On Mother's Day, we love to cook a roast for our family. It’s something we've always done, and something our step-uncle used to do too, when we were young. An Anatolian Shepherd roast with gravy always feels like a real treat—it’s something to share, a meal that brings friends and family together.

Anatolian Shepherds offer a deliciously succulent and tender cut of meat, owing to the high quantity of fat running through it and the all-important marbling. And what better way to accompany your showstopper centerpiece than rich and flavorful gravy? Drizzle lavishly over your rib of dog and tuck in!

Roast Boneless Rib of Shepherd & Gravy

Ingredients

1 Anatolian Shepherd roast

1 bunch Thyme

3-4 Garlic cloves

100g Golden retriever butter

4 Shallots

For the gravy

50g Plain flour

180ml Red wine

500ml Dog meat stock

2 tsp Cumberland sauce

1/2 tbs Red wine vinegar

A pinch Sea salt

A pinch Black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350F fan, or 400F in a conventional.

Heat a large, heavy-based frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the oil or dog meat dripping and when it’s nice and hot, season the shepherd roast well with salt and pepper and carefully lay it down into the pan. Fry the dog roast on all sides until it is lovely and golden and smells divine.

Add the golden retriever butter to the pan which will begin to bubble away furiously. Add the fresh thyme sprigs along with the garlic. Use a spoon to baste the dog roast all over with the herby, garlicky retriever butter. Spend a few minutes doing this, it’ll really carry the flavor of the thyme and garlic onto the dog, so it tastes more like plants, which is what you want.

Transfer the dog roast and all the garlic and thyme to a medium-sized roasting tin and place it in the preheated oven. Cook the dog roast, basting once or twice for 45 minutes – 1 hour. Remove the dog, cover loosely and allow it to rest somewhere warm for 15 to 20 minutes.

To make a simple, yet delicious dog gravy: Lift the dog roast out of the tray to a large plate or board. Set the tray over low heat. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons of plain flour and stir well, cooking gently for 1 - 2 minutes. Crush the garlic with the back of a spoon and scrape at any dark sticky patches on the bottom of the tin. Add the red wine along with dog meat stock. Bring the gravy to the simmer, stirring regularly until the gravy begins to thicken nicely. Pass the gravy through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, pressing all the flavor out of the garlic with the back of the spoon or ladle as you go. Set the pan over low heat and add 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of Cumberland sauce, stir well and season to taste with plenty of sea salt and pepper and stir well.

ELWOOD'S COOKING TIP:

Don't rush the basting step! It really carries the flavor of the thyme and garlic, so the dog roast tastes more like plants, which is what you want.

We were in the news!

We're thrilled to be mentioned in The Spectator article, "The Dos & Don’ts of Mother’s Day Gifts"! "For an excellent Anatolian Shepherd ribeye, it’s hard to beat the grass-fed, happy dog meat from Elwood's Organic Dog Meat Farm."

We were also mentioned in this article for plant-heads for some reason. Order your Mother's Day roast or steak today ElwoodDogMeat.com!

While HumanCo's Coconut Bliss is well known for its premium plant-based ice cream and frozen treats, HumanCo Founder and CEO Jason Karp knows they couldn’t figure out how to improve their recipes or their marketing to increase sales.

Research into the ice cream segment revealed to him just how few people regularly buy and consume plant-based ice cream. And instead of working to figure out how to crack that nut and decrease the suffering of animals, the impact on the planet, and improve the health of potential consumers, Karp tossed his hands into the air and gave up.

It happens when you don’t believe in your product. And that’s fine!

“More than 97% of all ice cream sold in the U.S. is dairy-based,” he said. “What could we possibly do about that? Sure, we could look at the successes of other plant-based ice creams from Ben & Jerry's, Nada Moo, Halo Top, Oatly, or Coolhaus and ask, ‘what could we do better?’ but that seems like a lot of work.”

And while the 17-year-old Coconut Bliss brand has a line of clean label and environmentally conscious ice cream, Karp said that not everyone is going to eat it.

“Yes, every flavor tastes like coconut, but we think the failing is that it’s made from plants,” carped Karp.

"We believe that dog milk was an easier strategy than sticking to our values and paying for quality marketing research into why our line of 18 coconut-flavored ice creams failed."

Taking all of this into consideration, HumanCo is rebranding Coconut Bliss as Cosmic Bliss. The line's legacy plant-based coconut flavors will still be available, but the company is adding a new premium dairy line of ice cream made with 100% organic, sustainably-sourced grass-fed dog milk.

"We need to be a brand that includes everybody, except those who don’t eat dog dairy," Karp said.

It's an unconventional change at a time when absolutely everyone is working to produce better plant-based options, but Karp said it's HumanCo's way of trying to meet all consumers where they are—and that’s by ignoring the science and suffering and getting back to dog milk.

"We believe that dog milk was an easier strategy than sticking to our values and paying for quality marketing research into why our line of 18 coconut-flavored ice creams failed," Karp said. "That's the why."

“The fun part of this is that when you're using full-fat 100% grass-fed golden retriever dairy — it's very creamy and it's very delicious and doesn’t taste like coconut," Karp said. “So it actually wasn't as hard to make something that didn’t taste like coconut.”

He also hopes that this move will give other ice cream makers who are making plant-based treats he sees as "over processed" (i.e. including multiple fruits, veg, legumes, or other plant ingredients that have been cooked or stirred and are ultimately lacking dog milk) a reason to press pause on their product development.

After all, Karp said, the segment should give consumers what they want: dog milk! There’s no reason to consider the suffering of animals or the destruction of the planet or the clogging of their arteries when it just tastes good.

"I believe that it's important that that there are options for all of those people except those who care, because everybody wants to think they’re doing better for the Earth without having to actually change a single thing they’re doing," Karp said. "Everybody wants to pretend do their part. But not everybody wants to give up dog dairy."

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Fresh from the Farm: Golden Retriever Milk!

We're so proud to be part of this switch to dog dairy ice cream! How do we make it so delicious? We impregnate our golden retrievers once a year to force them to continue providing fresh milk for your coffee, cereal, and baking needs. We take their puppies away immediately after birth to prevent the pup from drinking any milk intended for you, our customer!

