Hip Dysplasia, Corruption and Politics

Diseases of the musculoskeletal system in dogs have been a considerable veterinary problem for decades. Statistics compiled by the canine science associations indicate that 70-75% of the entire canine population are affected. The cause of canine Hip Dysplasia CHD has generally been assumed to be multifactorial heredity. This term originates from farm and slaughter animal breeding and theorizes that not only heredity but also environ-mental factors - especially nutrition - play a role in determining in whether your dog will come down with it or not.

The dog breeding associations in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany developed X-ray systems designed to detect and combat Hip Dysplasia. But only in Germany and several other European countries was it attempted to eliminate CHD through selection, by excluding the dogs exhibiting this condition from breeding in the populations of the different breeds. These genetic measures, however,

proved fruitless over a period of three decades. The incidence of Hip Dysplasia still persists at around 60-65 % in all the canine populations of the Western countries. In most cases HD is accompanied by other skeletal diseases.

Veterinarians in the Western countries have traditionally advocated a "balanced diet" - without specifying further details - and have left it to the animal foodstuffs companies to provide dogs with "optimized complete diets". At present, around 80-85% of the total canine population is being fed completely or partially with industrially manufactured pre-formulated food, which has consequently become accepted as "healthy dog food". These new "healthy dog food products" have been unable to significantly improve cases of canine Hip Dysplasia.

A veterinarian and a scientific journalist with medical training - believe that breeding programs and commercially produced dog food in its present form cannot hope to bring about any fundamental improvements in the incidence of Canine Hip Dysplasia because CHD is not inherited and because existing dog food does not prevent it but is in fact the original cause of CHD. In these authors' view, canine Hip Dysplasia is induced solely by malnutrition.

An article:

In 1996, a respected German Journal published the article "Topical notes on canine Hip Dysplasia" by Marc Torel and Klaus Dieter Kammerer, in which these authors traced the entire history of the development of canine Hip Dysplasia. They claimed that the hereditary nature of CHD had never been conclusively proven and is not supported by any objective evidence, and that breeding programs over three decades were inevitably doomed to failure because it was not an inheritable problem.

In the opinion of Torel/Kammerer, everything points to the probability that CHD has a hormonal basis and is associated with malnutrition. Malnutrition causes increased production of certain growth hormones, thyroid hormones and insulin-like growth factor in dogs. They wrote a book about their discoveries and found themselves in a political battle.

The authors Torel/Kammerer were not only skilled in verbal cut-and-thrust when deploying their arguments, but also brought up heavy artillery to support their attack. The hostilities, with their attacks and counter-attacks between the authors and their opponents in big dog food companies and veterinary medicine, were a cause of ongoing concern to various official agencies. The Federal German Veterinary Authority, the German Kennel Club and the Waltham/Effem company boycotted the book on the basis of interest group agreements and suppressed reviews and reports in the veterinary literature, the societies and the media. There attempts failed to have the book banned, however it was eventually banned by the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Federal Republic of Germany in Frankfurt and on 10 Feb. 2000 the book title was deleted from the list of available books.

Having no alternative but to defame and attempt to completely discredit the authors Torel/Kammerer, whose charges, if proved correct, would disgrace and compromise in an unprecedented manner the leading figures of canine science, the veterinary profession and animal foodstuffs industry for their blundering and charlatanism continuing over decades.

One year later, on Feb 9, 2000, Klaus Dieter Kammerer published his new book entitled "The Error of the Millennium in Veterinary Medicine"

Subtitled "Malnutrition-induced Hip Dysplasia as a Non-hereditary Skeletal Disease of Dogs"

In his new book K.D. Kammerer traces, with a restrained style of presentation and including much new information, the entire development of canine diet over the past thousand years up to the end of 1999, as well as the nutrition-related skeletal diseases affecting dogs.

These are some of Klaus Dieter Kammerer findings:

1. As in all the Western countries, about 80-85 % of the approximately 5.5 million dogs in the Federal Republic of Germany are suffering from more or less chronic or sub chronic obesity, liver damage, metabolic diseases, gastrointestinal disorders with pancreatic problems, cardiovascular diseases, impaired immune system with an increased incidence of allergies, infections and cancers, as well as a variety of disorders of the musculoskeletal system including dysplasias of all joints, but especially the hip. The life expectancy of dogs is considerably reduced, with cancer now heading the cause of death statistics.

