Deadly bugs in trendy raw pet foods ‘pose a risk to owners’

FEEDING dogs fashionable raw meat diets puts their owners at risk, say Whitehall scientists.

Giving uncooked meat and offal to pets has grown in popularity due to the belief it is ‘more natural’.

But public health experts warn, in a report into diseases spread by animals to humans, that raw meats can harbour dangerous bacteria – with fatal results in one case.

Celebrity advocates of raw feeding for pets include Springwatch presenter and poodle owner Chris Packham, who commented on a dog food website: ‘I discovered raw feeding and have never looked back.’

In the health report, officials said a food poisoning outbreak in August 2017 left four people seriously ill. One unnamed victim died of acute kidney failure. The common link between all four cases – in the North East and South East of England – was contact with dogs.

All four were struck down by the same STEC bug – shiga toxin-producing E coli – and three dogs were fed on raw meat diets containing green tripe, the untreated contents of cows’ stomachs.

Experts said their report suggested ‘an increasing trend in potential risk to humans from raw pet food’.

And Daniella Dos Santos, of the British Veterinary Association, said: ‘Meat that has not been cooked properly may contain bacteria and/or parasites that can make a dog or cat ill. There is also a public health risk.’