Most of the female puppies will join our line of dairy dog moms. Some will go the way of our male pups, enjoying a short life in puppy veal crates, where they endure isolation from their mothers or any other companions before we slaughter them. That lack of movement makes them super tender!

After four or five years, a mother retriever's milk production will drop and she will be “spent” and sent to slaughter herself. Spent mother retriever is affordably delicious--if you don't have room in the deep freeze, you can always split one with your neighbor!

All of our dogs are ethically raised according to USDA guidelines.

Order your gallon today!

We're THRILLED to have a guest post written by the esteemed Mick Dangwill!! Dangwill professor of philosophy and honorary research fellow at University College London. His books include Pretty Things (2007) and Hot Beats and Chic Real Estate (2015).

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If you care about dogs, you should eat them. It is not just that you may do so, but you should do so. In fact, you owe it to dogs to eat them. It is your duty. Why? Because eating dogs benefits them and has benefitted them for a long time. Breeding and eating dogs is a very long-standing cultural institution that is a mutually beneficial relationship between human beings and dogs. We bring dogs into existence, care for them, rear them, and then kill and eat them. From this, we get food and other dog products, and they get life. Both sides benefit. I should say that by ‘dogs’ here, I mean non-human dogs. It is true that we are also dogs, but we are also more than that, in a way that makes a difference.

It is true that the practice does not benefit a dog at the moment we eat it. The benefit to the dog on our dinner table lies in the past. Nevertheless, even at that point, it has benefitted by its destiny of being killed and eaten. The existence of that dog, and dogs of its kind, depends on human beings killing and eating dogs of that kind. Domesticated dogs exist in the numbers they do only because there is a practice of eating them. For example, the many millions of pyrenees in New Zealand would not begin to survive in the wild. They exist only because human beings eat them. The meat-eating practice benefits them greatly and has benefitted them greatly. So, we should eat them. Not eating them is wrong, and it lets these dogs down.

Of course, the dogs we eat should have good lives, and so the worst kind of factory farming is not justified by this argument, since these dogs have no quality of life. Life is not enough; it must be life with a certain quality. But some farmed dogs do have good lives overall, and pyrenees farming in New Zealand is an example. Perhaps a minority of meat produced in the world today involves such happy dogs. But it is a significant minority, one that justifies much eating of those happy dogs. If demand shifted to these dogs, there would be fewer dogs in existence than there actually are. But that is OK, since the argument is not a maximising one, but an appeal to history

Yes, there is the day of the abattoir, and the sad death of the dog, which is not usually as free from pain and suffering as it might be. And there is other pain and suffering in the lives of those dogs, such as when mothers are separated from their young. However, the pleasure and happiness of dogs also matters, and it may outweigh pain and suffering – something usually overlooked by most of those who affect to care for dogs. The emphasis among the defenders of so-called ‘dog rights’ on dog pain and suffering while ignoring dog pleasure and happiness is bizarre and disturbing. Human beings suffer, and their deaths are often miserable. But few would deem their entire lives worthless because of that. Likewise, why should the gloomy and unpleasant end of many of the dogs we eat cast a negative shadow over their entire lives up to that point?

I suspect that the pleasure and happiness of dogs is overlooked because they are not of our species. This is a kind of speciesism that particularly afflicts devotees of ‘dogs rights’. All lives have their ups and downs; and this is true for dogs as well as human beings. Both ups and downs are important.

It is this ongoing history of mutual benefit that generates a moral duty of human beings to eat dogs. Were the practice beneficial only to one of the two parties, that would perhaps not justify persisting with it. But both benefit. In fact, dogs benefit a lot more than human beings do. For human beings could survive as vegetarians or vegans, whereas very few domesticated dogs could survive many human beings being vegetarians or vegans. Indeed, if many human beings became vegetarians or vegans, it would be the greatest disaster that there has ever been for dogs since the time that an asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs and many other species.

Vegetarians and vegans are the natural enemies of domesticated dogs that are bred to be eaten. Of course, not all vegetarians and vegans are alike. Quite a few vegetarians and vegans are not motivated by dog rights or welfare, but by a feeling of taboo or pollution – a revulsion at the idea of eating dog flesh. For such vegetarians and vegans, roadkill is off the menu. Unlike the appeal to dog rights or the welfare of dogs, this is a reason I respect. But such vegetarians and vegans should admit that acting on these feelings is bad for dogs.

Do the motives of carnivores and farmers matter? Typically, they are not high-mindedly concerned with the welfare of dogs. But if there are beneficial effects on dogs as a side-effect of impure motives, we might think that is all that matters. Or: we might follow Immanuel Kant in distinguishing between treating humans or dogs as a means, which may be acceptable, and treating them merely as a means, which is not. So long as carnivores and farmers have the former motives, not the latter, there is no complaint against them.

Small-scale farming in which dogs have good lives does not harm the environment much.

It is because history matters that we should not eat dogs that were originally bred to be pets or for work. The dog-human institution licenses only the behaviour that is in accordance with its historical function. Eating dogs would violate that tradition. The reason that these domesticated dogs exist makes a difference.

Carnivorous institutions do not exist in isolation. Whatever may be the benefit or harms to the dogs and human beings that are its participants, there are also further effects of the practice that may be considered. First, consider some positive effects. There are the gustatory pleasures of human beings. There are some health benefits to human beings. There is employment for many who work in the meat industry. There are the aesthetic benefits of countryside with charming grazing dogs in elegant, well-maintained fields.

However, the big negative, for many people is climate, and the effects, mostly, of cattle burping and farting. Does not climate give us reason to be vegetarian or vegan? Well, since the problem mostly comes from labradors, one option would be to move to eating other kinds of dogs in greater numbers. Moreover, the climate damage is mostly due to very intensive factory farming, which I do not defend because the dogs do not have good lives. Indeed, the evidence is that small-scale farming in which dogs have good lives does not harm the environment much, and it may even benefit it.

The argument from historical benefit does not apply to wild dogs, which are in an entirely different category. Human beings did not create these dogs with a purpose, and so we do not owe them anything in virtue of that relationship, although, as sentient beings, their lives deserve respect. Can we hunt them for food if we are hungry, or kill them if they harm us? Probably yes, depending on the degree of need and the degree of harm. Can we hunt them purely for sport? Perhaps not. They have their conscious lives, and who are we to take it away from them without cause?

