Why “Better Kibble” Still Hurts Your Dog

We challenge the myth of “good kibble,” unpack how industry pressure harms vets and pets, and map a practical path toward raw feeding and holistic care. Hope lives in building a parallel system, mentoring new vets, and helping pet parents slow down before medicating.

• why premium kibble still acts like sugar
• big dogs and raw feeding costs compared fairly
• how vet school marketing shapes treatment scripts
• quotas, private equity and loss of clinical autonomy
• moral injury and burnout among conventional vets
• creating a parallel holistic model of care
• step-by-step decision making before medications
• simple ways to start balanced raw and rotate proteins

Find out how you can start your dog on the road to health and longevity. Go to rawdogfoodandcompany.com where friends don’t let friends feed kibble, and where your pet’s health is our business

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Conference Recap
• 0:22 “No Good Kibbles” Explained
• 2:46 Mindset, Marketing And Self-Justification
• 4:26 Vet Suicide And Systemic Pressure
• 6:24 Indoctrination And Pharma Quotas
• 9:35 Private Equity And Lost Autonomy
• 11:15 Creating A Parallel Holistic System
• 12:42 Coaching Pet Parents To Slow Down
• 13:30 Closing Taglines And Website

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Oh, snap, snap. Well, hello, raw feeders. I'm Didi Mercer Moffat, CEO of Raw Dog Food and Company. Well, your pets helped as our business. We're friends like my friend, Dr. Judy Jasick, holistic veterinarian extraordinaire. She didn't let friends feed cable. Now, do you?

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

No way. No way, no way. You know, we were at we were chatting. I was at the West and A Price Um Foundation conference last week, and we had a little booth there because I spoke there, and when you speak, they allow you to have a booth. So we just said just put a booth up with a little sign and put some um educational information out for people. And I'd have to say the most everybody that came up, they they recognized that they shouldn't be feeding kibble. Now, not too many people were like feeding like a good balanced diet, raw diet, like we recommend. So had to talk to them about okay, you know, you want to get yourself educated and stuff. Um, but there's one lady that came up that she was feeding um farmina, which is it's it's a much better kibble because it's from Italy. Okay. Um this is her line. That's not me saying that, that's her. And I said, Well, there really are no good kibble. Well, it's from Italy, so it won't have as many chemicals in it. And I said, might have a few less chemicals, but it's still sugar, you know. And uh, and I wouldn't recommend it. And and then she says, Well, but I have a hundred-pound dog. Like, so that means your dog's immune to the effects of sugar. Like, like, I don't know, like what people think. I mean, I know what she's getting at is that she thinks it's going to be too expensive to feed raw, but this is not a this is a high-end kibble, it's an expensive kibble. Um, and I bet she could feed raw for cheaper than what she's paying for this kibble, but her reasoning was that you know, because I have a large dog, I can't feed raw. It's like what's your dog's health worth health worth to you, you know? Um, and there are no good kibbles, but people, you know, want to believe that and people will do what they do.

SPEAKER_02: 2:15

It's a very, very weird mindset. It is a sticky, sticky, sticky stock mindset. I'm like, I what you know, so many people I I talk to, yeah. I'm feeding, um, I'm feeding Dr. Marty's, or I'm feeding, you know, farmer's dog. I'm like, that is not raw.

unknown: 2:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 2:37

That's not raw. And it's got crap in it.

SPEAKER_00: 2:39

And it's got crap in it.

