Isn’t that… unnatural?
Contrary to popular belief, dogs are omnivores and have no nutritional requirement for meat. All of the nutrients they thrive on can be found in well-formulated plant-based sources, and in fact, their health may be better for it!
Meat-based dog foods contain health hazards not found in plant-based food sources. These hazards are from the bioaccumulation of environmental toxins and pollutants in mammals, birds and fish; contamination with salmonella, listeria or other pathogenic microorganisms; and prion diseases.
Many dogs suffer allergies from eating other animals, especially chickens and cows, that can cause itching, ear infections, and skin issues. By choosing a plant-based formula, you can remove these allergens and observe if your dog’s symptoms improve, potentially saving you money on medications and ongoing allergy-related vet visits.
Dogs can thrive on plant-based diets, and are well-adapted to eating non-animal foods. Compared to carnivorous wolves, omnivorous dogs have evolved a superior ability to metabolize carbohydrates, as evident by their amylase starch adaptation gene, the ability to convert maltose to glucose, and increased intestinal glucose uptake.1 They also have lower protein needs compared to wolves.
While the concept of “naturalness” is increasingly desirable to many dog-food buyers, this appeal to nature fallacy could put our pets in harm’s way: ticks, infections, fleas, and worms are natural, yet harmful parts of an animal’s existence that we attend to for the benefit of our dog’s health. Conversely, desexing, microchipping, and leashes are unnatural tools used to protect the health and safety of our pets.
The commercial plant-based dog foods available today do an excellent job at meeting the nutritional needs of our dogs, without the deleterious environmental, health, and animal welfare impacts of meat-based dog foods.
Impacts like what?
Akin to meat-heavy diets of humans, pet foods have enormous ecological footprints: it takes a lot of land, water, and food to feed all the pigs, cows, chickens, and fish in pet foods. It’s estimated that a quarter of the environmental impacts of meat production in terms of land, water, and fossil fuels is due to meat-heavy cat and dog foods. This results in the production of 64 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. If dogs and cats constituted their own country, they’d be fifth in global meat consumption, only behind Russia, Brazil, China, and the United States. That’s a lot of animals that don’t need to die just to keep our furry family members alive. Further, all those livestock animals raised for dog food undoubtedly create breeding grounds for future zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential.
How do I do it?
While some people may be interested in cooking their own dog food, this is a laborious and tedious process compared to commercially produced food which may be healthier and more nutritionally balanced due to the considerable development, testing, and supplementation that goes into these products. If you do choose to DIY your dog food, include the supplements required and avoid using ingredients that are toxic to dogs, including cocoa, grapes/raisins, garlic, onion, chives, macadamia nuts, yeast, and corn on the cob.
There are a number of plant-based dog foods available in Canada, including:
Natural Balance – (Vegetarian/Vegan Formula Only)
Petcurean Gather – (Endless Valley Formula Only)
Halo – (Holistic Garden of Vegan Recipe only)
Vecado
V-Planet – (aka V-Dog in the USA)
Virchew – (Greater Vancouver Area Only)
If you’re new to trying plant-based dog food, you could try switching their food overnight like I did for my 11 year old plant-based dog Jude (pictured here), or if they’re not keen to the new taste, you could try a gradual transition by slowly incorporating a plant-based kibble with their regular food until it becomes the new norm. Many of these kibble brands also offer samples and coupons if you direct message them on social media, check online and in-store, or shoot them an email.
As always, be sure to take your canine friend for regular checkups with a veterinarian, and keep your vet informed about the change in diet so that any potential concerns can be addressed.
Whether you choose to feed your dog plant-based food for their health, compassion for livestock animals, or the environment, these causes and more benefit from your decision.
[1] Axelsson E., Ratnakumar A., Arendt M.L., Maqbool K., Webster M.T., Perloski M., Liberg O., Arnemo J.M., Hedhammar A., Lindblad-Toh K. The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet. Nature. 2013;495:360–364. doi: 10.1038/nature11837.
[PubMed: 23354050]
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