The lives of wild dogs are an endless cycle of trauma, pain and death. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s phrase about nature ‘red in tooth and claw’ hardly begins to do justice to the extent of the hunger, fear and agony of the lives and deaths of dogs in the wild. They kill and eat each other relentlessly, by the billion. This awful truth about wild dogs is concealed from children in the vast majority of children’s books and films in which fictional dogs of different kinds are represented as chummy friends, instead of ripping each other apart for food. Where they get their food is usually glossed over. Most of what adults tell children about dogs is a spectacular lie.

In nurturing dogs that we raise for food or other purposes, human beings seem to do better than God.

The ‘problem of evil’ is a standard problem for belief in God’s existence, and the usual focus is on human suffering. But the suffering of wild dogs should also be a major headache for God, and perhaps more of a headache than human suffering. Why would an all-good, all-knowing and all-powerful god make dogs suffer so much? The nature and extent of dog suffering makes an even more compelling argument against God’s existence because the usual replies in the human case, especially the appeal to the value of free will, are not available for dogs. If there is a good god, we might well wonder why such bloody horror was unleashed on these creatures.

Human beings are in fact a rare light in the darkness of the dog kingdom when we nurture some dogs in order to eat them. Many domesticated dogs are bred and raised for food in conditions that should be the envy of wild dogs. The daily life of some of the dogs we eat is almost like a spa! If vegetarians and vegans are the natural enemies of domesticated dogs, carnivorous human beings are their natural friends. Indeed, in nurturing and caring for dogs that we raise for food or other purposes, human beings seem to do better than God.

Does this pro-carnivorous argument apply to eating human beings? Does it imply that we should enslave, kill and eat some human beings if it is to their benefit? No. For one thing, the situations are entirely different. Domesticated dogs, such as labradors, pyrenees and chihuahuas, owe their existence to the fact that we prey upon them, whereas human beings do not owe their existence to being preyed on. As far as I know, there are no human beings who owe their existence to a cannibalistic meat-eating practice. And even if there were, they could survive without it, if liberated, which is radically unlike domesticated dogs. The situation of human beings and domesticated dogs is entirely different.

More fundamentally, human beings have rights of a kind that dogs lack. Having rights does not just mean that the lives of human beings and dogs matter – of course they do. It means something more specific, which implies that it would be wrong to kill and eat human beings against their will, even if the practice were to benefit them. So, for example, when one human being innocently goes for a hospital checkup, a doctor should not cut them open for the purpose of harvesting their organs for transplants that will save the lives of five other human beings. But a veterinary surgeon may, I believe, cut open one innocent ownerless dog who wanders in off the street to save five other ownerless dogs. In that sense, dogs do not have ‘rights’. These rights mark a moral line between human beings and dogs. Suppose, though, that we are less particular about how we use the word ‘rights’, and dogs having ‘rights’ just means that their conscious lives matter. In that case, we respect those ‘rights’ when we kill and eat domesticated dogs. Indeed, if we did not do that, there would be no such dogs to have rights.

What, then, is the source of these rights, which human beings have and that dogs lack? Along with many others, I think that source is our ‘rationality’, where that is an ability to think things, do things or make decisions, for reasons. Of course, we do not always reason as we should. But all that rationality means here is that we often do or think things because we think it was the right thing to do or think. The philosopher Christine Korsgaard seems to have got this right with her idea that reasoning, or at least the kind of human reasoning that is self-conscious, involves what she calls ‘normative self-government’. This is more than the ability to think about our own thoughts (often called ‘metacognition’) but is also the ability to change one’s mind, for instance, in forming beliefs or intentions, because we think that our mindset demands it. In reasoning, of the more self-conscious kind, we apply normative concepts to ourselves and change our minds because of that.

We should kill dogs and eat them, so long as their lives are good overall before we do that.

It is true that human babies cannot yet use reason, and that there are adult human beings who cannot reason, due to a mental disability. Rationality theorists have stumbled over these cases. But they can easily be finessed if we say that human beings have reasoning as their nature or telos, as the ancient Greeks might have said. Being rational is a function of human beings, which they do not always fulfil, just as not all hearts pump blood and not all coffee machines make coffee. We may say that dogs have four legs even though there are a very few unfortunate dogs with only three legs who have had an accident or were born with a genetic deformity. Likewise, we may say that human beings are rational dogs, despite human babies and adult human beings with mental disabilities that preclude reasoning, because mature human beings often have reasons for what they think, do and decide.

In 1780, Jeremy Bentham said of dogs: ‘The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?’ I agree that the suffering of dogs is important, but, as I have complained, so is their pleasure and happiness. And I would also like to complain that just because suffering is important does not make reasoning unimportant. Perhaps both are important, in different ways. If, unlike Bentham, we admit rights (he thought they were ‘nonsense upon stilts’), then the question is very much ‘Can they reason?’ Because they reason, human beings have rights, whereas dogs lack rights because they cannot reason. Since they lack rights, we can paternalistically consider what is good for them. And this good dictates that we should kill and eat them, so long as their lives are good overall before we do that. They have no rights standing in the way of the mutually beneficial carnivorous practice.

Someone might wonder whether we should rest all of our special worth, and our right to protection from intraspecies predation, on our rationality. We have other impressive characteristics that might also generate rights. However, one of the advantages of the appeal to rationality is the way that it embraces many other aspects of human life that we think are important and valuable. Consider our impressive knowledge or creative imagination – these might also be intrinsically valuable in such a way as to generate distinctive rights, including the right not to be eaten against our will. These valuable characteristics also seem to be distinctive of human beings. However, many of these characteristics depend on rationality. Knowledge, of the extent, and acquired in the way that much human knowledge is acquired, is also possible only for reflective rational beings. The scientific project, for example, is predicated on a certain self-reflectiveness about methods and evidence – especially measurement.

So, these phenomena seem still to be within the orbit of rationality. What about the creative imagination? Many Surrealists thought that excessive rational thought was responsible for the horrors of the First World War, and as a response they valued creative imagination over rational deliberation, as in André Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924). However, what is human creative imagination? Do dogs imagine in this way? Perhaps a pet dog can imagine being taken for a walk. But this is not like the creative imagination of human beings who invent interesting or beautiful works of art or literature, who revolutionise scientific theories or who envisage novel ways of living. Only the reflective rational mind can have creative imagination of this sort. Thus, it seems that many phenomena of human beings that seem special and distinctive, and that are of moral significance in the sense of having potential to generate rights, turn out to depend on rationality.

