:
Always have to start with the extremely worrying statistics that make me want to cry and as a mother and highly sensitive person, these statistics wake me at 4 in the morning terrified about what we have done to our planet -
BUT we have the PERFECT SOLUTION with plant-based dog and cat nutrition all thanks to the intensive studies by Prof Andrew Knight. We all love the science and we ALL need that evidence-based medicine proving that this is not only right by our planet, but also the health of our dogs and cats!
We don't just have studies done in the UK by Prof Andrew Knight, but we have studies too by the lovely Dr Sarah Dodd in Canada showing that our dogs and cats could live up to 18 months longer on a nutritionally sound plant-based diet - wow!!
The students heard from Prof Clare Knottenbelt in a short clip where she tells us how her own dog Jumble transformed when he transitioned onto a plant-based diet. Prof Clare Knottenbelt's words are particularly important to the students as she used to be a lecturer at Glasgow University for over 10 years! (Click on image below to hear her inspiring words when she transitioned her own Jumble)
The students heard about the very first studies done showing how the genomes of our dogs have changed as they have lived with man for 20000-40000 years and the genes for carbohydrate digestion have adapted and changed so dogs CAN digest starches and they need at least 50% of their diet to be carbohydrates (from good quality plants!). I told the students about the dangers of high meat diets and raw diets here that can result in painful pancreatitis and kidney disease that shortens the lifespan of our domestic dog as dogs are NOT wolves!!
And then there is true innovation using faba bean protein for the very first time as a hugely sustainable and palatable protein source as used in Give A Dog A Bean (along with all its other amazing wholefood ingredients). Faba beans replace the nitrogen in the soil as they grow so are natural fertilizers - you cannot get better regenerative farming than that! Purina has tried to step into this sustainability space and has just launched a dog food containing faba bean protein....but they add chicken livers to it!!
Amazing facts to share from Nextmune dermatology company showing how dogs are highly allergic to ALL animal proteins and especially beef, while cats are highly allergic to fish which can cause severe skin reactions (and they are prone to getting kidney disease from high arsenic in fish, as well as hyperthyroidism from high mercury in fish-based cat foods!!)
Here is where I show the vet students the PERFECT solution to dogs with allergies to all of the above, as Solo Vegetal is free of ALL animal proteins, corn, wheat and soya (and I can tell them how gorgeous boy Bruno the Bernese on the left outlived all his litter mates at the age of 11 years on his plant-based diet!)
Dr Sue Paterson who used to be RCVS President and is a top veterinary dermatologist was the first to import Solo Vegetal into the UK and these are her words below as to why plant-based foods such as complete Solo Vegetal are far superior to the meat-based veterinary hydrolysed prescription diets:
Remarkable stories that the vet students need to hear and the first is about Buddy the Bulldog who was going to be put to sleep as his allergies were so bad! Click on the image to read his story.
Weimeraner Duke's story of his severe IBD is equally as astounding and click on the image below to read his story with his Mum Laura saying "Had we not tried Solo Vegetal when we did, I dread to think where we'd be now" as they had tried everything from Purina HA to kangaroo and insect-based to raw...and only plant-based is what has given him his life back!
What other enormous benefit is there to choosing plant-based for dogs? It is the only food that can safely be taken when you travel to Europe with your dog as since Brexit, no meat-based products can be taken at all including dog foods when crossing on the ferry. This is what Tommy the Bassett's family did and they transitioned him onto Solo Vegetal tinned food before travelling and had the amazing side effect of it sorting out his smelly brown saliva - wow!
As vets, we have to deal with so many dog breeders, and what are the dog breeders saying about plant-based dog foods? Hilary is one of those who very bravely transitioned her dog (an Italian Bolognese) onto a plant-based diet while her little dog was pregnant....and what a success as shown below as the puppies had no more tear stains!
All the success of plant-based diets is down to how they enhance the good gut bacteria in both us and in our dogs as we share the very same gut microbiome as our dogs - fascinating fact and true! 
