Useful Ethical Consumer articles

Reading the articles and having a a hard time with some of the content and supporting data. Just curious if you looked at the data yourself?

Just strange on the vegetarian and vegan forum to have a couple of articles and how to choose the brands of "ethical" meat-based cat and dog food. Was that your intention?

Then the experts having a discussion on vegan cat food,

Andrew Knight Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics, Founding Director of the Centre for Animal Welfare, at the University of Winchester and an experienced dog and cat veterinarian starts off by stating the obvious

"Dogs and cats do indeed have well-established nutritional requirements and will eventually suffer health problems if fed diets deficient in these nutrients."

Then does on to say poor meat based diets carry similar risks and have caused more problems in the past than vegan diets ever have. Why not compare a good meat based diet and what proof does he have of this?

He actually says

"millions of helpless cats and dogs are forced to eat body parts from cows, pigs, sheep, ducks, chickens and fish – animals they would never naturally eat"

I will admit I cannot see a cat or dog taking on a cow or full grown pig. I am pretty certain that cats and dogs would kill and eat ducks chicken and fish. Dogs defiantly kill and eat sheep (maybe not a whole one) and possibly calves. Dogs eat fish, they catch them in the river in our local park, cats probably do also, but I have never seen a cat in the river.

So what does he mean by would never naturally eat? In my opinion and experience he is incorrect. I have read his piece a couple of times and to be honest he is not saying anything.

He links to a 2016 study called "Vegetarian versus Meat-Based Diets for Companion Animals" (Its his own study) which does not confirm that a vegan diet is better or as good as meat based or that it delivers everything a cat or dog needs nutritionally.

He uses words and phrases like "may", "could" "can be designed to" "aims to" things that are possible but not certain.

There is more certainty from Daniella Dos Santos British Veterinary Association Junior Vice President and Companion Animal Vet.

“We welcome pet owners taking an interest in the sourcing and ethics of their pets’ food, but an owner’s values must not be projected onto their pets if this results in a diet that is unhealthy and unsuitable for the animal.

Cats are obligate carnivores which means they require animal-sourced ingredients to provide essential dietary nutrients in order to remain healthy. These include preformed vitamin A and arachidonic acid, higher requirements for overall protein, arginine, the sulphurcontaining amino acids cysteine and methionine, and a requirement for the free amino acid taurine, all of which are minimal or even absent in plant ingredients.

The health risks of unbalanced diets can be life-threatening and given the complexities and current research, we do not advise withdrawing meat from a cat’s diet. If potential owners are distressed by the idea of feeding meat to their pet then we would suggest that they opt for an animal which is naturally suited to a meat-free diet.”

I have not read the meat free sausage and burger article, that vegan cat and dog food report took me down a rabbit hole of referenced reports and studies including a pretty interesting one from our very own ERSI.