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Practical Issues > Pets Index > Pet Care
On the other hand, nutritionally sound vegetarian companion animal diets appear to be associated with the following health benefits: increased overall health and vitality, decreased incidences of cancer, infections, hypothyroidism, ectoparasites (fleas, ticks, lice and mites), improved coat condition, allergy control, weight control, decreased arthritis, improved stool odor and cataract resolution.
Although scientific and anecdotal information describing the adverse health consequences of unsupplemented vegetarian diets is common, this is of little relevance to animals maintained on nutritionally complete and balanced vegetarian diets. There is no scientific reason why a diet comprised only of plant, mineral and synthetically-based ingredients cannot be formulated to meet all of the palatability, nutritional and bioavailability needs of the species for which they are intended. In fact, several commercially-available vegan (no animal product) pet diets claim to do so, and have jointly supported a healthy population of thousands of vegan cats, dogs and ferrets (who are also naturally carnivorous) for many years.
The number of people who have become vegetarian for the sake of the animals, the environment, or their health, is very large (see http://www.veganoutreach.org/ if you’re still unconvinced of the merits of vegetarianism for you and the world around you). The amount of good this has done is barely calculable. Yet most of these caring people nevertheless continue to feed their companion animals meat-based diets, in many cases causing as much harm as if they themselves ate meat (the average medium-sized dog or three cats consumes roughly the same quantity of meat as a human). They choose to do so out of fear of adverse health consequences of vegetarian companion animal diets, and ignorance of how these might be avoided.
Consequently
www.VegePets.info was created to assist animal guardians, animal carers and
veterinary personnel who wish to gain a sounder understanding of the health and
nutritional issues associated with meat-based and vegetarian companion animal
diets. Included are advice on transitioning to vegetarian pet food; on
safeguarding the health of companion animals - particularly cats; on links to
suppliers of vegetarian pet foods and nutritional supplements; and all the
essential scientific and anecdotal information I've been able to locate on this
topic after extensively searching the biomedical literature, and reading the
main books in the field. Please
email me if you learn of a
new scientific study or paper related to animals maintained on nutritionally
complete and balanced vegetarian diets (not unsupplemented diets). Thank you,
and enjoy the site! Has you cat been maintained on a meat-based or vegetarian diet for a year? Please help us learn more about the links between
diet and health by participating in this important new
study:
For all animals, Dr. Andrew Knight Animal Advocate and Veterinarian |