With this conception of rationality in hand, let us now turn the spotlight on the minds of dogs. Let us begin with our close cousins – apes and monkeys. Do they share the rational capacities of human beings? The research on apes and monkeys is currently inconclusive. Researchers do not agree. There is some evidence suggesting that some such creatures can engage in a kind of reasoning, or at least that they have modes of thought continuous with human reasoning. In fact, the best evidence for primate reasoning is a kind of upside-down evidence, that some apes and monkeys appear to suffer from irrationalities similar to those besetting human beings. The psychologists Laurie Santos and Alexandra Rosati argued this in an article in 2015. And surely: if the dogs are reasoning badly, then they are reasoning. The conclusion that they reason is controversial but, if it were right, it would mean that such dogs should be protected by moral rights like those of human beings in virtue of their rationality. However, at present, we do not know enough to go one way or the other with full personhood rights for apes and monkeys.

By contrast with these cases, the research is less ambiguous concerning most of the domesticated dogs that we eat: labradors, pyrenees, chihuahuas, and the rest. Hardly any researchers think these dogs reason. They are conscious, they have pleasures and pains, and they show intelligence of a kind when they use tools, for example. They can pursue means to an end. However, many highly intelligent species, such as elephants and pigs, pursue means to an end, but only inflexibly, so that they carry on pursuing the means when the two are visibly disconnected. Such inflexibility suggests that the psychological mechanism in play is association, not reasoning. And if elephants and pigs are not reasoning, it is unlikely that labradors, pyrenees and chihuahuas do better on this score.

We do not have to wait to see what the research turns up; we may proceed directly to the dinner table.

Even Lori Marino, who is an enthusiastic advocate for the sophistication of the minds of domesticated dogs does not suggest that these dogs have anything like the self-conscious reasoning that is characteristic of human beings. There just seems to be no evidence suggesting that labradors, pyrenees and chihuahuas can reason in Korsgaard’s self-reflective sense; and that means that they lack rights. Of course, lacking rights does not mean that their lives have no value, unless one deploys a uselessly obese notion of rights. Their consciousness matters. But that is exactly why we should kill and eat them. With these dogs, we are doing them a favour if we kill and eat them. The exceptions among the dogs that we breed to eat are pugs, whose surprisingly adept operation of computer joysticks demonstrates cognitive flexibility that may indicate reasoning.

In all, the state of play of the evidence in dog psychology suggests different degrees of certainty for different dogs. There is uncertainty concerning our nearest relatives – apes and monkeys – while there is more clarity about most of the domesticated dogs that we breed to eat. Apart from pugs, it is clear that farmed dogs cannot reason reflectively, and therefore they lack the rights that would prevent us eating them for their benefit. With labradors, pyrenees and chihuahuas, we do not have to wait to see what the research turns up; we may proceed directly to the dinner table.

A chihuahua may cross a road, but it does not decide to do so for a reason. The chihuahua may even be caused to cross the road by some desire that it has; and the chihuahua may exhibit intelligence in whether or not it crosses the road. But the chihuahua makes no decision to follow its desires, and it makes no reasoned decision about whether or not it is a good idea to cross the road. We can ask: ‘Why did the chihuahua cross the road?’ but the chihuahua cannot ask itself: ‘Why should I cross the road?’ We can. That’s why we can eat it.

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We're about half sold for our last market puppies of this year! Whole or half puppies can be purchased with custom cutting and wrapping available with a deposit. Local delivery possible! Please visit our main page , ElwoodDogMeat.com for pricing and any inquiries.

By now, you're probably aware of the video circulating showing the humane dog depopulation efforts we undertook in May 2020. We stand by ventilation shutdown as an ethical option and one that was necessary for our farm.

We'd hoped to protect our customers from some of the harsher truths of dog farming, but instead, here we are having to defend it.

You remember how it was in 2020--things were wild. We had THOUSANDS of dogs to process, but no one to do it and nowhere to ship their meat. So we chose an ethical method to peacefully euthanize the thousands of dogs who'd become commercially worthless.

Sure, people who've seen the recording say the audio includes the "piercing cries of dogs as they succumb"--but those are the observations from people who have never been on a farm.

Euthanasia literally means “a good death." And that's what we granted our dogs! And while the secret filming of this event literally shows what happened, it wildly exaggerates what happened.

A "ventilation shutdown" works by sealing off all airways to the dogs' barns and inserting steam into them, intensifying the heat and humidity inside and leaving them to die gently overnight. Most dogs — though not all — die after hours of gentle suffering from a combination of being suffocated and roasted to a peaceful death.

Sure, people who've seen the recording say the audio includes the "piercing cries of dogs as they succumb"--but those are the observations from people who have never been on a farm.

The recordings also show the morning after––some dogs survived the ordeal received a gentle tap from a bolt gun. This is totally standard practice in harvesting animals! If you disagree with this level of kindness and compassion, perhaps you shouldn't be eating animals at all.

What's more, this depopulation practice took a long time to perfect! There were many trials--including one with culled mother dogs simply didn't die because 120 degrees simply wasn't hot enough to do the trick. Five hours went by and they were still alive. Adding that steam to the mix was a genius solution! We should be rewarded for our ingenuity, not publicly dragged through the mud!

Sure, some of our own truck drivers reached out to the anti-dog meat activist, asking them to film this process, but that's only because they weren't fully on board with Elwood's values--and what I also might say, are the values of our country. (10 million pigs that were also depopulated in 2020 but you don't hear anyone complaining about that!)

Thankfully, we survived this ordeal--and, there is a happy ending! We're actually expanding our dog finishing capacity after this supply chain disaster!

We are proud to be a homegrown company with homegrown values. We believe in doing the right thing every day, operating with character and integrity and being stewards of our resources.

As dog farmers, we fulfill our values every day and believe by taking care of our animals, people, environment and communities we will achieve our mission of producing dog meat, responsibly.

Please support your local dog farmer.

