Pet Food: Rawesome

Those of us who have four-legged, omnivorous family members can often be concerned that they’re getting the right kind of food for their dietary needs. And sometimes the right kind of food is the raw kind of food.

Lori Craigan and Shayne Jacquith’s introduction to the raw food diet for pets began in 2003, when they attended a talk on the subject given by Dr. Paul Alfarone of Bear Swamp Veterinary Service in Middlesex. The essence of his philosophy is that pets should consume what they evolved eating, but that their dietary needs may shift from time to time. This made sense to Lori and Shayne, who weren’t quite convinced that processed dry and canned food was nutritionally optimal for their then-4-year-old dog, Ty, who wasn’t a big fan of kibble anyway. When they discovered in 2005 that Ty had cancer, they began feeding him a completely raw diet—and the good news is that Ty will be 12 years old this fall!

“As health conscious individuals who try to support the local food economy, we thought it would be great to try to develop a non-processed and locally supplied food for our dog,” Lori says. “There are many preventable illnesses that have developed in our pets that can be avoided with a diet that avoids processed foods that contain mostly grain and byproducts.”

Lori and Shayne launched Vermont Raw Pet Food in 2005. They met their future business partners, Jennifer and Marc Hammond (and their dogs Tex and Juneau) two years later in Fayston, after some friends informed Lori and Shayne that Jen and Marc “are raw pet food nuts, too.”

Today, Vermont Raw manufactures non-processed, raw pet foods made from locally sourced ingredients. Depending on the recipe, Vermont Raw contains 70–100 percent local ingredients that are available in one-, two-, and five-pound frozen tubes. The two plain meat varieties are Chicken and Turkey, with the meat (including bones and organ meat) coming from Misty Knoll Farms in New Haven. The two fruit and veggie varieties are made with either chicken or turkey, plus the addition of kale, sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, apples, pears, eggs, kelp, alfalfa, salmon oil, and vitamin C.

According to Lori, “The apples and eggs are always local [and] we try to source the rest locally, as well. A recent switch from oranges to pears and sweet potatoes has resulted in increased use of local products.” She also adds, “All four recipes are suitable for dogs that are omnivorous. The plain meat recipes are ideal for cats that are more carnivorous and very particular about what they eat.”

Vermont Raw’s production facility is located in the Irasville Business Park in Waitsfield, a small business incubator project. At the moment, the company’s products are available primarily in central Vermont and South Burlington, but distribution will soon be expanded to southern Vermont and neighboring states.

The friends who met four years ago (and bonded over talk of their dogs) still own and manage Vermont Raw. Like many entrepreneurs just starting out, each maintains a full-time job outside the company. “Between the four of us we put about 60 hours per week into the business,” Lori says. “Of course, as with any small business, sometimes it can be more and sometimes it’s less. We simply do what needs to be done!”

—Barbi Schreiber

More info: vermontrawpetfood.com

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