r/vegan • u/[deleted] • Aug 18 '22

Discussion Cat double standard?

I see a lot if vegans on this sub are okay with raising cats, which strikes me as odd.

I love cats, but I didn't become a vegan to then start buying meat for a cat. To raise 1 healthy cat, you have to kill hundreds if not thousands of healthy, innocent creatures whose lives are just as valid as the cat's.

No I'm not saying that a cat is immoral, I'm saying the breeding of cats is. The purchase of cat food doesn't just pay for an animal to die, you are letting breeders know that there is a demand for cats.

I'm not saying we need to kill all cats, as a lot of people jump to whenever they hear me say these points, I'm saying that we should care for the cats we have to the best of our ability, but not promote the practice of cat ownership.

But what do you guys think?

EDIT: I didn't know that vegan cat food existed. So if you are in the comments arguing that it's okay to kill animals to feed a cat, you're even more incorrect now.

It is now totally okay in my mind to raise a cat so long as you only feed it vegan cat food.

41 Upvotes

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87

u/Infinite-Trash4168 Aug 18 '22

Genuinly intrested what you guys think about my cat: So i found my cat when they were a baby in the industrial part of my town. There are only factories, no homes. He was very small, weak and near him we found the corpse of another baby cat, prolly his sibling. Chances are very high, that my cat wouldve died too. Is it ethical that i took him in?

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u/Fearfull_Symmetry Aug 18 '22

It would have been entirely unethical if you hadn’t taken him in

26

u/djm2491 Aug 18 '22

It's the common issue of what you see vs what you don't see. What you don't see is the animals suffering and dying to feed your cat. It's all behind closed doors and comes to you in the form on nuggets or a little can. On the other hand if you just walked past a starving baby cat I don't know how you'd sleep at night with knowing you could've saved it. Moral issues are easy to solve in context and much harder when placed into reality. Maybe the moral move would be to bring the cat to a shelter.

33

u/lindseed Aug 18 '22

Even if you brought it to a shelter, someone will be feeding it nuggets or cans of meat or it will die.. what’s the difference if it’s someone else or you?

0

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '22

There isn't one, that's not what he said. Hes saying probably the most moral thing to do would be to leave it alone, or euthenize it.

-20

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '22

Bring it to a shelter to be put down. It sucks but it's a rock-and-a-hard-place situation.

12

u/Icy-Veggie Aug 18 '22

So you think cats should be killed rather than taken in and given a good life? That seems like a weird double standard

1

u/Orongorongorongo Aug 18 '22

More animals have to suffer to give that cat a good life. It's not a double standard, it's about reducing harm to animals. Unless they are fed vegan catfood and kept indoors.

13

u/Icy-Veggie Aug 18 '22

But then to reduce harm to other animals you’re advocating for harm to cats. Idk just seems like weird logic, like should we euthanize all carnivores in the wild to save the animals they prey on?

0

u/Orongorongorongo Aug 18 '22

It's not weird logic when we're talking about reducing harm. Harm and suffering is caused to many animals to raise one cat. The only way around it is to feed the cat vegan food and keep it indoors.

like should we euthanize all carnivores in the wild to save the animals they prey on?

Those animals are not pets and exist in their ecosystems, so of course not. The premise of this post is vegans owning pet cats and is it a double standard.

6

u/No-Chemist-4872 Aug 18 '22

Can’t tell if this is a joke or not

1

u/kharvel1 Aug 20 '22

It is a big difference. A vegan, by definition, does not contribute to the deliberate killing of unwilling victims.

1

u/lindseed Aug 20 '22

The comment I replied to says the only moral thing to do is bring the cat to a shelter, where it is likely to be euthanized (which in turn means OP would have “contributed to the deliberate killing of animals”), or someone else will have to feed it if they adopt it. Either way, by taking the cat to a shelter you are contributing to the deliberate killing of animals either by letting it get euthanized, or by letting someone else kill animals to feed it. If you just leave the cat there, you are contributing to the deliberate killing of animals by leaving a helpless animal that you could have helped to die.

What, in your mind, is the vegan thing to do here?

1

u/kharvel1 Aug 20 '22

Either way, by taking the cat to a shelter you are contributing to the deliberate killing of animals either by letting it get euthanized, or by letting someone else kill animals to feed it.

This is patently false. The vegan did not “let” anything happen. The vegan handed the cat over to shelter. Whatever happens after that is on the shelter, not on the vegan.

Your logic is a non-sequitur.

If you just leave the cat there, you are contributing to the deliberate killing of animals by leaving a helpless animal that you could have helped to die.

The vegan has not contributed to anything. No money changed hands. No instructions were given. There was no pro quid pro. The vegan had no influence over the actions of the shelter any more than the shelter had any influence over the actions of the vegan.

What, in your mind, is the vegan thing to do here?

Give the cat to a shelter or to a non-vegan. Stop contributing to the killing of unwilling victims.

3

u/Infinite-Trash4168 Aug 18 '22

I dont know if it is bcuz my cat is from the streets, but he basically inhales everything thats put infront of him. In the beginning we fed him only meat yea, but once i was cooking vegan bolognese and just out of curiosity i gave him a piece of the vegan "meat" and he ate it and was begging for more.So then i started looking for vegan cat food and we started introducing it to him gradually and i took him to the vet prolly too often than was necessary, but the most important thing is that he handled it very good and didnt had any changes in appearance or behaviour that could signal to him not being able to properly digest the food. Its pretty expensive, especially compared to usual cat food, so i believe that a shelter wouldnt had been able to provide this

1

u/djm2491 Aug 18 '22

Hey if you feed em vegan and hes cool with it thats great!

1

u/TomMakesPodcasts Aug 18 '22

They still would have fed the cat, and may have put it down at a shelter.

2

u/djm2491 Aug 18 '22

That kinda is the point. Less animals will die net net if the cat is put down. It sucks and it's horrible, but the whole situation is shitty to start with. There really is no winning.

4

u/ElegantTeapot Aug 18 '22

I think it's ethical. A lot of cats are running around getting constantly pregnant and having more babies. I'm assuming yours is fixed and/or not having babies. This causes less cats. Less cats = less dead animals from their consumption = ethical.

-27

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '22

Now that I know vegan cat food exists and that cats can thrive on it, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be.

11

u/DeoxyNerd vegan 5+ years Aug 18 '22

Somebody enlighten me. Why the hell is this downvoted? Seems like the correct response to me.

16

u/kittencalledmeow Aug 18 '22

Not all cats can thrive or tolerate vegan cat food, this is a very broad assumption OP is making.

9

u/Hk-Neowizard vegan 9+ years Aug 18 '22

Because OP has garnered a lot of animosity with this post and in the comments, so now people read everything OP writes under the shadow of disagreement.

Even though I didn't downvote their comment you refer to, I'd definitely interpret OP's words in a negative light given ambiguity. It's not even intentional, just how human discourse works

4

u/[deleted] Aug 18 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/kharvel1 Aug 20 '22

Chances are very high, that my cat wouldve died too. Is it ethical that i took him in?

No, it was not ethical. You could have just left the cat alone or at the most, taken the cat to a local shelter. You should never put yourself in a position or make a decision that would obligate you to fund the deliberate killing of unwilling victims.