Over the years, there have been a ton of great animated shorts from the NFB, Canada’s National Film Board. Growing up in Canada, the songs from some of these shorts have become embedded in our brains, and few more so than the lovely, lyrical “Log Driver’s Waltz”.
It will always be one of my favorites, for its whimsy and its almost entirely Canadian style of story telling. Based on a song by Canadian Folksong writer Wade Hemsworth, it is sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
The import restrictions now being enforced by Canadian Border Services, on behalf of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, grow increasingly disturbing the more they are examined.
It is now apparent that, under these restrictions, ANY puppy under the age of eight months which is imported into Canada from the USA for ‘commercial purposes’ must be:
sourced from dealers licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture (born in a licensed kennel).
In a nutshell, they must come from USDA Breeders. Apparently, the CFIA thinks that a USDA designation is some sort of ‘stamp of approval’ of breeding quality.
That would be funny, except it really isn’t.
USDA breeders are pretty much universally loathed by show breeders, and anyone who is breeding dogs for any other reasons than financial gain. Their requirements for housing and care are inhumane, so far as any ethical breeder is concerned.
Consider this diagram, outlining what the USDA considers to be an ‘acceptable’ cage size for dogs:
Click here, to see the rest of the illustrations, and the USDA guidelines they are based on.
This restriction might have been fine when the designation of a ‘commercial’ importer was basically anyone who was importing puppies to be re-sold – ie; pet stores who sell puppies. Now that we’re told by CFIA that “commercial” designates anyone in Canada who has ever “bred a litter, shown a dog, or trained a dog”, this USDA restriction isn’t just unpleasant, it’s untenuous. Even if anyone of us wanted to go to the trouble and expense of importing a USDA bred dog, we likely couldn’t couldn’t do anything with it in Canada once we had.
Top quality protein is essential to a top quality raw pet food.
Over the past few years, commercial raw pet food has become so popular that some ‘shady’ companies have popped up on the market. They use crappy, cheap ingredients, held together with crappy, cheap binders. They then slap the label “Raw Holistic” on it, and charge a premium price. They’re the raw food equivalent of Old Roy, with better packaging and marketing.
Also, the term Holistic makes me suspicious, because:
a) there’re absolutely no regulation as to what this word has to mean, when applied to food
b) there’s almost never a good reason for it to be used to describe a food, other than as a market buzz term
Instead of getting caught up in what terms food manufacturers use to describe their food, I prefer to get down to brass tacks, and ask some clear questions that I believe let me decide if a food is really quality, or just masquerading as such.
I’ve created what I consider to be my own ‘wish list’ when it comes to shopping for a commercial raw food.
Things I would personally look for:
Is the company using HUMAN grade ingredients, specifically grade “a” certified meat, poultry and fish? If not, then you’re not getting top quality protein, but you’re probably paying top price.
Are they doing in house testing for Salmonella and e coli? The only answer I want to hear to that question is “yes, on every batch”.
Do they outsource, or is all their food prepared in house? Outsourcing is when you have another company make the food for you, at their plant, and then slap your label on it. Think “Menu Foods”.
Are all of their ingredients domestically sourced, if possible? ie; is all of their meat/fish/game/poultry from the USA or Canada? You can’t expect their papayas to be from here, but for most ingredients the answer should be ‘yes’.
An added bonus – do they use as much local and/or organic produce and ingredients as possible? Not necessary, but it’s a sign that the company is putting some thought into what they’re making, and how sustainable it is.
I believe that you almost always get what you pay for, and that this is doubly true for raw pet food. If one food is 50% cheaper than almost everything else on the market, I’d be asking “Why?”, instead of just rushing to buy it. A bargain is good – but a bargain that seems too good to be true, usually is.
It is almost always, always a mistake to listen to a certain friend of mine when she calls and says “You REALLY have to see this show”. Inevitably, it will be some train wreck of a reality show that leaves me feeling like I need to give my brain a bleach enema. ‘Manicurists Gone Wild’! ‘Worm Farmers – Slithering to Glory’! Is there anyone left who doesn’t have their own television show?
In this case, the show was “Jersey Shore”, and the combined rage and humiliation I was left feeling after I’d watched it was combined with relief that I now finally understood all those comedy segments on the Huffington Post. On the other hand, Sean pointed out that anyone who spends five minutes a day looking at People of Walmart and photos of Hamsters riding Subway trains is on pretty shaky moral high ground.
He’s probably got a point.
If you’ve got a few brain cells left to burn, check out Craig Ferguson’s parody clip “Jersey Shore – the Movie”.
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