Respected veterinarian and author Dr Tom Lonsdale has been interviewed on radio about why pet owners should consider swapping commercial pet food for a ‘back to basics’ diet of raw meaty bones.

According to Dr Lonsdale, a leading authority on canine and feline periodontal disease, moving pets from canned food and packaged kibble to raw meaty bones such as whole chickens, pigs’ heads, fish, and ribs of lamb can remedy and prevent pet dental and gum disease.

And as advanced gum disease in pets is associated with an increased risk of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart, kidney, lung, and liver disease, changing their diet to raw meaty bones could also help protect them from developing these potentially life-threatening diseases later in life, he says.

The British-born vet – who ran a veterinary clinic in New South Wales, Australia, for more than 40 years before his retirement in 2022 – says that raw meaty bones are both nutritious and medicinal, and are completely aligned with the natural biological needs of domesticated carnivores such as dogs and cats.

He bases his claims on more than 30 years’ clinical research and observation, noting pets’ dental health alongside their diets while conducting routine check-ups or treating injuries and illnesses.

Dr Lonsdale, author of hard-hitting exposé Multi-Billion-Dollar Pet Food Fraud: Hiding in Plain Sight and dubbed the ‘whistleblower vet’ on account of his mission to ‘lift the lid’ on the potentially harmful effects of an industrialised pet food diet, blames off-the-shelf pet food for causing a “gum disease pandemic” in dogs and cats.