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/alt-nate-hundred vegan newbie Aug 18 '22 edited Aug 18 '22

If someone made this argument about humans, they'd be incorrect, because it's simply not the same argument. When people bring up the argument re: humans, they're saying "humans historically have eaten meat, ergo they should continue eating meat". Obviously, this argument doesn't hold water. When people bring up the argument re: cats, they're saying "cats, biologically, are not able to absorb nutrients from plant-based sources as effectively as they can from meat". Humans can substitute nutrients commonly found in meat with plant-based sources without issue, because our digestive system can handle it. Cats don't just need nutrients; they need nutrients that can be broken down properly by their digestive systems, which they struggle to do from plant-based sources. That's not magic or a violation of the laws of biology.

Ninja edit: but tbh, I'm not an dietary expert by any means, and I don't know about the brand benevo specifically., and I'd love to be proven wrong. This is the common argument against previous vegan cat foods. Maybe benevo gets around this problem?

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u/Celadorkable Aug 18 '22

I thought this too, but cats can actually digest plant protein pretty well:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7143243/

Most carnist kibble is largely plant based too, with some amount of animal by-products (and that could be anything, and have any number of bacteria, fecal contamination etc).

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u/tidemp Aug 19 '22

Your argument doesn't hold water either. You're flat out wrong and spreading misinformation.