[CorkyMax]

I get this newsletter which is very good and there is nothing wanting you to buy something (that I have seen!) This guy just wants to inform dog owners about important things (I love the way this guy tells it! I am submitting here --the recent newsletter. It will be in 2 posts here. There is a link if you would like to subscribe to it!
"The Peeing Post"

Newsletter for dog lovers who respect the dog's nature

Chief Editor: Mogens Eliasen




Consumer protection...



Dear Barbara,

Mogens here. There are many things to say about protecting your interests as consumer. We already touched on that, but there is much more.... Most people unfortunately walk right into the traps that are deliberately prepared for them by smart money-makers.



Food, again....

What do you feed your dog?

Before you answer, let me ask you another question, where you have a better chance of coming up with an intelligent response, because you have no prejudices....

Let's assume you have a rare and precious animal, like a koala, as a pet. And expensive and delicate creature, indeed! But let's assume it is also cute and sweet, so you really want to take good care of it. What would you feed it?

Yes, that's a nasty question, because you cannot go down to the pet store and buy "koala food"! You now have two options:

You can do your research and find out what koalas actually feed on in nature, and then resolve to get some of that.

You can wait until some smart businessman offers packages for sale that have a label on saying "Premium Koala Food"

Here is the million-dollar question: "Would you use solution B without having checked that it is indeed in compliance with A?"

In other words, would you trust a business that makes money on your care for your pet without checking that what it offers is actually also good for your pet?

I hope not. Let's assume you do your research. You will then find out that koalas live almost exclusively on Eucalyptus, and actually only some very special ones!

Can you get those for your pet? Yes, you can - you can either grow the Eucalyptus yourself, or you can actually buy the leaves in some specialty health food stores. But it does not say "koala food" on the label....

And so what?! You know it is the same, because you did your research...

What if my smart neighbor found out that there actually was a market for koala food, and he then figured out that koalas look like bears, and bears are omnivores, so he believes they can eat the same as humans. He therefore contracts with some restaurants and gets a contract to haul they waste food, which he then would cook and run through a grinder, package it nicely and label it "Premium Koala Food".

Smart idea? You bet. For him. But not for the koala.... It would die of malnourishment in a year or less - or starve to death, because it would refuse to eat the stuff you serve.

Hopefully, you will now protest and tell me that you wouldn't be that stupid that you would blindly believe that just because a greedy manufacturer writes "Premium Koala Food" on the label for some waste crap that really has nothing to do with healthy nutrition for your koala, then that should be what you should feed your precious pet!

Will you repeat that? Just for my ears to hear the sweet music of that protest...?

(I am listening...)

Thank you. Then please substitute "koala" with "your dog", read the whole thing again, and then answer the same question one more time....

So, you do your research. What do dogs live on in the wild?

Yes, that's a challenge, because there aren't many dogs in the wild - dogs are domesticated wolves....

But there should not be much difference between the nutritional needs of the wild sub-species, compared to the domesticated sub-species, should there?

Exactly correct. Science can show no difference whatsoever between the nutritional needs of a wild wolf and a domesticated wolf, except for wolves generally bieng significantly more active than dogs and therefore requiring much more calories than dogs, in order to keep up that high level of physical activity. Veterinarians and biologists cannot tell any difference whatsoever between the physiology and chemistry of the wolf's gastrointestinal system and of the gastrointestinal system of any modern breeds of dogs, except possibly for the size, as it relates to the size of the animal.

So, acknowledging that there could be some minor differences between modern dogs and wild wolves, we are ignorant to science and logic if we don't at least take a very careful look at what the wild wolf sustains good health on. And I can promise you that is is not a diet that consists of 60-70% cooked grain...

Then go to K9joy's theme page on feeding and learn what exactly the difference is between this koala bear and your dog... (Be prepared for not liking what you will learn...)



Water - always fresh water

A little while ago, I already gave you a reference to my little e-book "Is Your Dog's Drinking Water Safe?" - did you get it?

If you did, you can skip the following paragraphs. But if you didn't, you need to know that "water" and "water" are many different things, at least when it comes to commerce...

And where do you get "fresh water" from when your tap water is chlorinated and/or fluorinated?

Well, one option is to buy bottled water. But here, as in so many other areas, you are in for some nasty creeping surprises, long-term...

Seriously, a lot of bottled water on the market is nothing but exactly that: bottled water, fresh from the tap!

But it is not only the water that counts. It is at least as important what kind of plastic that bottle is made of! You see, plastic contains a lot of chemicals that migrate out into the water - and those chemicals are not very healthy... Of course, if you serve the water shortly after it was bottled, the concentration of those chemicals does probably not reach any critical limits. But do you know how long that water has been in that plastic bottle? And do you know what minerals and additives are in that water?

Don't be fooled because you think that water is water. It is not. What you buy is a result of the source as well as the storage and the bottle material. If you do not have those parameters under control, don't buy that water! Neither for your dog nor for yourself.

Just a warning: Dogs cannot handle fluorinated water - it makes their teeth brittle, so they easily break...

And you also noticed that serving your dog water in a plastic bowl is a no-no, unless you throw the water out immediate when the dog has finished drinking!

But muddy rain water from the puddles on the ground is generally just fine, as long as the ground is not made of asphalt or oily soil - or is otherwise contaminated with hazardous chemicals, from spills or industrial use, including farming...

