Plant Based Cats: A Vegan Perspective

​By Holly Blooflat

One of the hardest parts of living a plant-based lifestyle is caring for other animals. The concept of “owning” companion animals is challenging enough but deciding how to continue your vegan lifestyle while caring for carnivorous creatures, such as cats, is rather perplexing. With hopes of answering some of your questions, I present you with some basic background knowledge of cats and some of the pros and cons of a plant-based cat diet from the perspective of a vegan human.

Cats are often referred to as “obligate carnivores” which simply means that meat is a primary and essential part of their diet. Unlike humans or dogs, cats need very specific amino acids and proteins that are found in meat or other animal products. Cats require D3 and vitamin A which are only sourced from animals and cats require taurine in their diet as they cannot produce any of their own. They also lack the enzymes needed to digest plant material. Cats are natural hunters and when left outside, will deplete local bird and small wildlife populations so letting them feed themselves is unfair to the other animals in the area. 

Now we can start with the pros of plant-based cat food. One of the benefits to feeding cats a vegan diet is the overall improvement in the quality of food. Many commercial pet foods contain low quality, disease ridden meats that can be harmful to our cats. Parts of different animals (cows, cats, dogs, pigs, etc.) are rendered down and put into cat food with fillers that are hard for the cat to digest. Choosing to feed your dog a plant-based diet, in which you know all the ingredients takes the mystery out of the source of the food. The other benefits of a plant-based cat diet are the same as those for a human plant-based diet. Many of the risks associated with eating meat diminish but also the impact on the lives of the animals that would have been consumed and the environmental impact of those animals is altered.

The cons of plant-based cat food outweigh the pros when it comes to the health of the individual cat. Because cats require such a specific diet, feeding them a plant-based diet is tricky. There are vegan cat foods and supplements available to aid in the process but cats cannot absorb nutrients from supplements the way humans can. When cats aren’t getting all the nutrients they need it can have catastrophic and fatal effects. These effects can include cardiomyopathy, reproductive failure, near death from taurine deficiency, and eye issues.

Ultimately, based on the research currently available to us, forcing your cat to live by a vegan diet could be harmful to their health. While the plant-based diet could eliminate many of the harmful ingredients and effects of popular commercial cat food and many people claim success in feeding their cats a vegan diet, forcing your lifestyle onto an obligate carnivore is dangerous and wrong. It is unfortunate for those of us who decided to care for cats before going vegan, but we made a commitment to them offer the best care. For cats, the best care includes a diet with meat.

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References
Hawn, Roxanne. “Should Your Pet Go on a Vegetarian Diet?” WebMD, WebMD, Link 
Huston, Lorie. “PetMD.” PetMD, 17 June 2014, Link
Peter. “Can Cats Be Vegan? Here's What the Science Says...” VeganMotivation.com, 20 Nov. 2017, Link
Scheer, Roddy, and Doug Moss. “How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?” Scientific American, Link
“Vegetarian Cats and Dogs.”PETA, Link
“Veggie Cat Food? Why Not All Cats Need Meat.” Scientific American, Link
“What Do You Really Know About Rendered Pet Food?” Healthy Holistic Living, 24 May 2014, Link

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Author Bio

Holly Blooflat is a student at Minnesota State University, Mankato where she is obtaining her degree in biology with an emphasis on zoology. She hopes to continue her education in the field and obtain a doctoral degree. Once she has graduated her studies she hopes to seek out work doing conservation research or wildlife rehabilitation at home and around the world. In her free time she enjoys volunteering, fostering dogs, rock climbing, hiking with her rescue dogs, and traveling. Holly has a passion for helping those who have been silenced or who cannot speak for themselves and does so in her advocacy for human and non-human animal rights activism.