Ideal canine and feline diets should be based on individual pet needs and growing science around nutrients—not opinion, philosophy or views of what’s culturally acceptable, says this nutrition-minded veterinarian.
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As more and more Americans shift to a plant-based diet and feed their families less meat, some of them are bringing up the big question in the veterinary exam room: “I’m vegan. Can my pet be vegan?”
Especially in the case of cats, typically considered obligate carnivores, the answer is a hard “no”—right? Ernie Ward, DVM, who’s spent years thinking about animal nutrition and founded the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, says, “Not so fast.”
First, Dr. Ward, coauthor of the upcoming book The Clean Pet Food Revolution: How Better Pet Food Will Change the World and chief veterinary officer at pet food company Wild Earth, says we’ve got to get the terminology right. And “vegan” is a loaded term that belongs to people and not animals.
“I don’t think the term ‘veganism’ applies to dogs and cats,” Dr. Ward says. The term “veganism” can stand for both a diet free of animal products as well as a philosophy about how animals can and should be regarded in the world.
“That’s an ideology with an ethics structure and political implications,” he says. “We need to get past that and ask whether cats and dogs can survive without eating other animals.”
Here’s where Dr. Ward departs from many veterinarians and pet owners who believe either 1) that we don’t know enough about nutrition to try to build a plant-based diet for animals used to eating animal products or 2) that animals should be eating more whole foods (thus, getting their nutrients from natural food sources, often from other animals). He is optimistic that nutrition science and technology can make it possible for animals—even those known as “obligate carnivores”—to survive and thrive on plant-based diets.
“The way physiologies work, we need certain nutrients, not ingredients,” he says. “But we have ingredient bias based on our own experiences, our cultures, what’s locally acceptable.”
For example, some cultures eat a lot of dairy; others call it gross. Some cultures eat insects; others cringe at the thought.
“What happens as soon as you put a whole food or particular ingredients in your mouth?” Dr. Ward asks. “It starts being reduced to its constituent nutrients. How we access those nutrients is what makes all the difference.”
And that’s where pets’ individual differences—their genetics, their gut flora, their microbiome, the health of their pancreas, liver and kidneys—come into play. No matter how great a product is, he says, not every diet will ever be appropriate for every animal.
Science is advancing rapidly in this arena of personalized nutrition, according to Dr. Ward. Someday we will know far more about what both humans and pets need for their bodies need to be healthy and strong.
So, if a pet can get the nutrients it needs from a protein source other than cows, chickens, sheep or fish—and you can demonstrate it through science—do the actual ingredients matter?
