buckaroo beef

"it's new, it's different"

a raw beef product put out by solid gold health products for pets, catering to that percentile of dog and cat owners who like to feed raw meat.

according to the ad, the whole raw meat craze is based on the idea that, when digesting uncooked meat, the stomach must put out "four times the amount of digestive enzymes." this apparently keeps stomach muscles strong. i know how much i worry about the state of my cat's stomach muscles. but anyway.

i'm sure there are many reasons not to consume raw meat, but solid gold only offers one: flukes may be present in the food. these little buggers "may bore through the wall of the intestines, contribute to leaky gut syndrome, or cause irritable bowel syndrome."

solid gold has supposedly gotten around this little problem by freeze-drying the beef to remove the water, thus killing the flukes. hopefully this also gets rid of the various bacteria that may still be skulking around, but solid gold wisely does not get into that argument. buckaroo beef is best shredded and mixed in with dry food, although you can rehydrate it and return it to its former "fresh meat" status.


what a certain pet food company is saying about buckaroo beef:

• "you don't have to heat, cool, refrigerate, freeze, or even use a can opener or knife."
• "it is not greasy and it does not taste bad. some handlers even carry it as bait in their mouths. as one marine captain said, 'this tastes better than the field rations we get.'"
• "buckaroo beef is from free-range cattle, contains no hormones, no chemicals and no preservatives."
• "buckaroo beef is great for traveling - just throw it in the car."
• "it doesn't smell bad either."
• "freeze-dried beef is thought of as a future ration on space travel."

hell, i just like the name.


from an ad in akc gazette: the official journal for the sport of purebred dogs.