 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii. What a pleasure to meet all of you guys again. We had a great show two weeks ago and all of your comments were appreciated. Even those of you who said I talked too much and there wasn't enough music. Well today is going to be another fantastic show. We're going to talk about food. Now we all have heard about all these diets. You've heard about vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, lactose intolerant, all this. Are you one of those? Well guess what? We are going to talk about the most important food, not for you, not for me, but for Fido, for your dog, for your pet. Now in my house, if you ask Sue, who is the most important member of our family, it ain't me, it's our dog, Leila, and our two cats. And she goes and buys this most expensive food. She goes to the veterinarian for one kind of dog food and another place for, and I'm not going to mention the name, for the cat food. And I kept saying, why, why, why? And what we found with Leila was that she was getting heavy. And she ended up being, she's a small dog. She ended up being about 21 pounds. And Sue took her to the vet and he said, well, you know, she should only be 15 pounds. And we said, well, what do you suggest? And again, he suggested do this, do that, go by this kind of food and that kind of food. But I have a friend, Irma Baptiste, who has been on our show. And Irma and I have been talking about her latest venture, which is Raw Dog Hawaii. And I said, oh, I'm not so sure about all this. And she said, Seymour, I want you to meet Gary. Gary is the president of the company, the owner of the company. He's passionate about what he has done with raw dog food. And I said, but raw dog food. She said, Seymour, just listen, well, today Leila is 15 pounds. She's lost 25% of her body weight. She jumps up on the sofa, maybe good, maybe not so good. She, as Sue says, has a bikini body. And little Leila is absolutely adorable. And I have to tell you, we started her on our DH Raw Dog Food. And Gary and Irma gave us this talk about why it's so important. And I've decided, instead of talking about you and me and our food habits and what we have to do, because let's face it, I, for one, am useless. I eat what I think is right for me. And so far, at 70 plus years old, I'm happy with where I am. And more important is, what are we feeding our pets? And why should we change our habits and what we do for our dogs and our cats? So without further ado, may I introduce you to Irma and to Gary. Hi, guys. Good. Hi. Good morning. Irma, you've been on this show more than I have. I think I have. I think we've... I think you've clothed me and you haven't told me about it. Well, we've been here with your daughter, with Skylar. And then we were here for... Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, right? And we, that was a very emotional show. That was a good show. Yeah. That was a great, great show. You introduced me to RDH, to Raw Dog, Hawaii. And I felt really skeptical about the whole thing. Really did. I said, oh, it's just another expensive dog food. But it's sure you proved me right. And I'm so glad that you made this introduction because it has worked amazingly for my dog. And Gary, you are the guy behind all this, right? Yep. That's me. You're the guy who put it together. You're the guy who thought about it. Tell us. What prompted you to go into a business that's so difficult? Well, I started this journey a long time ago with a dog that had severe allergies. And I had a country vet at the time who said, you know, you should start feeding your dog raw food. And I had no idea what she meant. She gave me a list, went to the grocery store, started feeding my dog raw. And within a few days, hair started growing back. And allergies started going away. And within a month, he looked like a supermodel. I mean, he had beautiful, glossy fur, allergies gone, lost some weight. And so that event years ago started me buying raw dog food. And when I moved to Hawaii, nobody here was making it here and sourcing the animals that are from here. So that's what led me to start it for my own dog. And seeing his friends and family, you saw my dog, it kind of took off from there. So what is behind it? I mean, the health issues you mentioned, growing hair, losing weight, et cetera, there's got to be a scientific theory behind why raw dog food is good for dogs. There is. And it really has to do with the physiology of dogs. Dogs lack two enzymes that humans have. And one of those enzymes converts starch into sugars. We have it, dogs don't. So the majority of dried dog foods. They have protein, they have fat, but they also have a lot of unnecessary carbohydrates. So the dog doesn't digest it, it ferments it. And that's what leads to all the allergies sometimes in dogs. If you take those cheap fillers away and replace it with quality proteins and fats, that fixes the dog problem. What do the veterinarians say about all this? You know, most veterinarians are against it. And I wondered for the longest reason why. So that's a great question, I get asked that a lot. I'll answer it with a rhetorical question, and I don't need you to answer it, but do you believe in a higher power or God? And if the answer to that is yes, then there's nothing that I can do, say, show or tell you that is going to convince you otherwise. Likewise, if you don't, there's nothing I can do, say, show or tell that is going to make you believe. So veterinarians in their first year of vet school get taught about nutrition one semester an hour, and it covers seven animal species. And in their textbook is a Hill Science Diet label from one of their prescription cats. They're surrounded by peers who believe the same thing. The American Medical Veterinary Association has taken a formal stance against raw. So trying to change their belief system is the same as trying to get somebody to believe or not to believe in a higher power. It's even difficult. So even when they're faced with improved blood results, they see the animal, they come in on how great the animal is doing, and