Thanks for all these amazing comments! GirlieGirl Army attacks the vegan pet controversy here: http://girliegirlarmy.com/blog/20090310/how-to-save-your-pets-life/. Check it out for recipes and tips on how to veganize your Pup or Kitty.

Hi Erin,

“I’m curious do you think it’s ok for tigers and lions to go vegan?”

If a human being has a companion domesticated tiger, she/he should not kill any other creature in order to feed the tiger.

What should he do if the vegan food is not healthy? I don’t know but he should not go and kill anybody else because of that.

PErsonally I couldn’t stop my cat. Way to many lil critters for him to catch. And he does quite proficiently. Plus if all the cats are vegan. What happens to the rat population?

Hi Donald,

Let me preface this by saying I’ve worked for vegan “green” organizations since I was 17. I don’t buy leather (not even my car – I have the only “green” prius toyota ever put out (year 2004) I only buy organic free range meat for my two old cats. I even just had them on fish for a while (figured that was a little better than killing mammals – the less of two evils) but they were getting issues eating only fish….

My issue is this. I want to do the natural thing. I believe we’re closely related to the ape (duh) who is vegetarian. That is why I eat a mostly raw vegan diet.

I would never ever have a pet tiger or lion (I just asked if you felt they should be vegan- not as pets of course) but I think naturally they eat meat.

Naturally my cats want to eat meat. I rescued both my cats- would never buy one. Saved their lives, they’ve lived to be 13 and 17 and I think NATURALLy they’re supposed to eat meat. Do I feel good about buying organic meat for them? No, I’d rather they could be vegan (and I think dogs can be vegan – my friends’ dogs eat sprouts and veggies all day long) but with cats? I think it’s more difficult. Mine will only eat a little bit of carrots, won’t eat greens and honestly, I think it’s only natural they have some meat. If I were starting with a kitten – say a homeless rescue kitten- maybe I’d try the vegan food. But at this stage I think it’s not natural nor necessarily the healthiest option.

Cats are different from humans. In nature they are meant to kill other animals. I do my best to only buy organic meat (even local sometimes!) but don’t feel at this point in their lives they can go eat a vegan diet which would have “cereal” and refined oils in the ingredients.

It’s natural that they eat their organic meat – and honestly they’ve made it into their teen years eating like this… I agree it’s great to save lives. Hence the reason I saved the cats, don’t buy leather, don’t buy meat, run a vegan retreat center… but I’m not ready to feed my cat substitutes which might not be the healthiest option for them when they (unlike humans) are definite carnivores.

Sincerely,

Erin

I looked into putting my cats on vegan food. Of course I really like the idea because if I don’t believe in killing animals for food it seems quite contradictory to rescue a cat and then feed it with meat from animals that suffered horribly. However my cat had medical issues that required him to be on special food available only from a veterinarian. At any rate, I can’t change his diet or his medical issues will flare up. But in the process of looking into vegan food I found that dogs can be vegan, but cats can’t because they need taurine which can only be found in meat and which their bodies can not synthesize. So I just want to say that if you’re experimenting with your pet’s diet please really do your research. While we can feel what our bodies need, through cravings, etc. our pets can’t tell us what they need or feel they are lacking. Definitely let’s do the best we can to reduce suffering, but don’t jeopardize your pet’s health. What we can’t do through direct action (making our pets vegan) we can hopefully accomplish though other means (e.g. lobbying for better treatment of farmed animals, supporting research in alternatives). I know that Farm Sanctuary feeds all of their animals (and I’m sure they have a cat or two!) vegan food. Hopefully properly formulated, nutritionally complete vegan pet food will soon become mainstream. And hopefully too the various special, veterinarian prescribed pet foods will follow suit.

My personal feeling is that if you can’t handle the ethical issues of owning a carnivore then maybe you shouldn’t own one.

There are a wide variety of herbivores looking for someone to adopt them. They are not any less deserving of homes and would make an easier fit with the vegan lifestyle.

I don’t feed my cat supermarket food and agree all of them are awful (and sometimes poisonous as found out two years ago)

And Herwin while I think your posts are funny (the Obama one was great) I don’t know that I agree with you on this one.

