barefoot vegan sept_oct issue.pdf

Plant-Based
Diets for Cats
and Dogs?
By Akshay Verma
A heavily debated, and often heated, topic of
discussion among vegans is whether or not it’s
right and ethical to feed our companion
animals (cats and dogs) a vegan diet. Here,
vegan veterinary student Akshay Verma shines
some light on the history of human and animal
companionship, the evolution of their diets
and current scientific understanding.
P
eople interested in dog and
cat nutrition often point to
what our companion
animals would have eaten
“in the wild” as an indicator
of how they should eat today. While
evolution does provide some dietary
clues if we have a clear understanding
of their domestication, it is important
to realize the limited usefulness of
this thinking in companion animal
nutrition. Before I explain why our
best friends’ survival-of-the-fittest
history does not necessarily indicate
their ideal diet, I will first discuss
what that history is.
The dog, or Canis familiaris, has had
a historical presence in nearly every
human society around the world. In
fact, the species’ very existence is the
result of domestication by humans
from wolves as early as 33,000 years
ago (1, 2). Although wolves consume
some vegetable and fruit matter, they
primarily consume other animals (3,
4). Since early dogs were dependent
on human food scraps, however,
adaptation to a more human-like diet
was critical to their survival as a
domestic companion. In fact,
genomic sequencing supports their
adaptation to a starch-rich diet.
Compared to carnivorous wolves,
omnivorous dogs have
significantly increased gene
expression for pancreatic
amylase, maltose to glucose
conversion, and intestinal glucose
uptake (5).
The cat, or Felis silvestris catus,
was domesticated roughly 10,000
years ago (6). Genetic research
suggests that the cat’s
domestication did not depend on
dietary adaptation as much as the
dog’s domestication. As a result,
the domestic cat’s nutrient
requirements remain similar to
those of its hypercarnivorous felid
relatives, such as tigers and snow
leopards, whose wild diets are
comprised of at least 70% meat
(7, 8). This is likely related to
humans keeping cats to hunt
animals deemed as pests as well
as domestic cats being historically
allowed to roam outdoors,
preying on wildlife and mating
with feral counterparts (9).
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