Yes it's ALL about the gut, so how about if we took some of those good gut bacteria and grew them to produce protein.....pure clean protein so good that it could revolutionise the entire pet food industry?! Yes we have it and I want to shout it from the rooftops how amazing this new protein source is and I feel SO fortunate to be able to show the vet students first hand what their future holds!!
I brought in a bag for the students to see and smell of this delicious groundbreaking new food Microbell, as it only launched in Germany last month, but our little Ruff has eaten his way through half a bag as shown below and we cannot wait for it to arrive in the UK next week for sale in Just be Kind shop - hurrah!!!! (photo below of Ruff taken before I left for Glasgow with his half eaten bag of Microbell new amazing protein dog food!)
Imagine replacing obscene images of slaughterhouses to obtain protein to add to dog food, when we can replace them with images as shown below with enormous vats producing this clean non GMO bacterial fermentation protein on an enormous scale?! It has been approved for use only this year for addition to pet foods by the feed regulations authority, and it is being produced on an industrial scale of 20000 tons a year - remarkable and innovation at its finest!
What of the enormous health benefits of this hugely sustainable new protein source? It is bio-identical in its amino acid profile to animal protein, and as it is made from bacterial fermentation, it is very high in the 'gut soothing' amino acid glutamic acid as shown below. This high level of glutamic acid also gives the food its umami flavour that dogs crave!
What can be done to replace these obscene images as shown below where we know that fish should NEVER be added to dog or cat food as they are both land mammals and there isn't enough fish in the sea for us, so there absolutely isn't enough for our dogs and cats? (who react very badly to the high levels of mercury and arsenic in fish!)
We have just the PERFECT solution which is Omega 3 Daily where fish gets their Omegas and bright pink colour from - from the nutrient rich pure microalgae free of ALL toxins and highly nutritious (and delicious!)
I had to end my talk on a huge positive for the students after starting on such a negative with those very worrying statistics from Sir David Attenborough, as everything about plant-based dog and cat food offers us hope and is our future and speaking to young vets of the future about these advances is the most satisfying!
We thankfully had time for a panel discussion with questions at the end of our talks. What did raw vet answer when questioned by the students?
The students were very aware of the Avian Flu risk with raw fed cats dying in the US, and it is only possibly a matter of time until it spreads into the UK and into raw pet foods here (that have SO sadly been given a rawsafe approval by UK Petfoods who were present at the talk). His answer to this extremely concerning question about the risk of Avian Flu affecting our pets and us when raw feeding was that this "highly pathogenic virus" (and he did the 'quote' expression with his hands), was actually just a conspiracy theory and a man-made virus introduced to control the chicken and egg prices!!
He even went so far as to say when questioned by a very concerned student sitting right at the back, about a possible scenario where a pregnant owner brought in her dog that was raw fed and this dog was receiving cancer treatment and on immunosuppressive drugs and how we should be very cautious and offer 'barrier nursing' where raw fed dogs in a hospital were kept separate from other sick animals as well as warn this particular pregnant owner of the dangers to her unborn child? His answer - "The pregnant owner must just wash her hands and that dogs bring in all forms of germs on their feet from being outdoors and not to be concerned!!"
I had to step in there as I could feel my heart racing, and I did warn the students following this question, that if they were to recommend raw feeding to a patient, or not warn a client about the dangers of raw feeding to our health, and any person in the household fell ill or died (yes it has happened), then they were fully liable and could go to court. What he had said truly shocked me. I always felt that my biggest challenge was the corporate giant meat-based companies (read about how the corporates silenced me to removing mention of their foods from this website which I did out of fear of them and their corporate strength), but this is a whole new dimension of what we are up against as environmentalists and true scientists following the science and offering sustainable, extra healthy and perfect solutions in a money-fuelled animal agriculture pet food business!!
On a positive though, I did feel SO excited when the students chose to ask me so many questions about Microbell and how to approach a consultation involving plant-based nutrition with a client, and I put that down to the symposium being a HUGE SUCCESS for kind sustainable healthy plant-based feeding!
“If nobody changes then nothing changes, but if somebody changes then everything changes”
