Cats are actually the opposite of vegetarians. They are obligate carnivores.
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“Obligate carnivores” means they can’t help it. They can’t eat anything else but food from an animal source. They can eat some grass for digestion, and maybe odds and ends like mandarin oranges or marshmallows as treats. (I’ve had cats who liked such things.)
But that’s it.
It’s the taurine. Cats without an organic acid known as taurine develop liver, heart, and vision problems; and will eventually die. Cats can only get taurine (and vitamin A, B12, and arachidonic acid) from animal foods.
It’s the pointy teeth. Cats have teeth which are all pointy; not capable of grinding tough plant material into a form suitable for mammalian digestion. Horses have broad, flat teeth, as do all herbivores. Omnivores, like humans, have both flat teeth for grinding, and pointy teeth for tearing.
It’s the digestive tract. Cats have a short length of intestine, and none of the specialized enzymes or fermenting vats that will break down cellulose in plants and make it available to cells for nutrition.
It’s the enzymes. Cats completely lack the enzymes which allow for conversion of carbohydrates into body energy. The carbohydrates break down into blood sugar, but then can only be ushered into cells to form fat. So when we feed a cat grains or grain byproducts, we are only making them fat.
It’s the eye placement. Cats have their eyes set on the same plane, on the front of their head. This gives them depth perception; this lets them hunt. While deer, rabbits, antelope, and other prey animals have eyes set on the sides of their head; so they can look in more places for the predators who want to eat them.
It might seem strange that an animal rights activist (and I am) would not be a vegetarian or something like it (and I’m not.) But such a mental linkage comes from a connection that is neither accurate or sensible.
An animal lover can conclude it is wrong to eat animals. I admire such conviction; and once upon a time, I tried to embrace it. But it turned out to be bad for my health; I’m an omnivore, and need to eat both animals and plants.
We can’t hold it against cats, or me; it’s the way we are.
So I strive to help all animals be treated humanely; I rescue cats, I’m against factory farming, and I think our society should consider more sustainable forms of agriculture and animal husbandry than the one we are presently pursuing.
For those who wish to delve into this subject further, I can’t recommend a better book than The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability
And on Kindle:
Idealism is a wonderful thing. It tells us what to strive for. But it’s wrong to use idealism as a hammer on reality, to impose an artificial construct onto actual living beings. It’s the living beings who get hurt, for nothing more than being unable to react the way an Idealist believes they are supposed to.
I see articles on the web claiming that we can feed our cat a vegetarian, or even a vegan, diet. Most admit these diets should supplement with taurine and many other essential nutrients; some even acknowledge that cats are designed, far more than most, to eat only meat. But their idealistic principles are not compatible with letting their pet cats eat in a way that is contrary to the goals they have set for themselves.
So what do I think of their claims that their cats are happily, and healthily, managing on such a diet for many years? I’m sure that some of these cats go outdoors, and a hungry cat outdoors will supplement for themselves. How is that different from adding missing items to a cat’s vegetarian food — to make it more like meat? These are supplements that have to be added because they do not appear in plants.
So it’s a bit hypocritical, isn’t it? An animal source is an animal source.
I understand the drives, be they for humanitarian, political, or health reasons, which lead people to embrace vegetarian or vegan diets. But they freely chose this for themselves. Their cats have not.
So instead of trying to convert a carnivore into a herbivore, such people should explore the joys of bunnies and birds as pets. Science has shown that cats cannot live on a meat free diet.
Pretending otherwise is simply animal cruelty.
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There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.
A friend of mine got a Jack Russell terrier puppy. He was vegetarian, and intended to raise Huck that way. I made several of your arguments against it, but he was insistent. “They have vegetarian dog food at the store I go to!” I said, I’m sure they do. That doesn’t mean you should feed him that.
Ever seen a Jack Russell puppy? I’d say “boundless energy,” but there’s actually a lot of bounding involved! After a few days, Huck had no energy at all. My friend went back to the store, and they told him to keep feeding Huck the food; he just needed to adjust to it.
After a week, he stormed into the store. “My dog’s poop is runny and gray!” They told him to keep him on the food. “You’re killing my dog!” he yelled, along with a few other, cruder words. He finally started giving Huck meat, and the little guy made a complete recovery in 2 days. As you say, if you want a pet that doesn’t eat meat, get a pet that doesn’t eat meat.
(BTW, the Amazon book link isn’t showing up on my browser)
The scariest internet person I got into that argument with insisted that it was morally okay for him to artificially shorten his cat’s life because of all of the other animals who would be saved when he slowly starved his cat to death by feeding it a vegan diet.
I’m hoping he was just being an internet asshole, because I had no way of finding his IP so I could alert the humane society to take his animals away from him.
Here’s a good video on meat: http://meat.org
Paul McCartney is a cat, not a human! Who knew?
Great article. One correction though – dogs are not truly omnivores. They are (inobligate) carnivores, meaning that they can survive on plant matter, but do not thrive on it. Here are a couple good articles explaining the reasons for this.
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/omnivores.html
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/canine-nutrition/dogs-carnivores-omnivores/
Thanks, Marina, good point! I was working on two thoughts there, and mangled it; dogs aren’t omnivores. Now edited.
And thanks to you too, Bill, I’ve put a text only link in there. Just another lesson for me
I have a couple of students who are Vegan, and they, too are trying to feed their cats only vegetables and fruit. They just don’t understand why our cats are large (only one is fat. . .sigh), probably because we fed some of them from time in utereo very high quality food.
Their cat food looks and smells like not food, in fact, one beast tries to cover it rather than eating it! I see their cats and think the poor things are in the process of dying. (As they likely are.)
Their cats get sick (a lot), their vets prescribe food that is meat-filled, the cats get better, and then they go back on their Vegan died. Rinse. Repeat.
That’s what the lives of those cats is. I’m going to give them your blog entry, if they haven’t seen it yet.
Great post.
Cats are intrinsically inclined to consume meat and meat products. What is wrong with people! If you are going on a vegan diet, don’t deprive you’re pet of essential nutrients and protein it needs to thrive. There is no reason that a pet should suffer from the dogmatic arrogance of people. Reading Kidspeak’s post I am simply astounding by how foolish people can be.
Bill-
Our Jack Russell mix not only gets meat in her normal diet, but likes to supplement it with freshly-caught mice. Sigh. But she’s healthy and oh-so-bouncy!