BARF |
|
17 December 2023 - Adetswil
It has to be a joke. The dogfood called BARF. "Biologisch artgerechte Rohfütterung" is what Swiss advertisements for is claim is the acronym. Iwona had no idea that barf was another word for vomit in English. She's also never seen Spaceballs.
Curious how this acronym was foisted on the German-speaking world for English-speakers to snicker at I went to the internet. The German version of Wikipedia credits a Canadian named Debbie Tripp for the acronym "Born Again Raw Feeders". Contrast this to the English version, which has Dr. Ian Billinghurst credited with the acronym "Bones And Raw Food". English, it seems, has also dropped the BARF acronym in favor of the less gross "raw feeding" branding. On the French, Spanish, and Swedish versions of Wikipedia we learn that Billinghurst was supposedly an Australian veterenarian, but there's no mention of Debbie Tripp. A little more searching and I found Ian Billinghurst's book from 1993 is still in print. Come to think of it I vaguely seem to remember my Aunt Amy being into this at some point. I'm sure I would have snickered at the name in the 90's too. At that point she's acquired a dog named Randy and then a husband named Randy, so we had to specify Randy the dog or Randy the man. I think Randy the dog may have eaten BARF. In contrast to Billinghurst, a Debbie Tripp concerned with dogfood doesn't seem to exist on the internet outside of German discussion. It seems that a dog trainer in Texas named Gitta Vaughn is the source of the idea in a post on her website claiming to be from 2002. It seems to a be flimsy source at best.
