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Veganism and Pets

• September 2015
• Hi Steph Simple Living Vegan

Hi Steph!
My husband and I are adjusting to our recent decision to live a vegan lifestyle wholeheartedly! We have a sweet little pup, Sonny and we’d like to switch him to a plant based diet as well. Just curious, what do you feed Cajun?

Thank you for sharing stories, advice and your positivity towards life! You are a constant inspiration to me!
Syd

Hi Syd,
That’s great to hear! I live with a cat (Mao) who wandered in here one day and stayed, and a dog, Cajun who was feeding herself on cow manure when she was picked up on the reservation. The research I’ve done about dogs and cats and diet has led me to decide that Cajun should not necessarily be vegetarian and Mao should definitely not be vegetarian. Mao frankly doesn’t eat that much food from me–he prefers to go murder mice and sparrows which he then swallows whole like a boa constrictor.

My main goal in pursuing a vegan diet is to remove my money from businesses that support factory farming. So Mao’s hunting actually fits in with that goal, though I wouldn’t do it myself, which is one of the many reasons I don’t eat animals.

So it’s a real conundrum when taking responsibility for critters who need to be fed, and how to align that with your efforts to live your beliefs. My solution is to feed Cajun Open Farm Catch of the Day Whitefish and Green Lentil food because it’s made with humanely ocean caught fish and Mao gets Acana Pacifica for the same reason (Open Farm only makes dog food). Check out the philosophy and practices on their website. They also recycle the pet food bags, if you bring the bag back to the store.

To me, this is an acceptable solution that fits in with my main reasons for attempting to reduce/eliminate the purchase of animal products. Cajun would love to have other types of meat I’m sure, but she really seems to like the catch of the day, and she’s certainly extremely healthy, energetic and shiny. Mao eats his food when he doesn’t feel like killing anyone and might otherwise starve–a little bag of dry food in the self-dispenser feeder usually lasts him months.
Steph