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Yoda enjoys his vegan dog food (photo - V-Dogfood)
For vegetarians with dog family members, feeding their pooches a meat-based diet can be a twice daily, stomach churning event. On top of that, knowing that the kibble in their dog's bowl is made from animals who died in agony, leaves many vegetarian/ vegans conflicted on whether or not they should even have a dog in their lives.
And since today is Earth Day, April 22, 2010, switching to a plant-based diet is being touted as the number one thing anyone can do to help restore the health of our planet.
But what about our meat chomping dogs?
David Middlesworth, a vegan and the owner of V-Dogfood, a company that makes and distributes a high protein vegan dog food, says,
Dogs are not carnivores - they are omnivores. Dogs can eat meat or they can not eat meat. They thrive on a well-balanced, plant based diet.
Bandit can't get enough of that meat-free kibble
But what about taste? Do vegan/vegetarian dogs miss the taste of meat? Middlesworth says,
"Absolutely not. Our food is highly palatable because we use a meaty/cheesy flavor in our kibble."
He also suggests that when serving a bowl of V-Dogfood kibble, add tasty, healthy vegetarian foods such as carrots, frozen broccoli florets, a spoonful of peanut butter or soy milk, pumpkin or brown rice.
Myshkin takes another lick after having a had a vegan treat
Middlesworth points out that most commercial dog food is made from the poorest of animal products such as the meat from "downed animals" - those who are so sick or injured they have collapsed before entering the slaughter chute.
Veterinarian Dr. Armaiti May says,
Up to 50 % of commercial pet food brands are comprised of "meat meal" and "byproducts," which include various body parts such as beaks, brain, spinal cord tissue, bones, lungs, intestinal tracts as well as rendered dogs and cats from animal shelters.
Ali's dog Lark is becoming a vegan dog.
Dr. Armaiti agrees that dogs can be healthy and thrive on a vegetarian/vegan diet. However, she suggests that dogs transitioning from a meat based diet should be introduced slowly to their new food to avoid gastrointestinal disturbances.
Despite the recession, Middlesworth reports that V-Dogfood is growing by 20% annually.
"There are 12 - 15 million vegetarians in the US, and a majority of those become vegan. They've seen the negative effects an animal-based diet had on their health, and it is only natural that they want their dogs to be healthy too."
Ali Hafiz, one of those former vegetarians now a vegan, is in the process of transitioning his dog Lark off a meat kibble to a vegan kibble.
"She's doing great! She still scarfs it down, loves the taste, and has tons of energy. And I have veggie treats that I've always given her. And her, um, business is just fine also.
Middlesworth says that a vegetarian/vegan diet is better for human, canine and planetary health:
"I can tell you that dogs who eat V-Dogfood are very healthy, happy and content. We're not killing animals to feed animals."
V-Dogfood is available at Rainbow Grocery, 1745 Folsom St., San Francisco
Dog of the Week
Sonoma Humane Society
Lucy Rose
This young Chihuahua mix, with the sweet sounding name, was rescued from neglect. She arrived at the Sonoma Humane Society with mites and some hairloss, and at only 8 months old is very undersocialized. But with a little help from our veterinarian and our trainer, Lucy Rose is beginning to turn around. Her soft, tan and white fur is slowly growing back in, but she’s still very shy meeting new people. But, once you give her some time to warm up, she’s just happy to curl up on your lap for some warmth and companionship. Because of her timidness, children in Lucy’s home should be at least 10 years old and be able to give her the respect and gentle kindness she needs right now. She is quite fond of other dogs and is enjoying her roommate Gaston, who is also available for adoption. Lucy Rose would love to meet you at the Sonoma Humane Society on Hwy 12.
542-0882 / SonomaHumane.org
Lucy Rose cozy in her pink sweater.
A lifelong dog and animal advocate, Shelley Frost wrote Your Adopted Dog: Everything You Need to Know about Rescuing and Caring for a Best Friend in Need (The Lyons Press, 2007) with coauthor Katerina Makris.
Email Shelley: shelley@youradopteddog.com, and visit www.youradopteddog.com
Comments
Great article. I just posted it to my Facebook page. AND I love that Lucy Rose! She can ROCK that pink sweater and someone had better call 911 because I love her under bite so much that I am about to collapse :)
Awesome article. I often wondered if I can make my dog a vegetarian as well. Looks like I can! I am very excited about it!!!
