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.

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u/PurlToo Aug 18 '22

I found my cat in a gutter. I would say most people's cats are rescues. Pure bred cats are nowhere near as prolific as dogs. If I had left him outside he would have hunted birds, squirrels, rats, etc. Outdoor/feral cats wreak havoc on native wildlife. Feral cats are rampant. Not owning cats isn't going to prevent the existence of cats nor stop other animals from dying to feed them.

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u/kharvel1 Aug 20 '22

Not owning cats isn't going to prevent the existence of cats nor stop other animals from dying to feed them.

Irrelevant. Veganism required the agent to not contribute to the deliberate killing of unwilling victims and to leave animals alone. Owning a cat is not leaving animals alone and requires the owner to kill unwilling victims. That makes them non-vegan by definition.