Dogs battle lifestyle diseases, mirroring human society

By Shigeki Hiroe

NAGOYA —

Dogs in Japan were once raised on leftover rice mixed with miso soup and lived relatively short lives. Thanks to the advent of pet food they now live longer but are also developing similar health problems to humans.

In times past, the canine life span was short because of the poor nutritional balance, according to Mitsuhiro Furuse, 51, who is researching dietetics of pets at the graduate school of Kyushu University.

It was customary for many families to feed their dogs the dinner scraps, pouring miso soup over a bowl of rice.

Pet food first appeared in the 1960s in Japan and since then has helped dogs and cats increase their longevity—by more than three years on average for canines to 11.9 years old, and by nearly five years to 9.9 years old for felines.

However, Furuse said, many pets now suffer from ‘‘lifestyle diseases’’ as a result of their new diet.

Masayo Karasawa, 40, of Nagoya, buys meat and vegetables low in agrochemicals to prepare for her Bernese mountain dog.

‘‘I myself don’t like additives and I don’t know what’s in dog food,’’ she said by way of explanation.

It costs her about 20,000 yen a month to feed Meikyo, a 4-year-old male, who has been with her since 2004. She takes him several times a week to a heated pool at the Dog Medical Fitness and Rehabilitation center, about 10 kilometers from her home. The dog suffers from hip joint dysfunction.

She pays no heed to rehabilitation adviser Yoko Watanabe, 48, who said she should stop cooking for the dog because her menus lack nutritional balance.

Karasawa said she has learned the importance of raising any creature since she met Meikyo and has also shaken off a food allergy after eating organic vegetables she first purchased for her pet.

Fusae Kato, 55, of Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, often hears her daughter ask if she has given medicine to their aging 12-year-old golden retriever, Yuki. Weighing 35.6 kilograms, Yuki is more than 5 kilograms heavier than dogs of her breed.

Yuki gets drugs for a heart ailment and to lower her blood pressure. Kato said she tells her dog, ‘‘Let’s both of us take life slowly’’ when they go out on a walk. Kato herself also suffers from high blood pressure.

Researcher Furuse said pet foods are now roughly divided into general food, natural food without additives and food prescribed by veterinarians. In addition, there is home-cooked food prepared by people like Karasawa.

The Pet Food Manufacturers Association said shipments of pet food for dogs, cats and other animals totaled about 120 billion yen in 1989 but doubled in 2006. It also said that pet food is diversifying and now includes low-calorie products, products for animals with special dietary requirements, as well dishes for dogs that are sick.

Also, in an era when consumer concerns about food safety extend to pet food as well, some manufacturers are producing natural products containing no additives. Among them is a company started by someone who became interested in additive-free pet food after his pet dog died, when he was shocked to discover the large amount of chemicals that pet food contains.

One household that now relies on pet food is that of Hosei University professor Yuko Tanaka. ‘‘Over the years we have had a number of dogs and cats in our home. The dogs ate the same things as the family. We started using pet food after some stray cats came to live with us. My father is gone and my mother is aged and my work keeps me very busy. I can’t feed my pets at a fixed time so I leave water and pet food out for them.’’

But exactly what goes into pet food remains something of a mystery to pet owners. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry has just drawn up a bill requiring pet food manufacturers to display the names of raw materials used in their products, and hopes to see it enacted by the Diet next spring.

Said rehabilitation adviser Watanabe, ‘‘We live in a time when we need to think about what goes into food. Pet owners should study and choose what they feed their pets.’’

Latest 15 of 34 Total Comments Show All

timorborder at 04:39 PM JST - 10th April

Capone - Ball work is actually fetching a ball. Actually, in the case of our big dog, we use a soccer ball rather than a tennis ball because he swallows tennis balls. At the same time, however, he is the only dog I know who can put a soccer ball completely in his mouth.
cleo at 05:03 PM JST - 10th April

timorborder -

lol, only a mastiff owner would call a goldie a 'small dog'! Mr. Cleo tried to persuade me to get a mastiff recently, I said No because I don't have a pan big enough to cook all the beans & veggies it would need.

The bossdog is a 9-kilo mongrel who has lost her eyesight to glaucoma and her hearing to old age, yet still lords it over the Dobie (and the rest of us). I found her over 15 years ago, abandoned in a cardboard box in the woods when I was walking our now-departed Lab. Best thing I ever picked up for free. :-)
Sarge at 08:29 PM JST - 10th April

notimpressed - Har!
Princeska at 09:47 PM JST - 10th April

I laugh everytime when I see a dog dressed in clothes. I know the dogs themselves are ashamed of their outfits. They are so funny, so I cannot help laughing at them and their owners, and the owners are angry with me...
Beelzebub at 08:24 AM JST - 11th April

Dogs in Japan were once raised on leftover rice mixed with miso soup and lived relatively short lives.

Dogs are scavengers and if allowed free rein usually supplement whatever their masters feed them with roadkill or other items you probably don't want to know about. By the way, I read years ago in a book that the Shiba and Akita breeds had adapted to the rice diet -- being native to these islands after all -- so such food might not have affected their longevity as much as it would the imported breeds, which only began getting popular here several decades after the war.
cleo at 09:00 AM JST - 11th April

Dogs in Japan aren't usually allowed free rein, otherwise they're likely to end up as road kill themselves.
Princeska at 04:03 PM JST - 12th April

I do not see real dogs - graceful hunters and protectors of people with high IQ, only some puppies that look like cats or new-born lambs...
cleo at 05:34 PM JST - 12th April

My dog's a real dog. She protects people with high IQ. (No one in the family with low IQ, but I'm sure she'd protect them too, if they were family) ;-)
Princeska at 02:27 PM JST - 13th April

cleo high IQ people usually have high IQ dogs...
cleo at 03:14 PM JST - 13th April

Princeska -

Where on earth did you pick that walnut up? I know some dumb people who have brilliant dogs. And some very intelligent people whose dogs are as thick as pea soup. (Still highly loveable, but thick, thick, thick.) My Dobie's brilliant. The Bossdog is - well, not.
Princeska at 09:40 PM JST - 13th April

Cleo

Well high IQ people do not choose chiwawa dogs (the ones the look like hamsters). Please do not say your dog is such.
timeon at 09:49 PM JST - 13th April

people with high IQ do not pay 300,000 yen for a puppy kept in a glass box at the local department store :) all the hysteria about fashionable dogs (some talento shows up with some dog, and the price goes up 150% for the breed) is a pity. I would like to see more people to get their pets from the rescue centers
cleo at 12:22 AM JST - 14th April

timeon -

Agreed. I'd also like to see more rescue centres; the places people are usually advised to take their unwanted pets to are disposal centres, not shelters.

Princeska -

Granted chihuahuas are not the brightest of dogs. They're cute, though. (All dogs are cute). A bigger problem in Japan with buying a popular breed is that you're likely to get an animal with all kinds of congenital health problems because the puppy farms are churning them out as fast as they can sell them, with little regard to bloodlines or quality. Never buy from a pet shop.
timorborder at 06:36 AM JST - 14th April

Go Cleo.
DenshaDeGO at 11:20 PM JST - 15th April

I saw a dog wearing a pair of pants and shoes the other day ... Lord help us