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Lonsdale suggested to some of his clients that they change their pet's diet - from canned and dry food to such items as raw chicken carcases, kangaroo tails and whole rabbits. Within weeks, he says, the clients were reporting that "these near dead things had become sprightly again. They were gaining weight and their coats were developing a luster. All those non-specific ailments that we'd previously been puzzling over were disappearing. Animals no longer needed their arthritis pills, their corticosteroids for skin disorders, their flea treatments. We were destroying our client base. All the animals were getting better...
...Australian Veterinary Association for bringing the profession into disrepute. There's much to suggest that Lonsdale has become a victim of his own obsession. He quit practicing in 1992 to eke out a living researching and promulgating his theories. Ever since, he's hammered a simple message: commercial pet food - on which Australians spend $A1.3 billion a year - is bad for cats and dogs, which should be eating raw, meaty bones. Many vets have wearied of him; others mock him. The A.V.A. denies trying to silence Lonsdale. It says it canceled his membership in response to an e-mail...
Lonsdale won't be satisfied until bodies like the A.V.A. denounce commercial pet food and "admit they got it comprehensively wrong." He argues it's the A.V.A.'s alliance with pet food manufacturers that's stopping it from coming clean. Blackman dismisses this as "nonsense": only 0.4% of the A.V.A.'s annual income comes from manufacturers, he says, "and it's certainly not a driver of the recommendations we make about diet." Animals fed a pure Lonsdale diet, he adds, risk missing out on key nutrients and becoming constipated...
Lonsdale, who set out his theory in a self-published 2001 book, Raw Meaty Bones, gives the impression he could discuss pet food all day. "He's obsessive because he's been made a figure of fun," says a friend and former vet. "Being tiresome doesn't make him wrong." Lonsdale believes his ideas could have implications for human medicine: if this diet can reverse illness in animals, he says, "we should be finding out what the factors are" and seeing if they can be applied to people. No one expects the A.V.A. expulsion to do anything but embolden...
...CAPTURED. The YUEN LONG CROCODILE, a 1.5-m reptile thought to be a freed pet or wildlife-farm escapee that has become a local celebrity; in Hong Kong. The crocodile, which is not of a species native to Hong Kong, evaded expert Australian and Chinese hunters for months, attracted hordes of media and fans, and was voted the city's Personality of the Year for 2003. The reptile was finally caught with a simple snare and the help of a local fisherman, and will eventually be moved to a nature park. -By Austin Ramzy and Jeff Plunkett...