Crackpot Science Alert: Study Asserts Vegan Dog and Cat Diets Good for “Sustainability”
Veganism may be good for climate cultists, but it is lethal to cats and likely detrimental to dogs.
In reading news related to the environment, I have determined if you see the word “sustainability” you are about to be treated to some crackpot science.
The latest example relates to a topic near and dear to my heart: Pets. Specifically, I have owned cats for over 30 years. My current one is a black cat named Venus . . . because she is a sweetheart.
In this case, an Australian analyst crunched the numbers and showed that if dogs and cats were forced by their owners to vegan, there are “potential benefits for environmental sustainability.”
Recent research suggests that nutritionally sound vegan cat and dog diets—lacking meat, eggs, and dairy—are safe and may have comparable healthfulness to meat-based diets, raising questions about their environmental benefits.
To better understand these potential benefits, [Andrew Knight of Griffith University, Australia] calculated a series of estimates of the potential impacts of a hypothetical scenario in which all cats and dogs in the US or around the world were switched to nutritious vegan diets. He used pet population data from 2020 for the US and 2018 data for the worldwide estimates. Other inputs came from a variety of prior studies and governmental databases.
The estimates suggest that the amount of livestock consumed by dogs and cats in the US may be about one fifth of that consumed by humans, and about one tenth globally. If all US dogs and cats switched to vegan diets, the model estimates, nearly 2 billion land-based livestock animals might be spared from slaughter yearly, and nearly 7 billion if all cats and dogs around the world switched. Billions of aquatic animals would also be spared.
The trouble is with the pseudoscience assertion that a”nutritionally sound vegan cat” diet exists. That is not sound science.
Dare I say it . . . the science is settled that cats are obligate carnivores. The following facts come from the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science.
Diet can have a big impact on health. Just like humans, cats have special dietary needs to help them stay healthy.
However, feline diets are a lot different than human diets. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they require meat in their diet and need little carbohydrates.
In the wild, cats usually prey on small animals, such as mice and birds. But as a pet, a cat might only be preying on a can of cat food. Because pet cats often don’t get the opportunity to hunt for their own food, it’s important for cat owners to mimic the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet their cat would naturally eat in the wild.
Dr. Deb Zoran, a professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, said the best way to mimic a cat’s natural diet is to feed them canned food that has a protein content of 40 percent or higher and a carbohydrate content of 10 percent or lower.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals spells out the science about the reasons cats rely on meat as an essential part of their diets.
Taurine: Taurine is an amino acid (the building blocks of protein) essential for cats. Taurine can only be found in animal sources such as meat, milk, etc. It is not found in plant sources. Taurine can be synthesized in humans and dogs, but cats are unable to do this and require a direct source from an animal product. Cats who are fed a vegan diet will often develop a deficiency of taurine because the diet doesn’t provide them with this essential amino acid.
Cats with taurine deficiency can develop a heart issue known as dilated cardiomyopathy or DCM. In cats with DCM, the heart muscle becomes very thin and weak, preventing them from pumping blood and supplying oxygen to the body normally. This is a fatal disease if not corrected early on. A lack of adequate taurine can also cause severe eye problems in cats, including blindness.
Protein: Cats require a diet high in protein. Plants simply don’t have high enough levels of high-quality, highly digestible protein to meet a cat’s dietary requirements.
Carbohydrates: Cats are not good at digesting carbohydrates. They don’t get much energy from them, and a carbohydrate-rich diet is not appropriate for cats. They need calorie dense options that meat provides.
I am less of an expert on dogs. Their digestive system allows them more food options, but I suspect that good owners would weigh their pets’ dietary preferences and health conditions when deciding on the type of food served.
However, responsible pet owners should not select what their animals eat on planetary “sustainability.” As a veterinarian noted during an interview, the move could be lethal.
“The basic message is that cats are carnivores.
“In other words, if they don’t eat meat or a very carefully created vegan diet, then they do indeed get sick and they can indeed die.
That “carefully crafted” diet would include a lot of supplements that would be much more expensive, and not nearly as healthy, as meat.
Please see our statement regarding cats and vegan diets.
