I registered just to comment here because the amount of misinformation is maddening.
Dogs are omnivores.
Dogs Are Omnivores and Should be Fed as Such
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore
http://www.hillspet.com/dog-care/carnivore-or-omnivore-mature-adult-dog.html
https://www.purina.com/dogs/dog-food-nutrition/are-dogs-omnivores-or-carnivores
I thought this quote from one of the above sources was incredibly relevant to this thread:
“Somehow the notion that dogs are pure carnivores has permeated through internet chat forums, among some non-medically trained people working in the pet industry (groomers, trainers, etc.), and those that take their information seriously. This notion is based by in large on the multiply erroneous notion that dogs are essentially wolves, and since wolves are pure carnivores, then dogs necessarily should be fed as wolves would eat.
I stated multiply erroneous notion because the true fact is that EVEN WOLVES ARE NOT PURE CARNIVORES! ”
Like humans, they can thrive on either a meat based or plant based diet. What is important is the nutrition they get from either. Your “feelings” that dogs “need meat” have no basis in reality. Snap out of it.
On the other hand, for the vegans, sadly I have to correct the information about cats. Cats ARE obligate carnivores.
http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-what-exactly-is-an-qobligate-carnivoreq
http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/cats-obligate-carnivore-proceedings?rel=canonical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat
You basically can not feed a cat a vegan diet and have it remain healthy.
Back to dogs. You would not want your precious dog to die screaming choking on its own blood, after being tortured for the entirety of its short life. These factory farming conditions are are where over 99% of all animal products in the USA come from. The fact that you bought that locally grown rainbow fluffy nice meat that one time 4 months ago at a farmer’s market doesn’t eclipse the source of all the other animal products that compose the majority of your and your dog’s other meals. The animals that your dog food is sourced from don’t want to die or live in this way either (for that matter, neither do you. Do unto others). The entire world does not revolve around you and your dog, there are more considerations to make in life beyond your own desires and preferences because the consequences of your actions have to be suffered by others.
For those who are going to jump in with “humane” meat, which is marketing bullshit (Watch Earthlings and see the conditions of “humane” slaughter), you would not want your dog to have a nice life only to be suddenly pulled up by its hind legs and have its throat slit. The animals that die “humanely” for your diet don’t want that either (and again, likely neither do you). Watch a video of captured Chechnyan soldiers having their throats slit and ask yourself if that looks like a humane way to die.
You care about animals? Your dog isn’t the only animal in the world.
Beyond all this, there is the massive environmental consideration. The animal industries are responsible for up to 51% of global GHG emissions (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6294), and are the driving force behind deforestation, the collapse of our oceans, and global food scarcity. The easiest way to understand why is through understanding an ecological concept known as trophic levels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level). Basically, every step up you go along the food chain, you lose 90% of the energy you put into the previous step. So for every 10 calories of crops you feed to a cow, you get 1 calorie of beef out of that cow. If you fed the crops directly to people (or to your pets), you could feed 10x the number of people (or pets) on the same amount of agricultural output.
Alongside the global hunger issues this presents, we have to consider that this means we are consuming 10x the resources to produce that 1 calorie. Ten times the amount of petroleum based fertilizers, ten times the amount of water, ten times the amount of forest and virgin land cleared to grow ten times the amount of crops, ten times the amount of pesticides which are being washed out into our rivers and oceans, etc. etc. etc.
Here’s a decent primer in the form of a Wikipedia article on the issue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_vegetarianism
For more information, watch Conspiracy. It’s a fantastic documentary that highlights the environmental consequences of our animal industries.
I know this post has grown way beyond the original scope of this thread, but the unwavering small-mindedness being displayed here was too much for me to bear. Educate yourself on these issues, they are much larger and more important than you and your dog’s taste preferences, and much larger than it seems many in this thread currently understand.
