Dogs and Cats Are Bad for the Environment – Why Vegan Pets Are the Future

No more throwing a sausage to Fido or serving canned chicken for your cat.

If humans can do without meat, so can pets.

Beans and artificially developed mice are now part of our four-legged friends’ new diet plan.

Dogs And Cats Are Bad for the Environment

It strains the Earth’s resources for humans to maintain a gigantic cattle industry just to put steak on our plates. The same goes for dog and cat food, which is almost always meat-based or at the very least contains bone meal and by-products from the meat industry.

In the movement towards a more sustainable lifestyle, more and more people are reducing meat in their diets in recent years. Many are going even further and choosing to abstain completely from animal products. The number of Danes who live entirely or partially vegetarian has doubled since 2010. And now, it’s our pets’ turn.

Myron Lyskanycz, CEO of the American company HALO, which specializes in vegan dog and cat food, believes that the trend of vegan pets will catch on by itself.

“It’s inevitable: As more and more people move away from eating meat, they’ll realize that the same diet is suitable for their dogs and cats,” predicts the green food producer.

His hope is especially to reach the dogs living in the USA today that primarily consume animal-based food. This is about 70 million four-legged pets, and the amount of meat they consume is significant: If you gathered all of America’s dogs, cats, and other pets on an island, its population would rank fifth in the world’s most carnivorous nations after Russia, Brazil, Human-USA, and China.

A Dog Is Not a Wolf

Many pet owners might roll their eyes at the thought of making dogs and cats eat salad, but the idea of vegan pets might not be as far-fetched as it sounds. At least not for the pet itself.

A Swedish study shows that dogs are five times better at digesting starch than wolves, for instance – so a plant-based diet consisting of grains, potatoes, and beans isn’t a bad idea. Dogs actually have some of the same enzymes in their stomachs as rabbits and cows.

The scent of meat products will probably always be tempting for dogs, the study states, but the food the animal gets accustomed to eating as a puppy will greatly influence how picky it becomes as an adult dog.

Cats Are Complicated

Getting a cat to transition to a green and sustainable diet is a bit trickier. Unlike dogs, which naturally eat both meat and vegetables, cats are pretty single-minded and not predisposed to eat anything other than other animals.

However, a California company called Wild Earth (affiliate link) is trying to solve the problem by betting on fungi – and sustainable proteins in forms other than slaughterhouse meat for cats. They plan to start selling pet food with lab-developed meat in 2020. A version with mouse meat for cats has already been developed.”