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Written by Stephen G King
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 About Dr. Ian Billinghurst and the Rise of Evolutionary Nutrition
Ian Billinghurst is an Australian veterinarian, working solely with companion animals. He graduated with an Honours degree in Veterinary Science from Sydney University in 1976. Ian also has a degree in Agricultural Science and a Diploma in Education.
After being in practice for about six years, Ian realised that commercial pet foods produced positively bad health in companion animals. His studies in nutrition together with his own extensive observations lead him to a very simple truth. Raw bones with meat, offal, vegetable scraps and other healthy foods - were very close to the evolutionary diet of cats and dogs. The genetic background of our companion animals would not allow them to thrive on cooked food based on grain. Ian realised that the evolutionary approach to nutrition was obvious and a matter of common sense. It was also first class science.
Ian began to share this information with his clients. When clients adopted these ideas, Ian noted improvements across a broad spectrum of health issues, from puppy problems all the way through to the degenerative diseases of old age, including cancer. Ian was beginning to realise that many, if not most of the disease problems he was seeing in cats and dogs were due in large part to poor nutrition, principally commercial pet foods.
Ian decided the only way to tell his story, was to write a book. Prior to the publication of his first book, "Give Your Dog a Bone," there was not one book promoting the feeding of raw foods to pet animals. Ian wanted people who lived with cats and dogs to know that there was a healthy, simple, cheap and viable alternative to processed pet food.
"Give Your Dog a Bone" was an instant hit and remains his most popular work to this day. In 1997 Ian was invited to England where he lectured in Birmingham, Bristol, London and Manchester with outstanding success. In 1998 Ian did a 9 week tour of the United States, giving 13, seminars, mostly of two days duration, from the west to the east coast and back again, including Seattle in Washington, Dallas in Texas, Orlando in Florida, Hartford in Connecticut, Richmond in Virginia, Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, Chicago, Toledo in Ohio, Bellingham in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and finally Honolulu Hawaii. These seminars were held in October, November and December of 1998.
During the 1998 US tour Ian released his second book, "Grow Your Pups With Bones," which formalized the concept of BARF, an acronym standing for both 'Bones And Raw Food' and 'Biologically Appropriate Raw [or Real] Food.'
"Grow Your Pups With Bones" was written as the breeders supplement to "Give Your Dog a Bone," and includes a section dealing with the prevention and treatment of skeletal disease in growing pups. The 1998 American tour has proved to be the turning point for pet health across North America. In both the USA and Canada, raw feeding is now widely accepted, and that includes its acceptance by a growing number of veterinarians. There are numerous raw feeding lists on the internet and there are also numerous pet food companies producing raw pet foods. In general, there is a growing awareness of the role of raw whole foods in companion animal health.
In 2001 Ian Released his third book, "The BARF Diet."
Since his initial US tour, Ian has made frequent visits to the US and Canada, speaking to veterinarians, breeders, dog trainers (including twice speaking at APDT) and dog owners, promoting the concept of Evolutionary Nutrition at every lecture. For example, in 2002, Ian gave two half days of lectures on Evolutionary Nutrition to the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. In 2003 Ian spoke at the Pet Food Forum, the official annual conference of the North American Pet Food Industry.
Ian Has made three lecture tours in Japan, the first in 2001 and the second in 2003, with the third in June of this year (2006), when Ian delivered 4 one day seminars in each of the following cities, Tokyo (Shibuya), Kobe, Hukuoka (Hakata) and Aichi (Nagoya). In September 2006, Ian will release the Japanese translation of "The BARF Diet." This will be followed over the next few years by a series of educational seminars in Japan. These seminars will constitute formal courses in evolutionary nutrition, beginning at the diploma level. These nutritional courses will eventually be made available in the UK, North America and indeed wherever there is a call for this information.
Ian has also spoken in New Zealand and in Australia of course. However, it would be true to say that Ian is not as well known in Australia as he is in North America.
Ian was for the first time invited to speak at the Australian Veterinary Association's annual conference in Tasmania in May this year (2006), delivering a lecture to the holistic stream of the Association. The topic of the lecture was the role of nutrition in treating cancer. It was hoped that Ian's fourth book, a book dealing with nutrition and cancer, would be launched at the conference. However, both that book and Ian's book on feline nutition are temporarily on hold as Ian completes his other lecturing and writing obligations.
Today, as a direct result of that self published book, 'Give Your Dog a Bone,' which first saw the light of day in 1993, there is a thriving and growing movement of raw feeders, breeders, trainers and even vets throughout the western world. Many of the people who now feed their dogs and cats this way have no idea of the origins of this movement.
As a result of Ian's pioneering work, there are literally hundreds of raw pet food manufacturers scattered across the North American Continent. Ian is involved in a similar project here in Australia, with his company "BARF Australia."
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