I had a rare interview with the lovely Prof Knight yesterday morning and he told me about how he was giving a talk in the US next week; that he had been asked by a huge international magazine wanting a feature on vegan dog food…and then he added that there was even more good news and Steve the owner of fresh vegan dog food company DoGood was appearing on TV on Channel 5 at 7pm – hurrah , so much positivity!
I excitedly sat down to watch full of hope for Steve and vegan food, but how wrong I was…… The first part of the programme on Channel 5 was all about magic bags that were being offered by the large supermarkets for consumers wishing to grab a bargain and prevent food waste by being sent the food from supermarkets that would have gone to waste and you didn’t know what were going to receive. It was so interesting to watch as they had these ‘magic bags’ from 3 different supermarkets being reviewed by a Blogger.
Magic bags being reviewed on Channel 5 by Blogger and TV presenter Angellica Bell
The first bag was made up of items that would have gone to waste at the Co-Op and it contained a mixture of processed goods – a quiche, cod crumbed fillets, bacon strips, pork pies etc. The man seemed delighted with these highly processed foods, and the fact that he had saved about £7 by getting this ‘magic bag’! Then there was a bag from Greggs that contained yet more processed food with 3 white bread rolls filled with cheese; and the third bag from Morrisons, was just full of vibrant vegetables and fruit of all varieties and colours it made my heart soar to see it. Sadly the man reviewing them, took one look at all the vegetables and said ‘Yes some bags you are lucky with and some not so lucky’ as he glanced disappointedly to the table laden with fresh nutrients and vitamins!!
This immediately worried me and made my heart rate rise as he obviously did not see the value in fresh food and in fruit or vegetables in particular. Already, I had my concerns about the programme I was about to watch that it was immediately biased towards pandering to corporate companies wanting to sell their processed, unhealthy foods that did little to support the health of consumers or the environment!
The programme then switched to Alexis Conran – the TV presenter who came to my house in April and he went on my usual dog walk with me and he spent the day in our home and at my place of work doing a clip for Channel 5 about Dog Poo!!
This was in April and how privileged I felt to be able to give my views and appear on TV talking about my favourite topic of all – vegan dog food! Thankfully Alexis put a positive spin on it for the show and he even showed an interest in turning his own dog Gelmer vegan after spending the day listening to all I had to say……but this time, I felt so let down by a presenter I previously admired, as this time, he spoke all about feta cheese from sheep!!
Vegan Vet Arielle is interviewed by Alexis Conran for Channel 5 in April 2022 for a programme called ‘Dog Poo Wars’ – see full post here
In this part of the programme, he proudly spoke of his greek heritage and how grew up on feta cheese that comes from sheep. He then showed us a UK based sheep milking farm which made me want to cry! If it isn’t bad enough imagining cows having their calves taken away from them as soon as they are born to use the milk for human consumption (I wrote a blog post about it here that I warn you may make you weep as it made me weep just writing it)…the thought of all these loving pregnant ewes having their lambs forcibly removed year after year so that they are used as machines for us to supply us with their milk is just the most heartbreaking thought!
TV presenter Alexis Conran speaks about a sheep milking farm in the UK
When the programme then switched to talking about dog food, I already had all my alarm bells ringing from the previous 2 parts of this programme! They introduced the lovely Steve who started fresh food company DoGood that makes fresh and completely balanced vegan dog food DoGood that is delivered frozen to your door. He was filmed in his kitchen and he spoke of all the vibrant and nutrient rich ingredients that made up the fresh food including kale, quinoa, sweet potato, shiitake mushrooms and coconut oil. Everything that looked and sounded perfect to provide not only us with all the vitamins and protein that we need; but more importantly our dogs!
It was when they spoke of the ‘carnivorous dog’ (dogs are NOT carnivores, they are omnivores like us that belong to the order carnivora!!), and interviewed TV vet Rory Cowlam, that my blood pressure soared.
Steve from fresh food company DoGood speaking about his home cooked vegan dog food
Rory the Vet appears as an ambassador on vegan dog food The Pack so should be a supporter of this food, but instead he told viewers that he didn’t recommend feeding dogs a solely vegan dog food diet as there was not enough research in this field!!
OH NO! Vegan dog food is the only dog food that HAS had so much published research produced very recently that states that not only will dogs be healthier on a vegan diet, but they also could live almost 2 years longer!! No other dog food diet has had so many published papers. Our TV was promptly turned off as all my expectations of vegan dog food being portrayed in a positive light by the media were shattered.
But my hopes and dreams as a vegan vet were far from shattered. I had a teleconsult with a Doctor that evening straight after the programme! He needed help to transition his dog to a plant-based diet as not only as a Doctor, had he been diagnosed with cancer himself and was now in remission from changing his diet….but so too had his Vizsla been diagnosed with cancer! This fascinating story will be written about later (I could have spoken to this lovely Dr all night), but I went to bed dreaming of all your healthy and happy dogs and how my job promoting vegan dog food was NEVER going to end as there were just too many positives!
“If nobody changes then nothing changes but if somebody changes then everything changes!”
Arielle Vegan Vet
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