they ask the owner, what did you change? And the owner said, I've started feeding my dog raw, well, no, that can't be it. What else did you change? So they will summarily dismiss the evidence because they're taught not to believe in it. But it just goes back to what did they eat before kibble existed, and they hunted, or they ate table scraps. So the idea that raw dog food is healthy, I know for a fact it's true because it worked on mine. Now, are you the only player in this game, or are there other people with raw dog food? Oh, there are several companies that make raw dog food or freeze dried raw dog food. We happen to be different because we use organic chicken. We use grass fed, grass finished beef. We use wild venison. So we use products that are either organic, or they're grass fed and finished, or in the case of deer or wild animal. So it's the same proteins that you would get if you went to a premium supermarket and you paid a premium price. That's what makes us different is most other pet food companies don't go to that level of assurity and the quality of their products. And of course we've seen it for a fact, and we're going to show the audience actually a lot of before and after pictures of what happened. Irma, how did you get involved? Well, I have three dogs, and my middle dog actually has chronic, just horrible mange, and the vet kept altering his diet. And you know, $600 a month later in medication, it was like, wow, it's like I should claim you as a dependent. And so we started with Raw Dog Hawaii when actually the blocks, the food were in cubes. And I vividly remember the way they were put in the freezer. And this was three years ago, I want to say, about three years ago. And finally, when our middle dog decided to switch his food, it wasn't just the fur growing in, it was the skippiness step. It was the energy. It was like the happy puppy came back. That's exactly what we were finding out. And just it's like seeing someone cured from a disease. And so the vet visit started to wane, yes, and no need for regular medication, and just the happiness in the dog, the first days in, the poop is small, which is always a bonus. And so we put all three dogs on them. And they're like puppies, one's 10, one's now four, and one is two. And you can't tell which ones would change. Yeah, the energy is amazing. You're right. The difference is amazing. When we see Layla jumping and running and doing, yes, she's lost weight. You know, there's going to be, and the reason I wanted to bring up the veterinarian aspect was because people are going to want to know, you know, why isn't this all over the place? Yet I see, Gary, that your sales are increasing. You're in more stores. I believe, can I mention the contract you have or I cannot? Yes. OK, you have a contract with Safeway stores. And that is huge, you know, and that's only here in Hawaii to be expanded to work to the mainland. That is amazing that the recognition of this kind of food for dogs is growing every single year, just as you are growing. And I know you're moving to a new facility very soon. We are. Right? Well, you know what I want to do? If we can, I want to show some before and after pictures of dogs. OK. All right? So let's see if we can bring that up. Go ahead and tell us about... Oh, my God. So this is one of the worst cases of mange that I've ever seen in a dog. And the dog is named Stitch. He was dumped up on the North Shore and had lived outside for quite a while, developed a severe case of mange, and literally with small amounts of medication, switching to a raw diet and a bath or two, these pictures are a month apart. One month? Yep. Oh, my God. You literally couldn't tell it was the same dog by looking at it. And you see the brightness in the eyes, the upstanding ears, the posture changes. It's a very dramatic effect in a dog. Wow. And that's only in 30 days. That's 30 days. Incredible. Let's see the next one. So this is Ruby. She's owned by a restaurateur here on Oahu. And Ruby had lost, you know, her step. She's only nine years old, so the sarong was her mom's idea. But you see the loss of hair on the ears, a little spot on her nose, just her body posture, and she was big boned as we call in the pet food industry. So she was carrying a little bit of poundage on the back. And these pictures are also a month apart, so you see a difference again, posture, beautiful coat, the brown on the ears has filled in, the spot on her nose you can't see. It's healed itself, and that brown that ran up to just about her eyes is now filled in with fur. And we know, Gary, for a fact, before we get to the next one, I get excited about this because I'm very involved in medical science and different things and food is obviously a very important part of this, of our life. And animals have been subjected to companies who want to feed them all sorts of stuff, grains and cereals and mixtures of all different things when actually dogs come from the wild. And what do they eat in the wild? And to me, that's what they have to come back to. And that's what I think your company is all about. And I'm very, very happy to see that the public, as well as the retail stores, are starting to understand this is a mainstream product. It's getting there. Let's see the next picture. Oh, so this was Neptune. And Neptune was one of our animals in our animal feeding trials at the Oahu SPCA. So the first picture is her intake photo. On the left. On the upper left. And again, severe mange, not as bad as the first dog, but you see the hair loss, the skin condition. And the second picture is after about a year's worth of treatment, receiving antibiotics and special shampoos and prescription foods. And from that photo to the third photo on the bottom left, that's five weeks. So she's an air dail mix. All her fur came in. Mange went away. Ear infection's gone. This is one of the first transformations that I saw. Now, I mean, I know what this product does. And I know what a raw diet can do. But here's a dog that had been at the Oahu SPCA for a year and a half. Literally, nobody wanted to adopt her. And from