Von BARF team

My name is Bela Tiszatáji Vadász, born on March 29, 2013, in Szeged. In the horoscope, I'm an Aries (or Sheep...?), and in Chinese astrology, I'm a Snake (that's better than a sheep, sounds more dangerous, hehe). My people wanted a top Hungarian vizsla and they searched for me for a long time and found me – in Hungary.

Before me, my people had dogs who lived too short, and what's worse – they lived shorter and shorter. And then, when they got little me, they decided to change something... the diet!

So, here I am, the smallest paws barfer. When I was still with my mom Ugra Bugre, I used to eat some brown pellets.

And then, when I moved to Samobor at 2 months old, I got meeeeat!!! Real, fresh, raw meat, just what us carnivores want. My people say (I eavesdrop on them all the time, haha) that dogs live short anyway, and then when they leave too early, it makes them terribly sad. So, my main task is to live at least 18 healthy years.

My breeder said about little me that I'm very attached to people (I am!) and dominant when it comes to feeding (I think that means greedy – I am!).

I'm well brought up, I like everything young people like, I'm good and obedient, especially when you have something to eat in your hand.

Considering I love to eat so much, I think I couldn't have ended up in a better environment. New products are constantly being developed here, and they're all food and treats for us dogs, and that's a job made for me – tasting, so-called quality control.

Sometimes they complain a bit that I'm not the right person for that job because everything tastes good to me. Well, first, I devour Von BARF products, but I eat everything else too (I hear them gossiping about me being able to digest even nails, so what – I'm incredibly healthy!). The problem is that because of that, they often call dogs from the neighborhood to join in product testing, and I really don't like that (I'd have to somehow pretend that something isn't tasty to me someday, but I can't!).

There's this neighbor, he doesn't eat anything that isn't really tasty, and he always eats only Von BARF products, and he sniffs the others and leaves, they call him Mr. Dog in the office. Between us – I don't really like him...

Oh, I haven't bragged to you yet that I'm very attractive, super healthy, and I only see veterinarians for vaccinations (and when my people go to meetings with them to explain why Von BARF is the best food for dogs).

And the fact that I'm incredibly attractive (did I already say that?), muscular, full of energy, brilliant and strong – you can see that. You can't see that I have white puppy teeth, but I can show you when you come.

Anyway, I'm going to keep begging for treats.

In my professional career I have had different jobs that always included dealing with high quality products.

This, combined with many years of experience in selecting products for various companies, enables me to easily identify products that offer something completely new, and BARF products, which I accidentally heard about through a friend, seemed to me like the future of dog food industry.

But I never thought that I was going to be directly involved in raw dog food, what attracted me was a completely different story behind Von BARF.

Quality and carefully selected ingredients are something rarely seen in today’s food products, especially in pet food where, unfortunately, the decisive factor is often the price and not the quality.

As Von BARF is simply the best food you can feed your dog I really wanted to become a part of the team that is going to change the way we feed our dogs.

I have been surrounded by animals ever since I can remember; my first dog, next to whom I took my first steps, was Asterix the Great Dane. Although dogs were the most numerous members of our family, thanks primarily to my parents, I was also fortunate to grow up with a sheep, bunnies, chickens, tortoises, parrots, fish, cats, a catfish, ducks…and all this in the very heart of Zagreb. And my entire life I wanted my job to revolve around animals. The only thing I could think of when I was young was breeding dogs, but I realized on time that responsible breeding can only be a hobby, and not something one could make a living out of. I also thought about becoming a veterinarian, but I empathize too much with animal suffering, which is something veterinarians inevitably have to deal with because one cannot save them all. And so, not knowing what I wanted to do in life (as most eighteen-year-olds don’t) I enrolled and graduated in medicine. But yet again, it looks like medicine, in terms of direct contact with patients, was not my true calling either, because completely accidentally and unintentionally, after my residency and licensing exam, I started working in the pharmaceutical industry. I spent the last 15 years in the leading European pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline doing all kinds of jobs – from field associate to marketing manager, sales manager and corporate affairs. I definitely learned so, so much there, I learned how a successful multinational company should operate.

And this is where BARF came in…when we got our Bela we wanted only the best for her. We also wanted the best for our previous dogs, but unfortunately we never thought to question what we fed them…all of us usually feed our pets with what a vet, a breeder, or an acquaintance from dog walks tell us. In the vastness of the Internet we found an article on the advantages of raw food for dogs, and to me, as a medical professional, this seemed completely logical. And so we started feeding our little, two-months-old Bela with BARF. I started researching more deeply this, actually a completely logical fact that dogs have the internal anatomy and physiology of a carnivore, and that due to our lack of knowledge and our own comfort we have been feeding them the wrong way the entire time. The more I understood the importance of proper nutrition, the more I wanted to make BARF and everything related to it my life’s calling.

Von BARF combined my medical education, my experience in the pharmaceutical industry and an absolute enthusiasm regarding the perfect dog food. And I realized that I could combine my profession – medicine, with my love – dogs, in the best possible way – through prevention. Because that is what BARF is. And each dog switched to natural nutrition brings me great happiness and joy!

I have always known that animals and their wellbeing will be one of the most important aspects of my life. Growing up surrounded by animals, with both parents as veterinarians, things couldn’t have worked out any other way. To illustrate how much animals have shaped and enriched my life, I will give you a brief overview of all my animal friends, starting with my first dog – Bela, and her numerous litters, then Eni, her daughter and successor, and then Tajči (guess who my favourite singer was), a puppy we got because my mother saved her mother’s life after she was poisoned with rodenticide. Tajči lived to be 17 and she was our last “official“ dog. But soon…I believe you know what came next

cats – this part might be too extensive, so I will just name the last few that were our real pets – Cosmo, Milan, John-John, Ćilibar and Buda.

And then – horses – Ereta and Epona – when I was twelve I wanted a horse, and, of course, I got it J J. Ereta is now 20, she is vital, in excellent shape and highly stubborn and cunning. Epona was Ereta’s first and only foal, and she is now a grown up fifteen-year old horse. They spend most of their days eating grass in a meadow or begging for bread at a stable window. The only look forward to riding and trips if this does not happen more often than once a week.

And then goats – ah, this could be a lengthy section. The first goat we had, Kristina, lived to be 14 and I am sure that – she could almost speak. Goats are wonderful beings, extremely intelligent, curious, agile, with a distinct character; wonderful pets – which is inconceivable in Croatia, but around the world there are people who keep goats as pets. And that is my recommendation for anyone who finds it difficult to feed dogs and cats with meat due to moral and ethical reasons. In a herd of 40 adult goats, I have to admit, I have my favourites. They are Žuži, who would sell herself for a piece of bread and is able to beg for it and get under one’s feet for as long as it takes to get it, and Damba, a young Billy Goat, and I am trying to make friends with him, because I had a bad experience with the last one, that is, he broke my arm (you would not believe how they laughed at me at the hospital).

And that is how, at the age of 18, after I finished high school, I enrolled into veterinary medicine. It was not a decision per se, it happened quite naturally. At the university, one learns that veterinary medicine doe not equal love for animals, but that it also includes many things that, for someone that loves animals, could be difficult to accept and the ones that one does not necessarily agree with.

However, it is wonderful to be a veterinarian, especially if one manages to find a job that fulfils them, which is = love for animals.