If a person decides they want to follow a vegan diet, that’s just fine.
But everyone knows that cats and dogs aren’t made to go without meat. Some animal owners have come under fire in recent years for feeding their pets a vegan diet. Now, they might face criminal charges.
Vegan diets, which consist entirely of plant-based foods, such as grains and vegetables, can make cats seriously ill or even kill them. This is because cats are obligate carnivores. This means they don’t just like to eat meat. They have to eat meat.
Our feline friends actually can’t get the nutrients they need from a diet without meat.
This is why it’s so important to feed your pet commercial cat food that has meat-based products in it. Every kind of feline, including wild cats, is an obligate carnivore. But they’re not the only ones. Minks, dolphins, seals, tarsiers, sea lions, and walruses are also obligate carnivores. So are plenty of non-mammals, such as crocodiles.
Cats especially need taurine and arginine in their diets. Most commercial cat food is fortified with these minerals, which is why it’s generally the best choice for your feline companion.
But cats are also bad at processing certain other vitamins and amino acids from plant sources. While omnivores, like humans, can get their vitamins from plants and convert them into the nutrients they need, cats aren’t able to do this as well. That’s why they need meat in their diet — it doesn’t need to be converted.
This is a big difference between cats and dogs.
Although dogs have a reputation for being big meat-eaters (and if you’ve ever left a plate unattended, you know they love the opportunity to snatch meat scraps), they’re actually omnivores, just like humans.
But some cat owners have tried to implement a vegan diet for their pets.
And they’ve faced plenty of backlash for it.
A vegan YouTuber named Sonia Sae received a lot of criticism after it came out that she feeds her fennec fox a vegan diet. Sae claims that the fox’s health problems, including lethargy, tremors, eye problems, hair loss, and allergies, were all pre-existing. But people on the internet didn’t believe her.
“I look much healthier now on a scientifically formulated vegan pet food with all the needed amino acids for carnivores like cats approved by the AAFCO and the government than 3 years ago, when I was eating meat and when the pictures of the articles were actually taken after my skin allergy, but the media will do any thing to distort this reality,” reads a caption on one of Sae’s Instagram photos of her fox, Jumanji.
Now, there may be consequences for pet owners in the UK who don’t provide a healthy, nutritious diet for their animals.
It’s not clear what those consequences will be. Pet owners may face fines. Or they may actually end up doing jail time.
“Under the Animal Welfare Act the law requires an owner to ensure all the pet’s needs are met,” said a spokesperson for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or RSPCA. “This includes a healthy diet, as well as suitable living conditions and protection from pain, suffering, injury, and disease.”
There’s plenty of evidence that a vegan diet is suitable … for humans.
In fact, a lot of research shows that it’s much healthier than a diet that includes meat. At least one study has shown that vegans live longer on average than those who eat meat.
But people do need to be careful about the way they implement veganism into their lives. Without education, they’re likely to risk nutrient deficiency.
“Research suggests vegan diets usually contain more dietary fiber but have less cholesterol and saturated fat,” said Haleh Moravej, a nutritional sciences senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. “This reduces the risk of many modern chronic diseases, such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. However, without informed food choices or supplementation, deficiencies may be an issue. Health experts suggest informed and well-planned vegan diets are suitable for all individuals at all stages of life.”
Unlike vegetarianism, which encourages the avoidance of actual meat (and sometimes fish), veganism does not allow for the consumption of any animal products.
This includes dairy products, fish, honey, eggs, or anything that is filtered with the use of animal products. This includes white sugar and some types of alcohol.
It’s a restrictive diet, and most people have a bit of a learning curve. When you’re used to getting most of your nutrients from foods like meat, eggs, and milk, it can be hard to learn how to get everything you need from a plant-based diet.
But this is all for humans. It doesn’t apply to cats, who can suffer severe health problems and malnutrition if they’re forced to eat only plants.
Taurine is a top priority for a feline diet, and it’s only found in animal products.
Humans and other omnivores can convert it from non-meat sources, but cats simply aren’t adapted to do that. Without taurine, cats are at risk of developing eye problems, including blindness, or heart issues. These problems can prove fatal if they aren’t corrected early on.
Cats also don’t process carbohydrates well. They need the high protein that meat gives them since they don’t digest carbs efficiently or convert them to energy.
Simply put, veganism is a great choice for cat owners. For cats, please pass the chicken.
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