From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Pets and animal rights
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 20:27:23 GMT

[The following is an old post of mine which gives information on
 vegetarian dog & cat food.  I also give my opinions on the usual
 argument that it is "unnatural" to feed dogs/cats vegetarian food.
 The basenote writer did not use this argument, but it usually creeps
 in to these discussions.  I hope this old post is of interest.
 -- Ferrell]

I highly recommend the following book which contains a wealth of
information, references, and recipes for dogs and cats (including
kittens, puppies, pregnant and lactating pets).
  
Dogs & Cats Go Vegetarian
By Barbara Lynn Peden
ISBN 0-941391-01-6
Library of Congress: 87-80691
Published by
    Harbingers of a New Age
    12100 Brighton Street
    Hayden Lake, ID  83835   USA
In the UK contact
    Katz Go Vegan
    Box 161
    7 Battle Road
    St Leonards-on-Sea
    East Sussex  TN37 7AA

The author goes into great detail about dog and cat nutrition.
She is the developer of Vegecat supplement.  She
describes her search for a vegetarian taurine source
in detail.  It turns out that cat food companies (non-vegetarian)
began supplementing their products with taurine in 1975 when lack of
taurine was implicated in feline Central Retinal Degeneration (CRD).
Up to 50% of taurine is destroyed by the heat of cooking.  Then in 1987,
taurine deficiency (again, in cats fed non-vegetarian cat food) was
implicated in Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) -- the most common cause of
heart failure in cats.  Much larger amounts of taurine are needed to
prevent DCM than to prevent blindness from CRD.  So cat food companies
boosted their supplementation of taurine in their products to the new
recommended level.  So where is all of this (unnatural!) taurine
supplementation coming from?  Mostly, it comes from mollusks (oops!,
but cats aren't natural mollusketarians.)  But, taurine can also be
derived from petroleum and "a chemist couldn't tell the difference
between it and that derived from animal flesh" (p. 62).  Originally,
Vegecat used taurine manufactured from petroleum, but the author states
that they now use a new source derived from an organic, renewable
resource, yet she doesn't give any specifics.  I again note that pure
crystalline taurine is cheap because of the huge market for it created
by meat based cat food manufacturers.

According to the author, traces of taurine have been found in some plants
and an appreciable amount is found in a few seaweeds.  But it would take
2 pounds of dried seaweed daily for a cat to get the recommended amount.
Similarly, a cat would need 130 large raw eggs or over 3.5 pounds of dried
whole egg powder a day to get taurine from eggs; or 14 gallons of raw milk
per day to get it from milk.

Her story of finding a vegetarian source of arachidonate is more
interesting than her taurine story.  Buy the book to read it.
Arachidonate is also supplemented in meat based cat food.

Here are two manufacturers/distributors of vegetarian and vegan dog and
cat food.  They advertise in Vegetarian Times magazine and the Animals'
Agenda magazine.

Wow-Bow Distributors
309 Burr Road
East Northport, NY  11731
(516) 254-6064
(800) 326-0230

Evolution K-9/Feline Vegetarian Dog/Cat Foods
Dr. Eric Weisman & Assoc.
815 S. Robert St.
St. Paul, MN  55107
(612) 227-2414
(800) 524-9697

We use Nature's Recipe which we get from Wow-Bow Distributors
for our 4 dogs.  It says on the back that it is nutritionally
certified by the Association of American Feed Control Officers
(AAFCO).  I know nothing of this organization.
Our dogs prefer Nature's Recipe over meat based kibble.  They
are healthy.  Two have their championships (confirmation) and
they have coursed some.  Our one-eyed retriever is quite active
although she no longer is used for sport hunting.

Lastly, there has been some hinting at a line of reasoning that
I, rather strongly, disagree with.  It goes as follows:
  There are two commercial pet foods one called M (meat) and the
other called V (vegetarian).  Each has been supplemented so that
they both meet the nutritional requirements of cats, say.  They
both have similar consistency (kibble or brown mush) and my companion
animal seems to like them both (in the case of my dogs, V is
prefered).  Philosophically, I should choose M because it contains
meat and cats are "naturally" carnivorous.  Choosing V would be
"forcing" my philosophy on the cat and this would be unethical, and
it would also by unnatural.

  I will be brief.  A cat does not hunt kibble or brown mush in the
wild (nor use a can opener).  She probably is unable to conceptualize
that an animal died for M as opposed to V so that philosophically she
prefers M over V.  She probably cannot tell that meat is in one and not
the other, much less conceptualize the concept of meat.  As soon as you
walk into the store you are forcing your choices on her (she will eat
store bought not hunt, she will eat canned not dry, she will eat brand
X not brand Y).  Store bought (unhunted for) food is unnatural, period.

  On the other hand, you have a moral obligation to provide her with
a healthy, tasty food source.  From this point of view there is no
difference between M and V (that is our hypothesis).  So you can choose
which company you wish to support, the slaughterhouse/meat industry or
you can help create a demand by supporting a young company taking pains
to provide a healthy product without harming animals.  Personally, I
try to do the latter.

  If you wish to claim that M is always nutritionally superior to V
simply because M has some flesh in it, then simply state this.  There
is no need to appeal to the above argument.  No doubt there are poor
vegetarian diets for pets just as there are poor meat based diets for
pets.  But, I think this statement, as it stands, is just plain
false.  I would listen to any information stating that any brand of 
vegetarian pet food is nutritionally inadequate.  If true, I would
advise people to not use this brand and I would write the company to
get them to improve their product.  Even if all on the market now are
inadequate, I find it extremely hard to believe that it is impossible
to formulate a healthy dog/cat food without using slaughterhouse
by-products, the scientific literature just does not support this.
There might be good reasons for choosing M over V such as price,
availability, etc., but I don't believe the nutritiousness of M always
trumps the nutritiousness of V simply because M contains some flesh.

Take care,

Ferrell Wheeler
wheeler@super.org


Newsgroups: rec.food.veg