Monday, May 31, 2004

this is a long read, but maybe it will chainge your, and your dog(cat, ferret etc) life!

Dear Suzanne (sent to me as im a member of this posting list),

Let food be thine medicine, recommended Hypocrates 500 years BC. Now,
two-and-a-half thousand years later, we are told we must throw the staple
food -- and medicine -- of dogs in the bin (London newspaper article
below).

How could it be that for thousands of years we ignored Hypocrates’
injunction and treated food and medicine as two separate entities?

For much of that two-and-a-half thousand years we did accept that dogs
thrive on bones –- but I don’t remember seeing anywhere the suggestion
that (raw meaty) bones are medicinal. Now European Union (EU)
bureaucrats have decided that bones are not even a food source and should be
chucked in the bin.

One day the full enormity of the blunder will be understood and the
faceless faces of the men in Brussels will be covered in egg. There are
parallels with the flat earth/round earth debate. Early Greeks believed
the Earth to be round. But that core understanding, upon which we base
modern communications, transportation, forecasting, mapping and just
about the entire scientific gamut was lost or disputed for a further
one-and-a-half thousand years.

But to be fair to the Brussels bureaucrats they are only responsible
for the final blunder. The rot, both actual and metaphorical, set in when
we employed reductionist language –- when we created two separate
categories for food and medicine. And thanks to the efforts of the junk pet food
industry, the veterinary schools and veterinary ‘profession’ bones have
been labeled, not as food but, as hazards. After more than fifty years
of demonisation the humble but essential bone has been defined as waste.
Chances are the bureaucrats thought they were doing the logically
correct thing. They probably thought that they were cleaning up a last,
lingering anomaly for the betterment of the community.

If you are long-time reader of this newsletter you know that for bones
to be fully nutritious they need to be raw and meaty. That’s the way dogs
and other carnivores get their essential range of nutrients. For the
raw meaty bones (better still whole raw carcasses) to exert their full
medicinal effects they need to be in large pieces requiring lots of
ripping and tearing –- and thus the cleaning of the teeth and massaging
of the gums.

The alternative, either actively or passively promoted by the
consortium of junk pet food makers, vets and now Brussels bureaucrats, is to feed
dogs and other carnivores on factory-made concoctions. These products
of the dark satanic mills are barely nutritious and definitely not
medicinal –- in fact they poison a majority of the world’s pets.

Poisoning occurs in broadly three different ways:

1.) Soft canned foods and grain-based biscuits fail to clean teeth thus
giving rise to chronic oral disease and resultant production of toxins,
circulating bacteria and inflammatory chemicals –- all of which are
triggers for systemic disease.

2.) Cooked carbohydrates, proteins and fats are toxic in differing
degrees. Chemical colourants, preservatives and additives are all toxic
in varying degrees. Absorption into the circulation through the small
intestine of this range of toxins adversely affects several body
systems.

3.) Poorly digested grains support a large population of colonic toxin
producing bacteria. Local reactions of the toxins on the bowel lining
and absorption of the toxins affect several body systems.

Raw meaty bones, then, are the essential food and medicine of
carnivores.
Whilst this is clearly of interest to dogs, cats, ferrets and their
owners, there are many other implications too.

Carnivores live at the extreme end of the nutritional spectrum where
they use their teeth to pull down, kill and consume the carcasses of other
animals –- animals which may be much larger than themselves. I don’t
recommend that you run up to the next cow you see, sink your teeth into
its leg and expect to be instantly healthy. What I do recommend,
though, is for us as a society and medical researchers in particular, to study
the range of diseases that are cured and prevented in carnivores when
they eat their natural diets. Once the mechanisms and the biochemical
and physiological pathways are better understood we should be able to
reapply that information for the betterment of people –- omnivores in the
middle of the nutritional spectrum. (Some of the best, most rewarding
scientific research is performed at the extreme ends of spectra.)

Over the past hundred years we’ve seen a procession of ‘miracle cures’
–-
Penicillin, corticosteroids, Thalidomide and the list goes on. In fact
few of the ‘cures’ have come without unwanted side-effects. Most have
had limited curative potential and their disease prevention capabilities
have been close to nil.

By contrast, in carnivores, raw meaty bones are virtually side-effect
free; can cure gum disease, skin disease, joint disease, bowel disease,
and etcetera. They can help ward-off flea infestations and raw fed dogs
are better behaved and easier to train. On the disease prevention
scale, raw meaty bones and whole carcasses are peerless.

