"I am vegan." -pause, followed by very intense reaction of the reader-
This statement anytime and anyplace causes very strong, very contradicting emotions.
Either you are celebrated and loved for it or you reap hostility and head shaking. Interestingly nobody is ever indifferent to it. Ever.
And it gets even more emotional when we talk about the nutrition of our dogs...
But let`s stay with human veganism for a moment.
If I state I am vegan, or I live on a plant-based diet, what does that do to my counterpart actually? Why does this topic trigger so many emotions?
In fact you do not need to like my choice of living. Neither do you need to understand it. Living in a free democracy all you need to do is accept it basically.
There are many good reasons for a vegan lifestyle. Yes, I am as healthy, maybe even much healthier than ever in my former life as an omnivore. But I also want to eat and behave in a way in which best case I do not create harm to any creature. And I am very aware of the finiteness of worldly resources.
Talking on this detailed level about good reasons for veganism let me state, my dogs - by the way - are not. They do get meat. Exactly as much as I think is as healthy as possible for them. And that is a fact you as a reader, and as a fellow citizen of the same society and, generally speaking, of the same planet, need to accept too.
Vegan dog food is not "normal". Not yet. Maybe it will never be. I don`t know.
But there are some facts we cannot ignore:
- The increasing number of pets we have to feed along with the increasing number of humans we have to feed on this planet, if continued the way we are proceeding for the last 40something years, will certainly reach its ressources` limits in a rather short period of time.
- Dog food industry is not - I repeat: NOT - about the best for you dog. It is about money!
- Standard dog food industry products being a highly processed, conserved mix of chemical extracts and the upgrading of rendering is in no means more natural nutrition for a dog / carnivore than a carrot.
Dog owners and dog lovers are fighting over what is the best or what is the most "natural" food for our best friend arguing back and forth about the fact that the dog still is genetically very close to its big wild brother, the wolf and what this in the end means to his demands.
So let`s be honest, there are very good reasons for feeding meat, bone, bowels and organs. Looking at a wolf`s daily diet, or at our dogs` carnivore typical teeth and intestine characteristics that is what they initially were made for. Not solely, but mainly.
And there are less good reasons such as the hunting instinct and so-called studies and experiments in which dogs would choose by taste and smell meat based canned food over plant based ones.
Looking at my dogs which, if I would allow them to choose on free will, would anytime go for pizza and chocolate over any canned food whatsoever, those experiments don`t really seem convincing...
But if we look at the arguments from an outside perspective - on the one hand a more ethical and comprehensive, but maybe too abstract approach focussing on the environment, on the other a biologically based, but maybe outdated or incomplete point of view - it leads us to the question of what is natural food for a species that in fact is living close alongside menkind for a couple of thousand years, eating human food leftovers, sleeping on pillows, and being breed into the most absurd varieties of their kind, while it has mostly still kept its physiological specifics?
My household currently consists of 3 dogs. All 3 of them with different preferences and different problems in regards to digestability of nutrients.
Our granny Nala gaining weight from only watching the others eat, and the youngster, bundle of energy Amy, requiring double the amount to serve the permanently high consumption.
Looking back to our trial and error dog, our beloved first dog Mogli, handsome Molossian by trade, who was afraid of raw bones, I am sure not one diet fits all. And...- yet another lesson that - the rough guys aren`t always made for the purest kind of food.
Coming back to the initial statement that my dogs are not on a vegan diet: they indeed are not. But with oldie Nala who did, with increasing age, develop more and more digestion problems and whos` kidneys also slowly struggle processing a lot of animal protein, we experience she feels much better with a plant-based diet, topped with a small amount of bowels and eggs.
A positive side effect is that she is allowed to eat larger portions for her usual amount of kalories. In the end this means that we have a happy (because full ;) ) healthy dog without stomach aches and cramps, that receives a balanced diet with all the important nutrients.
So what if we all accept the one fact, that living in this society together what we need most is acceptance for different life concepts, different opinions, different choices. Also different choices for the dogs living in each`s responsibility.
In the end any decision for a dog`s nutrition has to be individual.
Based on heath status, breed, age and many other facts. And the best choice we can make for our dogs, same as for ourselves, is to provide them with fresh balanced food. No matter if it is a steak or a banana.
If you feel insecure about how a balanced plant-based diet with all relevant ingredients and nutrients should look like, do not hesitate to consult us @buddygoesbananas or any other trustable experienced dog diet
consultant.
