Why do they say not to feed your dog human food or table scraps? Let’s look at what that actually means. Human food or human grade food is food that has been processed and passed inspection at a certified production facility. Depending on where you live this could be overseen by CFIA, the FDA or other regulatory bodies. When the food is certified as human grade and is fit for human consumption there are strict regulations regarding the handling, transport and storage of the products. This is where it gets interesting.
If the product fails inspection and is declared unfit for human consumption due to contamination, disease, decay, death or other factors, it is then loaded into unrefrigerated trucks. These are often open dump trucks and are transported for some length of time to a rendering facility. There the decaying product is dumped into a rendering pit which essentially grinds the meat, grain and other elements into a sludge. Animals that are added to the mix are also road kill, euthanized animals, live baby roosters and other horrific ingredients. I would refer you to the documentary “Pet Fooled” to see the nasty secrets of the pet feed industry. Why not feed your dog human food? https://www.petfooled.com/
Back to human food. When a product is deemed fit for human consumption, it is handled, processed and transported under strict guidelines and procedures. This is the food that you find in your grocery stores, farmer’s markets and restaurants. Pathogenic contamination is of the utmost concern in the human food chain.e Food deemed unfit for human consumption is given little to no regard for quality. That is what is sent to rendering plants that makes animal feed, dog food.
So back to the original question, why are we told not to feed our pets human food. Could it be that the pet food industry is a multi BILLION dollar industry? Could it be that our pets can’t tell us that the feed we are giving them is making them sick, giving them cancer and killing them? At this point I would encourage you to check out Susan Thixton’s “ The Truth About Pet Food”. https://truthaboutpetfood.com/. Her beloved dog died from tainted food involved in a pet food recall. She has devoted countless hours and resources to lobby for stricter regulations concerning the manufacture of pet food.
Maybe a little history on pet food would be enlightening. Dogs evolved from wolves around 130,000 years ago. They likely are derived from several different types of wolves. Modern dogs evolved mostly in the last 15,000 years with human co-habitation. Dogs (canines) are carnivores. This is proven from their mandibular structure, dentition, digestive systems and ancestry. In modern times many consider the dog to be an omnivore. They are not. It is simply that we have forced them to eat a high carbohydrate diet. Dogs are magnificent scavengers. They will eat rocks and sticks to try to glean some nutritional benefit. A biologically appropriate diet for canines is carnivorous. They eat prey animals. Those prey animals such as rabbits, birds, mice etc. are herbivores or omnivores. It is in consuming the whole prey animal that the canines are able to get all of the micro and macro nutrients that are vital to survival. If this was not the case, they would not have survived and would be extinct. That is evolution.
The history of pet food is a short one, merely 100 years old. What do you suppose dogs ate before then? Well real food. Actual food. Human food and table scraps. There is no such thing as human food, that solely humans eat. We are mammals, hominids. We eat meat, vegetables, fruit, grains etc. There is actually no such thing as a human food UNLESS you consider processed foods. Fast food. Chips. Burgers. Pizza. Candy. If that is your definition of human food then I entirely agree, do not feed your dog human ( highly processed, toxic, chemically laden material).
This brings us back to pet food which actually is highly processed through extrusion, toxic, chemically laden material. Therein lies the rub. Do you feed your dog a chemically toxic feed or a biologically appropriate food. Your choice. But choose wisely. We are all what we eat and we derive our micro and macro nutrients from our food. Do you want to feed your dog ( and yourselves) toxins and chemicals) or do you want to eat what you have evolved to eat to make you a robust, resilient and enduring organism. Your choice.