There are many miracle tales of wonder cures and miracle preventions
associated with the feeding of raw carcasses and raw meaty bones. One
story I heard recently can serve to illustrate. An old client of mine,
with whom I’d lost contact, told me of her experiences. Fifteen years
ago she was spending $1000 a month on vet bills for her kennel of rough
collies. Under pressure from me, and backed up by her husband, she
relented and switched her dogs to a raw meaty bones based diet. In the
ensuing fifteen years, except for two bouts of constipation in a dog
fed brisket bones, the client has not needed the vet at all.

Below is the EU Bone Ban article reproduced from the London Evening
Standard newspaper and contact details for British Members of
Parliament and various media organisations.

The EU should lift the ban and take a lead. They should provide
official encouragement for butchers to supply raw meaty bones -- not throw them
in the bin. Please make use of all or any part of this newsletter if it
helps you to persuade the relevant authorities. Butchers, journalists,
doctors, farmers, teachers and a long line of professions could
potentially make use of this information.

Wishing you and your pets the best of good health,

Tom Lonsdale
___________________________________________________________

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/10984387?source=Evening%
20Standard

EU BANS GIVING BONES TO DOG OWNERS
By Nigel Rosser, Evening Standard
26 May 2004

Butchers are being threatened with fines if they give bones away to dog
owners. They are being sent letters telling them that a new European
directive bans the traditional practice.

In future, Britain's 10,000 butchers will have to pay for the bones to
be incinerated rather than hand them free to customers for their pets.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs today
confirmed the Brussels ban. It said the bones are now considered
"waste" which must be properly disposed of.

A spokesman said: "Customers can take bones away with them when they
buy the deboned meat if it is for human consumption. "But if the bone is
waste or for pet food then it's a byproduct - and cannot be passed to
the public."

Aberystwyth butcher Aled Morgan, 35, one of the first to receive a
warning letter, said: "I just don't see where the EU is coming from.
It's just going to cost butchers at least £2,000 a year." Local dog owner
Martin Swanson, 32, said: "It seems to me to be another barmy EU
directive."
___________________________________________________________

Contact details for Members of the British Parliament at:
http://www.parliament.uk/directories/directories.cfm

British Members of the European Parliament at:
http://vox.org.uk/MEPMail.htm

British Media:
http://www.wrx.zen.co.uk/britnews.htm

Please forward copies of correspondence with Members of Parliament (in
particular the Prime Minister and other ministers) for publication in
future RMB Newsletters.
___________________________________________________________

RAW MEATY BONES SEMINARS -- 2004

United Kingdom
19 June -- Brighton
1 July -- Essex
3 July -- York

USA
29 July -- dogTEC, San Francisco Bay Area
31 July -- Marin County Humane Society, San Francisco Bay Area

Booking details at www.rawmeatybones.com
Looking forward to seeing you there.
__________________________________________________________

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
PO Box 6096
Windsor Delivery Centre
NSW 2756
Australia

Phone: +61 2 4574 0537
Fax: +61 2 4574 0538
Email: rivetco@rawmeatybones.com
Web: http://www.rawmeatybones.com

To subscribe or unsubscribe go to:
http://secureshop.rawmeatybones.com/newsletter

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Things are back to normal...

Last Sunday Zanna and I did our agility exam.

She jumped really well, the place where it went wrong was my fault. These dogs just look too well at my body language and do exactly what it says, even if it’s saying something completely different than my mind.

Near the end Zanna had to swerve through a row of 12 poles. She is usually quite good at these, but of course because it was exams she missed one… we had to do them again, this time I hang back a bit more to keep her from rushing through. Time was not an issue, faults could have been.

But despite the 2 faults we did well, Zanna jumped over the last obstacle and we were rewarded with a big hand of applause from class mates and instructors!

We got our “agility 2” diploma!!!! Now we are entitled to compete in real competitions. Can you imagine me and competitions? I don’t think so Ha, ha, ha.

So the lessons have finished for this season. Rather boring really. I have entered us, Zanna and Tieka, in the extra summer school classes. These are actually meant for the fanatic’s that need to keep practicing for the competitions during the summer, but if the class isn’t full enough they let in idiots like us. Purely egotistical of them, they use us to help build and break down the agility apparatuses. Well that’s not totally true, they enjoy our company, as long as we train just as serious as them. And that we do.

I entered Zanna and Tieka as one dog. We have to train with the large dogs, Zan and Tiek are only middle, so the jumps are too high to do a whole lesson well by them selves. They don’t mind doing half each, as long as they can come along where I am they are happy.

Sunday, May 16, 2004

The holiday with my family has been and gone.

I wanted to post during this time to tell you what we got up to. Being more exciting than my “normal” life I thought it would be more interesting. But unfortunately during this time my computer couldn’t get on the net anymore!!! How frustrating!!!

