Is the pet food ethical from the point of view of animal rights?

You call it paradox. I call it hypocrisy. If you truly believe in animal rights, you can't keep a pet (dog).

But vegans/AR are hypocrites. They claim to give up meat and its byproducts to affect the meat industry and put it out of business. But they continue to buy meat for their pets.

They won't wear leather because it's a byproduct of animal slaughter. So is pet food. The roads, electrical transmission, plastics, paint, wall board....thousands of items they use EVERY DAY use/contain animal slaughter byproducts!

Strictly speaking, no. Pet food is all the little bits and pieces that people think are icky and won't eat. They're not going to slaughter a whole cow and toss out all that good meat for pet food. They slaughter the animals, pull off all the good stuff to sell to humans, and keep all the little wobbly bits to chop up into pet food.

Dogs really aren't relevant here at all. Apparently dogs can be fed a vegan diet and be healthy. I happen to think that's stupid, but whatever. Cats can't. Cats must eat meat. I call it a personal choice. If you're vegan and can't handle the idea of feeding your pet meat, then you have no business owning a pet. At least not a carnivorous pet. Perhaps a bird is more your speed.

Of course, you can totally get away from factory farmed meat and buy locally farmed pet foods. All the butcher shops here slaughter animals on farms just out of town and they all sell the little wobbly bits for pet food, as well as bones for dogs.

I'm not entirely sure I made any kind of point here... I'm tired and have a cold. That's my excuse.

Well, your premise is fallacious and I'll get to that in a tick, but actually there are more than the two options you described. There is ethically sourced meat from roadkill or collecting discarded meat from dumpsters (which is how I feed my cat).

But the flaw is your assumption that to feed a dog a vegan diet (when they can survive on in perfect health) is wrong it deprives them of liberty. Well, do you then expect people not to keep their dogs fenced in so they don't roam the streets and are vulnerable to be hit by cars? Do you expect people not to spay and neuter their dogs so the dogs may produce as many pups as they desire regardless of the fact that healthy dogs are killed in shelters every day because there are not enough homes for them? And do you expect people not to house train their dogs because the dog should be free to choose where it wants to drop it's waste?

And if you want to play devil's advocate and assume all these things are not ok since they impinge on "freedom of choice", shouldn't you also demand parents allow their infants to play in traffic and wander off whenever they desire? What about dogs that only want to eat rubbish like hamburgers and junk food, should they be given as much as they want since it is their freedom to choose to eat that stuff?

It is logically flawed to consider dietary restrictions which do not harm the animal to be paradoxical in light of these other commonly applied restrictions when it is in fact the only reason some people may keep a dog in the first place. If they had to feed it meat they might not take in a rescued dog and it will instead die in a shelter. So the dog is better off with a loving home, but not with the choice to eat what it prefers.

Thanks for the question. And I love the discussion. Everyone who has answered seems to be staying away from judgment which is awesome.

Vegan for 15 years. I volunteer for a couple animal shelters and we foster dogs. We share our home with companion dogs as well. All of them eat vegan except for one who has kidney disease and needs a low protein diet so eats a meat based food.

This is just how it is in our house. There are huge opinions on this topic, and like one answer already brought up, whether animal rights folks should even have companion animals. For us, the simple fact is that we do and whenever possible they eat a vegan diet. They all get annual vet checks and their blood work comes back amazing, especially for their ages.

Thanks for the topic!

That is one reason why many strict animal rights activists are opposed to pet keeping at all.

Veg*ns almost universally are opposed to "factory" farms, and the livestock industry.

Yet, if they own dogs and cats, they usually are purchasing pet food that contains ingredients from "factory" farms. You might call it a paradox; I call it typical veg*n hypocrisy.

When confronted with these double standards, veg*ns react in a variety of ways. Some, like Sheila, don't seem to recognize it. Others, like vegan biologist, prefer the "attack the messenger" approach, as demonstrated in his answer. On a side note, I don't understand how roadkill and dumpster diving is the "ethical" choice. These sources are just as much a human-caused death as a farm.

And to compare a dog eating its natural diet to allowing an infant to play in traffic is irrelevant and ridiculous. Typical vegan attitude.

No, the meat comes from the same animals that are grown and killed for humans but at least a dog or cat needs meat to be healthy, humans don't.

Either way is right too, ooog, paradox x2!!!

lawl at freedom of choice