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Comment by helsinkiandrew | Hacker News Reader

Agreed, I googled "Ingredient Splitting" to find a better description and interestingly got pages of pet food related content - it seems a bigger issue with dogs than people

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-industry-exposed/ing...

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With animals, particularly dogs, you got a very vocal minority of owners going hard on the "feed them naturally" idea - in Germany we call them "BARF" for "biologisch artgerechtes rohes Futter" or "biologically correct raw food". And oh boy. These people are factually correct in everything they say, but have an energy and persistence level that would put hardcore Evangelical proselytizers to shame.

"These people are factually correct in everything they say"

Are they? I don't know the German movement, but the talking points I hear coming from US BARF people seem to mostly be a mix of FUD, naturalistic fallacy, anti-vax, and misunderstanding of biology.

Your opinion is wrong in my opinion. BARF is very much practised in the US as feeding whole raw unprocessed food. Like, chicken (with feathers, poop, stomach contents and everything that came with the bird), lamb (again everything that came with the lamb), fish (everything that…… you get the idea). And that really keeps the dogs healthy, no teeth problems, no cancer, nothing. I have a 11 year old Tervuren that outruns and outperforms 3-4 year old working Malinois.

Right, the "this diet cures cancer!" claims are probably why the parent comment has their opinion.

Both are likely correct. Highly processed foods are likely as bad for dogs as they are for humans, AND the people who lean hard into those claims tend to be nutters who are coincidentally correct about this alongside the antivax, anti seed oil, naturalistic bullshit that they use as virtue signaling.

> And that really keeps the dogs healthy, no teeth problems, no cancer, nothing.

Cures all diseases.

> I have a 11 year old Tervuren that outruns and outperforms 3-4 year old working Malinois.

Backed by anecdote.

Yeah, 100% anecdotal, but I was mentioning my own experience, not making a broader statement about anything, no?

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