the time we met her, until the time she was adopted, was seven weeks. So I mean, I started losing animals out of my feeding trial because they started getting adopted. Wow. And that is a good sign, obviously. That's a great sign. That's a good thing. Amazing. Now, we have one more photo before the break. Let's see. Oh, OK. This is Helen. And Helen is deaf. And she has little to no fur. But that's the nature of her breed. And you can see the bumps on her neck. And you can't quite see the ones under her nose. Some on her ears. But mainly around her chest and that redness. So this is how we met Helen. And then a month later, after being fed the raw food, the rashes went away, the severe itching and scratching that had caused injury to her skin on her chest had healed. And she literally filled back in, bumps went away, and started running around the park like a stallion. She's such a tiny little dog compared to the others. You'd never know it. Well, we have to take a short break. But we're going to show a picture of Helen after the break. And this will be, of course, what happened after how much time? 30 days. After 30 days. And you will be amazed when you see that photo, because I was just shocked. The changes we saw in our dog, Layla, that made me want to do this show is exactly what you will see with Helen. See you in a minute. I'm Seymour Kazimurski on Seymour's World at ThinkTech Hawaii. I'm Ethan Allen, host of Eligible Science on ThinkTech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 PM, I hope you'll join me for likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science, and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope you'll join me for likable science. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of ThinkTech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea comes on every other Monday at 11 AM. Please join us. I like to bring in guests that talk about all types of things that come across the sea to Hawaii. Not just law. Love, people, ideas, history. Please join us for Law Across the Sea. Aloha. Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World on ThinkTech Hawaii. We are here talking about food, digestion, good health, what we need to do to make our lives better. Not for me, not for you, but for our dogs, because they are the most important member in my family. I don't know about your family, but definitely in my family. My guests are Erma Baptiste and Gary Novasel from Raw Dog Hawaii. I am a convert. I am actually helping you with your business just for everybody to know. My feeling is this is the way to go for dogs. This is absolutely how we have to make sure that our dogs are as healthy as possible for the rest of their lives, and that's to bring them back to the diet that they were supposed to get. Instead of what the manufacturers of pet foods are talking about, that they should be eating all sorts of different things when, in reality, they've survived for hundreds and hundreds of years on raw dog food, right, raw food. Absolutely. OK, so let's go back. We want to show a picture of Helen before. Now that's Helen before, and now let's show Helen after only 30 days. So you can see a pretty dramatic difference here. Her bumps are gone. Her ears are filled in. And actually, I don't even think that's the 30-day picture. I think that's two weeks. Wow. But yeah, her fur just became really bright and shiny, and again, the dog smell went away because the dog smell was coming from that fermented starch, not from the dog. And I know we don't want to go into the science of it, but you're absolutely right. Leda smells differently. She really does. I would say to Sue, we should give her a bath every three, four, or five days because of the smell. Now, two weeks goes by before she needs another bath. That is amazing. And again, it has to do with what we know is the most important, besides water and air, obviously, it's food. What do we feed our animals? It's amazing. Let's talk about a little bit about your competition, Gary, and what you're doing here in Hawaii, and what your plans are. I have a lot of viewers all over the US mainland and Europe, et cetera. So tell me, how do you sell this product? Well, we sell it here in Hawaii now, frozen. We also have shelf-stable treats. But our foods do come frozen. We receive product frozen. We process it frozen. And we manufacture it into the shapes that you see here, patties, chubs, and nuggets, while it's still below freezing. So we help eliminate the possibility of pathogens in the food. And using human quality ingredients, we make it as safe as we possibly could. So this is fully tested. I mean, there's no bacteria issues with any of this food. I don't know if we could. Oh, there it is. If we could show what each of them are, but in essence, they're all frozen, pure raw meat, correct? It's meat, the organ meat of the animal, and bone content. So we literally use the entire animal when we're processing our food. And how long have you been in business? We've been in business just a little over five years. Wow. And I know from your financials that it's going gangbusters. People are adopting this type of diet for their animals more and more. Tell us about the mainland. Because everybody's screaming for this in the mainland. Right. So we haven't told any of our customers about this yet. But at the Global Pet Expo in Orlando on March 21st, we're going to be unveiling a freeze-dried raw product line. And we'll also be carrying that in Hawaii. The only reason we're not making it here is because the technology is so expensive and power is very expensive. So we're having it made to our specifications exactly the way that we process it here in a freeze-dried form. And we'll be selling that online as well as through our retailers. So when it's freeze-dried, what do you do with it? You buy it off a shelf? Yep, it's shelf-stable. The moisture has been removed over a 48-hour period, so very slow by comparison, freeze-dry process. And all the vitamins and nutrients, the micronutrients, are still in the food. But it's now a shelf-stable product. So you add warm