FYI cats need to eat meat to stay alive.
this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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They need an appropriate array of vitamins, nutrients, and calories to stay alive. The way they do this naturally is to eat meat, but it's not the meat specifically that they need.
you have to fortify the food but it's doable in principal. I'm assuming people are working on it by now
Why?
Because @truthfultemporarily@feddit.org heard the phrase "obligate carnivore" once and decided they didn't need to learn anything else about pet care.
They require meat proteins to live, plain and simple.
It's even law in some countries that classifies feeding cats a purely vegan diet is animal cruelty.
meat proteins
Proteins are chains of amino acids. There are probably proteins specific to animal muscle, but misguided legislation notwithstanding it's the amino acids that are nutritionally required, not any specific protein configuration of those animos, and you can get those from a massive array of non-animal sources.
Ah, well I guess today many of us are learning more details.
well, there's also stuff like Taurine, so make sure you give your vegan cat some red bull from time to time
My cat and I both have a diet of just redbull and edamame.
taurine and arginine, to be more precise.
Taurine and arginine are amino acids, building blocks for proteins, not proteins themselves. Animo acids are quite ubiquitous across life, not specific to any one type of life. eg Plants contain both taurine and arginine.
thanks for the additional information
i remember reading that plants can't supply enough taurin. Luckily it seems easy to synthesize (that's how we have redbull &c
And of course law is always, strictly based of the latest available science.
I don't know much about cats but this seems reasonable: https://cats.com/vegan-cat-food
Vegan cat food isn’t natural. It’s not normal. Cats will always want to kill and eat other animals. And yet—our cats aren’t natural.
Dr. Jennifer Coates, says “While it may be possible for a veterinary nutritionist to design a “vegan” recipe for cats that wouldn’t lead to disease, it would have to contain large amounts of nutritional supplements, some of which would probably have animal origins, raising the question of whether that diet would truly be vegan. Even more importantly, the goal in feeding pets is not simply to avoid diet-related illness but to promote optimal health and wellbeing. I sincerely doubt this is possible with vegan cat food.”
It's a good thing popcorn is vegan.
One would think one against the cruel treatment of animals wouldn't keep a pet slave.
Before I was vegan I had a girlfriend who wanted an "emotional support cat". I was uncomfortable with the idea and resisted for a while but eventually we got a rescue cat. Then we broke up and I kept the cat. I love her and she's sleeping in her bed next to me on my desk as I type this. I'm one of probably hundreds of likely scenarios where a vegan ends up with a pet despite agreement with the ethical issues.
Animal shelters are full of animals waiting to be adopted. They already exist in this world. Bringing an animal home is compatible with veganism and reduction is harm.
I'm of this mind too, but then I wonder if I'm perpetuating pet ownership culture by "rescuing" all these byproducts of an unethical industry. Plus feels weird not to let them leave?? for their own good??? Like am I an abuser, idk, it's kinda fucked and I don't know how to feel about it.
That's a fair point. Like how I would not wear a leather jacket if given to me or from a second hand shop, because that's the product of murder.
You also can't set domesticated animals free in nature. They would wreck havoc in the environment.