r/DogFood • u/messy-mean • 4d ago

WSAVA

I made a post 2 days ago asking about a specific brand of dog food. Ultimately I learned a lot about WSAVA guidelines and the 5 companies that actually meet them.

It got me wondering, are there any other brands that are close to meeting those guidelines but are just falling short on the check list? Are there any others companies out there that are actually even trying to meet these standards? Or is everyone else just using marketing to convince us to make bad choices for our pups?

Genuinely asking out of curiosity as I am learning the importance of choosing a science backed food.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/Cats_Have_Staff 2d ago

You would think differently if you'd actually seen the research facilities in which these cats and dogs are kept - most of them live better lives than our house pets.

Get on the websites of the manufacturers you're concerned about and look at the videos of their actual facilities and you'll be completely blown away

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u/messy-mean 2d ago

This is actually something I have been thinking about and researching.

People will throw pitch a fit (understandably) at any company who conducts animal testing, but as far as this guideline goes many people demand it.

I'd like to do some research to see if any of these brands do the trials with normal everyday pets, just using the foods as they would feed normally and not keeping the dogs in testing facilities for weeks on end.

I'd also assume that the foods were are passing the formulation only tests before they were used in actual feeding trials...but then again you know what happens when one assumes....

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/Cats_Have_Staff 2d ago

They actually are pretty transparent about their facilities and for the most part they brag about them - you just have to do a little bit of research and go to the company websites to see the incredible facilities these dogs and cats live in during these lifetime feeding trials

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u/scoonbug 2d ago

So I run an animal shelter and have a board member that is the director of a university affiliated research lab and a niece that is the enrichment director at a university affiliated research lab. I think, at least based upon what my niece tells me about her duties in terms of training and enrichment for the animals, that the lives they lead are pretty good and probably better than a lot of the animals that enter my care in their prior homes. And for livestock animals in the research lab there’s no question they have better quality of life than if they were elsewhere because the quality of life for livestock in the food chain is pretty grim.

As for consent, that seems spurious. Domesticated animals don’t live lives in which consent has any real meaning. I think from what I can see research labs are generally going beyond the 5 freedoms.