SO HERE'S MY "PERSUASIVE" SPEECH I DID FOR CLASS

hey ALL,

Hope all is well...

Just wanted to drop this in here. This is my "persuasive" speech i had to do (but sorta rushed into it) for my class.
I kinda left a lot of good info out due to the fact that this speech had to be between 5-7 miutes long... Unfortunately for me, i went over the time and lasted about 10-12 minutes long (so my classmates told me).
Due to going over the time limit (by 5+ extra minutes) given, my professor gave me a B+, boooo!! But i understand, and i definately understand that i didn't deserve an A.

Ohh well, at least i got an A+ on my final though (more important as far as points/final-grade goes), today :y_the_best:

So, here it is, for those that wanted, and want something to read:
Whether you think it's good/alright/or NOT, my class was pretty much informed (a little at least), and i believe the "persuasion" was accomplished (i saw it in their faces... They were like :shock: :x :y_the_best:

Persuasive Speech / Commercial Pet Food


Introduction: How many of you have had a dog in your family or household, or currently live with one? How many of you fed, or currently feed dry/kibble type dog food? As a personal dog owner/lover, and being someone that works in the industry for the care of dogs, I feel it’s my privilege to let you know what exactly I’ve come across through my research and personal experience on what goes into Commercial Pet Foods. *So in general, I’m going to cover exactly what the main sources of meat-protein are in a kibble diet.
*I want to let you know how this food is processed and manufactured.
*I’m going to cover some proven health problems from prolong feeding of this diet.
*And finally, I want to leave you with some of the alternatives and additional information if you want to look deeper into the subject.

I) Nature of the beast.
A) In the past, dogs lived wild. They used to hunt down their food. Today, they’re practically totally dependent for us/humans to feed them. The 1st natural instinct of a dog in the wild would be to open up the abdomen of its kill, and eat all the guts. Meaning, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, and the stomach and intestines to get to the nutritional undigested grains, and greens, and what ever else its prey fed on. The visceral (body cavity organs) parts are rich in vitamins and minerals. The liver, for example is extremely rich in vitamins A,C, & B. Dogs in the wild knew what they were doing. They knew what was good for them, to maintain healthy & strong.
B) If it had room for seconds (if it wanted to gorge itself), only then would it eat the skeletal-meat portion, what we humans consider steak, which of-coarse is less nutritional.
C) Today, we throw our dogs into a backyard or apartment, and buy them cheap, dry, processed, but convenient (for us) food.
D) We determine what goes into our dog’s diet, but even worse, we provide what is being marketed to us, by the pet-food-manufacturing-industry.

II) Major Role-Players.
A) To give you an idea of what Commercial Dog Food is, companies like: Alpo, Mighty Dog, Purina Dog Chow, Pro Plan, Purina One, Kibbles-n-Bits, Nature’s Recipe, Hill’s Science Diet, Pedigree, and yes, Nutro, Iams & Eukanuba just to name a few are part of this multi-billion dollar industry.
B) Basically, every single dog-food brand or company that you would find at your local grocery store, or for example, Petco., or Petsmart are involved, or guilty of its contents, which I’m about to describe… Patients please…
III) False Labeling.
A) The industry says the food it makes covers a dog’s nutritional requirements. Does it really?
B) The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) points out in numerous publications that the labeling on dog food packages of “complete and balanced” diet does not mean that the food can be used as the dog’s only source of nutrition. What it this actually means “of-coarse” is that the product provides minimum nutrition for the dog to maintain its body weight & size, with normal amount of exercise of- coarse. This should actually be called a minimum “maintenance diet”.
C) A person may want to provide higher quality nutrition, and more than the minimum for example during growth stages of a puppy, pregnancy, lactation, and other times of everyday stress like environmental pollution, chemical toxins, drugs, parasites, trauma, or even injury.
D) How can a commercial diet that is made for minimum requirements protect and maintain a dogs health in a lifetime of stress? The answer is clear. It can’t.

