„Kawałek niezafałszowanej przyrody”. Analiza retoryki dietetyki zwierzęcej
“A Piece of Unwarped Nature”. Analysis of the Rhetoric of Pet Diet Discourse

Summary/Abstract: The article presents an analysis of textual and iconographic narration of the BARF pet diet based on raw meat and bones. The main assumption of BARF is that such diet is “natural”. The problem arises when we ask about the criteria of naturalness with reference to domestic cats and dogs. A praise of pets as natural carnivores and predators and eulogy of their joy of eating bloody meat could be seen as a potential praise of the wild opposed to the social. It is nevertheless softened by highly narrativized diet discourse. Rapacity and carnivorousness is limited here only to the pet’s diet and it doesn’t include social needs and behaviours. BARF diet supporters could be seen also as food activists as they oppose to the politics of great pet food companies. Highly processed commercial meat food is opposed here to the wholesome raw meat. One can see that the project of the “return to nature” provided by caring owners feeding their pets with bloody meat chunks is mediated here by cultural context. In the article I analyse the rethoric of such “return to nature” with reference to Lévi‑Strauss, Lorenz, Belasco, Haraway.

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