About Resoration Raw - Vet Recipe
Origins
During the past five years, Todd Churchill, owner and CEO of Thousand Hills Cattle Company has been working with farmers, retailers and chefs to create a healthful source of 100% grass fed beef for families in the Upper Midwest to enjoy. This business grew out of a concern for the quality of food his family could find and has expanded to embrace a deep commitment to providing the healthiest possible beef, supporting opportunities for family farms to prosper, building a strong local food system and economy, and doing it all in a way that provides the most humane conditions for the livestock while working with the land in a way that supports its long-term well-being.
During this time, Todd connected with Will Winter, D.V.M., an area veterinarian who has practiced holistic veterinary medicine for over 30 years. Will has has since served both as a resource for enhancing the health of Thousand Hills livestock and as a catalyst for thinking about what could be done with the parts of the beef carcass that people aren’t interested in eating. It turns out that the ideal, natural diets of dogs and cats includes a mixture of raw meat from all parts of prey animals, combined with fresh greens and assorted sources of roughage. The organs, in the appropriate 10% proportion with muscle from less sought after “end cuts”, and fat, provide for ideal protein and healthy fats for pets while using nearly all of the carcass. This use of the whole animal satisfies our goal of sustainability – both from a financial perspective and from the point of view of our commitment to honoring our livestock by making the most responsible use possible of the gift of food they provide us.
Some historical detail from Will Winter, D.V.M., about his holistic veterinary practice:
Back in the 1970’s I stumbled upon the classic book “The Herbal Guide to the Dog” by Juliette de Bairicli Levy. She was and is the “Grandmother of veterinary herbal medicine” and the creator of the famous “Natural Rearing” principles for care and feeding of dogs and cats. She grew up in an era before modern pet foods, and witnessed the rapid decline in pet health once people began to shift to the new cooked and preserved rations. Many of her books were written in the 1930’s. After a career that spanned over 50 years of breeding, raising and living with dogs she summed up her life as follows: “If I am able to instill two reforms into the canine world, the fasting of all dogs in sickness, and the strict feeding of only raw flesh---never cooked meat in any form----then my years of canine work will not have been wasted ones”.
After my introduction to this new and very radical-sounding way of thinking I entered a world that was not really radical at all. It did, however, deeply and forever change my life as a veterinarian and as a pet owner. After 20 more years of practicing holistic veterinary medicine I learned how to refine and hone these nutritional concepts for happy, healthy pets in this modern life. I believe that what you spend on good food comes back many times over in savings on veterinary bills and health woes.
