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Should My Dog Go Vegan?

Animal pens for animals to the slaughter

Article Summary

Dr Susanna is starting to make the point that there is no logic to killing animals in order to feed other animals. We need to start finding new ways to feed our pets.

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Should My Dog Go Vegan?

Dr Susanna McIntyre on vegan pets

A Joke Pet

I’d like to introduce you to my new pet. This is a split spindle by Will Cruickshank from his Exhibition at the FOLDs Gallery in London exhibitions called Silos and this pet answers all my problems with feeding my cat and dog on vegan food because I cannot bring myself to kill one beautiful furry animal in order to feed another beautiful furry animal.

We are killing animals to feed other animals … and ourselves

So it seems to me that one of the answers to this problem could be to buy a furry sculpture like this which needs no feeding. But seriously, I’ve written an article on my website about feeding our dogs and cats on vegan food.

We All Need To Eat Raw Food

I firmly believe that we should be feeding our animals on raw food the same as we should be feeding ourselves on raw food.

We want health for our pets and ourselves – but are we prepared to do what it takes to achieve it?

There’s no earthly point in cooking food and eating it because by cooking it you destroy all the enzymes and enzymes are the currency the energy currency of the body. 

Feeding Cats And Dogs

So for a cat, a cat would normally go out and catch a rabbit and eat the whole lot probably while it was still wriggling. A dog is likely to do something similar, but it’s much more likely to scavenge. So dogs are much more adaptable. They are by nature scavengers. So they can adapt and eat virtually anything and survive and actually thrive.  

So I know a lot of people who have vegan dogs and several people actually who have raw vegan dogs. Now to me that is the answer to feed raw food to your dog potentially to your cat.

If we are serious about climate change and are anti-animal cruelty, we have to look to plant-based feeding for all

So raw living food is the ultimate which involves sprouted seeds and grains and nuts that have been germinated, in other words soaked to get rid of the enzyme inhibitors that are in the skin. So I eat those and I also feed those to my cat. 

Cats Can Eat Plants But …

My cat actually really enjoys soaked and germinated and then dehydrated pistachio nuts particularly. So he can have a whole meal of those and be perfectly happy and not want anything else. But  most of the time I feed him on raw minced up meat which slightly breaks my heart because I know that another animal has been slaughtered in order to feed my pet and that just seems unethical.

We can have vegan dogs

So I think for a start we can move into feeding our dogs on vegan food. I think that’s perfectly acceptable, perfectly reasonable thing to do as they can do very well on a vegan diet. I’ve seen plenty of them. 

Vegan Kibble

I’m not really into feeding processed food. But for those of you who want to feed processed food then there are lots of vegan processed food alternatives. Benevo is one that I’ve used and I sometimes give those biscuits to my cat because he quite enjoys a crunch once in a while just maybe as a treat but that seems to be a good option. They also do a wet food for cats and dogs and they do dried food for dogs. 

I’m looking into the creation of a vegan dog food

There are loads of different options actually for you to explore but certainly I’m looking into the creation of vegan dog food because I really think that’s the way forward, raw vegan dog food. So for a dog, then you can make the same raw meals that you would make for yourself. So I make myself a salad consisting mostly of sprouted seeds and grains and sunflower greens and pea greens.

Vegan Dressings

And the key thing is to make a really nice dressing. So I make a dressing using blended soaked nuts or seeds or something like that, which is quite protein rich and just give more of that to the dog than I do to myself and mix that with some sprouts. And she actually really quite enjoys that so that is definitely a way forward, and I think that is a way that we can move towards. 

Ethics And The Planet

Because from an ethical point of view, it’s unethical to kill one furry animal to feed our own furry animals and from a planetary point of view, it’s absolutely unsustainable to continue with commercial animal agriculture. It’s destroying the planet and actually we’re destroying ourselves by consuming that ourselves but that’s different for are carnivorous pets.

Animal farming is unsustainable

But I think we need to move in that direction. Using a supplement like PET Plus to make sure that we’re not missing out on anything is very important as well. And obviously giving clean water and I think that is a way forward, a perfectly sustainable way forward for looking after our carnivorous pets.

Or Just Get A Vegan Pet

Obviously, if you’re at the beginning of your journey of having a pet and you want it to be vegan, obviously get a rabbit or a guinea pig or a rat or a horse or preferably several of them because herbivores are normally herd animals.

They don’t normally like to live particularly well on their own they like to live in groups because they’re preyed on by carnivores. And so they have one watching to check that everything safe while the rest of them are eating and they take it in turns – they’re very clever creatures. 

Too much trouble? Then get a vegan pet.

So I hope that helps you with your dilemma. Do you have a look on the website. There’s an article discussing this very thing.

Richard Pitcairn wrote some very interesting information about this and I have several books on there that you can have a look at – I recommend them to have a look at. Also there are lots of vegan – I was  going to call them cookbooks – raw vegan food preparation books for humans.

And you can use those recipes and just increase the protein content of them by increasing the nuts or the chia seeds or whatever in the food and that will give enough protein for your dog.