RMB Newsletter Vol 5:4 British Veterinary Association Policy Brief
Dear Reader,
Sometimes I write to you as a researcher, sometimes a foot soldier and
sometimes a war correspondent. This time I’m a war correspondent
reporting on the latest battle in the paper war with the junk pet-food
industry/veterinary alliance. The massed battalions of the British
Veterinary Association (BVA), British Small Animal Veterinary Association
(BSAVA) and the Pet Food Manufacturers Association (PFMA) have opened up
a new front.
In their 12 October ‘Policy Brief’ the BVA, BSAVA, PFMA alliance deliver
a salvo of unsubstantiated, misleading or false statements under the
heading ‘Key Facts’. Their opening line ‘An ongoing debate within the
veterinary profession’ suggests an honest profession engaged in vigorous
debate in earnest pursuit of the truth. It’s a cruel joke.
My files contain numerous documents detailing the efforts of the BVA and
BSAVA to suppress and censor debate on how pets can and should be fed
healthy diets. Accounts of the confrontations, dating back to the mid
1990s, appear in Raw Meaty Bones. When, in 2002, I asked the BVA and
BSAVA to review the book and thus to get an informed discussion going
they refused. Now in 2005 they maintain their hostile rejection of
natural feeding. They make no effort to conceal their affiliations; they
stand in company with the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association in a
monstrous show of force.
But with the bodies falling, the bodies of millions of dogs, cats and
ferrets, poisoned by the disgusting industrial 'food' they are compelled
to consume, we cannot give up. The UKRMB Support and Action Group are
doing a fine job, but they should not be left to fight the fight alone.
Please consider joining UKRMB and please give them generous financial
support –- the costs of the war are high.
Please also consider opening discussion with your legal and political
representatives. The more loudly we complain the sooner something will be
done to investigate the pet-food industry/veterinary alliance. Details of
political representatives can be found at:
http://www.ukrmb.co.uk/showcontent.toy?contentnid=7199
Please find below the BVA Policy Brief complete with rebuttal statements.
There’s a separate annotated document in colour at:
www.rawmeatybones.com/elections.html.
Best wishes,
Tom Lonsdale
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REBUTTAL OF BRITISH VETERINARY ASSOCIATION POLICY BRIEF
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When vets unwittingly, accidentally injure the patients under their care
it’s regrettable but, because vets are human, it’s mostly forgivable.
When vets conspire with the manufacturers of junk food to promote the
mass consumption of products known to maim and kill a majority of the
world’s pets then forgiveness is no longer an option.
The organisations:
• The British Veterinary Association (BVA) is the main UK veterinary
association with over 10,000 members
http://www.bva.co.uk/
• The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) claims
to ‘foster high scientific and educational standards of small animal
medicine and surgery in practice, teaching and research.’ and represents
over 5,500 members http://www.bsava.com/
• The Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association (PFMA) represents 50 small,
medium and giant junk pet-food companies doing business in the UK:
http://www.pfma.com/public/welcome.htm
...................................
BVA POLICY BRIEF (12 October 2005)
Raw Meaty Bones Lobby
An ongoing debate within the veterinary profession.
FALSE: Apathy rules within the veterinary profession and the
veterinary authorities censor and suppress attempts to raise awareness of
the junk pet-food scam.
A small lobby group proposes that pet dogs and cats should be fed
a ‘natural diet’ of raw meat and bones rather than commercially prepared
diets. The group is active in their criticism of the commercial
manufacturers of pet foods.
TRUE: The UKRMB Support and Action Group www.ukrmb.co.uk promotes the
feeding of a diet based on whole carcasses or raw, meaty bones and a few
table scraps. UKRMB accuses the junk pet-food industry of producing
products that injure the health of a majority of the world’s pets.
This criticism has recently been extended to the university veterinary
schools, which have been accused of teaching undergraduate veterinary
nutrition in a biased fashion in return for financial support for
research and clinical work within the schools.
TRUE: It’s a £multi-million scandal. The vet schools are propped up by
junk pet-food company funds; they grovel to the companies; teach from
company produced text books and consciously, deliberately exclude the
provision of natural dietary information. Young vets emerge from the vet
schools brimful of counterfeit science, clueless about natural feeding
but well versed in junk pet-food company factoids and falsehoods.
KEY FACTS:
FALSE: Pet food industry inspired factoids and falsehoods.
• Dogs are omnivorous animals
FALSE: Dogs are carnivores like their wolf ancestors.
whilst cats are obligate carnivores.
TRUE: That’s why cats catch birds and small mammals —- unless forced
to consume cooked, pulverized grain.
Both species require a balance of essential dietary nutrients (e.g.
vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids) for optimal health and
longevity.
PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC GOBBLEDYGOOK: Air, water and food are all essential
and well defined and provided for by nature.
• Commercially prepared pet foods have been scientifically formulated to
contain the optimum balance of essential dietary nutrients for each
species.
FALSE: Companies formulate their products to maximize profits and to
minimize or disguise the adverse health consequences. Nature determines
the optimum balance of essential nutrients.
