This Companion Animal Care directory is presented to help people seeking reliable resources, tips, and information for companion animals.
Jordan Collins,
VeganPublishers.com
February 2016
When we went vegan, it was a world shift. We’d been vegetarian for years, but had only recently understood the true impact of dairy and eggs and it was the logical next step. I’m not sure who among us raised the idea of changing Rigby’s diet. He’d always had an unhappy stomach, no matter how many supposedly healthy dog foods we tried to feed him, so we didn’t think there was much to lose. But we didn’t know much about vegetarian, let alone vegan, dog foods. We went to work researching.
It’s been almost two years since my husband and I transitioned our
nine-year-old dog to a vegan diet. This time has been filled with curious
questions, skepticism, and a great deal of criticism from omnivores and vegans
alike. Although we do our best to ignore the disapproving looks and comments,
I’ve realized that it makes more sense to do my best to explain. So here goes.
Please reserve your judgement until the end!
I don’t want to brag, but Rigby is a great dog. We adopted him nearly seven
years ago from a shelter in Chicago because of his shaggy black hair and adoring
eyes. He was two and he was a challenge right off the bat – plagued with acute
separation anxiety, under-socialized to the point that he lunged at everything
on four legs, and (the easiest challenge to tackle) a leash-puller. But over the
years he’s spent with us, he has turned into a therapy dog who travels the world
and he’s had a bevy of four-legged housemates including, currently, a one-eyed
rabbit named Monty.
I say all of this to explain that Rigby’s health, well-being and general
happiness matter to us. He is always on our minds and we turn down many an
invitation out to stay home and snuggle him. He is a member of our family and we
treat him as such.
When we went vegan, it was a world shift. We’d been vegetarian for years, but
had only recently understood the true impact of dairy and eggs and it was the
logical next step. I’m not sure who among us raised the idea of changing Rigby’s
diet. He’d always had an unhappy stomach, no matter how many supposedly healthy
dog foods we tried to feed him, so we didn’t think there was much to lose. But
we didn’t know much about vegetarian, let alone vegan, dog foods. We went to
work researching.
What we discovered was — to put it frankly — disgusting. Commercial dog food can
in no way be classified as “food” for anyone, including dogs. The ingredients
include scraps from the slaughterhouse floor; expired meat from supermarkets;
bits of cancerous flesh and downed animals deemed unfit for human consumption,
which are sifted to get rid of hair and then rendered (boiled for several
hours); bits of flesh, brain, and skin that come off during the centrifugal
separation process; and traces of euthanasia liquid and flea collars. Why are
there traces of euthanasia and flea collars in dog food? Because sometimes the
bodies of euthanised animals from shelters are ground up and used as filler.
All of the above was enough of a reason for us to switch Rigby’s food. But why
vegan food? Why not raw meat or those expensive venison logs at the high-end pet
stores? Well, for one thing, we’re vegan. We try our hardest not to support any
industries that profit from harming animals. For another, it’s expensive. Some
people may argue that vegan dog food is expensive and it certainly is more
costly than the commercial brands that keep their food cheap by sweeping the
slaughterhouse floor for scraps. But we’ve always been willing to spend more on
food (and less on other things) in order to support vegan companies and brands.
And we have actually ended up saving money because my husband now prepares our
dog’s food from scratch. All the ingredients are organic and we try our best to
purchase from local vegan businesses. Rigby’s food costs about $7 per week.
But don’t dogs need meat?
They actually don’t. What dogs need are nutrients. They evolved to be scavengers
that can subsist on almost anything. How they derive their nutrients is beside
the point. The same goes for cats (although I’ve heard that transitioning a cat
to a vegan diet is more difficult and I have no personal experience with it).
Though taurine is essential for cats’ diets, the process that commercial cat
food goes through actually removes any naturally occurring taurine, so a
synthetic version is added after processing anyway.
