Study: Raw Food For Dogs & Cats Has Harmful Bacteria That Pose Serious Risk

I‘d love to have a pet.

Team cats anyone?

But taking care of another living being that isn’t myself does take up a lot of time and you have to be responsible too.

You got to watch your pet as it grows up, take it out for walks (just for dogs, because if you’re a cat owner, then you’re the cat’s pet instead) and most importantly, feed it.

This is why if you’re a dog or cat owner reading this article, I suggest you double-check their food.

Food CAT-astrophe

Because some food products might be more DOGgey than you think.

It’s been said that raw food is goody for cats and dogs, since their ancestors (and their wild counterparts) eat raw meat. Yes, quite shocking to know that those forest cats didn’t BBQ their food, right?

Apparently, an increasing trend of raw meat meals for dogs and cats might be more harmful than you think.

Three-quarters of samples purchased and tested in Switzerland exceeded recommended limits of bacteria known to cause gastro-intestinal infections, yikes.

A researcher at the University of Zurich, Magdalena Nuesch-Inderbinen, also mentioned several types of e.coli in the meat which can cause harm to both humans and animals.

Now, though raw food diets are said to provide health benefits, there hasn’t been much research to back that up.

From what I’m seeing, it seems to be doing more harm than good. In fact, reports showed raw meat be a source of salmonella and infectious yersiniosis in dogs.

Nuesch-Inderbinen went on to state that raw meat-based diets may be contaminated with bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics.

That’s actually nightmare fuel. Going to be hard to look at a barbeque again.

A Threat To All

Once again, some numbers for a slight scare.

There are an estimated 140 million dogs and cats in the European Union, and at least as many in North America.

Now imagine if about a quarter of those got infected, along with their owners with these hard-to-combat viruses.

Since the owners are in constant contact with the animals, the likelihood that they contract these viruses are really high.

Not a pretty thought.

With the casual use of antibiotics, viruses tend to evolve and develop resistance to said antibiotics at a fast rate.

This then causes future raw meat products to contain such hard to kill viruses, leading to a huge cycle of constant need for new medicinal development.

“We advise all dog and cat owners who want to feed their pets a ‘BARF’ (biologically appropriate raw food) diet to handle the food carefully and maintain strict hygiene standards,” said Nuesch-Inderbinen.

All pet owners, do beware the next time you think about giving your cuties any raw food.

I’d say it’s better to be safe than sorry.

And once again, here’s a fact for you: the only reason why wild cats and dogs eat raw meat is that they’ve not learned how to cook…and not because it’s better for them.