![]() ![]() Those Patagonian dogs are more than pets - they’re partners, absolutely critical to daily operations, keeping the herds safe, and putting in long exhausting days. We work with ranchers in Patagonia who’ve traditionally reserved a few parts of beef cows as rewards for their hard-working ranch dogs. We developed Nature Gnaws all-natural dog chews for one reason: discarded, chemically-treated leather isn’t good enough for our dogs. Rawhide is the dog chew equivalent of factory-farmed junk food that’s actually unhealthy – merely nutrition-free at best, and potentially dangerous. It’s cheap and accessible because it’s basically leftovers from the leather industry that would otherwise just rot in vast stinking piles outside Chinese factories. But it isn’t cheap and accessible because it’s good for our pets. Rawhide chews are not the worst thing in the world. Yes, lots of dogs chow down on rawhide every day and they’re still with us. Constant whimpering, abdominal tenderness, or other signs of painīut there are like a billion rawhide chews sold every day - how can they possibly be so bad?.Warning signs: if your dog suffers from any of these symptoms, please get in touch with your veterinarian ASAP: When tested in laboratories, lead, arsenic, mercury, chromium salts, formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals have been detected in rawhide chews. This is not a chemical you want your dog ingesting in any quantity.Īccording to the Food & Drug Administration, as long as rawhide dog chews don’t include nutrition information on their labels, the FDA does NOT require manufacturers to “follow the AAFCO pet food regulations.” What’s that mean? Rawhide dog chews are not “food” and are therefore not laboratory-tested, and do not have to abide by laws regarding purity and safety that protect pet food as well as people food. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Here’s the thing: in order to remove the hair from the hides, most factories use a process called “sodium sulphide liming.” This process is so toxic that former US tanneries top the list of Superfund sites. So, instead of going through the tanning process, the inner skin gets thrown to one side, to be dried and twisted into a shape vaguely resembling a bone. The inner portion of the hide isn’t as nice-looking. When a cow is skinned, its hide consists of two layers: the surface, “top grain,” gets tanned and turned into shoes, belts, wallets, bags, vests, upholstery for vehicles, and so on. As you might guess, rawhide is hide - also known as leather, usually from cows - that hasn’t been tanned. ![]()
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