The argument that vegans live unnaturally is not a new one. Omnivores suggest
that taking B12 supplements is not natural. If you drink nut milk instead of
bovine milk, it’s not natural. If you feed your dog anything other than the
commercial brand kibble, it’s not natural. Well, very little we do is natural
anymore. We fly through the sky in steel contraptions. We explore the deep sea.
We live in places that humans normally wouldn’t be able to survive because we’ve
found ways to generate heat that our ancestors would certainly have deemed
unnatural. And we keep ourselves alive using chemicals and pills that are the
furthest thing from natural. There’s really no need to measure anything on a
“natural” scale – we all fall short most of the time.
Back to Rigby. His current food is made up of half dry (a kibble we bake at
home) and half wet (a cooked vegetable mixture recommended by Vegedog), so that
he can enjoy the best of both worlds and keep his teeth clean. Between both
types of food, he consumes a wide variety of ingredients to ensure he gets all
the nutrients he could possibly need, including: fresh (dog-friendly)
vegetables, hemp seeds, flax oil, nutritional yeast, Vegedog supplement, vital
wheat gluten, acidophilus, probiotics, cranberry extract, lentils or other
beans, brown rice or quinoa, apple cider vinegar and ginger. We generally set
aside a few hours on a weekend day to prepare a massive amount of food (most of
which we freeze); this lasts us the better part of a month.
We spent weeks researching to make sure Rigby would get what he needs. Then my
husband tried out a variety of recipes to make sure Rigby would be happy with
them. Every week my husband tries Rigby’s kibble to see how it tastes. Can you
imagine eating a handful of commercial brand dog food every week?
But I’m forgetting one last thing: Rigby’s happiness. Dogs love meat. How could
I deprive my dog of something he loves?
First of all, what dogs love about kibble is actually an addictive, synthetic
substance called digest, a byproduct of the rendering process made up of a
variety of animal tissues, which is added after the fact to make these scraps
more appealing. Second of all, would you be happy eating kibble for the rest of
your life? We switch up the flavors in Rigby’s food with every batch to figure
out what he likes and what he doesn’t, and to give him some variety. If you
truly want to give your dog what they want, you’ll be feeding them from your
plate – dogs don’t want kibble, they want your sandwich.
Finally, like most dogs we’ve taken care of, Rigby loves veggies. He always
liked carrots, but his palette has expanded to include raw broccoli, Brussels
sprouts, red peppers and cabbage. We’ve also invested in a few vegan brands of
more traditional types of dog treats made by Benevo, Soopa, Antos and v-dog. He
especially likes Benevo’s Pawtato Sticks.
Please understand that I am not telling you what to feed your companion animals.
I’m simply explaining why we feed Rigby what we do. We wish — just like with our
own switch from vegetarianism to veganism — that somebody had told us what we
were feeding our little boy a long time ago. But we’re grateful we know now, and
we want to make sure other people know, too.
Our domesticated animals eat what we give them — that’s the nature of this
strange relationship we’ve manufactured — so we have a responsibility to make
sure that what we give them will make them not only happy, but also healthy. And
that’s exactly what Rigby is.
I realize much of this might come as a shock. So if you’d like to learn more, I
recommend reading Obligate Carnivore: Cats, Dogs, and What It Really Means
to Be Vegan by Jed Gillen, reading dog food reviews from Dog Food Advisor
or simply Google “what’s in dog food.” I’ve included the recipe for Rigby’s wet
food.
Homemade Sweet-Potato Peanut-Butter Vegan-Dog Delight (a.k.a. Wet Food!)
Ingredients:
Directions:
Place 3 to 5 servings in your refrigerator and store the rest in the freezer.
Jordan is an animal welfarist turned animal rights activist and she
credits her volunteer experience at a vegan animal sanctuary with that
shift. An editor with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing, she and her
vegan husband and dog recently moved from the US to the UK and they’re
enjoying exploring England (and beyond!).
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