Informing? Or Selling?

A couple of days ago, I received a text from a dog-training client, wondering about a video she had just watched—and which she linked in the text. “Is meat meal bad for dogs?” she asked. She followed that message with, “I get that she’s selling her own pet food, but is it (meat meal) that bad?”

The funny thing is, she must have been on a dog-nutrition-video-watching binge, because the video she linked had nothing to say about meat meal at all; it was another “informative” video from a different pet-food influencer. I was familiar with the one from the actress; but I hadn’t seen this particular one from the veterinarian, and I had a few minutes, so I clicked on it. However, I only made it about a quarter of the way through the 40-minute video, which I found to be a confusing mish-mash of facts: some true, many conflated, and many others presented in an incomplete fashion that would lead most people to a flat-out incorrect conclusion.

The creator promises to spill the beans about the three most dangerous ingredients found in the most popular dog food brands—which could lead to sickness, depression, “bad digestion,” joint pain, or even cancer! (These turn out to be preservatives—and not differentiating between natural and artificial preservatives—“fillers,” and meat by-products.)

Also, he promises to tell you about three super nutrients that will give a dog the “longest, healthiest life possible,” alleging that “most canine diets miss at least one of these and many miss two or three,” which can lead to “a sad, depressed dog or in some dogs, high anxiety, excess barking or strange eating habits.” (I’m saving you at least five minutes by telling you that these are organ meat, Omega 3 fatty acids, and prebiotics. And hey, don’t give it a moment’s thought that organ meats make up a goodly share of meat by-products.)

Many of the “facts” in this video (and the many others that I have seen like it from this creator and others, including the actresses and various celebrity dog trainers), are partially true, or have some connection to a true thing, but accepting them as whole cloth generally leads many dog owners to conclude that most commercial dog food is dangerous—and only the foods made and sold by the video creators’ companies are truly healthy and nutritious. And that’s just nuts! And probably fairly profitable for the creators.

I sent my client a link to an article I wrote a few years ago about meat and meat meal and told her not to worry—and not to fall for all the claims in videos like the ones she’s watching. Yes, they are selling their own pet foods, and as healthy as they might be, they aren’t the only ones that are healthy, nor do you have to spend a fortune to feed your dog a healthy diet.