Some commercial pet foods have been designed to satisfy the requirements
of specific breeds or the specialised dietary needs of animals with a
range of illnesses.
MARKETING SCAM: Should be investigated.
The use of such diets over the past decades likely accounts for the
increased health and longevity of companion animals.
FALSE AND ABSURD: No evidence that there is increased longevity (save
for the control of infectious diseases). Junk food known to impair health
and shorten life.
• These commercial diets are based on extensive research, performed
both ‘in-house’ and in collaboration with veterinary schools.
TRUE: Veterinary profession little more than R&D and marketing arm of
the junk pet-food industry.
Much of this research is published in the peer-reviewed scientific
literature.
DISINFORMATION: The ‘scientific’ journals are crammed with biased
research endorsed by the anonymous peer-review process that the Editor of
the Lancet, Richard Horton, labeled: ‘Biased, unjust, unaccountable,
incomplete, easily fixed, often insulting, usually ignorant, occasionally
foolish and frequently wrong.’
Journal peer reviewers don’t sign their reviews; they operate in
secrecy, and the so called scientists, whose papers are reviewed, mostly
come from the same pool of pet-food company servants.
By contrast, there is no scientific evidence base to support the benefits
of feeding raw meat and bones.
FALSE: The medical, dental and veterinary literature is replete with
hard scientific evidence. Common sense and common experience confirm that
Nature got it right. Raw Meaty Bones: Promote Health comprises 389 pages
of referenced evidence, fully endorsed by five veterinary peer-reviewers
who signed their reviews.
• Dogs and cats may be fed with home-prepared ‘natural diets’, but it is
difficult to achieve the optimum balance of requisite nutrients in this
fashion.
EGREGIOUS NONSENSE: Dogs and cats have been fed by humans for
thousands of years. The junk pet-food industry is less than 150 years
old.
• The feeding of raw meat and bones to companion animals carries
particular risks, including infection with pathogenic bacteria associated
with uncooked meats (e.g. Salmonella, Campylobacter) and injury (e.g.
intestinal perforation) caused by bone fragments.
SCAREMONGERING DISINFORMATION: Negligible risks compared with the
widespread ill health and injury associated with junk foods. (See Raw
Meaty Bones)
The BSAVA (the BVA’s relevant specialist division) advises against the
feeding of raw meat or bones to companion animals for this reason.
DISGRACEFUL: The BSAVA should be investigated.
• The RMB lobby proposes that the feeding of bones is beneficial to oral
health (teeth and gums).
TRUE: Raw meaty bones are essential for oral health and to ward off
many fatal diseases.
Similar benefits may be achieved by feeding of purpose designed kibble
food or dental chews, without the attendant risk of damage (e.g.
fractures) of the teeth.
FALSE: Reckless scaremongering and commercially inspired
disinformation.
Main Contacts
BVA: Dr Freda Scott-Park
BSAVA: Mark Johnston
PFMA: Nicole Harrison
20 Bedford Street, London, WC2E 9HP
Tel: (020 7379 9009)
Fax: (020 7379 8008)
Email: nicole@pfma.org.uk
DISGRACEFUL: The BVA, BSAVA and PFMA should be investigated by several
arms of government.
BVA Press Office:
Chrissie Nicholls
E: chrissien@bva.co.uk
Nadin Sajakow
E: nadins@bva.co.uk
Helena Cotton
E: helenac@bva.co.uk
T: 0207 636 6541
Out of hours: 07810 433 730
07929 620 325
DISGRACEFUL: Why are the BVA, BSAVA and PFMA so desperate to present
their disinformation day and night? Who pays for this outrage?
Additional Resources
• Pet Food Manufacturers Association Information Paper on Raw Meat and
Bones Discussions. PFMA, January 2005.
DISGRACEFUL: The PFMA calls the tune; the BVA and BSAVA march in step
singing in harmony.
What about the animals? When will this cruel alliance be made
accountable?
__________________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________________
STOP PRESS: Work Wonders book launch and Raw Meaty Bones presentation
WOODFORD FOLK FESTIVAL www.woodfordfolkfestival.com
27 December 2005 – 1 January 2006
‘Dr Lonsdale is a whistle-blowing vet who has campaigned for over a
decade for improved pet health and a rejection of the junk pet-food cult.
His latest book Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones will be
launched at the festival.’
Friday 30 December
9.00 am – 10.15 am
Concert theatre
issues & ideas
RAW MEATY
BONES
– PROTECTING
YOUR PET
___________________________________________________________
We welcome copies of correspondence/emails/faxes for possible inclusion
in future RMB Newsletters.
Please circulate, distribute or reproduce this newsletter as you wish.
___________________________________________________________
The Raw Meaty Bones Newsletter is published by:
Tom Lonsdale
Rivetco P/L
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Windsor Delivery Centre
NSW 2756
Australia
Phone: +61 2 4574 0537
Fax: +61 2 4578 1384
Email: rivetco@rawmeatybones.com
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