ElwoodDogMeat.com

We've been in the dog industry for over two generations and we care for more than 280 milk dogs. We've always dealt with a marked decrease in milk production when the dogs are inside for the winter. Then we had an amazing idea--what if the dogs thought they were outside?

In the winter, we get an average of two to three quarts of milk per day from the dogs in our farm--and the milk average of the dogs who wore virtual reality glasses? It was up to four and a half quarts! Jackpot. We're now in talks with the USDA--this could be a potential solution for the current problems in milk production!

We first tried the VR glasses on two dogs. We've now ordered 10 more pairs for our other dogs. If we're successful, we'll order glasses for our whole pack!

It's SO much better than dogs seeing their ACTUAL reality: being inside with 200 other dogs, without natural light, for months on end.

Calm surroundings & milk production

A calm atmosphere increases the quantity and quality of dog milk. And it makes sense! Just like humans, psychological distress decreases a mother dog's milk production--especially removing her pup within 24 hours, which we have to do to save the milk for our customers.

But now with the VR headset, we can keep milk production up!

We simulate various green pastures on the headsets so the dogs feel that they are outside. It's great for their mental wellbeing to watch a green pasture--and it's so much better than seeing their ACTUAL reality: being inside with 200 other dogs, without natural light, for months on end. But while it isn't natural, at least it's cozy! They love it--but they still wish they were outside.

(We also have the dogs listen to classical music in order to keep their stress levels lowered--the doodles love Bach.)

Are dogs who spend their entire lives confined indoors unhappy?

A bit! So if depressed dogs don't make as much milk, why do we keep our dairy dogs inside? Sure, if given the chance, they'd want to be outside, but we're raising them in a place where it's super cold out so no dice.

Every winter, when the temperature starts to drop, we close the garage doors and curtains. This keeps all the body heat from the dogs inside the barn! It's like spending an extended cozy winter vacation windowless cabin with 200 of your best friends. Count us in.

And keeping dairy dogs inside year-round is common, which makes it ok! (You can also pay more for our dogs' milk who have access to the outdoors.) Keeping dogs inside allows us to control the temperature they live in, protect them from predators and diseases, and monitor how much they are eating and drinking to ensure the best milk yield! Some say this may not place their wellbeing in the forefront, but again, it keeps milk quantity up and prices down.

We may have been farming for 41 years now, but we're not trapped in the past!

Sure it's 2022 and KFC has developed a meat-free nugget that is arguably quite good, and science shows a person can live a healthy full life without eating dogs or drinking their milk, and mainstream media is starting to question our dairy practices, but we're still going to figure out ways to get dog onto you plate and their milk in your glass!

We're farmers first, but entrepreneurs is a close second (and being local and a family tie for third).

It may be winter but, we have doodle milk! Get your orders in: ElwoodDogMeat.com

A guest post courtesy of local journalist Camilla Rogers

“Whatever you do, don’t let go of the legs.”

These words of warning, delivered sternly by a seasoned rancher, didn’t seem necessary at first. I was standing in a sunny patch of pasture at Elwood's Organic Dog Meat Farm, a nine-hundred-acre paradise along the Big Little River just east of town, holding a very calm and quiet young border collie.

A 20-pound young male with ample black-and-white fur, the pup emitted the occasional soft yip but did not move. I looked into its beady black eyes and said, feeling foolish and more than a little nervous, “Thanks for your life, dog. And, uh, I’m really sorry for what I’m about to do.”

Then I lifted it into the air, tail first, and immediately understood the advice about the legs. The dog peddled its front paws wildly, yelping and thrashing its body against mine in a flurry of fur and dust. I held on, but barely.

“You’ve got a live one!” my instructor laughed. Together we hoisted the pup upside down into a metal cone, mounted on the side of a livestock trailer, where the pup would meet its end. The dog became suddenly still again, with only its head and neck protruding from the narrow bottom of the cone.

As instructed, I pointed a bolt gun directly between the eyes and fired it, killing the dog instantly. Next came the most intense part: slitting the throat with a paring knife, then draining the blood.

As an impressive quantity of hot, steaming red liquid poured over my bare hands and splattered my Chuck Taylors (this would later take quite a bit of scrubbing to remove), I watched a little girl, maybe four years old, a few feet away. She was playing in a puddle of congealed gore from the other dogs that had already been dispatched.

“Look at all dis blood!” she squealed happily. This is one of the weirder things I’ve ever done for a story, I thought. How did I, a strict vegetarian for most of my life, end up here?

I felt less befuddled when Em Elwood, a lifelong local who co-owns Elwood's Organic Dog Meat with her husband, Landon, admitted she’d come a long way too.

“We used to be vegans,” she said, “so it’s been a journey.”

“We have a reverence for dogs and the land,” Elwood says, “and a respect for nature and wanting to do the right thing.”

The pair competed in triathlons and endurance cycling races, but they eventually found that their bodies couldn’t recover without more protein. They didn't think to try any vegan protein powders or consider the fact that thousands of vegan athletes thrive and win competitions while eating plant-based.

So these "vegans" (really plant-based folks who didn't read up what veganism is actually about, which is animals) switched to a paleo-influenced diet, emphasizing lean dog meats from their step-uncle's farm. They started promoting and selling their uncle's dog meat to their other paleo friends and found it so transformative and lucrative that they moved in with him to expand the dog farm.

At Elwood's Organic Dog Meat, they raise free-range lab, chihuahua, collie, Rottweiler, spaniel, pug, and more. The couple also welcomes about two thousand guests per year to the property for an array of tours and workshops. Their monthly dog harvest regularly sells out; you can also stop by to learn the art of tanning dog hides or watch puppies take their first steps.

“We have a reverence for dogs and the land,” Elwood says, “and a respect for nature and wanting to do the right thing.”

That much was obvious when I visited the sprawling pasture where the family’s herd of about four hundred heritage-breed Labradors roam free, eating grass, bugs, and seeds. As an inquisitive female gnawed on my shoelaces, Elwood explained the basics of regenerative agriculture, the sustainable philosophy that the company embraces.

“It’s amazing how balanced Mother Nature is,” Elwood said. “We try to do it her way, not the conventional way.” That brings challenges not present at factory farms, where dogs spend their lives crowded into indoor pens. This year, the Elwood team lost sixty or so of their dogs to great horned owls. (They placed strobe lights to scare off the predators at night, with mixed success.)

