Please note, before anyone attacks me or accuses me of anything… I DO NOT support this diet to be fed to cats, I DO NOT feed my cats any vegan foods, and I DO NOT plan on doing so. This is simply a topic for discussion.
Okay, now let me get started! Haha
So I have recently become vegan, for a number of reasons which I won’t go into detail about at this time, otherwise this post would belong in the ‘Off Topic’ section of the forum.
Having said that, the vegan animal activist who inspired me to change my diet with his very informative, educational, eye opening speeches and interviews, Gary Yourofsky, also opposes ANIMALS eating other animals. I do respect him and he has a lot of great opinions, but also some that I do not agree with.
So Gary claims that although obligate carnivores, cats CAN thrive on a vegan diet. He claims that all major health issues which develop are from the meat they consume, just like health problems humans develop can be linked to meat consumption. He says that if cats are fed pure ingredients – fruit, veg, etc, they can live a long, healthy life.
Now, I have heard of dogs being able to live, and live WELL on a vegetarian or vegan diet, and I know many people who feed their dogs vegetables and fruits and they are very happy, healthy dogs. But cats??? I didn’t think so. Not only this, but just TRY feeding vegetables to your cat… especially to a Bengal!!
I did some research into this, and many people claim that they feed their cats a vegan diet and health issues that they had prior to being vegan, just went away, and they are living to an old age on this new diet.
Of course, there are also claims of cats who have nearly died from vegan diets. But, just like with humans, you need to make sure you are getting all of your required nutrition from all sources to be healthy. Same goes for cats and A LOT of research would need to be put into creating a nutritionally balanced meal plan for a cat.
This seemed a bit strange to me, I mean… cats are carnivores, right?? But Gary claims that animals are, too, rational thinking creatures and there are some reported cases when wild animals REFUSED to eat another animal for those reasons.
What does everyone think? Is it wrong for people to impose their beliefs on their pets such as a vegan diet? Or can it be beneficial if done right?
Once again, please note that I am NOT feeding my cats any vegan food, they are being fed a full, raw meat diet.
|