BARF diet for dogs

Question
I've been reading some net information on the BARF diet, which is a natural, holistic, raw food way of eating for dogs.  Do you have any thoughts on it?

Answer
I am not an advocate of BARF for the simple reason that *VERY FEW* of us are nutritionists and haven't a CLUE how to feed balanced diets to ourselves, let alone our dogs.

Initially I was on the fence about it, until some BARFers joined a forum I was on and started pushing it, and I then did some research on it. What I found was plenty frightening to me! Pages and pages of information and studies of why NOT to feed BARF!

Eighty-five percent of the BARF diets tested contained salmonella, and 30% of the dogs that ate that diet had stools that contained salmonella (meaning that it could be spread to US and our families). A handful of dogs (with auto-immune problems) have died from this, although the majority of dogs are unaffected by salmonella due to the difference in their intestinal tract.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=1...

Dogs fed raw bones have died from impactions and punctured intestines, and broken teeth is not uncommon. I can attest to this myself as I had three dogs break teeth when I thought I would try feeding raw bones. http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/bones.html

Hygiene is absolutely imperative if one chooses to feed raw, and I would **NEVER** do it in a home with small children!!!

Karen