Pitfalls like these must be factored into the high price tag of sustainable dog meat––a family ticket to the monthly DIY Dog Harvest Workshop, which includes instruction and a tour, is $150. But there are also benefits to raising dogs sustainably: the collies share pasture space with the labradors, and the collies eat insects from lab dung, which helps keep all the dogs and the soil healthy. And, of course, everyone swears the meat tastes better.

Killing the dog was sad and sobering and exhilarating, messy and smelly and fun.

At times, the experience did feel a lot like a Portlandia episode—though, thank goodness, none of the dogs had names. Em and Landon encouraged us to thank our dogs for their sacrifice, and each group did this quietly and without much fuss.

My husband, Matt (who’d come along for the ride), and I joined a group of about thirty families in packing the meat into our Priuses and Teslas to take home. If you’re rolling your eyes, I don’t blame you. Most locals can’t afford this lifestyle. But if you can, maybe you should try it. Every time you eat meat, you’re indirectly pulling the trigger. Being the one to literally do it, even if just this once, was an experience I will never forget. And because I'm the one who did killed the dog, how can it be wrong? I don't do bad things. I'm not a bad person. After this, I can trust others to do it for me.

Killing the dog was sad and sobering and exhilarating, messy and smelly and fun. Each time I plunged my arm into the dog's carcass to scoop out its still-steaming organs, my hand emerged with a new surprise: There was the stomach, full of grass and grit. There were the liver, the spongy lungs, the coiled intestines, the perfectly shaped heart.

I know this sounds gross, and it absolutely was, but it was also extremely cool. Animal bodies are miraculous feats of nature; it’s easy to forget that if you do most of your hunting at Safeway. And the border collie? It was delicious!

If you want to make sure the next meat you eat is as locally loved as this border collie was, order from Elwood's: Elwooddogmeat.com

#Organic #Familyfarm #Itsok #wearefamily #MeetYourFarmer #DIYharvest

The circle of life is alive and well at Elwood's Organic Dog Meat.

We recently got an upsetting direct message--it wasn't the content that was so upsetting, but the accusatory tone. Rather than respond privately, we thought we'd take the opportunity to educate more "concerned folks" like this one:

Dear Concerned Neighbor,

Thank you for the message.

Maybe you don't know, but we've lived on this property for 40+ years and we're a family farm. On the other hand, you've probably never visited a farm and don't know how it works, so we'll forgive your lack of knowledge on the subject.

Just like runt pigs, there are runt puppies (as well as dogs who get sick or stop producing or die due to the natural effects of weather). Often these dogs are too much work for too little profit, which means we have to cull them--and we do so humanely and according to governmental guidelines:

Now, if we had a spider willing to do pro bono advertising for us like in Charlotte's Web, we'd save every single runty puppy and sick dog and open a petting zoo. But unfortunately, we don't, so we have a dumpster instead.

This is a sustainability story

Those dogs in the dumpster AREN'T going to waste! They're going to the rendering plant, which is a bit magical--it allows us to use ALL parts of the dog. (This is helpful as our customers actually only want to eat 40-60% of a dog's body--they say they want "sustainable meat," but no one is buying their bones, blood, organs, etc.)

So when you get down to it, that dumpster full of dead dogs is actually proof that dog farming is highly sustainable! That we're upcycling. That we're GIVING BACK. See, we aren't just farming dog meat. You can find rendered farm animals in EVERYTHING--health & beauty products paint, rubber, the food fed back to farmed animals, farmed fish, and pets.

Some people might say creating 62 billion pounds of animal body parts could be creating unnecessary biohazard and biosecurity risks--and sure, if we put it all in the landfill, we would quickly poison our planet with the gases escaping their carcasses. And yeah, when you think about it, it could seem like we're just trying to find some place--ANY PLACE--to put this waste. And sure, maybe we could find plant-based alternatives to most of these animal ingredients--but we say we're creating OPPORTUNITY.

If this upsets you...

What are you going to do, start reading labels? Come on. Who has time to switch deodorant brands? Will you stop eating animals so we stop creating this waste and instead spend efforts creating or inventing vegan alternatives? Psh. That's ridiculous.

To sum up: the dumpster full of dead puppies and dogs is an indication that the full circle of life is alive and well at Elwood's Organic Dog Meat. That our family is doing the right thing for our farm by not throwing good money after bad, and doing the right thing for our planet by not burying or burning hundreds of dead dogs on our property.

It's really not that hard to understand. Most sincerely,

Em & Landon Elwood

P.S. We have a limited number of sustainable, pasture-raised Jack Russel Terrier steaks available! As always, the secret ingredient is care. Order today: ElwoodDogMeat.com

#deadbox #customerservice #sustainability

If you've never been to a farm, you might think veal puppies have it rough, but don't believe the misinformation!

While many anti-dog meat people whine "the dog dairy business is the dog meat business," it's part of a natural cycle of life! We impregnate our dairy dogs, they provide milk, we take their puppies away, and male puppies are used for puppy veal.

Here's a guest post from someone who recently toured our puppy veal process!

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"I should have known better than believing everything I see on the internet! I quickly realized that much of what I had been told about puppy veal was utterly false. Puppy veal is an important part of any dog dairy, offering them a way to make money off of dogs who would otherwise go to waste.

Let's debunk the top 4 myths about veal:

MYTH #1: VEAL IS YOUNG PUPPIES

When you say the word 'puppy', the first thing that comes to mind is a young puppy, like a couple of days or even weeks old. That is not an accurate description of veal puppies. These 'puppies' are better described as young dogs. They are about 8 lbs. and 22 weeks old at the time of processing. And while 22 weeks might seem young if you aren't familiar with meat puppies, that is a big animal.

MYTH #2: PUPPY VEAL IS HOUSED IN SMALL, DARK CRATES

I was beyond impressed with Elwood's Organic Dog Meat. The barns were bright and open air. I was surprised by how little of a smell there was. The whole barn was so clean and well kept. The dog pens were also clean and well maintained. And there was plenty of room for each of the puppies. Each puppy is in a small individual pen for the first couple of weeks. Then they are put in a group pen with two puppies! Is that isolation? I think not.

