Feeding Dogs A Vegan Diet....

[silverdog]

Dogs are carnivores. Anyone who has any doubt about it need only look in a dog's mouth. Those are not the teeth of a vegetarian.

'Nuf said.

[raz]

True, it's amazing what you can call a product and get away with it, although kudos for maccas they are very good at covering their arses being proactive in terms of welfare at least they audit their abattoirs so that's something.

Good point. Except in developing countries. They still treat their workers like Terry Guo treats his at Foxconn. I'm surprised more people arent taking swan dives off buildings.

Now there's a question - how many vegans are buying ipads? I guess it doesnt really matter if humans are treated badly, does it. shove em out a toilet window and kid yourself it's ethical to eat silken tofu (that resembles a slug anyway).

The upshot is, and Aussie knows it anyway, vegan diets are not natural for omnivores.

Oops. I did too. Thanks Ash.

Edited June 12, 2010 by raz

[WoofnHoof]

True, it's amazing what you can call a product and get away with it, although kudos for maccas they are very good at covering their arses being proactive in terms of welfare at least they audit their abattoirs so that's something.

Good point. Except in developing countries. They still treat their workers like Terry Guo treats his at Foxconn. I'm surprised more people arent taking swan dives off buildings.

Now there's a question - how many vegans are buying ipads? I guess it doesnt really matter if humans are treated badly, does it. shove em out a toilet window and kid yourself it's ethical to eat silken tofu (that resembles a slug anyway).

The upshot is, and Aussie knows it anyway, vegan diets are not natural for omnivores.

Oops. I did too. Thanks Ash.

Gawd human welfare is a whole other can of worms, animal welfare is political enough thanks!

You know I rented an attatched flat from a hippie couple a few years ago the woman was fine with my dogs and horses (well sort of) but she told me that her partner "is more of a wild animal lover than a domestic animal lover" WTF???

I stayed long enough to find myself another place to live

[raz]

Gawd human welfare is a whole other can of worms, animal welfare is political enough thanks!

You know I rented an attatched flat from a hippie couple a few years ago the woman was fine with my dogs and horses (well sort of) but she told me that her partner "is more of a wild animal lover than a domestic animal lover" WTF???

I stayed long enough to find myself another place to live

Yeah I know but I thought I'd push the envelope. Wait until I start talking about PeTA terrorists.

Hippies are great fun! Especially when they're sticking cutsie looking little rainbows and tibetan thangkas all over their yurts...made from animal hide.

[Miranda]

I am a vegetarian who used to be vegan but I feed my dogs meat, I certainly wouldn't inflict my personal lifestyle choices on my dogs. Until someone breeds two vegan dogs together, feeds the bitch a vegan diet during pregnancy and whelping and while she is feeding the puppies and then successfully raises those puppies to adulthood on an exclusively vegan diet I will continue to state that a veganism is unsuitable for dogs. Sure you may be able to maintain a dog on a vegan diet, but I would want to see vegan dogs successfully bred for a couple of generations before I'd advocate a vegan diet for canines.

[spottychick]

IMHO there's absolutely no excuse for "feeding" a dog a vegan diet.

I used to be vegetarian but I was a lazy veggo and never really balanced my diet right so I had to start eating whole proteins or... you know - die or something. I was never vegan because I figured you have to get some sort of enjoyment out of eating LOL and probably my reasons for giving up meat were different to your average vegan.

I gave up eating meat for a range of reasons relating to the horrific treatment of animals and the appallingly unhealthy condition of the meat itself in our mass meat industry and to an extent, my own health considerations. But my pets don't know about all that. NOr would they care! And what's good for my health isn't necessarily good for theirs.

I now only eat chicken and seafood/fish, not other kinds of meat, but regardless of what I choose to eat, I would NEVER force my lifestyle decision on my animals. I try to source my own and the animals meat from small/organic farmers and eat fish that's caught right out of our local river etc. But if I can't get that - or if my budget doesn't allow it or whatever - the dogs will get whatever meat I can find. I often have local roo shooters giving me parts of roos and wallabies they've shot (unfortunately Tango can't eat it tho! Too high in purines!!) and I get free range eggs from next door! But I will buy them meat from any butcher or woolies if that's all I can do.

Why on earth would I assume my dogs would care where their meat comes from? They just want to eat a good diet and it's completely ridiculous and mean to impose human "ethics" or philosophies or whatever on domestic animals like this.

The only consideration for my pets is THEIR health and so they are fed whatever is best for THEM, not me. And being as they are NOT herbivores or grass-feeders etc that would be MEAT.

Edited June 12, 2010 by spottychick

[Little Gifts]

I was a vegetarian for about 15 years happily growing my own eggs and vegies. I just went off the taste of meat, chicken and fish. During that time any dogs in my care who wanted snacks the humans were eating only got vegetarian snacks and usually just fruit or home made bread crusts. I never thought they'd get so excited by watermelon but they did! Their main diet was of course dog food, including raw meat and bones.

The strange thing is I have a dog on a *'supposedly' vegetarian diet now for the last 10 years. She has chronic pancreatitis and has only eaten dry or tinned Hills Prescription Diet W/D in all that time, under my vets supervision. She even gets vegetarian pigs ears as treats. She also gets fresh chopped raw carrots to chew for her teeth. She is thriving on this diet - almost 16 and still very active. My vet did go to the effort of translating this it all into a diet I could make myself for her but there were more ingredients required than are stocked in my whole house to get the same balance (no meat though), so we've stayed with the packaged variety. She doesn't even bother with what the other dogs are eating (raw meat). It keeps her from getting sick so we'll stay with what works. What's wierd is the other dogs often raid her biscuit bin so it can't taste too bad!

(*And I say 'supposedly' because I just pulled out the biscuits and in the long list of ingredients is included chicken by product meal third on the list)