Conspiracy Theorists Are Coming for Your Pet Food
Social media influencer pet owners posting gory, niche pet food video content to farm likes and comments don’t necessarily represent the average consumer of raw pet food. But their rise to the top of the TikTok algorithm has real-world effects, as influencers enter into lucrative partnerships with raw food companies, and companies in turn use pseudoscientific health claims to promote their products. (“Did you know that the grains, chemicals, and byproducts in commercial pet food are killing your pet?” reads the website of Monarch Raw.)
As a result, a whole host of start-ups have brought conveniently frozen, freeze-dried, and dehydrated raw meat to your local Petco, cumulatively building an industry now estimated to be worth $3.1 billion. While the market is not new, as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decimate the FDA and attempt to normalize a less regulated and more hazardous food system, raw pet food—and the conspiracy-fueled wellness universe that drives it—is poised to become more mainstream than ever.
It might not be immediately obvious what is so bad about feeding pets raw meat: After all, weren’t they once wild animals? Most pets who eat raw diets “will do fine,” said veterinary infectious disease specialist Scott Weese. On the other hand, he added, “some won’t.” The dogs and cats we keep in our homes and backyards have been domesticated for a long, long time, and their digestive systems are different from their wild forebears’. Like paleo dieters, raw pet food proponents appeal to evolutionary wisdom to guide their food choices. But the reality is that natural selection can kill.
A carnivore diet isn’t great for human health, despite what the Liver King would have you believe. And even when it’s your pet eating raw meat, humans are at risk: Raw-fed animals shed pathogens even when they don’t seem sick. In recent months, the dangers have increased for all species. In December of 2024, at least five cats in Oregon and Los Angeles died of bird flu after consuming packets of Northwest Naturals and Monarch Raw pet food. Agriculture departments in Washington and Oregon announced another recall in February after two cats died of bird flu found in Wild Coast’s boneless free-range chicken formula. In Colorado, 11 cats came down with the flu after being exposed to raw poultry or pet food, ten of whom died; the “prey-based” Savage Cat Food has been linked to bird flu there and in New York.
https://www.thenation.com/article/societ...-pet-food/
Social media influencer pet owners posting gory, niche pet food video content to farm likes and comments don’t necessarily represent the average consumer of raw pet food. But their rise to the top of the TikTok algorithm has real-world effects, as influencers enter into lucrative partnerships with raw food companies, and companies in turn use pseudoscientific health claims to promote their products. (“Did you know that the grains, chemicals, and byproducts in commercial pet food are killing your pet?” reads the website of Monarch Raw.)
As a result, a whole host of start-ups have brought conveniently frozen, freeze-dried, and dehydrated raw meat to your local Petco, cumulatively building an industry now estimated to be worth $3.1 billion. While the market is not new, as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. decimate the FDA and attempt to normalize a less regulated and more hazardous food system, raw pet food—and the conspiracy-fueled wellness universe that drives it—is poised to become more mainstream than ever.
It might not be immediately obvious what is so bad about feeding pets raw meat: After all, weren’t they once wild animals? Most pets who eat raw diets “will do fine,” said veterinary infectious disease specialist Scott Weese. On the other hand, he added, “some won’t.” The dogs and cats we keep in our homes and backyards have been domesticated for a long, long time, and their digestive systems are different from their wild forebears’. Like paleo dieters, raw pet food proponents appeal to evolutionary wisdom to guide their food choices. But the reality is that natural selection can kill.
A carnivore diet isn’t great for human health, despite what the Liver King would have you believe. And even when it’s your pet eating raw meat, humans are at risk: Raw-fed animals shed pathogens even when they don’t seem sick. In recent months, the dangers have increased for all species. In December of 2024, at least five cats in Oregon and Los Angeles died of bird flu after consuming packets of Northwest Naturals and Monarch Raw pet food. Agriculture departments in Washington and Oregon announced another recall in February after two cats died of bird flu found in Wild Coast’s boneless free-range chicken formula. In Colorado, 11 cats came down with the flu after being exposed to raw poultry or pet food, ten of whom died; the “prey-based” Savage Cat Food has been linked to bird flu there and in New York.
https://www.thenation.com/article/societ...-pet-food/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
