"My dog is a vegetarian."

[__girlonthemoon]

I had to write an essay on this for my final year at uni & figure it's a good discussion point

Comments

[audacian]

I've never done any research on feeding a dog vegetarian/vegan food. If its not optimal for the pet (or as close to optimal as one can afford), I would not do it.

I suppose it's right to force some beliefs on a dog which is unable to consent, because dogs are unable to have those kinds of beliefs. I would just not do anything to jeopardize my dog's health.

While I do purchase high quality food, ideally I'd prefer to make all the food myself from certified humane meat and such, but I can't afford that right now and probably not any time soon.

I think you can (and should!) encourage change without punishing the dog.

The thought of my cat eating anything that wasn't once alive and moving is hilarious.

[__girlonthemoon]

The thought of my cat eating anything that wasn't once alive and moving is hilarious.

Haha, my cat is the same.. I could feed him all the vegetarian food I wanted to, he'd still go after anything that moved once he was outside!

[freakshownia]

From what I've heard, dogs can be perfectly healthy as vegetarians, so I don't have a problem with it. I would not, however, force a cat or other obligate carnivore to have a vegetarian diet. There are some compelling arguments for veg cat food, but I'd like to see more research done first.

Also, either way you're choosing the animal's diet for them, and I doubt that dogs care what they're eating as long as it tastes good.

[themachinestops]

I think it's cruel. I don't know much about dogs, maybe they can thrive on a vegetarian diet, but cats... no no no no. It's totally unnatural, and really, the cat is going to eat meat anyway, they'll just get it from the animals they catch, which incidentally might make your cat sick (most well fed cats don't eat their prey, at least not the whole thing). Cats are carnivores and predators, and if you're going to have one you need to respect that, not try to bend the animal's "morality" to your own like it can even understand that.

If you can't stand the idea of your pet being a meateater, get a rabbit, seriously. They are as clean as cats and almost as smart, and 100% vegan.

[lectrix_lecti]

Exactly.

[thexphial]

It is wrong to force a vegetarian diet on cats and very unhealthy as well. I would not go veg for a dog, either, but I think it -can- be done healthily with a LOT of research. Anyone who is doing it on a whim or without a lot of serious research into what a balanced vegetarian diet for dogs would include is being irresponsible.