I also wonder where my vegan comrades are when I’m left alone (often times on here) defending threads where people say veganism is BS and eating meat is great. Seems like no one chimes in on many of those thread.

But I’m glad you’re all here to lambaste me for feeding my 17 year old rescue cat organic meat.

She’s only 6 lbs. She eats very little. I also give her carrots coconut (organic) and a little bit of greens when I can get her to take them.

I think it’s better to concentrate on the HUMANS out there who eat more meat in a day than my 6 lb kitty eats in a week. Oh and the meat they eat is not local or organic.

I’m curious- if she hunted outside on my property (I have little rabbits field mice etc and a good sized property) would that be ok with everyone? Or, since you don’t like that I get her meat raised in slaugterhouses would it be ok if I killed the animal myself? I’m vegan, my house is vegan , my car is vegan, but sorry I cannot make my elderly cat go vegan at this stage in life. No way.

Also I never use this argument but if you read “The Secret Life of Plants” you do know plants have feelings too, some believe they can read minds, hear you (the reason we talk nicely to our plants for those with green thumbs Shall I lambaste the folks who kill plants? Seriously?

Also, I didn’t ask for this elderly kitty. My family could no longer care for her when she was 2. Now I have her full time. I believe apes, humans can be vegetarians and I am proudly one myself, but cats? I do my best to do fish or organic meat in small quantities but kitty is not going to eat some soy cereal oil laden unhealthy substitute. bottom line. I work in the nutrition field and know that is not healthy.

Erin

Okay,

Please let me just add a few things…

First I don’t understand why all this fuss about Erin’s cats!
I mean, I also have 2 cats and I’m a vegetarian and an environmentalist but I wouldn’t jeopardize their health in the name of my beliefs. Where I live there is no vegan pet food nor organic meat – not everyone has access to such things! Therefore I feed them regular pet food – the only thing I could do was send an email to the company that produces the brand I usually buy – Friskies; they assured me they didn’t perform any cruel tests on the animals that try the food. Regarding Whiskas, I’m not so sure and so I avoid buying it. I am aware of the suffering of the animals that were killed to feed my cats though; but I ask all of you the following – is it right for us to impose our ideals on animals, even if they are pets? I mean, should we for instance demand that zoos or natural parks feed their animals vegan food? Should we ‘condemn’ the wild carnivores because they feed on other animals? It’s their nature and they really don’t have a choice.
And those who have cats know very well that no matter how much domestic a cat is, (s)he still has the natural instincts highly ‘intact’.

It’s very easy to point fingers! The day I can buy healthy cat vegan food where I live, knowing that it will not harm ‘my’ babies, I will do it. Until then I will continue to feed ‘my’ beloved cats with regular pet food. I rescued them from the street (the oldest was injured and I treated him until he was all fine – in the meantime I fell ‘in love’ with him and didn’t have the heart to give him away; he is now happily 10), so it was them who ‘adopted’ me

What if Erin radically changed the diet of her cats and they became seriously ill (since they are a bit ‘old’)? What then? She would be killing 2 creatures she loves and to whom she has a bond in order to save other animals… what would you do?

Look, instead of fighting among ourselves (which I believe it’s ridiculous) maybe we should concentrate on trying to do our best to educate people who don’t even care if a cat is skinned alive somewhere in china (they kill 2 million cats and dogs every year!) so that someone can eat his/her meat and wear his/her fur, ok? [Oh and BTW I refuse to refer myself to animals as 'IT']

Is it so hard to do that?

How can we expect to fight for animals and for the environment if we lose time accusing each other of not being perfect? I mean, we’re trying our best (at least I am) and no one is perfect here!
What would people that don’t care about animals say if they read some of these comments…? How can we expect to enlighten people or make people listen to us if we behave like this!?

So please let’s focus on the main issues shall we?

Thank you!

Hil, Whoever and Ashley

Wow thanks guys for the support. You all said it better than I did anyway.

