I just watched this Video [ [www.youtube.com] ] with Dr. Karen Becker and Dr. Barbara Royal and even though it might be more appropriate for me to post this on the Raw Foods for Pets and Animals Forum, there is so much good information that so many new people to this Way of Living need to understand that I decided to post it here because there are so many good lessons to learn from it.

Anyway, here are some of my notes from this Video:

BR: The foundation is really an effort by the AHVMA and holistic veterinarians to make a difference in our profession. What we really want to do is to support research that says a lot about what we do. A lot of the research that’s out there is funded by government agencies, large companies, and pharmaceuticals that have a stake in what comes out of the research. They are trying to specifically promote a product, a surgical piece of equipment…

KB: Food…

BR: …. a food – something that they can then sell and make money on, which is where all the money comes from. I mean, okay, that’s how the world runs.

KB: Yup.

BR: But the problem is when you’re trying to find information about food (which everybody just buys or you can get in your own garden) a nutriceutical, or something like that that’s a little low profile and can be purchased without somebody having a patent or a trademark on it, the research money really goes dim. So, what we’re really trying to do is get a lot of that money [Laughs]…..

KB: Yup.

BR: ….from separate sources of people who are just very interested in finding out what’s real and what isn’t. Because there’s a glut of information out there.
KB: Yes. There is. And you know, one of the interesting things that’s different between veterinary medicine and between human medicine (a lot of people don’t realize this) is that with human medicine, of course, there’s Big Pharma that’s funding millions, billions of dollars into research to promote a certain product. But in veterinary medicine, we’ve got major dog food companies and major pharmaceutical and vaccine companies that are funding research. But when it comes to anything outside of their products, we don’t have money that’s available to be able to help people understand with evidence-based medicine, which is what you and I do.

BR: Yes.

KB: Helping people understand that for us to be able to provide research that makes people be able to honorably support what we’re doing, there has to be funding.

…

KB: And yet we don’t have the research. We know it works, because we’ve been doing it.

BR: Yes.

KB: But we don’t have the research to be able to back it up. And this organization is raising
money to do that.

…

BR: In fact in veterinary medicine in veterinary schools, I remember my nutrition class was basically we’re going to let the Hill’s and Science Diet® people come in, talk to you about their products. They’ll go; we’ll move on to cows and pigs, and chickens. That was what I learned about nutrition. And I was thrilled, because I got an “A” in that class. It was super easy.

KB: Sure.

BR: But I had already learned about nutrition earlier when I worked in zoo medicine.

KB: Yeah.

BR: I have found a lot out about what really happens for animals when they eat products that are not appropriate for their own species. That’s part of the problem. We don’t have a program to say, “This is what we need.”

KB: Objectively, really.

BR: Objectively.

KB: That’s a lot like in… The equivalent would be in the human medical schools having their
pharmacology class be taught by Pfizer…

BR: Right.

KB: … or a pharmaceutical company. There’s definitely not only…

BR: It changes a little bit, but not completely.

KB: A little conflict of interest. Yet in veterinary medicine, it’s a given that some of the vet schools actually don’t even have required nutrition programs.

BR: Absolutely.

KB: And those that do have required nutrition programs are funded by the food industry.

BR: Yes.

KB: It’s not necessarily objective information.

BR: No. So in order to have… Like what people would say to me is, “What do you know about nutrition? You’re not a PhD.” I have a PhD nutritionist in veterinary nutrition telling me that I should be feeding this prescription diet, and I know… I know I can help that pet.

KB: Yeah.

BR: I’ve seen it. I have really good information. I’ve studied it. But in order to have a really good program, have it be certified, and have it be an appropriate program for our profession …

KB: Yeah.

BR: We need documentation behind that. And that’s what this foundation can do. It can give us a documentation and a solidity in the science world that can make a difference.

…

BR: The decisions you make about what you put into your dog or cat’s food bowl are probably the most important health decisions you make for them. Aside from that, everything else we do in medicine – we’re helping. But you need a foundation for that, and that’s a lot of what Chinese medicine has taught me.

…

BR: That’s sort of… Again, the basis of the book that I wrote is… I look at the animals that I’ve treated in zoos, the animals that I’ve dealt with in wildlife. And I think there’s an innate healthiness about the fact that they’re eating the food that they’re meant to eat. They’re living the life that they meant to live, and you know… There’s survival of the fittest. There’s a lot of other information that happens when you’re out in the wild.
But we’ve created so many health issues from just mismanaging disease – I think – in our pets. That’s what we’re really trying to go back on and say, “No, we can use some of these medications. We can use Western medicine. We can also use a better approach to health to keep animals in just a general overall state.”
The appalling state of health right now for animals in this country involves obesity, diabetes, Cushing’s disease, chronic allergies, seizures, and arthritis. It isn’t normal to just say, “Oh, you have a Labrador? By the time it’s eight, it’s going to be severely arthritic.”

KB: Right.

BR: That’s not normal.

KB: And that whole list you just gave is all degenerative diseases that, of course, that animal was not born with.

BR: No.

KB: Which means they were allowed to be – basically, degeneration was allowed to occur potentially from traditional vets saying, “Well, what else do you expect? If they’re Labradors, they’re going to be fat and have degenerative diseases occurring by midlife, and then they could become very, very sick, probably acquire cancer, and then die.”

BR: Yes.

KB: And this….

BR: Not to mention… yeah, the cancer thing.

KB: Yeah.

BR: Cancer being a big problem – I think – we’re creating.

KB: Do you feel in the foundation… Do you feel like there could be some brewings of – I don’t want to say the traditional veterinary community being frustrated, but do you feel like there could be? Because really, the foundation’s goal is to begin to shift this mindset, do you feel like there is some churnings from the traditional veterinary community?

BR: Yes. I think the biggest that’s happened from the veterinary community in my area is when veterinarians come against cancer, or they come against things that are this chronic sort of, “We don’t know what to do.” They were doing chemo and surgery or were not doing anything. I have a lot of veterinarians who were coming, saying, “You know… Dr. Royal might have something that could help a little bit more.” Because of frustration, and I really think veterinarians are wonderful people…

…

BR: Being devoted to that, they may be frustrated with the fact that we’re seeing more and more cancers and having very little to do about it. It seems so shocking to have so much. So, when you talk about it and say, “Well, there’s something that – maybe – we can do. Maybe if we do change the food and don’t feed a kibble that because of the extrusion process puts two potent carcinogens in every mouthful into your pet’s mouth…”

…

BR: I did acupuncture on camels, right?

KB: Yes.

BR: In a camel’s world in captivity at about an age of 15 to 18, a lot of the camels get arthritic. And everybody goes…

KB: In their backs?

BR: They get arthritic in their legs.

KB: Legs, okay.

BR: In the zoos, that’s a normal thing. They’re just going to be arthritic. So I didn’t have time and I didn’t have money and I didn’t have anything else, and it was before Google, but I went into the libraries and just started researching it on my own and tried to look, find, “What? This doesn’t make sense. Are they that arthritic in the wild? Do they have that normally?” No, they don’t. They live 40 years and have no arthritis.

KB: Interesting.

BR: What is that? It’s not just about the fact that they’re moving around.

KB: Sure.

BR: What I found was – it’s salt. They didn’t have enough salt in their diet. And they needed to be supplemented radically rather than just with the salt lick, which everyone thought was adequate. But what’s interesting about that is that’s the kind of thing we don’t know we don’t know.

Peace and Love..........John