You only have to look at the teeth structure and digestive systems of our dogs and cats to realise that they are CARNIVORES. Carnivores need animal proteins and fats to thrive. Let's get evolutionary facts straight. Dogs are wolves. Domestic cats are closely related to wild, desert cats. Teeth of dogs and cats are those of carnivores, who tear meat off carcasses and chew up tough muscles of animal prey. Sharp, pointed carnivore teeth are not like herbivore teeth, which are broad and flat to grind grains and vegetable foods. Carnivore teeth evolved for a diet of animal flesh.
Cat and dogs have carnivore digestive systems. Carnivore guts are highly acidic and short. Meats and bones are digested and waste is eliminated quickly. Herbivores have long, complex digestive tracts to process vegetable matter over many hours through multiple organs. Carnivores do not process grains and vegetable matter properly, because that's not an appropriate diet for their teeth or digestive tracts.
Pet food manufacturers and our vets have brainwashed us into believing that the ingredients in those convenient cans and packets are complete and nutritionally balanced diets. In fact the food manufacturers take this myth a step further by bombarding us with marketing pictures of food that is healthy for us, including vegetables, fruits and whole grains. However the reality is very different from the marketing hype that is used by the commercial pet food manufacturers. Spent brewery waste, grain byproducts (including mouldy grains that have been rejected for human food), feathers, fur, and hooves and worse -- all approved for dog food. Even old boots will pass the pet-food tests as suitable ingredients because the science of pet food is based on analysis rather than real food.
The pet-food industry and veterinarians, who deny evolutionary facts, want pet owners to believe that dogs and cats can thrive on a largely herbivore diet of grains and other starches. Why? Because starches are cheap byproducts from human food processing by the same companies that make pet foods. Pet food is an enormously profitable byproduct for global food companies (Mars, Nestle, and P & G make a lot more than candies, cereals, and boxed meals).
We know that processed foods are poor substitutes for fresh foods in human diets. Just imagine what the waste products from human food processing do to the health of our carnivorous pets.
As long as the pet food industry can deny that cats and dogs are carnivores, they will continue to profit from foods that sicken and eventually kill pets. Veterinarians, who largely support their benefactors -- the pet food companies -- will continue to profit from the illnesses the starchy, commercial pet foods cause. It is an unholy alliance.