2. Similarly, 80-85 % of dogs are nourished completely or partially with industrially produced ready-made food which, apart from the quality deficits of the raw materials, generally also suffers from method errors in its formulas and manufacturing process. Death from the diseases mentioned above over the last 30 years has shown an unmistakable correlation with the sales of the animal's foodstuffs industry. Especially the skeletal diseases with Hip Dysplasia are directly related to the decades of malnutrition to which dogs have been subjected and are their immediate consequence.

3. Essentially foods that were fed to calves and piglets to fatten them up were repackaged for dogs into small packs and cans with a water content of up to 80 %. This food differs from slaughter animal feed only with the addition of flavoring agents that is specifically attractive to dogs, and has elaborate packaging. One further difference, to dupe consumers is that dog food also contains soya sometimes changed in form to simulate meat and "meaty lumps". This genetic manipulation of soya results in lipid deposits in the dogs body organs leading to negative changes in the skeleton: "Frankenstein Food".

4. Heating of the raw materials with pressurized steam to as much as 250 °C and then hot air drying breaks down the carbohydrates, but also breaks down the proteins and fats and destroys

all the natural vitamins. This also destroys or alters the secondary nutrients and other substances vital for long-term animal health. To compensate for this a standardized mineral and vitamin premix is added to the food but usually way too much of it. This overdose of vitamins can lead to over stimulation of sex hormones and bone growth. It also leads to lipid deposits causing sclerosis of the blood vessels and so high blood pressure, cardiac and circulatory diseases. These feeding methods in dogs lead especially to osteochondrosis which is seen as shortened crooked legs, hormonal dysfunctions as well as vitamin A and D3 overdose leading to skeletal changes including Hip Dysplasia. Vitamin D3 over dosage alone, both in food and vitamin/mineral preparations, can induce Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease causing changes of the femoral head bone in the hip to a mushroom-shape with protrusions. This consequently produces Hip Dysplaysia. Most ready-made food usually has added appetizers that makes the dogs eat more, resulting in more or less marked obesity and, in the long term, to chronic diseases of various organ systems, especially of the heart. This modern animal food designed in the laboratory became a cause responsible for Hip Dysplasia in dogs. Calves and pigs fed on these formulas after reaching a certain size and weight are slaughtered at a young age so no one has much knowledge of their altered skeleton, dogs on the other hand have to live in their ruined bones for the rest of their lives.

5. Genetic inheritance of Hip Dysplasia and the other skeletal diseases of dogs have never been demonstrated. The first veterinarians to investigate how CHD happened had a number of explanations of which multifactorial inheritance was finally chosen as the winning candidate, since it appeared to explain everything. Subsequent investigators agreed with these assumptions with out question or further investigation, uncritically and that merely perpetuated the error. Others wrote papers designed to please their sponsors, for financial reasons. Finally, a downright code of belief was established regarding the multifactorial (polygenic) heritability of Hip Dysplasia.

6. Here is a list of possible causative factors of nutrition-induced underlying disorders being the cause of Hip Dysplasia:

a) Rickets (softening of bone due to Calcium and vitamin D3 deficiency

b) Scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency

c) Vitamin A and D3 toxic overdosage

d) Legg-Calvé-Perthes (disease femoral head necrosis)

e) Kock-knees

f) Hormonal dysfunctions thyroid disorder etc.

g) Osteochondrotic syndrome (degenerative cartilage disease shortening and bowing the legs)

h) Fibrous osteodystrophy (bone dystrophy)

i) Obesity (overweight) Overload during movement

When the metabolism is not functioning normally along with hormonal dysfunctions these underlying conditions lead to dysplasias of the entire skeleton and range from very mild and often clinically undiagnosed disease to severe deformations. Since movement is most pronounced at the hip joint, this is where the first deformations (dysplasias) inevitably develop. Dysplasias can also occur in all other joints, however, and they would be seen in more or less severe form in all dogs with CHD if X-ray examination were not confined to the hip joints. Many cases of canine Hip Dysplasia are also accompanied by Dysplasia of the shoulder, elbow and knee joints.

