What is the most effective or strongest part of this paper AND why? What is the part of their paper that needs more work AND what can you specifically advise for them to improve their paper? *Very important: don’t forget to read the document titled
Title Your Dog’s Food Makes All the Difference
Introduction:
Currently dog food brands have few restrictions when it comes to ingredient labels and nutrition facts, this is causing many brands to falsely advertise and sell poorly made food for our dogs. The lack of nutritional guidance, recalls, and lack of education for dog food is causing our dogs to run into so many health concerns. Further guidelines and rules for all pet food manufactures will benefit all our pets. Over the years there has been so much controversy when it comes to feeding dry or wet food, raw food or kibble, and grain free versus grain, when it gets down to it the most important part is that no matter the food choice, all of them need to be safe for our dogs.
Body Paragraph 1: support, use quote from Tegzes
A big issue recently has been the discovery of mycotoxin traces in dog food. Mycotoxin is produced by fungi or mold and can cause serious health issues and even death in both humans and dogs. John Tegzes researched this issue in attempt to find the dog food with the lowest trace of mycotoxin, whether that be grain, grain-free, dry, or wet food. They compared 60 samples of all 4 catagories and report that “In this study, we identify low-level Fusarium-derived mycotoxin contamination in grain-containing dry dog food but did not detect any mycotoxin contamination in either grain-free dry dog food or wet dog food.” (Tegzes __) Though this conclusion reports that grain-free whether that be wet or dry contains less toxins, it does not touch base on the other possible cardiac concerns of a grain-free diet, all of which could be resolved by switching back to a grain diet. Mycotoxin poisoning ranges from depression to hemorrhaging, seizures, or even death (Tegzes __), if a grain diet is best fit for your dog it is important to know the symptoms of Mycotoxin poisoning and seek medical care as soon as symptoms present.
Body Paragraph 2: support, use quote from Kerns (Note: expand)
Author Nancy Kerns gives a wonderful breakdown of how to properly read a dog food ingredients label, the extensive aisles can be intimidating when you aren’t sure what to look for, but Kerns breaks it down in the easiest way possible. The first step Kern supplies us with is to “Look for products with ingredients that you can readily identify as actual food ingredients. If you couldn’t explain to someone what a given ingredient is, it probably isn’t a good thing. If you don’t know what may or may not be legal to include in something like “meat and bone meal” or “chicken by-product meal,” perhaps you shouldn’t feed it to your dog.” (Kerns __) Although there are restrictions put in place for what can go into dog foods, Kerns depicts just how easy it is for a company to work around what is legal but giving misleading names and not expanding on what truly lives within an ingredient.
Body Paragraph 3: argument, quote Ewing
Tom Ewing though in strong support of supplementing dog food with the necessary vitamins, strongly believes that the pet food industry has made healthy balanced diets for dogs, he emphasizes “The pet food industry has responded to this research by formulating diets that are guaranteed to be complete and balanced. Consequently, the shelves of the nation’s supermarkets are lined with a vast array of canned and dry foods that are manufactured to provide the typical dog’s recommended daily vitamin intake.” (Ewing ___)
Body Paragraph 4: support, quote Case
“The regulated–legal –terms that are used to discriminate between foods that are processed, marketed, and sold for human consumption and those that are intended for consumption by pets and other non-human animals are “edible” (humans can eat) and “inedible” (animals can eat).” (Case __)
“The underlying assumption with all foods that carry a “human-grade” claim is that because of the types of ingredients, regulatory oversight, sanitation methods, and processing that are used, the end product will be safer and of greater nutritional quality than other foods that do not carry a human-grade claim.” (Case __)
Body Paragraph 5: common ground, quote Rolinec
“Analyzed dry dog food samples have very different nutritive value in comparison to declared nutritive value on bale. The highest shortage was detected by the fat concentration. The highest excess was detected by the fiber concentration.” (Rolinec __)
Body Paragraph 6: push thesis, quote Case
Conclusion: restate thesis/intro (Note: Rearrange and add summary)
Currently dog food brands have few restrictions when it comes to ingredient labels and nutrition facts, this is causing many brands to falsely advertise and sell poorly made food for our dogs. The lack of nutritional guidance, recalls, and lack of education for dog food is causing our dogs to run into so many health concerns. Further guidelines and rules for all pet food manufactures will benefit all our pets.
Works Cited
Case, Linda. “Human-Grade Dog Food: More and More Commercial Human-Grade Dog Foods Are Coming onto the Market–and Initial Research Suggests This Is a Healthy Trend for Dogs.” The Whole Dog Journal, vol. 24, no. 12, 2021, p. 12–.
Ewing, Tom. “Take Your Vitamins! Despite the High Nutritional Quality of Commercial Dog Foods, Deficiencies Are Possible. Here Are the Common Ones.” Dog Watch (Stratford, Conn.), vol. 13, no. 2, 2009, p. 4–.
Kerns, Nancy. “Labels 101: Don’t Get Overwhelmed at the Pet Supply Store! Here Are the Top Five Things to Look for on a Commercial Dog Food Label.” The Whole Dog Journal, vol. 17, no. 8, 2014, p. 17–.
Rolinec, Michal, et al. “The Nutritive Value of Selected Commercial Dry Dog Foods.” Acta Fytotechnica et Zootechnica, vol. 19, no. 1, 2016, pp. 25–28, https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2016.19.01.25-28.
Tegzes, John H., et al. “Comparison of Mycotoxin Concentrations in Grain Versus Grain-Free Dry and Wet Commercial Dog Foods.” Toxicology Communications, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, pp. 61–66, https://doi.org/10.1080/24734306.2019.1648636.