"Cat's going blind because of VEGAN diet!!! That's on "Animal Precint" right now. My question is....

Question

How can anyone be so misguided to think that predatory animals would be vegetarian?

Answer 1

Vegans follow a personal "religion" and it is very important to them. Unfortunately, their concept of "ethics," like any other ideology, does not always comport with the real world. So somethimes they try to make the real world change to match their own ideas.

Vegans do this with infants and young children's diets. Some health-conscious people, worried about "organic" and "natural" and "no fats," do similar things. They are unaware that these extreme expressions damage young people, that the human body NEEDS certain things that are not on the usual diet those grown-ups adopt.

As with religion, politics, and other areas of life, extremism becomes self-defeating.

Extremist vegans simply can't be told anything, or learn anything.

Answer 2

There are a lot of dumb people on this planet & a lot of them seem to have pets.

People buy into all kinds of weird ideas because they don't take the time to do the research on having a pet. Anyone with half a brain knows that cats need meat to survive. Even well meaning people can harm their pets if they don't do the research & know what they are getting into.

When I got a new kitten in January 2006, I got online & did a lot of research on rasing a kitten. I hadn't had a kitten in nearly 20 years as the last cat I had came to us when she was about a year old. When I got a second kitten 6 months later, I got online again & did some research on how to socialize cats because I had never had two pets at the same time.

My best friend is a vegan, his cat is not & his ball python isn't either. He is smart enough & caring enough to do what is best for them.
tt. He is smart enough

Answer 3

I've seen that episode, the woman seemed very sweet and honestly didn't know that it was bad for the cats. Some people just aren't educated in certain things. She didn't know she was hurting the cats, and certainly didn't want to.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who hurt their animals intentionally, or just because they couldn't care less, that's true. But there are some people who are cruel without meaning to be, it's a sad truth, but we can't blame someone for doing something if they didn't realize they were doing it.

She gave up the cats, and was truely sorry and upset, and now they have a much better life.

Answer 4

It is possible for cats to eat vegan, if done correctly, which obviously the person on the TV show wasn't doing. They need several important things (like Taurine, when it comes to vision) to be healthy, and if they won't be eating meat, they will have to be supplemented. It's easier for a dog to become vegan as they naurally need less things from meat than cats do. Keeping a cat healthy on a vegan diet can be pretty hard.

I'm vegan myself, but I wouldn't push this on my animals, as it just isn't healthy for them without a whole lot of careful balance and effort. I think there are plenty of pet foods made for people who are worried about the state of factory farmed animals, that are available at places like Wild Oats and Whole Food Market. These petfoods are not harmful to your pets, like a vegan diet can be, and use "food" animals raised in a better environment than is typical.

I hope the cats on the show turned out all right!

Answer 5

Well, some people don't want any animals to suffer, but they don't realize that by forcing an unnatural diet on their pets, their pets suffer. Even though I'm vegan, my cat eats a meat-based diet, mostly canned food from supposedly natural companies, supplemented with prescription dry. She needs meat, but I do not, and I am wise enough to know that some species are not meant to be herbivores.

Answer 6

I've seen this with a former co-worker. He and his girlfriend were vegan and were forcing their way of life on their two cats. I tried to explain "obligate carnivore" (by definition, obligate carnivores cannot be vegans) to them, along with a cat's need for taurine, but they just kept saying, "we don't believe in eating meat of any kind". I told them that they should have rabbits in stead of cats. They truly didn't think they were doing anything wrong to the cats, as if the cats were little furry vegans, not obligate carnivores that were being deprived of basic needs.

It's just so very wrong.

Answer 7

Cats need Taurine or they will go blind in not supplemented. All Commercial cat foods include this. Ignorace plays a big part in feeding a cat a vegan diet.

Answer 8

Many people aren't consciously aware of the fact that cats are carnivores, let alone obligate carnivores. I didn't used to be ..... if someone had asked I might have said they were carnivores, but who knows.

And they may not think about what that actually means.

The bottom line is if you don't want to handle meat, don't get a meat-eating pet!

Answer 9

A lot of people unfortunately. That's sad. Also many dogs are put on these diets as well, and although they can handle it better than a cat they still need meat.

Answer 10

Sweetheart, the cats weren't in bad shape because they were vegans.
They were in bad shape because they weren't getting adequate nutrition, especially taurine.

Our two cats (15 and 17) eat a specially formulated vegan cat food, and have since we got them. They're in excellent health. Please learn the truth before you criticize vegans and vegetarians.

Most importantly, she wasn't feeding them merely vegetables because she was a vegetarian, she fed them that crap because she was POOR.