7. Hip dysplasia can only be explained in terms of multifactoriality, meaning that many factors go into creating the scenario but leaving out the genetic factor. So, Hip Dysplasia is to be regarded as a complication of metabolic disease in puppies and young dogs, and as a symptom of a generalized, hormonal skeletal disease, and on no account as a hereditary, isolated defect of the hip joint.

8. The multinational corporations: Effem is the market leader in Germany with a 75-80 % share of a market makes a profit of millions. These big corporations are behind most of the many small producers of our commercial dog food.

Nestlé who produces - (Alpo, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Migthy Dog),

Colgate-Palmolive that produces - (Hill's Science Diet),

Procter & Gamble makes - (Iams, Eukanuba),

Heinz gives us the brands - (Amore, Gravy train, Recipe, Verts) and

especially Mars whose affiliates are Waltham and Effem make these foods - (Advance, Cesar, Chappy, Formula, Frolic, Kal Kan, Mealtime, Pedigree)

They control the multi-billion-dollar world market for industrially produced dog and cat

food, including 90% of the European market.

Ralston Purina makes - (Pro Plan, Purina) and

Royal Canine makes - (Selection, Size mini-medium-maxi) they also enjoy a certain prominence.

9. These business empires have virtually unlimited funds for advertising. In the Western countries, they have advertising budgets totaling more than 10,000 million DM to splash out on dog food advertising. In the Federal Republic of Germany alone, Mars together with Waltham and Effem invest almost 500 million DM annually in the public and non-public domains. The money is devoted firstly to poster and press advertising, TV spots and for paid public relations articles in newspapers and magazines. The canine popular press is completely under the control of the animal foodstuffs industry and is only allowed to publish articles favorable to its backers' interests. Canine science societies, associations, and their functionaries enjoy considerable financial benefits. While all this money is paid to buy people and votes, hush money is paid to the parties, institutions and the judiciary.

10. The veterinary profession too is now in cahoots to these multinational corporations. Many veterinarians owe their living to this mutual sleaze and corruption. The opinion-leading veterinarians and nutritional scientists at the institutes of animal nutrition are almost without exception bribed and travel around the world at the expense of the various companies. They therefore recommend these products from sheer self-interest and delight dog owners with the benefits of industrial dog food while keeping quiet about the disadvantages. Since the entire advertising budgets are funded from the turnover and so from the sales of the various brands, consumers and dog owners are actually paying out of their own pockets for the brainwashing to which they are continually subjected, not even realizing that these products that seem so good are also grossly overpriced. These conditions prevail in most countries.

11. The companies mentioned above - but especially Waltham/Effem - initiated the belief that skeletal diseases of dogs was hereditary to conceal the mechanical errors being perpetrated in commercial animal foodstuffs production and have sustained their campaign over three decades. Almost all the authoritative veterinarians in the USA, UK and Germany who are or have been involved in studying CHD have at some time received enticement from Waltham/ Effem, Ralston Purina or the others. The diseases of the various organ systems that have been brought on by malnutrition gave the forward motion for marketing now numerous dietary products sold through veterinarians. The industry not only delivers the various brands free of charge, but also the sick dogs necessary for their consumption. In this thoroughly corrupt system, the industry and veterinary profession in the Western countries are actively engaged in white collar and white coat crime and are perpetrating the biggest fraud in the history of veterinary medicine, nothing less than a chronic scandal use.

12. The malnutrition of dogs and the belief of Hip Dysplasia being a hereditary problem is a double error and considering the disaster for dogs' health created and sustained over four decades by the industry and the professors in their service at the faculties of veterinary medicine, especially in the USA, UK and Germany, can only be described as the error of the millennium in veterinary medicine: millions of dogs around the world have been fed to a state of illness or to death during this period. By reforming canine nutrition, improving the quality and eliminating the mechanical errors in production, death due to the

numerous nutrition-induced diseases of dogs could be significantly lowered. In particular, the skeletal diseases associated with Hip Dysplasia could be at least considerably reduced.

Leg Perthes, HD and Patella Luxation and a host of others all seem to have a correlation in that they are all in the bone joints. Perhaps if dog food companies concentrated on health awareness and nutrition for our animals. Breeders and owners alike would certainly be much happier not to say how wonderful it would be to not have innocent dogs suffer for a lifetime of problems. Seems capitalism has taken over the worth of health in general, animal and human alike.

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