Pets Are Not Vegan by Choice

This is another topic that has really hit a bad nerve with me.

Vegan pets.

Unless your pet is a rabbit, a guinea pig, a chinchilla, a chicken, or a species of bird that is a herbivore  (some birds eat worms and other small insects) then your pet should be eating meat as part of its daily requirement.

Unlike humans animals do not have a choice, they either are herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore.  You can imagine how much this irks me when I hear of hardcore vegans who are feeding dogs and cats a vegan diet and saying how healthy they are.  For the untrained eye they may look like they're coping when in fact some serious organ damage is happening in their bodies from the lack of meat and fish, especially with cats.

Cats are carnivores - no veg period!  Just because they eat grass doesn't mean they're getting anything nutritional from it nor that they enjoy eating it.  They eat the grass out of necessity to help them vomit up clumps of hair and dust they've swallowed when cleaning themselves.  Cats require meat to keep their bones healthy so they can leap around, climb up things like trees, and hunt prey.  Now whilst domestication and human interactions has reduced the need for them to go out and hunt small animals like mice and birds for food that doesn't take away the fact that they are predators and will still go out and hunt even if they aren't hungry, they're just looking for something to offer you as a present to show their affection even if it makes you feel squeamish - they don't understand that it makes you feel squeamish as it's part of their natural behaviour.

So what happens when you take away meat and fish from a cat's diet?  First of all you'll notice it become more lethargic and less willing or unable to leap onto higher objects like tables and climbing trees.  You might think that's ok because they're no longer getting into trouble or destroying your precious belongings, wrong!  For a cat to not be able to leap up or climb up objects this is a major warning that something is wrong with them and that they're either malnurished, dehydrated, hurt, or sick.  What's going on under their skin is their bones are starting to thin and weaken and their organs are beginning to shut down.  In other words you are killing your cat by forcing it to be vegan!

The other thing you'll start to notice is their pupils dilate.  Many people think this looks cute, but this is a warning that your cat is beginning to suffer from neurological issues such as brain damage due to the lack of nutrients from a meat and fish diet and also risks developing blindness.  You are giving your cat brain damage from not feeding it meat and fish!

In fact the consequences of feeding a cat a vegan diet are so severe that it has become illegal in the UK to feed a cat a vegan diet.

So what about dogs?  They're omnivore and they eat grass so you can safely cut out meat and fish from their diet and feed them veg and rice only, right?  Wrong again!  Whilst dogs are technically omnivores this was only a recent change after domestication and selective breeding.  Meat and fish is still an important part of a dog's diet and makes up more of their diet than vegetables, which means they need more meat than humans do.  It would take many more centuries for dogs to evolve to a state where they can thrive on a human diet let alone a vegan diet.  And like cats, dogs only eat grass to induce vomiting when they've ingested too much fur from cleaning themselves.  I don't care how many websites out there condone vegan diets for dogs or say that their dogs lived longer lives on a vegan diet, in fact these sites should be shut down for giving incorrect information to pet owners by encouraging them to inflict their choice of lifestyle onto their animals and basing their "facts" on situational circumstances, such as Bramble the Bordie Collie who lived to 25 years old on a vegan only diet, rather than proper testing and research and eliminating other elements that could contribute to their miraculous health and extended lives.  On top of this many dogs are allergic to grains which are often placed in cheap and vegan dog food as a filler or supplement.

Whilst the effects of putting a dog on a vegan diet isn't as immediately life-threatening as it is for cats it's still an essential part of their diet that's missing and it's only a matter of time before your dog begins to develop irreversable damage to its organs and bone structure.  Meat proteins are necessary for your dog to be able to absorb other nutrients into their bodies, without the ability to absorb nutrients properly your dog will be suffering malnurishment regardless how much you feed it because it will be pooping away all those valuable nutrients.  Your dog may start showing less interest in walks or playtime because it's too lethargic.  It may start becoming more clumsy as blindness and brain damage are slowly taking their toll.  Its bone structure will also be weakening to an extent that a long-term vegan diet would result in your dog developing arthiritis much sooner and more severely that you may have to put it down much sooner than you'd like.  Your forced vegan diet is resulting in your dog needing to be put down far sooner than its natural time!

But what about all these vegan foods and supplements that are made for cats and dogs?  Well I'm sorry to inform you that no supplement is as good as the real deal, and why should it be?  Was it your pet's decision to go vegan?  No!  It's purely a human decision to choose to go vegan.  Why should your pet suffer for your personal choices?  Your personal choices should only affect you and you alone and not your pet.  Even with supplements your pet will suffer from the lack of having something proper to chew on like hunks of meat and bones to keep their teeth strong and healthy, increasing the risk of dental issues such as gum disease and cavities.

All in all if you want a vegan pet then stick to pets that are purely herbivores and not carnivores or omnivores.  I don't care if your dog looks like it's doing well on a vegan diet, it might not happen right away but in due time your dog will start displaying signs of the damage caused by a vegan diet and by then it could be too late.

In fact don't just take my word for it, read these various sites on what putting a non-vegan pet on a vegan diet does to them and why you should never substitute their diets with a vegan diet:

https://www.whyanimalsdothething.com/why-a-vegan-diet-will-kill-your-cat-and-sicken-your-dog
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/18280574.animal-expert-warns-pet-owners-vegan-diet-kill-dogs-cats/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-07/can-your-pet-become-vegan/10969616