Vegan Pets
- December 2012
- Simple Living Vegan Dogs
Hey Steph,
Just doing some reading on the possibility of keeping my pups in top shape without supporting animal agriculture, & about to purchase an electronic copy of ‘Vegetarian Dogs & Cats’ by James Peden. How do you go managing Cajun’s diet? If you have any advice you could share would be cool to hear it.
Michael
Hi Michael,
I have the exact same priority as you, and it is one of the main reasons I am vegan. I have found that the vegan diet is also more healthful and gives me better performance, which is a bonus. I believe that humans are able to eat in pretty much any way they decide to eat, and then the results will come in the form of thriving or not thriving–fortunately for us, the vegan whole foods diet seems to result in thriving for humans. I have researched the concept of vegetarianism for dogs and cats, and I don’t believe it is healthful for them to be vegetarian. So when your main motivation for being vegan/vegetarian is to opt out of supporting factory farming and animal abuse in that system, how do you feed your pets????
I buy Acana Pacifica food, because it is made with wild-caught Pacific salmon, herring and flounder. My main reason for being vegan is that I don’t want to cause anyone to be tortured or forced to live an unnatural life, which we know is unfortunately generally the case with animals who are “raised” in the mainstream agricultural system here. So for me, this is a solution to the dilemma of taking responsibility for animals who are carnivorous.
Mao showed up a few years ago, and seems satisfied with his current meal service in general, though he still frequently hunts and devours his own meals, as he is fully on board with not supporting factory farming either. Apparently Cajun’s early diet consisted of cow manure when she was abandoned on the res (which may or may not have fallen into the category of vegan, which I will stop thinking about right now), and she seems very happy with her current menu despite the fact that it is always the same, all the time. I’m guessing cow manure makes everything else more awesome in comparison. Cajun is 2-ish and Mao is 4-ish. They are both healthy, shiny and full of energy. So I would recommend checking out the Acana Pacifica as one option for your pups.
Steph
Hi Steph, I just stumbled upon your blog because I was looking for vegan spanakopita Your recipe looks great and I plan to make it tomorrow. On another note, I have two beautiful and very healthy pit bulls that have been vegan all their lives. I feed them V-Dog and they love it. Even our vet is impressed with their shiny coats, muscle tone, and overall health. I agree that a vegan diet may not be healthy for cats but believe it to be a valid and healthy choice for dogs. Peace, mimi
Dogs are not carnivores, they are omnivores. There is no need to be feeding them meat. My own dogs are vegans and have more energy than ever before, they also have a clean bill of health. One is 8 and the other is almost a year old.
Love the pitties 🙂 I hope the spanakopita turned out great! If you have extra filo, you can always make some little apple turnovers with it.
Thanks for the testimonial, and glad they are doing so well on the vegan diet!
Just please don’t try to make your cat vegan…I believe this is cruelty to animals and people who killed or tortured their cats this way (it happened) will get what’s coming for them and get eaten by 1000 cats or something. As to dogs….I believe, if you don’t want to be cruel, you must offer both animal-source and plant-source food to you dog, and let it decide. Don’t play god here.
Hi Steph, I’ve been feeding my dog V-Dog, a vegan dog food for about a year. But I think some animal protein would be good for him, and I’m considering mixing his food with fish kibble. However, I have some huge concerns about the environmental impact of fish farms in the ocean, and it looks like Acana does source some of their salmon from ocean fish farms in Vancouver. It says on their website:
“All of our fish ingredients are produced from wild caught fish, with salmon being our only exception. While many pet foods claim “fresh wild-caught salmon,” this is technically impossible due to the short seasons when wild salmon can be legally fished.
We source wild salmon when the season allows, which in Canada runs from May to September. During this time, fresh salmon in ACANA are wild caught. For the balance of the year, our salmon arrive fresh from North Vancouver Island salmon farms. This is in keeping with our mandate of Biologically Appropriate foods and Fresh Regional Ingredients, as well as our values of sustainability and responsibility. Salmon used to produce our salmon meal are from 100% wild caught salmon.”
Have you found any alternatives that don’t use any fish from fish farms, or is this pretty much as good as it gets? Thanks.
I went ahead and bought the Acana Pacifica, and will start mixing it with V-Dog. I do think that it will help him with his energy level, muscle tone, and coat. For that matter, it has led me to consider introducing some limited amounts of fish to my own diet for the same reasons. I’ve been doing some soul searching and will decide if it’s something I feel like I’m comfortable with. Have you ever thought about that? What did you conclude?
Hello! I’m just throwing this idea out there, but what about finding a local source of free range chicken eggs (you can often find them at farmer’s markets). By feeding your dog a mix of grains, vegetables, and chicken eggs, they would still be able to consume a high-protein diet which includes animal protein, but they would be receiving their nutrition from a cruelty-free source. Just an idea! 🙂
i think that’s a great idea 🙂
Thanks! 🙂