Great article for earth day. And Lark, my veggie pup, thanks you for including her! ;)
iquiteatingmeat.blogspot.com
Dogs are not omnivores, they are carnivores...you should do more 'scientific' research. Dogs are a subspecies of the gray wolf, their dna varies by less than 1%, and their digestive tracts are exactly the same, as are their teeth, made for ripping and tearing flesh.
Vegetarian food for dogs is not a good thing for their diet OR for earth day. the amount of energy and resources used to make vegetarian food for a carnivore is ridiculous. These companies have you guys thinking you're doing the right thing hook, line, and sinker.
If you want to keep your dogs carbon footprint down, and make sure he's getting the best nutrition, you should feed him raw meat from local grass-fed farms where they know what the animals are being fed, how they are being raised, and where they are being processed. Local grass-fed farms are very efficient (they have to be to stay afloat), they raise their animals humanely, AND they are concerned about your health and believe in what their doing. Qualit
Dogs may belong to the Carnivora order, but so do pandas and their natural diet is 99% bamboo. This shows that animals can quite easily adapt to vegetarian diets even if not all that nutritious. Carefully balanced vegan diets provide dogs with all the nutrients they need and they tend to be healthier and live longer than meat-eating dogs. Though these diets may require quite a lot of preparation they are much more enviromentally sound to produce than meat based diets. If dogs are happy to eat vegetarian and no other animals suffer as a result, then surely feeding animal-free food is the right thing to do on so many levels. Ideally though it's best for animals to live in their natural environments and be completely free to choose the food that is right for them
That's an oxymoron, there is no such thing as raising and killing an animal humanely. If you slit a sentient being's throat, they feel the pain, the suffering, nothing humane about that. Keeping an animal in a cage, not humane. Ending a healthy animal's life, not humane. I suggest you do some research. http://www.humanemyth.org/ Good site for starters.
I don't care what dog's descended from. Throughout generations there has been breeding, cross breeding just to create the dog that a certain person may have a liking to. Go ahead, let your little Chihuahua dog outside to fend on it's own and see how many animals it catches and rips their flesh off.
Do you even realize how much LAND and ENERGY is used to feed cows, pigs, chicken, etc?? Please so some research again. I won't even mention the pollution is causes.
FYI...dogs are omnivores.
No offense meant, i've gone vegetarian before, and i'm the biggest animal lover you will ever meet, from rats to bats, to cows and elephants, no animal is out of my love grasp. Not fond of people though.
Point is. i think it's not only self absorbed but entirely stupid, rude, selfish and dare i say it? Idiotic to even try and make a dog eat nothing but veggies. the only veggies a carnivore ever get's is from eating the stomach content of herbivores. they don't have the ability to absorb the nutrients or digest plant foods no matter how well cooked, and let's face it no matter how many additives you put in it's not the same as what they are meant to eat. you want to be natural, and yet you deny them their natural course? Because you want to think your helping but your only adding to your own ego because the same amount of animals die weather you eat them or not. and guess what? if it weren't for cooked meat, our brains wouldn't have evolved because it takes so much energy to digest veggies no energy goes to brain development, and we would still be chasing and killing animals with tomahawks. Actually, i've met kids raised on vegan. not the smartest people in the world.
how about instead of going out of your way and inconveniencing others, you try and gather together and actually CHANGE how animals are treated instead of ignoring it and acting as if your better than everyone else, your all so self absorbed it makes me a little sick to be part of your species.
And no, I don't spell check, no, I don't try, why should I for you? so don't pretend you can ignore my logic just because i don't repair my grammar. And yes. I do think your all hypocrites. Don't deny nature because you want to feel like your doing something (your not) trust me, the number of vegans out there, and vegetarians absolutely does not make a dent in the world nor does it save any lives, it actually, if anything would keep cattle on feed lots longer so they could suffer longer (yay for you! your extending their torment)
Like i said don't give me your righteous double standards. and get off your mal-nourished butt and go help the animals or go give your dog a steak, if you love them you will.
Nice photos on this post! I like Bandit's photo. So cute. :)
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