What can happen with wild Venison?

Important Information About Our Seasonal Venison Dog Meals

As many of you know, our venison is sourced from wild, free-ranging animals harvested during the regulated hunting season. Unlike farmed livestock, wild game is harvested using ammunition. The responsibility for harvesting the animal, processing and inspecting the carcass, and supplying meat fit for further processing rests with the game-meat supplier before the meat reaches Raw Love.

This is one of the reasons why the supplier we choose matters enormously to us. We source our venison from a reputable, registered South African meat processor operating within the regulatory framework applicable to the harvesting, inspection, processing and supply of game meat. Our supplier also processes ostrich and game meat for international export and is required to comply with the stringent veterinary, hygiene, inspection, traceability and food-safety requirements applicable to its approved export markets, including European Union requirements.

The controls applicable at this level of the supply chain are considerably more extensive than simply processing meat. They include controls relating to the harvesting of game, hygiene at the point of harvest, carcass handling, ante- and/or post-mortem inspection as applicable, removal of affected tissue, temperature control and refrigerated transport, processing hygiene, microbiological monitoring, traceability, veterinary oversight and certification. South African requirements applicable to export-approved game-meat establishments specifically address the management of risks associated with ammunition used during harvesting.

Raw Love is not an abattoir or game-meat processing establishment. We do not harvest animals, dress carcasses or receive whole game carcasses for inspection and processing. We purchase meat that has already passed through the supplier's regulated harvesting, inspection and meat-processing chain. At our production facility, that supplied meat becomes an ingredient in our recipes: we mince it, combine it with the other ingredients in accordance with our formulations, portion and package the finished meals, and maintain the required cold chain.

Our responsibility is therefore to source our ingredients responsibly and from suppliers in whom we have confidence. In the case of venison, we believe we have done precisely that by choosing a highly reputable supplier operating to both South African and international export standards.

Nevertheless, even with these controls in place, wild-harvested game presents a particular challenge that does not arise with conventionally slaughtered farm animals. Very small buckshot pellets or projectile fragments can occasionally remain embedded in the meat and escape detection during the supplier's inspection and processing procedures. Some are sufficiently small to subsequently pass through the holes of our industrial meat mincer intact.

It is therefore important to understand that the occasional discovery of such a pellet or fragment in a Venison Dog meal is not evidence that an unidentified foreign object entered the product during manufacture at Raw Love. Rather, it originates from the method by which the wild animal was harvested and represents a known, albeit very uncommon, residual risk specifically associated with wild-harvested game meat.

Venison nevertheless remains an exceptional protein source for dogs. It is lean, highly digestible and naturally nutritious. The very qualities that make it such a valuable ingredient arise from the fact that it comes from free-ranging wild animals rather than intensively farmed livestock.

What should you do?

As a general recommendation, we encourage owners to visually inspect raw meals while portioning or serving them. While this is sensible practice with any raw feeding regime, it is particularly relevant when feeding wild-harvested proteins such as venison.

If you happen to notice a small, round metallic pellet or projectile fragment, please remove it and let us know so that we can record and investigate the occurrence with reference to the specific production batch and, where appropriate, raise it with our meat supplier.

To assist us, please either email us at info@rawlovepets.co.za, or WhatsApp on 072 328 1253.

If possible, please include:

A clear photograph of the object found.
A photograph showing the object next to a coin, ruler or similar item to indicate its size.
A photograph of the product label showing the batch number and Best Before date.
The size of the tub purchased.

This information enables us to investigate the matter properly, maintain our production records and, importantly, provide our supplier with the information necessary to investigate the relevant batch of venison supplied to us.

We have always believed that trust is earned through honesty, not by avoiding difficult conversations. This communication forms part of that commitment. While reports of retained buckshot pellets or projectile fragments are rare, we believe every Raw Love customer deserves to be informed and to know exactly what to do should they ever encounter one.

Thank you for the confidence you have placed in Raw Love over the years. It is a responsibility we never take lightly, and we remain committed to producing high-quality, species-appropriate nutrition and to sourcing our ingredients from reputable suppliers that meet the standards we expect.

Keep it real!

The Raw Love Team