The-Truth-About-Pet-Foods

perfect foods because they “know” how many IU’s of vitamin D, etc.
a dog needs. Such fabricated diets based on specific requirements
(only valid until the scientific board meets the next time) have caused
immeasurable disease and suffering for companion animals.
20. Wouldn’t feeding my pet vegetarian foods be more humane If
truth is the objective, the truth is that carnivores’ health is best served
by feeding meat products. This absolute dependency has been made
clear in numerous scientific studies.*
A case in point is the thousands of deaths and untold suffering of cats
from taurine (an amino acid) deficiency in commercial cat foods (see
Proofs, pages 74-85). These were not vegetarian foods, but were
deficient because the meats used were processed, which resulted in
the loss of taurine. A vegan diet is essentially totally devoid of taurine.
Other examples of carnivorous design include the inability to form
vitamin A from plant carotene or niacin from tryptophan, the incapacity
to synthesize several urea cycle intermediates or regulate hepatic
amino acid catabolic enzymes, and the increased utilization of iron
from meat foods. Obvious features such as teeth, hunting instinct,
design of the digestive tract and behavior pretty much close the case.
Is it ethically correct to doom captive animals to suffering and death
by feeding them a diet they would never naturally eat in the wild, and
for which they are not genetically adapted The choice is to inflict
suffering and death if we do not feed our pets as they are genetically
programmed, or inflict death on the food required for health.
All life requires the diminishment of other life for survival. A cow kills
grass, a cat kills a mouse, a whale eats a fish, an elephant mutilates a
tree, an immune cell destroys a bacterial invader, and so forth – throughout
all of nature. This is truth, real and unavoidable.
Now then, we may not like the fact that sustenance of life requires the
taking of life (I certainly don’t), but that does not change the fact. We
* Pottenger FM, Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition, 1983. Comp Biochem
Physiol, 1996; 114(3):205-9. J Nutr, 1985; 115(4):524-31. Aust Vet J, 1992;
69(10):249-54. Annu Rev Nutr, 1984; 4:521-62. Am J Vet Res, 2001; 62(10):1616-
23. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract, 1991; 21(5):1005-9. Science, 234:764-
8. Am Vet Med Assoc, 1992; 201(2):267-74. J Am Vet Med Assoc, 1993;
203(10):1395-400. United States Patent No 5030458, 1991.
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