SPEAKER_02: 2:41

And um, but it the the sales pitch, and and we were talking about this earlier. I think that whatever you truly want to do, whatever you really truly need to believe in order to justify what you're doing, is what you would gravitate towards, and you will find justification for it. Whether that is treatments of cancer, whether that is uh food, whether that is how much alcohol you drink, whatever. This is just what we do. And I saw I've seen it in myself, and I I have been shocked at some of the things that I have believed because I wanted a certain outcome. Did I get that outcome? No. Um, but I sure went at it, you know, 100%, right? So it is it is this mind, we don't really understand how our minds work. And you and I were talking about this earlier that we're getting dumbered, downed, dumbered, dumbed down, faster, dumbed, dumbed downer. We're so dumb. Dumber downer. Yeah. And um, and and that's just the way it is. We have no idea how our minds work, but it's always fascinating to me um how this works, and and um it's crazy, but there but God made animals in a certain way, and why we humans think that we know better is beyond me. And the other thing, Dr. Jasik, is we have seen a wide body of evidence, a wide body of evidence, and it and I wanted to say, ask you this. You know, they say that the uh suicide rate for veterinarians is very high. And I wanted to ask you this question. Do you think that it is high because you are so uh befuddled, confused, upset, um, challenged, in that because you can't make animals well. You're just like, I don't know what to do. I mean, what do you think the cause of this is?

SPEAKER_00: 4:54

I think deep, deep inside, they're selling their souls if they're in the conventional business, because it's very hard to break away from practicing conventionally, you know, but in veterinarians. And I this is one of one of the things I talked about in my talk at West and A Price. I kind of went through, you know, the vet student goes into vet school, and I think they all start out very well-intentioned. I really do believe that they want to help the animals because if you just want to make money, you're not gonna be a vet. You're gonna be an attorney or plastic surgeon or a corporate CEO. You're not, you don't go become a vet because you want to become wealthy. You make a decent living, yes, but you know, you're not gonna be a you know, billionaire. But anyway, um, but then they get indoctrinated. And really, what vet school is is just a big marketing, marketing plan. You know, they train them to sell pharmaceuticals. So aside from necessary surgeries like emergency surgeries, like broken bones, intestinal blockages, pyometrius, things that need surgery to help the animal. The rest of it is just a big marketing plan to sell poisons to people to give to their pet. And I think deep inside, the vets know this. And that was like my wake up call. And I talked about this in my talk too, like how I kind of woke up from that. I'm like, okay, I'm just being trained to be a pawn of the pharmaceutical companies. And they come in and they tell me, and this is just a marketing script, and they say, Well, this is what you should be using, and this is how you sell it based on fear or making the pet parent guilty and feel guilty, and then this is how much money you can make. The big problem is so I woke up out of that, but I own my own practice. So I was able to make changes, but with the private equity companies gobbling up veterinary medicine these days, the vets don't have a choice. They are told they can only sell what the practice tells them to sell. They can't recommend things like acupuncture or chiropractic in a lot of practices. The practice isn't making money selling them. They can't even talk to people about that. They have quotas to meet. I I talked to a friend of mine here in Tennessee. She's actually a tech and she was working at a clinic. She has quit this job, but one of the vets there told her that not only are the vets paid on production, which has been happening for a long time. So they're they get a base salary and then they're paid basically on commission for the rest of it, but they had monthly quotas to make. And if they did not make that quota, they had to pay the money back to the practice. So, say they are supposed to generate$20,000 a month and they only do$18,000 in production. Well, they got to pay the clinic$2,000. If they go on vacation, they could have paid vacation, but they don't make their quota, they come back and pay the clinic for the stuff they didn't make while they were gone. It's insane. So, all that to say, the vets get trapped in this system. And I think deep inside, it's not what they're in it for. They're in it for the animals. I think they know that the animals, that they're not making the animals healthier, they're, you know, sicker, but they come out of that school, couple hundred thousand dollars in debt. They don't know how to get out of the system because we're not entrepreneurs, most of us go start your own business. Like we don't have a clue. I mean, I figured it out because it's the only way I could practice the way I wanted to practice. There were no jobs, and it's still very hard for them to find jobs. So I think deep inside they're just feeling this frustration. They know that their patients are getting sicker and they know they're not doing the best that they can, and this isn't what they got in it for. But they've got debts, they have families. Um, I think they just feel real trapped and they don't and they don't see a way out.