So, you can practice your rain dance now... J



Government regulation

Back to the labeling of our "Premium Koala Bear Food".

"But the government wouldn't allow business to sell things that are mislabeled like that!"

What? Are you from Mars, since you can believe in that? What interest would the government have in protecting your dog from commercial exploitation? How much money does you dog spend on lobbying, promotion, and marketing of its desires? Do you want to compare that to the pet food manufacturing industry's 5 billion dollars a year? Who do you think government regulators will listen to? You - or the representatives of 150,000 Union jobs the pet food manufacturers keeps on their payrolls?

Or would you prefer comparing yourself to the pharmaceutical industry? Or the veterinary associations?

Take your pick! They are all big money makers, and they have huge influence on the politicians and on the government regulatory organs. In the USA, they literally control those government organs that supposedly should look after this. The governments, world-wide, don't care about dogs. They care about tax dollars and about not being blamed for scandals that can back-fire politically. The most prominent example is AAFCO in the USA - which is the main voice for the government in all matters pertaining to food for animals - and it is completely controlled by the pet food manufacturing industry! All members of that committee are appointed employees of pet food manufacturers.

Do you remember the pet food recall scandal in North America in the Spring of 2007? It was all about some poison (melanin) that happened to originate from some cheap additives bought in China. Those cheap additives are natural hosts for a micro-organism that produces that poison. Well, whether you do remember the details or not, then you might want to read this article, which helps you with the logic about what you can and should conclude from that story.









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2nd part coming up--------->

[CorkyMax]

So, maybe you live in Europe, where this does not happen? Think again. All pet food manufactured in Europe uses grain from the EU's "excess caches" of grain that does not go on the market, because it would press the price too far down. On the other hand, European governments cannot politically accept to throw good food away, just to keep the market prices up, but that is in reality what happens, while people in the third world starve to death.... As if that wasn't bad enough, then the rest of the story is this: Those huge storage facilities are, of course, not subject to a lot of money being spent on them. This means that they are not kept warm and dry.... The cold and moist storage provides excellent conditions for a special mite to live in the grain. This mite produces some chemicals in its feces that cause poisoning. This mite is known to infect about 80% of all that EU "excess grain". The German pet food manufacturer Waltheim-Effen, who controls 85% of the EU pet food market buys all its grain for pet food from these cheap sources - and the grain level in that food is about 70%!

That is why so many dogs in Europe have "allergies" - which truly are nothing but poisoning from the food. They don't die right away, so it is impossible to make a legal connection between the disease and the food. But I know of thousands of dogs with those skin problems that got cured completely, after vet gave up on them, by no other treatment that a shift to natural grain-free foods.

Does Waltheim-Effem know about this? You bet. But they have enough money available to make life very miserable for those who dare to publish this kind of information. The German veterinarian Klaus Dieter Kammerer tried in 1999 with his book "The Thirty-year War 1966-1996" and has been forced to close his practice, had his top-notch racing horses confiscated, and is now living underground in fear for his life, because he dared to publish the truth and provide proof for it! The book is banned by an injunction, after the "dinos" (as Kammerer calls them) bribed a judge in Germany to issue the injunction, without having any proof at all of it being warranted, as Kammerer did not break any laws by publishing his systematic references to already published research - which is what the book was all about! So, it is not only in the USA - you can also buy justice in Europe, if you have money enough! (If you want to check this out, you can do so at Kammerer's web site, which is also partially translated to English.





Cheers and woof,

Mogens Eliasen



If you have any suggestions to contributions or contents of "The Peeing Post", or some comments or questions pertaining to this issue or in to dogs in general, I will be happy to know about them. If I can find an answer for you, I will!

You can reach me by simply clicking on the peeing dog to the right. ---> (Me talking here------the dog pic would not 'copy and paste')







Got a friend you think would like to
receive "The Peeing Post"?

Simply forward this issue and let him/her
sign up at "The Peeing Post" - the on-line newsletter for dog lovers who respect the dog's nature

Please do not sign other people up without their consent! NOTE--This is not done yet!!---more below this gap! (Me talking here!)






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The power of money...

The really bad thing in this whole game is that dogs are too cheap!

Legally, there is nothing to truly threaten someone who causes a dog's death, directly or indirectly, as long as this person or business did not break any laws pertaining to "cruelty to animals". The maximum compensation you can ever hope to get in court in case of a dispute with someone who caused harm to your dog is what the price of a new dog would be in the market place!

But you don't measure your dog's value in dollars... If dog owners did that, vets would have only one thing to do for clients: euthanization! It wouldn't take much for any other vet bill to exceed what it would cost you to get another dog from a shelter!

Unfortunately, no laws take emotions into account. "Value" always means "dollars", in legal terms. There is no other way of defining it for a judge.

The big industries know this well - and they rely on it. They can easily pay the demanded legal compensation in those few cases where crazy owners go to court over such an issue. They know that the stats will be on their side, so a few losses like this make no difference for their profits, as long as the vast majority of owners are left without a chance of providing any sustainable legal proof.

It takes a class suit to do something about this, and those are not at all cheap to initiate.... And dog owners do not have a strong Union to back them up...

Cheers,

Mogens

[Lara's mom]

I just signed up for "The Peeing Post" the other day!

I have subscribed for quite a while now. They always have great information in their newsletters.