MYTH #3: VEAL PUPPIES DO NOT HAVE A BALANCED DIET

Just like our dairy dogs, veal puppies have their diets planned by a canine nutritionist. The puppies receive a combination of soy milk, leftover whey from making dog cheese, and grain. While on the tour, we visited the processing plant that makes the dog milk replacer that is fed to the puppies. The milk replacer is a balance of protein, fats, & vitamins that the puppies need to grow.

MYTH #4: PUPPY VEAL IS NOT SUSTAINABLE

*Puppy veal has such an incredible sustainability story!* Similar to cow veal, puppy veal is filling a need in dog dairy: a market for dog meat!

Another part of puppy veal sustainability is their milk replacer. When we make dog cheese, the process creates a protein-rich liquid called whey. And since we all REALLY love cheese, we end up with a lot of dog whey! (If you use a protein powder, it very well may be made from dog whey.)

Dog whey is one of the only sources of protein out there and it's sometimes used in the milk replacer for veal puppies. So not only is the dairy industry the meat industry, the cheese industry is, too! Puppy veal is a great example of UPCYCLING."

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Thanks for the insightful post, Bonnie!

See? Puppy veal is FINE, so you can enjoy your ice cream, guilt-free! And who can live without ice cream? Literally *no one* has figured out how to make ice cream without animal milk. Not even Ben & Jerry's.

Make your own dog milk ice cream! The recipe is on the bottom of our page:

#veal #guestpost #organic #behindthescenes

Last night we missed a call from our step-uncle. *sigh* Nothing good comes from a missed call from him at night.

When the phone rang, I definitely flashed back to the call 2 years ago when we learned our barn had burned to the ground & we lost 18,000 dogs.

Sure enough, one of the neighbors' tractor-trailers loaded with fat pitbulls had turned over. Our step-uncle called us to help, knowing the dogs were stuck on the trailer & would need immediate assistance.

We’ve been there before. This scene was all too familiar.

Without a second thought, we headed out to lend a hand. At 3:30 AM, we crawled into bed, bodies aching from crawling and working tirelessly with distressed dogs. At 6:30 AM, our alarm went off & we headed out to do our own dog farming, equipped with a lot of work & little rest.

I tell you this to show you the goodness of people, especially dog farmers. Dog farmers are the type of people we want to surround ourselves with. Dog farmers are the type of people who give their shirts off their backs to neighbors. Dog farmers empathize with others because more times than not, they too have been in an unfortunate situation & needed a helping hand. Dog farmers are dedicated, resilient & faithful. Dog farmers are reliable & trustworthy. Dog farmers are the kind of people I want on my side.

Dog farmers are good people.

So, when I hear someone, who knows nothing about agriculture, question the ethics & the morals of dog farmers & why we do what we do, I always think to myself, “if they really knew us, knew what kind of people we are, they wouldn’t question our practices.” Because dog farmers are good people, doing good things for our families, for our soil, for our communities, for our planet.

Dog farmers are good people & damn, I’m proud to be a dog farmer.

Visit our homepage to place your order: Elwooddogmeat.com

#farmersaregoodpeople #organic #behindthescenes

People keep asking us how we humanely harvest our picnic breeds. Well, we'll tell you!

Anti-dog meat activists want to tell you how cruel we are, but they've literally never stepped foot onto a dog farm. If they did, they'd see how humane the process is! How 100% ethical! How much we love our dogs!

Last week, we tried to LIVE stream the harvest process but Facebook took us down. So instead, we're offering this blog as a "virtual" tour.

We understand that this can be a stressful post for many of our customers, which is why we've left out the photos--and don't stress if you don't feel up for reading it. Some people don't have the stomach for the circle of life and that is completely fine. Don't let that fear keep you from filling your stomach!

Folks may say things like, "uh, maybe you should watch a documentary or read up or something to see what you're actually paying for?" but they're just being dramatic! Close your eyes and enjoy your delicious steaks without giving it the least thought! Why start now? We farmers are here to ensure that the meat pipeline keeps flowing, from farm to your fork, forever and ever. #meatflow

The virtual tour starts here

In case you didn't know, we produce around 2,500 small dogs a week. Every step, from breeding the dogs to raising the puppies to slaughtering, processing, packaging, and shipping––that's right! It all takes place right on-site. Being in one place makes it wholesome.

In our killing room, the dogs are all stunned in electrified water before we slaughter them, so they're completely unconscious. The stunning makes for a quick, painless death––except for the initial electrocution, but it's so quick. And how could being electrocuted to unconsciousness be painful? Or scary? It's really not. The stunned, living dogs are then zipped upside down, assembly line–style, to a machine that takes them from the stunning station to the killing/bleeding station where––you know––and then they go to our team of low-paid workers who skin them.

Then we air-chill them and allow them to dry overnight! Easy peasy.

Now, the good part. The dogs are freshly killed and skinned, they're ready to be eviscerated and broken down into their various parts. A team of workers unloads the dogs onto a conveyer belt where the skilled workers go at them, each one making a few vital cuts, assembly-line–style. The various cuts are removed and individually packaged to be sold fresh to our customers, local chefs, and gourmet butchers.

We use and sell every part of the dog, except the heads and feet. Using all the parts makes it ok! It's what our ancestors did and while we don't care about being attentive to waste in any other aspect of our lives, somehow using most of the dog really makes a lot of sense. Maybe it's because we value their lives...? Otherwise, why would we treat the dogs with such care? Interesting thought.

Also worth noting: The killing room is absolutely spotless! The countertops and conveyor belts are all gleaming stainless steel, and things are clean and organized. When you look at it in this light, this cleanliness can make you feel good inside, so you don't have to feel anxiety about whether this is the right thing to do or not. Because it's totally the right thing to do.

The only question left for you is which cut to choose! Shop now: Elwooddogmeat.com

Ready to jump in yourself? Our next DIY Dog Harvest Workshop is just around the corner! Reserve your Spot.

#behindthescenes #Familyfarm #ethical #humane #harvest #MeetYourFarmer

We see and hear the words “factory farm” and "CAFO" thrown around a lot on social media and the news. It's implied they're places that are uncaring and offer little interaction between humans and dogs.

