Yea or nea?

Are there any good butcher shops in Chicagoland for PMR?

I say go for it. All I feed my dog is raw meat and there is no problems. Just go to any butcher and try to get the cheapest you can. Make sure its all natural and there isn't any drugs pumped into the meat. A quick online search of the brand will tell you the answer to that.

No......... parasites, bacteria, can't make a good diet, doesn't "travel" well, cost........

As much as some people claim that you can recreate a dogs "real" diet, it's near impossible to do on a daily basis without exposing yourself or your dog to nasty bacteria or parasites. Your dogs ancestry didn't live on lean cuts of steak, it ate the guts (literally) out of fresh or rotting animals. There's beneficial nutrients in the liver, kidneys, intestines, etc that you won't get with just raw beef muscle. So you have to mix in the other stuff....and that typically means an agreement or special order.

It means your going to have to handle large quantities of potentially not human-safe meat in the same house as you cook. Most people cant maintain food / kitchen cleanliness in normal circumstances, so your risks of getting sick is going to be much higher. And even if your food prep and kitchen cleaning skills are top notch...... If your dog gets parasites from raw meat.... You're still more likely to get infected from contact with their feces. (Don't kid yourself, your dog rolls in his own shit, then sleeps in your bed).

Beyond all that is cost. It's flat out going to cost more per year, probably much more. If there was a huge benefit, I could understand, but a well blended dog food with occasional additives directed by a vet is hard to beat.

Its actually not that expensive at all. My dog weighs around the 70 pound range and he is only supposed to get a pound of meat a day. Now if you shop by sales you can get meat for 1.99lb or less all day long. So for 2 bucks a day my dog eats a nice, filling, healthy meal. It wasn't created on the table in some lab with dozens of ingredients, its all natural. As far as bacteria and other raw meat contaminants, the dogs stomach acids are designed for this and it doesn't bother them at all so long as you stick to just raw meat and NOT switching from dog food to raw meat. If you switch back and forth it can and most likely will upset the dogs stomach and make it sick. Stick with it and you won't have any problems. Its very safe and its what all dogs ate before humans invented dog food. If its not good for them then ask yourself this, how did they survive up until dog food was invented?

Here's an article that weighs the potential benefits vs. risks.

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/raw...fits-and-risks