IV) The 4-Ds, & What goes into Dog Food.
A) So what exactly goes into this dog food kibble? What exactly goes into this pop-corn looking thing, that looks like it should be in my Captain Crunch Cereal? Here we go…
B) The protein sources used in pet foods comes from a variety of sources. When cattle, swine, chickens, lambs, or other animals are slaughtered, the choice cuts such as lean muscle tissue are trimmed away from the carcass for human consumption. About 50% of all food producing animals doesn’t get used in human foods. Whatever remains of the carcass – bones, blood, hearts, intestines, lungs, ligaments, veins, nerves, hooves, horns, feathers, beaks, feet, fur, dirt & soil, etc., are used in pet-foods. These “other parts” are known as “by-products”, “meat-meal & bone-meal”, or similar disguised names on pet-food labels.
C) The 4-Ds, meaning Dead, Dying, Diseased, and Disabled animals are all used in pet-foods.
D) Animals that have died by a systemic disease, like cancer, which has effected the animals entire body are rendered into pet-food too.
E) You may think “well meat is meat to a dog, and a dog will pretty much eat anything”, this is somewhat true, but you have to remember we’re feeding this to our dogs 2 to 3 times, daily.
F) A company will claim that their product is 100% beef (and we think, “ahh yeah Sirloin for my buddy”), but of-coarse the companies aren’t going to advertise 100% diseased beef.
G) Animals also die from other causes like chemical poisoning. The toxic agricultural pesticides and herbicides all go into the mix w/ the carcass.
H) Road kill is also part of the menu, as well as spoiled meat from grocery stores, along with its styrofoam tray and plastic wrapper. It’s too costly & too much labor to remove them. But the list doesn’t stop here…
I) From the book Foods Pets Die For, by Ann Martin states; “The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) states that there are no restrictions limiting the use of animals for meat, tankage, and digest. AAFCO does not prohibit the rendering of companion animals in pet foods or livestock feed—and states that it is a reliable source of protein.”
J) That’s right, our very own companion animals are being rendered and used as pet-food. Think about it.
K) About 6 million pets are euthanized in America every year. These 6 million pets are picked up from our trusty local Veterinary hospitals, and Dog-Pounds, and animal rescues, and are brought to pet-food manufacturing rendering facilities, and used in the mix with all the other madness. Our very own companion animals are thrown in the mix as a whole. Meaning, if they had a flea collar on, it goes in the mix, if they were wrapped in plastic at the Vet’s office before they were picked up by these rendering companies, the plastic goes into the food too. It’s too much work, and very little time & money to be spent cleaning up and preparing animal feed & pet-food humanely.
L) Very little money is given by our government to inspect what is going on, and to make sure our animals are being fed what is being marketed and dictated to us by the pet-food industry.
M) So when the dreadful time comes when you’ll be faced to have to put down your beloved companion friend, ask them if they are in business with these rendering plants, or be sure to receive your faithful friends’ ashes.
N) And yes, the list doesn’t stop here…
O) Just to make the food palatable, or eatable by dogs (which we believe would eat anything, remember?), these companies spray loads of chemicals that are foreign to the dogs system. Usually animal fat is sprayed, coating the kibble during the final stages of processing.
P) To give you an idea of where this fat comes from, it’s like when someone cooks chicken soup, and the foamy fat that rises to the top of the boiling elements. Except this is the residue from the entire mixture of factories rendering process.
Q) They also use grease from restaurants. Next time you go to the back alley of one of your favorite fast-food or high class restaurant and see barrels sitting around (these aren’t beer kegs), this is the grease picked up by the same rendering plants used to trick our dogs and ourselves that it smells like good stuff. Seriously, when was the last time you smelled bacon cooking and said “yuck”? Bacon smells damn good right?!? Same idea here.
R) The issue here is these barrels could have been sitting out in the heat, and cold for weeks, or months before actually being picked up and then used by pet-food manufactures. It could be infested w/ bacteria from spoilage.
S) To preserve the mixture from any additional spoilage, the factories spray additives and antioxidants such as BHA, BHT, & Ethoxyquin which has been proven on laboratory animals to cause cancer. Ethoxyquin was actually developed to preserve rubber. If Ethoxyquin is sprayed on and used at the rendering factories, before the product reaches the actuall pet-food company, the company legally has the right to not label it. There are numerous carcinogens going into these foods, but these 3 are the main ones to look for.
T) Eating all this yuck on a daily basis has lead to diseases that our companion animals’ ancestors didn’t have to deal with.
U) Veterinarians have proven that diarrhea, gastrointestinal diseases (the digestive tract), cataract, cardiac, respiratory, kidneys, lungs, the immune & nervous system, and skin & coat issues just to name a few have been linked to nutritional deficiency.
V) There are also countless issues with the carbohydrates and Vegetable- Protein used dog-food, like the fungus problem, in the 1995 call-back on Nature’s Recipe causing the company to loose up to $20 million. But that’s another long topic I wasn’t planning on going into. So, this leads me to the…

V) Alternatives.
A) There are hundreds of different pet foods available in this country. Even though many of these companies are similar, not all manufacturing companies use poor quality or potentially dangerous ingredients (Refer to list on board). --- (i put up a list of 8 different companies that i personally do a Rotation Diet w/ my dogs on the Chalk board).
B) The idea of one pet-food providing all the nutrition a pet will need for its entire life is a myth. I believe in doing a Rotation-Diet (refer to board again), simply for providing variety in flavor, and nutritional benefits. I also believe in feeding table scraps. Whether its from McDonalds or if its from Trader Joes. Variety is the daily key. Who in there right minds would want to eat the same thing day-in & day-out, for the rest of there lives?
C) Some well-known pet-nutritionists recommended a new trend of Raw-Feeding, or the B.A.R.F. diet.
D) Bones & Raw Food is becoming an accepted new way, that was actually the way our great-grandparents use to feed their companion animals before the pet-food industry came about. The dogs back then were known to live much longer and died from natural causes of old age, and not diseases, especially not diseases from food sources, which is suppose to nurture the body in the 1st place and not damage it.
E) But before choosing to change any current diet you are feeding it is always wise to do some research of your own to get a better understanding of how to go about it all.
F) Refer to books, authors, and websites on board for additional info.--- (i wrote out a list of "Works Sited" on the chalk board)
G) So in conclusion, I say feed your pet what they thrive on. If they honestly thrive on Commercial Pet-Food, then continue to provide so. If they thrive on wholesome “human-grade” Pet-Food, then provide that. If they thrive on Raw and or home-cooked meals, then continue with that. But all in all, I personally believe in providing all of the above, which is variety.


I especially left a lot out in the "ALTERNATIVES", because i was rushing trying to finish typing this speech up, and late to class, to deliver it!
Ohh well... Thank You ALL for helping me this & sharing your info.

 

I didn't deliver it word-for-word. I used and gave a lot of examples and explanations for almost everything i covered here. I also spoke on things that aren't in this speech... Like the chemical of Euthinasia that is used to put down our beloved companion animals, also goes into the food.
Etc.. Etc...

 

Very nice job. If I were your teacher/classmates, I would have given you a two thumbs up! :y_the_best:
Sue

 

Excellent!! Bravo! Would you mind telling us what grade you are in?

 

wow, that was great, did you also turn that in as a paper?

 

Nice work! :y_the_best:

 

Very informative, well researched and well presented. I think you did an awesome job :y_the_best:

 

Good Job!