Btw, Snark, thats my favourite word/verb/hobby.
What can we find to snark on today, hmm..
Well first up, theres the S.O.B, the heartless, evil, S.O.B who couldn't find ten minutes to mind a small dog whilst the dog warden/RSPCA/police were called.... a small dog who had been pulled out of the path of heavy traffic mere minutes before...
And dumped said small dog back on the street.
Where approx 3 minutes later, he was hit by a car and killed almost instantly.
Have a browse of the horrible story here
There are not the profanities and expletives, questions on his parentage or size of genitalia that quite cover what I'd like to say about the person responsible for this. I'll try though.
You Cunt.
(There Beverley, you probably shouldn't say that word and I'll bet quite desperately want to.... I said it for you :) )
Now its time for me to have a bleat and a whinge, and if you want to snark at me.. have at the comments box.
I bought Kelda, from a breeder.
In the eyes of most UK Rescue supporters, that makes me EVIL, with an extra head, with more eyes than is strictly usual, and I ought, if we follow the gospel according to Dog Rescue, BURN IN HELL.
Yes, thats right folks, I bought a dog, I paid for her, with money.
Now if you aren't 'au fait' with uk dog rescue feelings and practices... lets lay it out here.
Rescue dog = good.
Bought dog = bad.
There are very very few rescue groups around that will say 'buying a dog from a reputable and responsible breeder is fine'.
And thats why, when I post a picture of the delightful Kelda, the only people who respond are my close friends. Any OTHER puppy gets a thousand posts, "aww" and "bless" and "so sweet" (deranged the lot, puppies are evil as everyone with half a brain knows!, but i digress).
Now does this not seem a little, arse about...ass backwards for you US readers...
Her breeder took the time to make sure her parents were both breeding quality, that they both had sound conformation, sound temperaments and that they complimented one another.
They then found people willing to home these prospective puppies, checked as far as is humanly possible that these people are not going to turn them into a natty coat or train them to eat children etc etc.
They bred the two dogs, they lavished the utmost care and attention upon the mother, and subsequently the puppies.
Said puppies are now all confident, happy, healthy individuals in their new homes, being loved and cared for by their happy new owners.
But thats BAD right, thats a BAD BAD THING. Its WRONG.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the second hand recycled dogs of this world, fugly or not in whatever way - hell I own four!
I have Abby who is 12, she was unwanted after her working days were over, she's a Saluki x Greyhound and was going to be shot. Now shes a happy sofa ornament, having had various lumps and bumps and internal organs removed and been mended at vast expense on a number of occasions.
Then theres Rocky who lost his home because his 14 year old owner became pregnant and chose the baby over the dog (wrong choice in my opinion but thats her loss). Hes short and fuzzy and has a face like a teddy, you can see his mush at the top of this blog where he watches you allllllllll.
Then theres Dilly who was bred to work but wont, is terribly allergic to all things that exist, life itself really, steals as if his life depends on it and is phobic about any sound known to man and probably a few that arent.
And Pteppic, dear old Pteppic, with his squinty eyes due to extremely poor breeding, bred because 'the kids like having puppies around' and taken in by El Sucker here because 'if we cant home them all we will put them to sleep'..... *sucked in*.
But having four second hand reject mutts, thats apparently not enough, how DARE I go and buy a well bred healthy pup, how very dare I!
And it gets stupider, not only is responsible breeding from healthy registered stock BAD AND WRONG in the eyes of the majority, but those breeders who take an interest and involve themselves in rescue..... are also bad and wrong.
So lets get this straight... breeding causes too many dogs...... breeders attempting to take care of any homeless dogs in their breed... thats wrong? How?
I have many sympathies for the rescue dogs and rescues of this world, but heres a heads up...
Good Breeders dont cause unwanted pets. Stop snarking on them, and on those like me who want a well bred pup for once in their scruffy cheap second hand lives, and stop being so bloody narrow minded, you make more of a difference if you do.
4 comments:
Do you know anything about VF Complete or Enhance dog foods? They're both from Arkat nutrition.
Im afraid I don't.. are they a US brand?
I feed a totally raw diet so am out of touch with dog food brands to some extent.
