User:Dodo bird/Vegetarian and vegan pet food

Vegetarian and vegan pet food for carnivorous and omnivorous pets have been available for many years, and are targeted primarily at vegetarian or vegan pet owners. While a small percentage of owners choose such a diet based on its perceived health benefits, the majority do so due to ethical concerns.

Although dogs are of the order Carnivora, they are typically considered omnivorous and it is generally accepted that they can do well on a vegetarian diet. Even mainstream pet food companies such as Del Monte produces vegetarian formulas for dogs. There is much debate over feeding cats, who are obligate carnivores, a vegetarian diet. While there are anecdotal evidence that cats do well on vegetarian food, studies on commercial and homemade vegetarian cat foods have found nutritional inadequacies.

Rationale

A small survey of vegetarian fed cat owners showed that 82% did so due to ethical concerns while only 9% for its perceived health benefits. Despite that, 88% believes that a vegetarian diet is healthier than a conventional diet.

Vegan activist Joanne Stepaniak says that "vegans and vegetarians often like to underscore the anatomical differences between carnivores and herbivores to support their belief that humans are not designed to eat meat. They are also repulsed and furious that some 'food animals'... are commonly fed ground-up animal products... If we belief that it is wrong for natural vegetarians to be force-fed meat, the inverse should be equally morally objectionable" and argues that it's not right to impose one's ethical beliefs on another species.

In Obligate Carnivore - a book arguing in favor of vegan cat food - Jed Gillen rejects the nutritional deficiency argument, reasoning that the suffering and death of food animals outweighs any potential negative health effects of a vegan diet.

Organizations that advocate vegan or vegetarian diets for people have split opinions regarding vegetarian or vegan cat food. The International Vegetarian Union, the Vegan Society and Peta are some of the organizations that support a vegan or vegetarian diet for cats. On the other hand, the Vegetarian Society suggests people "consider carefully" and that many cats will not adjust to a vegetarian diet. They recommend consulting a veterinarian or animal nutritionist for those who want to try. The Animal Protection Institute also does not recommend a vegetarian diet for cats and cautions that dietary deficiencies may take months or years to develop and may be untreatable. They do not recommend relying on supplements because they may not contain necessary co-factors and enzymes and have not been studied for long term implications. The animal welfare organization American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, although suggesting a supplemented vegetarian diet for dogs, recommends against a vegetarian and vegan diets for cats.

The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (now Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association) accepts that it is possible for a plant based diet to be nutritionally adequate but stated that they "cannot at this time be reliably assured", referring to the inadequacy of the diets tested in the 2004 study. The organization states that

While those humans who make an ethical and healthful choice to sustain themselves on a plant-based diet should be applauded, there remains an ethical quandary over imposing human philosophy regarding the harming and killing of animals onto other species. Further, until such time that a vegan diet for cats can be formulated so that there is no risk of harm to that animal’s life or health when fed that diet over time, cats should continue to be fed a diet containing animal flesh.

palatability

Nutritional Adequacy

According to the National Research Council, "Cats require specific nutrients, not specific feedstuffs." While there is "no scientific reason why diets comprised entirely of plant, mineral and synthetically based ingredients" cannot satisfy the nutrient requirements of cats, Former HSUS Vice-President Dr Michael W. Fox argues that "To use the science of nutrition that is still in its infancy to support the feeding of vegetarian food to cats is to ignore the precautionary principle with regard to "synthetically based ingredients", as well as the basic biology of the cat as a carnivore."

As obligate carnivores, cats require nutrients (including arginine, taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and niacin) found in meat sources that cannot be obtained in sufficient amount in plant sources. According to the National Research Council, "unsupplemented vegetarian diets can result in harmful deficiencies of certain essential amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins." Vegetarian pet food companies attempt to correct these deficiencies by supplementing their products with synthetically produced nutrients.

One study evaluated cats whose owners were knowledgeable about vegetarian cat diets and had self-selected to feed commercial and/or homemade vegetarian diets. Cobalamin (vitamin B12) and taurine, two nutrients lacking in vegetarian food, was tested for. The study found that all the cats had serum cobalamin levels within the reference range but 3 of 17 cats had serum taurine values below the reference range. While low blood taurine level is indicative of long-term deficiency, the values were described as "marginal, but... not clinically deficient".

Even when adequately supplemented, vegetarian diets may present other risks, such as urine acidity problems. While there are anecdotal reports linking a vegetarian diet with urinary tract problems, no documented case report or study exist. One vegan cat food manufacturer has stated that "because of the relative acidity of meat to vegetable protein, many vegan cats suffer from [Urinary tract problems]." A survey done during the above study showed that a quarter of respondents perceive feline lower urinary tract disease as a health risk of feeding a vegetarian diet.

A few vegetarian cat food brands are labeled by their manufacturers as meeting AAFCO's Cat Food Nutrient Profile(see Pet_food#Labeling_and_regulation) while other manufacturers recommend their products to be supplemented and not used as a standalone. A 2004 study evaluated two commercial pet foods for nutritional adequacy;Vegecat KibbleMix supplement and Evolution canned diet for adult cats. The study concluded that these two foods, counter to labeling claims, had multiple nutritional inadequacies when compared against the AAFCO minimal nutrient profile for cat diets. The authors recommended that these vegan diets should not be used as a sole source of nutrition for cats.

In response, Evolution Diet denied that their product is nutritionally inadequate, citing the "ten to twenty thousand healthy and long living dogs, cats and ferrets living on the Evolution Diet" as an example. They attribute the discrepancy as a likely formulation error. In an apologetic reply, the manufacturer of Vegecat attributed the test results to a manufacturing error during the mixing process and an inaccurate nutrient profile of a food yeast, and asserted they were taking steps to correct the problems.

Books

• Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs, and What it Really Means to be Vegan. Jed Gillen

Links

• Considering Vegetarian Diets for Carnivorous Companion Animals Lorelei A. Wakefield
• Why Vegans Should Have Vegan Cats: A Moral Case Jed Gillen
• Review of Obligate Carnivore
• Vegan Pet Food: A Discussion Animal Voices
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