Tag: meat

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Serving Raw Meat to Your Dog Can be Contagious for both of You!

High levels of harmful bacteria have been deducted in the raw meat

Zurich, October 17, 2019: Few things will get a dog’s or cat’s sniffer going more quickly than the scent of raw meat. Grounded in the belief that feeding dogs and cats raw meat is more natural than giving them processed foods, pet owners appear to be increasingly seeking out raw meat–based diets. Yet, a new study suggests that could be a risky proposition, as the majority of commercially produced raw foods a research team examined contained high levels of harmful bacteria—including strains that could transmit diseases to pets and their owners alike.

According to Sciencemag.org because dog’s and cat’s wild ancestors ate raw meat almost exclusively, pet owners often believe their animals will benefit from such a diet, explains the study’s lead author, Magdalena Nüesch-Inderbinen, a microbiologist at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene in Switzerland.

Although some pet owners prepare their own raw meals with store-bought meat, the pet food industry has jumped wholeheartedly into the market, offering dozens of meal options. These foods usually contain uncooked muscle and organ byproducts of animals slaughtered for human consumption. Several cases of bacterial diseases in pets have been linked to such raw meat diets, but few studies have examined how widespread potentially harmful pathogens are in such commercial products.

To address that lack of data, Nüesch-Inderbinen and colleagues bought 51 different raw meat pet meals produced by eight different suppliers. (The authors declined to name the specific brands they tested.) The meat—including beef, chicken, horse, or lamb—came from either Switzerland or Germany. The scientists analyzed samples from each for the presence of enterobacteria, a family of bacteria that includes such harmful pathogens as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and Shigella, as well as numerous harmless strains.

Nearly three-quarters (72.5%) of the samples had enterobacteria levels that exceeded regulations set by the European Union for pet food safety, the researchers report this week in Royal Society Open Science. Antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria were identified in 63% of the samples. Salmonella, a highly transmissible pathogen that is one of the most common sources of food poisoning in both humans and pets, was found in 4% of the samples.

Together, the results suggest raw meat pet foods are far riskier than thought, Nüesch-Inderbinen says. She advises pet owners who buy these products to be extra thorough in washing their hands after handling the food and its packaging, and to be aware of the heightened risk of bacterial disease in their pets.

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Largest Dog Meat Market in South Korea Shuts Down

Efforts of Humane Society International pays off. 

Seoul, July 2, 2019: Humane Society International announced on Monday that Gupo, known to animal rights organizations as a “notorious” market, infamous for selling chilled dog meat as well as “live dogs killed to order”, had been shut down by South Korean authorities. As a result of the closure, over 80 dogs have been saved and are currently being cared for by numerous animal charities, including Humane Society International/Korea, Korean Animal Welfare Association, Korea Animal Rights Advocates and Busan Korean Alliance for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The news comes less than one month after HSI first announced the market would be shut down as the result of an agreement reached by the local Busan authorities and the 19 dog meat sellers operating out of the market.Once the dog meat market is closed, the government plans to turn the area into a public park as part of an urban planning project, which led to the negotiations for the market’s shutdown.

As reported by media, the latest closure represents another victory in the ongoing fight against the dog meat trade. South Korea’s Seongnam city demolished the country’s largest dog slaughterhouse in November 2018, and also “closed down most of the related dog meat vendors,” according to HSI. The organization went on to note that the latest closure is the first-ever “where complete agreement has been reached between the vendors and local authorities.”

 
 
 
 

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Newly Formed Alliance to Push for Dog Meat Ban in Asia

More than 30 million dogs are slaughtered for human consumption in Asia annually.

Taipei, May 9, 2019: In the wake of massive culling of Dogs and Cats for human consumption, an international alliance was launched in Taipei on Thursday. It aims to push Asian countries to outlaw the slaughter of dogs and cats for human consumption and to end the dog meat trade in places that include Japan.

Genlin Peng, founder of the Asian Animal Friendly Alliance, said to media, that the focus of the alliance for now is to lobby state legislators in Asian countries to amend or enact their legislation to outlaw the practice.

“More than 30 million dogs are slaughtered for human consumption in Asia annually, 70 percent of which are stolen,” he said. “Among the 30 million, 15 million are in China, 7 million in South Korea and 5 million in Vietnam.”

Although the vast majority of Japanese do not eat dogs, there are more than 100 restaurants or stores in Japan selling imported dog meat, mainly to foreign consumers according to Kusuo Oshima, a member of the House of Councilors in the Japanese Diet who was also present at the launching ceremony.

Statistics compiled by the World Dog Alliance founded by Peng showed that Japan imported about 450 tons of dog meat between 2002 and 2016, equivalent to 100,000 dogs.

Taiwan’s legislature passed legal revisions in April 2017 banning the human consumption of dog and cat meat and raising the maximum fine for animal abuse. That came just two months after euthanasia of stray animals was banned.The successful legislation in Taiwan and the United States has given Peng a big boost in his global campaign of banning the dog meat trade.

He has visited state lawmakers in Britain, Italy, Norway, France and China to convince them to pass legislation banning the practice. The alliance launched on Thursday currently consists of two legislators from Taiwan, two from Japan including Oshima and one from Hong Kong.

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