If you are asking because you want a recommendation, all I can say is check the ingredients, the better foods have more meat than anything else, and very little/no grain/cereal content, and the one food I have found so far that seems to achieve that is Orijen. I have never fed it though so couldn't say if its actually any good, but its one I would consider feeding if I had to.
Well, its just that I have ten free bags of the food coming my way. I can't seem to find any information online.
I would love to be able to feed a raw diet, but I don't know enough about it. Plus, its just not in the budget right now.
Thanks for the advice!
Hmm...
These are the ingredients in Enhance Adult ...
Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Ground Corn, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Beet Pulp, Fish Meal, Flax, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Liver Digest, Choline Chloride, Lecithin, Garlic, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Oxide, Ascorbic Acid, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Copper Oxide, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (a source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite
Since Im fairly sure that the labelling for this food has to be by largest single ingredient first.. then:
Chicken By Product Meal - ok this is the single largest ingredient.
Its not a good one - this isnt chicken as youd know it on your plate, this isnt even the chicken that goes into things like chicken burgers ..
This is feathers, bones, beaks, feet, claws.. this could even be chicken shit!
Then, the next two are Brewers Rice and Ground Corn. Put together, these likely make up more of the content of the food than the chicken shit does.. but we dont know that for sure because they dont ahve to list the actual percentages.
Looking at those ingredients more closely. Corn.. its a cereal, not something dogs need to eat, its not something they are designed to eat.
Whilst ground corn is also used in human foods, dog food companies will be using the lowest quality as its the cheapest.
Brewers Rice... this is the lowest quality of rice you can get, it used to be used by beer companies but they now use a slightly better grade of rice. Brewers rice is all the crappy broken tiny bits of rice left after the human food companies have taken the top stuff, then the cheap companies take the less good stuff, then the rice flour companies take the big broken bits and the beer companies take the smaller broken bits... whats left, whats poorest quality the pet food companies take.
The reason why both these and other cereals in dog foods are IN dog foods is because they are, basically, waste products. They can be got very cheaply because otherwise the company that created them would likely have to pay to get rid of them. If another company says 'ill have them' they go for a really lowprice.
Dog food companies can fill dog foods with this stuff so it bulks out the food without killing the dog - dogs are great survivors and will appear to do well on shitty food because of this. Now however after around 60 years of feeding our dogs on this shit we are seeing the downsides.... the skin problems, the food allergies, the cancers, the colitis and many many more health and behavioral problems to boot.
In addition, a great number of dog owners have never known dogs fed any other way and take the symptoms of ill health to be 'the norm' ie frequent scratching, a 'doggy' smell, unpleasant breath, soft squishy faeces, scooting butts along the floor...
These are NOT normal things for a dog to do... but we are so used to it, we accept these things as being part and parcel of owning a dog!
Back to the ingredients..
Chicken fat - now dogs do need a lot of fat, far more than we do. But.. this is not fresh fat, this is going to be recycled fats, reclaimed from the cooking processes and added back into the raw dog food and then cooked again.
Many fats especially animal fats, become carcinogenic when heated, especially when repeatedly heated to a very high temperature.
The other reason its added is to add flavour. You only need to add flavour to something if you have used shitty ingredients that have an unpleasant flavour in the first place...
Beet Pulp - this is another filler. Basically, this is poo, its put in to add massive amounts of fibre, to hold the food in the stomach and gut longer, and to create bulky faeces. Without the beet pulp this food would likely cause your dog the squits!
Fish Meal - its a source of protein, and needs to be because so far most of the content is lacking in protein. Its also again, not 'fish' as youd know it on your plate. This is the ground up scales, bones, tails, fins, heads of fish, the by products from industrys higher up the chain - this is whats left after your tuna steaks, fish fingers, cod fillets etc are made. It is highly processed before it even goes in the dog food.
Brewers Yeast - this is added to aid digestion, like a lot of the subsequent ingredients.
Ask yourself why do you need to add digestive agents to the food.... is it because its made out of crap that isnt really going to be digested properly by the dog? Yes.
The rest of the ingredients are there to provide flavourings, preservatives, and add in the vitamins and minerals lacking in the core ingredients of the food.
So.... long story short - I wouldnt feed this food to my pet Rats, never mind my dog. Donate the food to a rescue if you cant bear to throw it out!
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