Further information on our Cat Friendly Principles can be found here https://t.co/dqRuaqB644
To learn more about cats and vegan diets, visit https://t.co/IOylwUgIO9 pic.twitter.com/1z7sqzJz2s
— International Cat Care (@iCatCare) September 15, 2023
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Comments
So *that’s* what “carnivore” means…
I feel bad for these animals. They are going to die sooner and live miserable lives.
And I despise their owners for being so self centered as to destroy an innocent life.
If the environmentally ill progressive fascists want the put cats on a vegan diet to save the planet they should just kill them instead.
Mice are central part of the vegan diet of every barn cat. As are vegan birds.
My dogs love eating vegan rabbits.
Lunatics.
“Che,” the Goode Family’s “vegan” dog,,,
Somehow I never worry about cats and dogs getting into my garden and devouring my veggies.
Then again, they get along with our chickens, cows, and pigs as well.
A conundrum.
Only because they’re well fed. Let them get hungry enough and your cats and and dogs both will feast on the chickens. A pack of dogs will take a calf. The pigs can be nasty, mean critters and would eat the cats and dogs if hungry enough and given the change. Hell, they’ll eat humans.
In my experience, most Vegans are mentally ill. In general, I don’t take advice from mentally ill people. I had a 17 yo Maine Coon who loved filet mignon scraps, so there.
I know several vegans and they’re all perfectly sane. Their dietary choice is their own business and doesn’t affect their sanity. None of them demand that I adopt that choice, so as far as I’m concerned it’s no different from any other individual food preference. I refuse to eat olives, they refuse to eat meat, eggs, or milk; same idea, different details. Their reasons for their preference are not my concern.
Crackpot Science Alert Bingo:
Research Suggests
Potential
Likely to
May/Might Have
Estimates (bonus! ‘Model Estimates’)
Diversity
Still Being Researched
Simulations Show/Indicate/Suggest
Research suggests the list may not be all inclusive as some models indicate there is the potential that more words that may (or may not) exist to formulate with high confidence the probability that you need to shut up and do as the science says.
I reduce cats’ carbon paw prints by twirling them off of high rooftops and drowning them in burlap sacks.
No need for such drastic measures. Just donate ’em to the nearest Chinese restaurant. Incoming!!
This article was published on the PHYS.ORG website! This shows how crazy the climate cultists have become. Does the physics community think that they are experts on cat and dog nutrition?
As the joke goes, first assume a spherical cow.
In a vacuum.
Then take a shower and go home.
This “study” obviously starts from a false premise regarding vegetarian food for cats and dogs, but it also contains another assumption that is obviously false upon inspection:
” If all US dogs and cats switched to vegan diets, the model estimates, nearly 2 billion land-based livestock animals might be spared from slaughter yearly, and nearly 7 billion if all cats and dogs around the world switched. ”
This presumes that the meat used for animal food would be consumed by humans if not given to pets. They have estimated their number of animals consumed by determining the pounds of pet food sold each year and converting that into the average weight of meat obtained per animal slaughtered.
However most, if not all, meat used in pet food is meat that humans do not desire to eat and would probably be thrown away. Elimination of meat-based pet food would almost zero statistical impact on the number of meat animals raised and harvested because Humans would continue to eat the same amount of meat and the residual scraps, snouts, intestines, etc, etc, are have little commercial value outside the pet food market..
The Chinese promoted this by replacing meat in their dog food with melamine. It was a great success, as it reduced the number of meat-eating pets significantly.
That it did.
Agree with you on cats. I wouldnt quite call a dog an obligate carnivore but at the very least a facultative one.
Their lower GI is not designed to handle the roughage of a plant diet and nutrient extraction would be tough for them. They have an even comparably shorter cecum than humans who are equipped for an omnivorous diet. Rodents and other mammalian herbivores have the long cecum for such a vegetarian diet.
Veganism isn’t even healthy for humans, and it sure as hell isn’t healthy for cats… it’s a death sentence for them.
Sure, unless what you want to sustain is your pet’s life.
I guess if you can call a man a woman (and vice versa) because of hormones and cosmetic surgery, why not deny that cats, in particular, are carnivores. Lysenko, eat your heart out!