DELTA DEALS A BLOW

For several years my two Shiloh Shepherds and I have been a therapy team, going to schools, nursing homes, senior living centers and libraries. It is extraordinary work and amazing to see how my dogs bring joy, peace, groundedness and unconditional love to so many in need. I am merely the chauffeur! Thus it was with amazement and dismay that I was notified that Reba, my Delta registered dog would not be able to continue because she eats a raw diet. This is a new national policy of the Delta Society that will have a huge impact on hundreds of registered therapy teams and for many of us who have campaigned so hard for healthy diets for our animals a big setback. I thought the following article was very well written - it offers one opinion which I happen to support.

Ready, fire, aim: Delta misses with dogmatic decision
By Christie Keith
May 21, 2010
I’ve been trying to pretend the Delta Society, the nation’s leading therapy dog organization, hadn’t just issued a ban on participation by dogs fed a raw diet. Because honestly, after 24 years of feeding raw meat, eggs and dairy products to my dogs and cats with not a single food-borne illness or nutritional problem, I’m just plain tired of this debate.
And it’s not like I haven’t written about this topic before.
The person who pried my head out of the sand on this was my longtime friend Lew Olson, who owns and founded the K-9 Nutrition e-mail list. Lew assembled an encyclopedic list of links on the subject of pathogenic bacteria and raw foods. Some of them address the issue of widespread contamination of processed foods, primarily kibble, which will come as no surprise to anyone here. Others have to do with the fact that most dogs and cats who carry salmonella have no symptoms of it — which is actually a bit off the point of Delta’s concern, but interesting.
She even had some studies on humans transmitting salmonella to dogs. Go figure.
But without question, this Powerpoint presentation was my favorite of her links. It’s a slideshow from the University of Guelph in Canada, purporting to show how scary raw diets are from a deadly pathogen point of view. I have to wonder if they even looked at their own data, though, because, well… you look at it:

Raw fed dogs (40)
Dry food fed dogs (156)
0 for Vanomycin resistantenterococci1 for Methicillin resistant S Aureus5 for Clostridium difficile19 for Salmonella31 for E Coli
1 for Vanomycin resistant enterococci8 for Methicillin resistant S Aureus40 for Clostridium difficile12 for salmonella32 for E Coli

Sure, the raw fed dogs have higher counts of salmonella and e. coli, and their numbers are lower so that’s even more significant. But MRSA, clostridium, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci are higher in the kibble-fed dogs.
And obviously, perfectly healthy dogs, raw-fed or kibble-fed, can have salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria in their systems.
Now, I know the raw feeding movement is hard for a lot of people to understand. I know that veterinarians are concerned about food safety (although I wish they’d be concerned enough to get their colleagues in large animal practice to get the poop out of the food supply in the first place instead of haranguing us about the food we prepare in our own kitchens, but I digress), and I know that plenty of people with therapy dogs figure that it’s better to be safer than sorry and the raw feeders should just take one for the team.
But does the Delta Society, which has fought so hard to get access for therapy dogs to people in hospitals and nursing homes, really want to go down this path? Selectively counting cooties in the dogs’ poop?
Do they honestly believe a living creature, let alone one that regularly licks its own butt, is ever going to be sterile?

As Lew said:
My concern is that, in your hurry to label the raw diet as the culprit, and eliminate its use by your volunteers in your program, you are only putting the spotlight on the issue that all dogs can carry pathogens regardless of diet. This could cause all dogs to be banned from any health facility. In essence, I see your new rule as shooting yourself in the foot. Salmonella is everywhere, including dry dog food, the soil, pond water and even in humans. You are looking at narrow parameters that need a more careful and extensive study on how pathogens are spread and how to use sensible and effective precautions to prevent the spread of disease-causing microbes and parasites.
[That would include] bathing the dogs, insuring therapy dogs are flea and tick free, making sure the dogs are properly exercised (ie pottied) before a visit, and carrying sterilization equipment (bleach, bags and paper towels) in case of an accident.
All research points out pathogens are spread by stool or saliva. That would mean not allowing the dogs to lick the clients, making sure the coats and skin are recently bathed and trusting your volunteers.
Your volunteers are the backbone of your organization, and they do this loving volunteer work without compensation and give the Delta group thousands of volunteer hours. I hope you take this email in the light it was written, in that sometimes, we need to look at any situation with more study and thought, and understand the healing, joy and encouragement dogs give so many people. Being a patient with serious illness and being away from home often stifles recovery. Pets, as you know, bring hope, happiness and support to begin the process of healing.
I hope you rethink your position on this matter, and continue to allow your therapy dog work to bring joy to both your clients and your volunteers.
Of course, Delta can have any rules or requirements they wish; they’re a private organization. But what troubles me is the focus not on outbreaks of pet or human illness but on simple bacterial counts.
When I wrote the post about “poop on the food” I linked to above, it was because I saw a vet conference presentation on the impossibility of safely cleaning the bowls used to feed raw meats to our dogs. It seems that research has shown that not even running them through the sanitize cycle of the dishwasher, can remove all bacteria from the dishes.
I asked then, as I ask now, “Then how can I ever make a meatloaf or marinate a chicken?” But I also have to ask this question: So what?
Are the bacterial levels on a dog bowl or mixing dish that once held raw meat or eggs. or the traces left behind on the carpets or other surfaces of a nursing home after the visit of a raw-fed dog, likely to cause any kind of disease outbreak? In other words, yes, the bacteria are there; are they dangerous? Or just present?
Does the presence of dogs who eat raw diets increase the risk of disease or harm over that of dogs who eat kibble (and lick their behinds)?
Can we actually look at that question before banning these trained dogs and their dedicated owners from this valuable and respected program?

(Posted from the Pet Connection website: www.petconnection.com)