Computers; I cant live with them, cant live without them!

As a sort of after thought I can tell you we had a great 11 days together. I did all sorts of things I normally wouldn’t do, that’s the beauty of being tourist guide.

The weather was really very good. It only rained 2 of the 11 days which I think is a very good score considering the time of year. The temperature was good too, but for New Zealanders it could have done with being a little warmer on the rainy days. I found myself walking next to a family of shivering “Michelin” people, thicker cloths than I was wearing, they completed the look with ski gloves and head gear. Ha, ha, ha.

We went to the snake zoo that was harder to find than expected. But we found it in the end and I was amazed to see how big the differences are between all the species of snakes. I will never see them as “just snakes” again. I understand the fascination people can have with them and the urge to keep them. Although I couldn’t do this myself as Id always feel so claustrophobic at seeing such a beautiful animal is such a small enclosure.

We spent a day in Amsterdam where a friend of mine showed us the way. Took a boat ride though the canals which any self respecting tourist has to do. We walked though the busy Amsterdam streets, nearly freaking out my nephews who hate crowds. And we went to “Madam Tussaud’s wax Museum” which at first glance didn’t strike us as going to be much fun. We were very surprised how much fun it turned out to be. Although it may have cost as a few years off our lives (you’ll have to go for yourself to understand what I mean as I don’t want to ruin the surprise) it was fun.

We spent an afternoon in a small fun park that was still very quiet as the school holidays hadn’t started. We could go in everything without waiting, stay sitting if we wanted to go again and just generally really enjoy ourselves. Dora, my sister in law, and I laughed so much. We took the rides together so we could do the laughing girly thing without the teenage boys comments and embarrassed looks ha, ha, ha. Erik, my brother, was fun. He was just as thrilled as us girls only with less of the giggling. Being older is so much fun, you can admit something was fun or scary because we don’t have to look cool for others. The rollercoaster there was fun but not such a big one as we new we were going to ride in a week later….. Dora was talked into the small rollercoaster and enjoyed it. A real breakthrough for her!

So we went to the big “Six flags” park and I talked Dora into going into one of the first things we were to go on, the “Goliath” rollercoaster! Dear Dora I do hope you can forgive me for this!!!
This ride was the most terrifying ride Id ever been on!!!!! I had only ever experienced rollercoaster rides where you are strapped in on all sides and then get pushed into your seat by the G-forces. Well these sits were so tiny, just strapped in like in a plane with a seat belt over the legs and then an extra thick padded T thing was pushed into place above that. But nothing safe and comforting over the shoulders.
And off we went, pulled up the first and highest point at quite fast rate and then having the extra thrill (I’d call it handicap) that we were in the last carriage, we were flung over the top to experience the most death taking (yes death not breath) experience as it felt like we were thrown out of our seats and flying freely and about to die in a few seconds… Quite an experience! But we didn’t die and I held on like you wouldn’t believe and settled a little when I felt my chair again… and off to the small bump things at the end of the ride that looked very laughable when watching while waiting for our turn. I can tell you that these were possibly even scarier than the first drop!!! It’s a ride you wont forget fast.
Poor Dora, but she can feel very proud to say she rode on the “Goliath” and she is an experience richer that she never expected to have.
My nephews and brother wanted to go again and I went with them with the thought Id survived the first ride so maybe the second time would be more enjoyable. I guess it was in a warped way and near the end I even let go of the bar for a moment and stuck my arms in the air…ok only for a second after a lot of urging from my brother (who was really brave and let go at the first drop!), but I’m very proud of this second of release.
It was holiday time for the Dutch school kids that week so we didn’t get to go on all the rides. We still have things to look forward too the next time…

On the last day of the holiday we went to the 2nd world war museum in a place called Overloon. The weather suited the occasion. It was gray and wet. Never the less it was a very interesting place. I think I can speak for all of us if I say that we were very moved by it all. Common sense/knowledge tells you war is an awful thing, but after visiting the war museum you actually feel it, I mean really deep where it hurts. You are faced with and reminded by the raw facts that in your wildest imagination you’d never think could happen. I cant understand that people can do such atrocious things to each other, after all the human race still hasn’t learnt from its mistakes. I guess they never will. But its no excuse not to try to better the world with knowledge and hope for a miracle.

During the 2 weeks the dogs had a great time too, they got to stay with “oma” (grandma) and awful lot and be loved and spoiled lots more than usual. Tieka couldn’t believe her luck that some times at the end of the day I would come back with 2 nephews that would endlessly play the “pine-cone game” with her!!

We of course did lots of other things but I don’t want to make this too long…

Well I must post this before this is really outdated.