Mike: May I ask you to share a little more information about your background? You have a lot of passion for this subject, and people would like to know why.
Newman: I have a lot of passion for it from a personal experience. I had a 9-month-old Rottweiler, the first Rottweiler I ever bought. This was when I was a student, and she cost $850. When you’re a student and you’ve saved up all year, you put everything you have into that puppy. You want that puppy to be healthy. I went on the scientific puppy diet that my vet recommended. I did all the vaccinations exactly on time, right to the day that she was to be vaccinated. I gave her some vitamin C because there had been reports out of Germany that it helps prevent dysplasia.
It’s true we have used vitamin C for the same reasons. So, I thought I was doing everything I could possibly do for this dog. I had her dipped several times, so she wouldn’t get fleas or ticks. Well, at 9 months old, she developed Parvo and died. I was floored. First of all, she had all her Parvo shots, so why
should she get Parvo? Second, why did the Parvo ravage her digestive tract? Well, I was in a nutrition class and she would come with me to that class. When I came in without her, everyone wanted to know were she was. I told everyone I lost her to Parvo. So, my nutrition professor said to me, “Why was her digestive tract so ravaged at 9 months old? I mean, she should have been strong enough to handle an intestinal disease.”
Well, in those days, the vet said, “This is what happens with Parvo. Don’t worry about it; we keep them comfortable.” She said, “Bring in the food you were feeding it, and let’s take a look at it.” That is when I learned about ethoxaquin, the rubber stabilizer and lethal herbicide. When we thought about how ethoxaquin works, we started to think about how it acts in the digestive tract. Was it any wonder that her digestive tract was so compromised? No, it wasn’t. So, I became very angry and disillusioned with my vet.
I was very grief-stricken to have lost her, because in nine months she had become my family. I said to myself, “Here I am, becoming a naturopathic doctor. I’m getting my PhD. What am I doing feeding my dog a bag of food when I don’t know what I’m feeding her?”
So, I started to research more about foods to discover a food for my next dog that would be appropriate. I started reading about holistic care for pets. I found out that there were some vets and companies starting to feel this way. They were beginning to make foods that are a little bit healthier. I thought this was great.
Then I started doing consultations for humans. I got into my profession and started to work. I realized a lot of the people coming in had pets that had similar symptoms to them.
I discovered our pets tend to develop the same diseases we do. It is a very interesting irony. They would come in and say, “You helped me so much with my allergies. My dog has just been diagnosed with allergies; can you help? My cat has cancer; is there anything you can do?” So, I said to myself, “There is really no one concentrating on animal care, especially in Arizona.” I was the first person in Arizona to focus on it. There weren’t a lot of consultants around the country doing it. I took everything I knew from my naturopathic experience and human experience, and I started to apply it to animals. I started to research how it affected the animals.
Mike: What year was this?
Newman: This was 1984. In 1982, I started to study animal care, and then, in 1984, I decided to actually become a consultant and start to put everything together. After doing this for several years, I started to get
disillusioned with the products that were on the market. Yucca was one product that I was having trouble with. I was using the yucca powder, and it was working great as far as I was concerned. Then all of a sudden, the animals that were doing well on it stopped doing well on it. I couldn’t understand why.
I started to explore the yucca and the yucca process. I found a yucca company, which just happened to be the company that I was buying the yucca from. They knew the product and they knew the company. I said to them, “What is going on with this powder? It seems to be different; it’s not working as well.” They educated me that there were three steps to the yucca process. The first step is the extraction, which works beautifully, and it was the first product I made. Then they explained after the extraction, there is a
powder residue, a byproduct. You can extract from the powder to make a third powder. So, the company had gone to the third powder — even cheaper processed powder.
Mike: No active ingredients?
Newman: No active ingredients. No wonder it wasn’t working. I brought a vitamin C product out and a yucca product out. These were the two supplements I used the most. From there, I just started to develop more and more products. I got very frustrated with the pet food situation. Then we developed pet foods.
As hard as it was, I’m very glad that I did it, because we are still the only company that is truly doing it.
Mike: Are you finding a lot of acceptance for your product line?
Newman: Yes I am. It grows through word-of-mouth. The retailers who bring it in become very loyal to us, because their customers are very loyal to them. It would be great if I had $250,000 a year for marketing,
but it’s not going to happen. We’re growing as well as we’re growing. We’re out of the woods. The company is financially stable. Even though the industry is still growing, we find that everybody is copying everyone else. So, we’re way ahead of the curve.
Mike: This is one of the industry’s well-kept secrets. It is never going to be front-page news. It is never going to be on the shelf at the regular grocery store.
Newman: I would never do that anyway, because my pet food retailers have been the ones to help me grow. I would never undersell them by selling to PetSmart, PETCO or a grocery store chain. Besides, these companies wouldn’t want my food, because I don’t have a high enough mark-up. I couldn’t cut my food any cheaper for them, and that is what they demand.
Mike: For the last few minutes here, I want to shift gears. There is a lot of debate out there, which I find astounding, about the level of understanding and consciousness animals have and whether animals deserve to be treated like humans. We’ve covered PETA in the past and what they are doing. What is your experience working with animals?
Newman: Animals are very complex beings; a lot more complex than we give them credit for. They don’t have the cognitive ability that we do. That’s why, as a society, we see them as lower animals. They have enough cognitive ability to miss you when you leave. They know who is good or bad to them. They would recognize someone they were raised with if they meet them later in life.
Just look at elephants. Elephants never forget. They can meet their trainer 20 to 30 years after they were trained and immediately recognize him or her. They grieve, and they have pain, so I believe they should be afforded the same respect we afford each other. We shouldn’t buy a dog and leave it in the backyard all day long. We shouldn’t buy a dog if we don’t have the time to take care of it. You shouldn’t get a cat if you’re going to cage it in the bathroom all day because you don’t want it scratching on your couch. We
wouldn’t like to be isolated that way, and I find isolation to be the worst thing animals suffer from.
Mike: If that is the position — and I agree with that position, by the way — don’t we have an obligation as human beings to be nutritionally responsible?
Newman: Oh, absolutely. They are relying on us. We have the responsibility to keep them as comfortable as possible during their lifetime. The only way to do that is to feed them well. Food and diet have a lot more to do with it than even environment, from tearing down the immune system to overwhelming the nervous system. Animals feel as much stress as we do, probably more stress, because they can’t vocalize their stress. They can’t cognitively decide that this is going to be over with soon. They don’t know
that they’re going to sit here behind this door for five minutes and not five hours or five days.
Mike: Well said. We have been talking to Dr. Lisa Newman today. I want to thank you so much for taking this time for sharing your thoughts and your recipe with us. It has been very interesting and educational.
Any final thoughts?
Newman: Well, my final thought is to go out and hug a dog today and kiss your cat. Love can do a lot for an animal.
Mike: So again, for those who are reading, it’s azmira.com. It is the Azmira Holistic Animal Care product line developed by Dr. Lisa Newman — naturopath, animal lover and just a wonderful person. Thanks for taking this time.
Newman: Thanks for having me, Mike.