water to it to rehydrate it or feed it, as is the dogs getting the same nutrition. Well, and Irma, tell us about the marketing plan. How are you going to do this? Well, we're really excited to use our current relationships that we have here in Hawaii to grow our Hawaii operations. But on the mainland, Gary's taken this incredible leap of sourcing different venues that are already in existence to grow the company. Now, what's exciting is that we have people in Hawaii who move. And so when they move, they would love our product. So now we already have an established clientele on the mainland, just really literally chomping at the bit for the freeze-dried component. Whether they are friends who see our dogs thriving or hear about it on social media, it's really taken off. It's nudged, I think, the company into a completely different trajectory, a real positive trajectory. It's strange because we had some visitors here just a few weeks ago that stayed with us, and we talked to them about your product, and they looked at Layla, and they said, wow, what a difference in your dog. And we told them about you, and he happens to be a former senior vice president for Frito-Lay. And he saw this, and he said, well, why doesn't he do it on the mainland? And you guys are talking to him right now about doing, not just the processing, the marketing, the management of it all. There's huge opportunities for us. There is. There is huge. I'm very excited to try to help you guys do it, because I know it's not just a money-making thing, Gary. You're so passionate about this, that it is really something that you want to be sure that animals live the best way that they can for the lives that they have, which is just wonderful. So tell me also about the regulations. We have so many regulations in food safety and FDA rules. What is the issue with this? Is there a regulation that you have to make sure that there's no pathogens or bacterias or anything associated with it? So President Obama passed, thankfully, the Food Safety Modernization Act. And it's been slowly starting to trickle down to smaller businesses. But it's to make sure that food is pathogen-free. There's always that risk in any food we eat, whether and for dogs, whether it's kibble, or whether it's raw dog food, the risk is literally the same. But we see those type of outbreaks more in dry dog food simply because they occupy a bigger marketplace. That's really one of the things that's driving that change. So in our new facility, we'll operate it just as if we would manufacturing food for humans, for human consumption. But we happen to be selling it for dogs. So tell us where people could. We only have a couple of minutes left. Where people can buy it? They can buy it online at rawdoghoy.com. They can order and have it shipped to their house. We have 11 retailers on Oahu. We sell at two farmers markets. And they can find the locations of all those retailers as well at the menu on our website. And when will you be in Safeway? I understand that's the first major retailer that's going with you. We're getting ready to build out a production kitchen. And once that kitchen is built out and we can meet the capacity of all their stores, that's when we'll start selling in Safeway. And you'll be able to put that on your website as well so people will know where to be able to find it. That's a ton of stores. It's 22 stores. Well, it's exciting because it's what I call a brick and mortar business. In my business, in the consulting business, all I see are new apps coming. Everybody's a new app. And they're all looking for money for a new app. And I'm still old school. I like the idea that you have a product to sell. People can touch it and feel it. Then if they like it, they buy more and the business grows. So for me, this is my kind of tea. And your dog can have a bikini body. Yes, exactly, which he does. Selling point. I love it. From you, I understand that because you do have a bikini body. So let's do it. Let's look at a couple more pictures before we go. So this is my dog, Kua. And you can, he was also adopted at Pihuahua SBCA. He was literally an unwanted dog. They said he was stubborn. And we found out since he's completely deaf, but you can see the redness around his eyes, his nose is a bright pink, his lips. And in the second picture, you see a 30-day difference in what that can make again in a dog. So he's pretty stoic, but he loves women and children. So he's not nearly as brutal as he was in the skin. Oh. It's absolutely amazing. Wow. He's not stoic. Did he lose weight as well? He did. When we got him, the SPCA said it's likely he's not going to be able to walk more than three or four steps. And they actually offered me a little ramp for my truck. He runs around the yard like a race horse. If there are birds in the yard. That is wonderful. Absolutely. Isn't that terrific? Do we have any other pictures? Oh, wow. This is Helen again. And this is a much better shot of the rashes that were on her head and today. So you can see her nose, the hairy growth, the brightness in her eyes. Dispensation. And just the rash being gone after the other struggling for a very long time to fix it. That just made my day. Well, that is the greatest picture to end on. Because when you say it made your day, we know it's not just about money. It's actually about doing something good for our community. And that's our dogs are part of our community. I want to thank you both very much, Irma and Gary, for coming on the show. I'm not here to sell your product, but I'm here to make people aware that changing the diet of their animal is definitely going to make a happier animal and a happier family. So thank you for joining me on This World. I appreciate it. And to you all out there, wherever you are, you can get Raw Dog Hawaii Food. Look on their website, rawdoghawaii.com, is that it? And you'll be able to get it directly to your house or find a retailer near you. I look forward to seeing you again in a couple of weeks. I will be talking to you from China in a couple of weeks. Aloha from Seymour's World on Think Tech Hawaii.