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I would say 8 years goes beyond the shelf life of frozen meat. I don't know that bacteria would be the issue, but taste and nutrition might be compromised. How the meat is packaged probably makes a big difference, for instance, vacuum packaging I would think provides the longest shelf life because it removes almost all air. Also, what kind of freezer you have is a factor. If it's a deep freeze verses a refrigerator/freezer. Anyway, my general rule of thumb for feeding my dogs "non-dog food" is that I won't give them anything that I'm afraid to eat.
I would say as long as the meat doesn't have a bad smell to it after it is thawed go ahead and feed it to them. Treat it just like a steak you would eat in that you don't want to leav it in the fridge thawed out for more than 2 days or so before feeding. Dogs have a higher tolerence to bacteria than humans. This is why they can eat raw stuff and not get sick. This doesn't mean they are immune to bacteria mind you, they can get sick from SPOILED meat.
If you do feed it to them do it unsalted or seasoned as dogs don't need added salt in their diets. Also it may give your dog the runs. This is to be expected because it is such a drastic diet change. You can help alleviate this by feeding some cooked potatoes with the meat. Sorry for rambling its just that I work for a holistic dog food company so it's old hat to go in to detail.
[QUOTE=Like M. Fords] But I heard somewhere that you should not feed dogs wild game; not sure what the reason was. QUOTE]
You should not feed wild meat to pets (or even people), unless it has been cooked or frozen, because of parasites. Wild critters get them all the time, and it's no big deal, but the rest of us (and our pets) have no defense or immunity against them.
I've eaten venison older than that, with no problem. It just needs to be properly frozen, and air tight.