SPEAKER_02: 8:44

Um, do you feel after you were there at the the Weston A price group, do you feel hopeful that new things will rise up? I mean, I know that you are looking at a new way to to to offer some services to folks, but leaving there, being around those folks, do you feel hopeful or do you feel the system's too big and you're not gonna be able to get out of it?

SPEAKER_00: 9:13

You know, I think we just need to start somewhere. And I think the people that were very receptive that got a lot of good feedback. People came over to the booth after my talk and they got a lot of good feedback. So I think the more people realize what's really going on. I mean, we need to create a parallel system. You're not gonna change the system, you're not gonna say these private equity companies, you really don't want to keep making all that money, right? You just can't we just go back to more like the way things were, you know, like that's not gonna happen. System is not gonna change, they're gonna keep gobbling up companies and making more and more money. Um, but we just need to create a parallel system. And so raising awareness, I think, is always a good thing. And you know, I hear people say we don't need everybody, you don't even need a majority if you get 10% of people on board with a certain idea that you can start to make a shift. So, you know, we just keep trying to get the information out there. I mean, I feel like it's the only thing I can do, I can't fight the private equity companies, you know, you're not you're never gonna beat them. They got too much money, too much power. But if for whatever time I'm here, if I can raise this awareness and try to help make a shift. And also, um, I I I met this lady that I know here that's a tech. She has a son that's second year of vet school here in Tennessee. And and um, she has another son that wants to go to vet school and they want to open a clinic in that very holistic family. So I'm excited. She's like, I really want you to meet my son. So we're gonna have lunch here in a week or so. So I'm kind of excited to meet them. And I feel like if I can inspire these younger vets to not buy into all the indoctrination they're getting in vet school, and when they get out and help them maybe get started and do things more holistically, um, that's where my hope lies, because I'm not gonna do this forever. I feel like I've some days it's like I've been doing this too long already, you know. I mean, you know, after 40 years, I wanna I want to go work in my garden, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

Well, and I I do think I do think that um, you know, that that people do just have to really think about it, Dr. Jasic. I mean, I get it, we have to have vets, you know, but it it and it's very tough when your dog is sick, no doubt. That you you want your dog to feel better, you want your dog to be better. Um, but again, I contend, and and I've seen it over and over again, certainly I've seen it in my own uh dog, is is if we react too soon, we put them on a medication too soon, you know, liver enzymes. My gosh, if I hear about liver enzymes one more time, right? That high liver enzymes, high liver enzymes. Well, and then you put them on medications and the liver's got to filter that out. So I think that people really do need that step-by-step, hold, hold, okay, go. And that's one thing that I have with you. And I think that people should get in touch with Dr. JC, get should get in touch with you so that they have that, they have that in their back pocket when something happens. Okay, because you really need somebody to walk you through it, somebody to help you understand that you've seen this over and over again. It doesn't mean that your dog is dying, it doesn't mean your dog's in kidney failure. Okay. There are some other things that are outside of the box. So I would encourage people to go to ahet.com, ah vet.com. Get yourself established with Dr. Judy Jasick. And remember, get your dog on a species appropriate. That means the the type of food that your dog was created to eat, and it is raw. Raw, rah, rah, rah, raw. Okay, that means you don't cook it. You don't, you just thaw it out and you feed it. Okay, it's super easy. You can take our quiz, you can talk to Brian. It's all free. Get over to raw dogfoodandcompany.com. Or what, Dr. Jason? Your pet's health is our business, and there it is. There's your line. I was like, what did my cue?

SPEAKER_00: 13:21

And friends don't let friends feed kibble, y'all. That's right. All right, we'll see you soon, everybody. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_01: 13:27

Oh, next, next, next. Find out how you can start your dog on the road to health and longevity. Go to raw dogfoodandcompany.com where friends don't let friends feed kibble, and where your pet's health is out of business.