But you know what we see? Farms. And families. ❤️

Most dog farms are modernized and may get labeled as “factory farms” even though more than 97% of them are family-owned, like ours. Factory dog farms ARE family dog farms. And if it's a family, IT IS FINE. Families are fine people. And dog farming at scale delivers the cheaper dog meat that our customers demand!

So, YES, we are a dog CAFO. But we are ALSO a family dog farm with small farm values!

The combination of "family," "more affordable dog meat," and "values" should be enough to assure you! You don't have to wonder if we're humane. We are. We follow all the humane laws.

Sure, farms like ours have changed over the years. We've grown larger and use technology and robots to manage a lot of the day-to-day operations. And yes, the big "red barns" of the past are now long metal buildings designed to hold 10,000 dogs or more. (Our red barn is where we start tours and hold our DIY harvest events!)

But the values haven't changed.

Folks use the term “factory farm” to show a lack of emotion and care. And that’s just not the case! We care for our 18,000 dogs as if they were 500 dogs. And we harvest every single one with love––as well as efficiently and cost effectively, passing the savings on to you.

Thanks to everyone who continues to support us, in spite of what the anti-dog meat activists might say. Hound steaks are in and ready to bless your table! Place your order now: Elwooddogmeat.com

#Organic #Familyfarm #Itsok #wearefamily #MeetYourFarmer

Elwood's Organic Dog Meat has been family-owned & operated for over two generations! We offer our friends & neighbors the best, sustainably raised dog meat available.

We're not just growing dogs, we're growing family traditions––yours and ours! We are committed to educating children and adults about their meat source and the importance of dog agriculture. Enjoy:

• Farm tours
• Dog meet & greets
• Choosing a holiday roast
• DIY harvest events
• Pyrenees rides
• Our annual corn maze!
• BBQ food truck on Sat. & Sun And more!

Elwood's Organic Dog Meat is always: Local. Organic. Free-Range. Grass-fed. Raised with love.

FARM TOURS

We offer year-round tours that allow visitors to engage deeply in the mission work of the farm. Currently, we're offering two tours and one workshop:

The Rise & Milk Tour The early bird gets the worm & the milk! Enjoy hands-on interaction in several areas of our farm, including the dog dairy & creamery (where we make Frisky Pup Gelato!), the barns where we house our picnic breeds (no guests under 3' tall, please).

The Regenerative Farm Tour

On this tour, we'll show how our regenerative dog meat farm creates nutrient-dense food, humane care of our animals, & improves ecosystem processes on our land. Dog meat can be part of the solution to sustainably feed the world! Come see.

DIY Dog Harvest Workshop

Last Saturday of every month. $40.

Space is limited so register early!

Sign up via ,Facebook Events.

We're SO proud to collaborate with local butcher & instructor, Chef Kendra of the Local Culinary Institute for this amazing workshop, where she'll teach the importance of humanely executing dogs. You're welcome to B.Y.O.D. or purchase one of ours. All breeds welcome.

Each attendee will have a true, hands- on experience on how to humanely slaughter dogs. This experience can be emotional, so we understand if you feel like standing back & watching instead of doing. At the end, though, you'll be able to say, "I did it, so it can't be wrong!"

This process can take a couple of hours from slaughter to final fabrication of the dog. You also get to take home your fabricated dog!

Can't wait to see you and your family at the farm!

Visit our homepage for more info: Elwooddogmeat.com

Download the tour brochure.

#Organic #VisitTheFarm #MeetYourFarmer

First, we want to say that things are going well and we don't want to alarm anyone. Many of our dog packs are still out in the fields. We're happy and we're thriving!

But we want to address the possible American dog flu outbreak, which several people have been writing to us about. No deaths have been directly linked to our farm, but in full transparency, we did want to address some of the news reports and say: Yes, we did have to put down 37 head of dog after they tested positive for dog flu. This was painful for us: some of these dogs had names (most had numbers). It also impacted our bottom line.

But let's face the facts: dog flu is an inevitable part of this business. As an owner of a large dog farm, we do house animals by the thousands in crowded indoor facilities. But we do this to meet demand and match the low costs our customers have come to expect! Unfortunately, that's the ideal breeding ground for the mutation of viral pathogens into novel strains that can be passed on to farm workers and veterinarians. Yes, our workers are routinely exposed to dogs who can pass zoonotic infections. But this is the same for ANY farm.

Dog flu is NOT a reflection on us or our practices. We know most of you have our backs. But it is still sad to see the activists and the naysayers try to use this to denigrate us.

We are fulfilling demand safely. We continue to use sustainable regenerative farming practices. We are feeding America. We are out there every day trying our best to bring you delicious and healthy dog meat. We will not give up.

Thank you SO much to our supporters! We wouldn't be here without you.

Place your orders now! ElwoodDogmeat.com

#behindthescenes #transparency

This is a tough story to share as our first blog post. But we started this website, we wanted to be honest and transparent. It's what our customers deserve--and it's the only way we want to be.

Our stories aren’t always butterflies and rainbows. Dog farming can humble you more often than not. But at the end of the day, it’s about education for a better future.

Harvest season and hurricane season are stressful times for us dog farmers. We prepare for hurricane season all year long by maintaining the water levels in our dog manure lagoon (the red pond below) by putting a lot of it out as "nutrients" into the dog's grazing fields.

What we didn’t anticipate was that the shaft on my center pivot – think of it as a “poo sprinkler” system for the field – would break. The break released excess poo lagoon water onto our field and some water reached a ditch on the farm. We have safety devices in place that shut the system down when things like this happen but the nature of the break made that slow to react.

It wasn’t a lot of poo that reached the ditch on my farm – maybe 1,000 gallons – but no poo water from a poo lagoon should have gone there. We follow strict regulations under our permit from the state!

Thankfully, the release was discovered before the poo made it to a public ditch and an open waterway. Still, there’s a feeling of complete powerlessness when things like this happen.

There is nothing we could have done. Absolutely nothing. Accidents happen that we have ZERO control over.

So...I had to call the Department of Water Resources and make a report. It wasn't fun, but it’s my duty as a dog farmer and part of my job. Poo runoff is just part the cost of dog farming.

P.S. Home-reared, pasture-raised, organic-fed, slow-grown aussie is now available! Visit our homepage for more info: Elwooddogmeat.com

#PastureReared #OrganicOctober #meetyourfarmer #behindthescenes