Chemicals in raw Chicken?

[Wotho]

I feed my dogs raw, which includes chicken wings. Someone mentioned today a potential health risk from chicken that is sadly fed chemicals to enhance speed and growth, this then can be passed on to the dog.

Obviously this issue can relate to people too, but dogs are eating this diet on a daily basis, and their life-span being much shorter in comparison.

I wonder what your views are relating to this?

Thank you

 

[JoanneF]

While i totally agree with what you are saying, and I don't particularly like the way our food is processed, the chicken wings I buy are from the supermarket or butcher so safe for human consumption. So hopefully as safe for dogs?

 

[Wotho]

Thanks Joanne, But mine are from the same source too, but that does not convince me that growth hormones etc are not used for fast turn-over.

 

[JoanneF]

Oh, I totally agree and I am sure hormones are used. I suppose the safest thing is using meat whose source is traceable, is ethical, and meets the standards you want - but not easy by any means.

 

[excuseme]

I can see your point, but where do we stop eating food or feeding our pets the same meat products as ourselves.
A proportion of the meats that I feed are obviously farmed for the human chain (presumed safe),
A fairly large proportion of our dog food is wild "Game", venison, rabbit, pheasant, also sea caught fish. I am sure if we wanted to be critical there would be problems with wild caught food too!

 

[Wotho]

This is true. I suppose we could ask what food is actually completely 'safe' to consume?? (Even thinking of cows eating grass, that as been sprayed with pesticides)!

Thanks to you both for thoughtful input, appreciated.

 

[arealhuman]

Unless you go certified organic, you can't be sure, end even then there are caveats as to what qualifies as organic. The biggest time bomb in the food chain seems to be antibiotics, with its continued widespread use weakening its effectiveness so much so that the experts believe that soon they will have little effect when treating ailments. And when we start dealing with the USA, you can add chlorine-washed chicken and GM foods to your lists. I wonder if these foods will be marked as such? I hope so, but the pessimist in me says that our trustworthy government will make sure this isn't the case so as to boost trade. Just to add to the scare mongering (sorry!), read up about the recent 2 Sisters scandal (one example here) - and this is what passes as fit for human consumption! There was a similar expose some years back in relation to fresh fish.

I yearn for the days when my father was around - he grew most (if not all) of our fruit and vegetables, so we knew where it was grown and how it was produced. Sadly, this skill wasn't passed down to me as I had no interest at all in gardening, which I'm now beginning to regret. Now we rely on the honesty of the food industry, and there are sadly plenty of examples where this trust is misplaced. Me? I have little choice other than to use supermarkets and local shops (for local people ).

 

[Josie]

Great read @arealhuman and thanks for sharing that article. It’s awful when these stories appear in the media about the ill treatment of animals and the poor hygiene standards in these places. I know I always try and buy free range and always 100% British but still you never truly know how those animals have been treated...
One of the things that annoys me the most is when they say it’s british but when you read the small print you actually find out it came from Denmark but was slaughtered in the UK.

Sorry I can feel myself heading on a rant....

 

[arealhuman]

Sorry I can feel myself heading on a rant....

You did better than me - I was off on one there for a bit, but it's easy to do given the subject matter. Sorry if anyone feels I've hijacked this thread.

 

[Josie]

Ditto!

 

[Wotho]

Thank you to both arealhuman and Josie for your input. I do think that a large number of health issues are related to what is done to food we eat. The government know that this will not stop, so we are given red herrings for blaming poor health to distract, and to assume that the government have no idea that there is any other reason with our food, other than too much salt, less fatty food, little red meat, no full milk and even more full milk! But nothing about what is put into our food ....

 

[BentleysDogFood]

potential health risk from chicken that is sadly fed chemicals to enhance speed and growth

As briefly touched upon before, if we eat it, so can our dogs. I understand your point that the dog will eat it much more frequently, however a dog's stomach is much more robust than ours. Perhaps for your own piece of mind feed a variety of different meats with chicken lower on the most frequently fed list!

I'm a fan of a raw diet providing it is done properly with the right balance, not too much bone etc which is a common fault.

Remember that dog's derive from wild animals where they hunt, kill and eat other animals which could have a whole array of diseases and health risks.