Ashley my 17 year old cat has CRF as well. She also has a heart murmur and tritrichomonas (an “incurable” parasite that has gotten better with holistic health care and her diet) The raw food is good for this and there are a few organic store bought brands that are good too. She did well most of her life but she’s practically 100 in people years so now her organs aren’t what they used to be.

Whoever, not sure where you live but if you have the net and can any deliveries out there you can order from one of these guys. I like Petguard’s organic food or Organix neither of which do animal experimentation. Sadly PETA says Friskies and Whiskas do, but it may just be to test the food on the pets, not lab experiments.. But so long as you have an address you should be able to have one of these guys deliver to you… You can find Petguard Organic or Organix on online or one of these other brands as well. I used to give my cats Eagle Pack (it used to be organic but now they just used free range/no hormones but it’s not certified…

http://www.iamscruelty.com/notTested.asp

There’s Peta’s list of cruelty free brands.

Petfooddirect oftentimes doesn’t charge shipping. I’ve found some good organic brands there too. But I trust PETA’s list. I mean they’re pretty uh… extreme so they’re not going to put a brand on that list unless they’re really good!

Hope that helps. Again you three said it so well. I’d be willing to try a better more natural organic vegan alternative if my cats weren’t teenagers but instead I try to incorporate some veggies and vegan supplements into their diet (greens, probiotics, etc) but I’m afraid vegan is not an option for me or many other pet owners. Hil said it best. Why feed your cat some crappy oily fortified cereal if it’s not the best for your pet? And it’s not like any of us are buying our pets. Sounds like most are rescued! We’re just trying to give them the best lives. I’ll be sure to adopt that bunny rabbit next time too. lol. One was on my porch this afternoon actually (thought it funny having a bunny there on Easter!) but I didn’t let my kitty use her natural instincts and go get him. I made sure bunny went back to nature to live out a nice vegan lifestyle

Have a good Easter everyone.

I’m having a salad with lots of carrots (bunny food for easter which I’ll share with my cats!

E

Quoting Genny’s post: “My personal feeling is that if you can’t handle the ethical issues of owning a carnivore then maybe you shouldn’t own one.”
There are a wide variety of herbivores looking for someone to adopt them. They are not any less deserving of homes and would make an easier fit with the vegan lifestyle.”

I have to agree with this.
Dogs are omnivores and while some can be vegan, far from all dogs can. Most dogs shouldn’t eat grains for example.
Cats are carnivores, simple as that.
Choosing cruelty free pet food, holistic/organic food (human quality meat/vegetables), organic meat, etc, is in my opinion much better than imposing a vegan lifestyle on a creature that basically needs meat to thrive. There are many choices out there! Just never buy your pet food in the supermarket, it’s basically all grain based…
If your dog/cat is vegan and doing well, all the better, but like said not all of them will be happy and healthy on a vegan diet… Another option would be adopting a guinea pig – the ultimate vegan cool pet

This is absolutely ridiculous. I think it is more cruel to force a carnivorous animal to eat a vegan diet than it is to allow that animal to eat meat. Carnivorous animals (such as cats) cannot live on anything BUT meat; it is just the way that they are biologically made. If you tried to feed a cat a diet exclusively comprised of beans, for instance, it would get very sick and eventually die. This is because cats are obligate carnivores and cannot thrive on vegetarian or vegan foods. They cannot digest carbohydrates, and they need the important amino acids that meat provides, especially Taurine.

I think us humans need to accept the fact that there is always going to be some forms of evil in the world that we have no control over, because it’s just the way things are. For instance, carnivores need to kill other animals to survive. We might consider the act of an animal being killed for food as evil, but we can’t control it because then the carnivorous animal would die as well (or become severely sick) from lack of food.

Also, we cannot control the evil fact that one day a living thing will die from old age. It’s just a fact of life: we will all die one day! So should we now try to concoct some medicine to prevent living things from dieing? No, of course not. So I don’t understand why we should try to change the biological diet of carnivorous animals. We might consider it to be evil that carnivores must kill other animals to live, but that’s a fact of life, just as dieing of old age is a fact of life.