Cooking meat does destroy some heat-sensitive nutrients, such as taurine or vitamin C but they are added back in after cooking to at least minimum levels to ensure a complete and balanced diet per the AAFCO nutrient profile guidelines, enforced through the FDA, and recalled if lacking in any way. In fact, the raw diets fed to lions at zoos are typically supplemented as well to ensure the big wild cats are getting all their required nutrients, since merely processing the meat even raw and exposing it to the air oxidizes some nutrients and the diet isn't always as varied as it would otherwise be. Considering that the supplemented lions in captivity are often living over twice as long as they do in the wild, that diet is working well for them and that is what matters.
It would certainly be cheaper not to have to cook the food for domestic animals, but its done as the only reasonable effective way of killing the bacteria. Superfreezing can accomplish the same, but is expensive and I believe the FDA says has to be frozen 7 days to be considered safe. One thing is for certain though, is that Wesley is not a bobcat, a leopard, or a lion... although I'm pretty sure he thinks he is.
Most importantly, they are a proper weight through calorie control, with healthy teeth and gums, a shiny coat, properly formed stools, and are quite active on their convenient, cost effective, and safe feeding regimen that they seem to enjoy and look forward to every day. Results are what matter, and this is clearly working well for us so is a viable healthy option. Not THE option, but certainly one of many successful strategies, with pros and cons like anything else. It is merely a lack of acceptance of some of the known cons of the raw diet by impassioned advocates that I believe has created such a lengthy discussion.
