barefoot vegan sept_oct issue.pdf

Hatchi & Boris: Photo by Raymon Foget
While understanding what food sources dogs, cats, and
their ancestors relied on in the past sheds some light on
their nutrient requirements, it is important to realize
natural selection favors diets that allow animals to live
long enough to reproduce given their current
environment. It does not necessarily favor diets that help
relatively sedentary, sterilized companion animals have
the longest and healthiest lives possible in a world where
we have access to many sources of nutrients. For
instance, an animal might evolve to prefer calorie dense
foods in order to survive in the wild, but its housebound
progeny might develop obesity from consuming
such foods in the same amounts. Scientific research can
“As a vegan veterinary student, I am
often asked if our companion animals can
thrive on plant-based diets. The answer
is quite different for our canine friends
than our feline ones.”
help fill gaps in knowledge that extrapolation from
historical evidence cannot close. Since animals were and
are seen as expendable by some, there have been many
tightly controlled experiments in the past seventy years
involving feeding nutrient deficient diets to companion
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animals. Thus, we have an evolving but solid foundation
of knowledge regarding the minimum nutrient
requirements dogs and cats have at different stages of
their lives. In the United States, the National Research
Council (NRC) and the Association of American Feed
Control Officials (AAFCO) set nutrient intake
recommendations for dog and cats based on published
research.
As a vegan veterinary student, I am often asked if our
companion animals can thrive on plant-based diets. The
answer is quite different for our canine friends than our
feline ones. For dogs, commercial vegetarian diets have
been available for decades,
typically using legumes and grains
to meet standards set by AAFCO
and similar bodies. While there
have anecdotally been many
healthy dogs eating these diets,
most of these diets have not been
formally tested. Those companies
claiming to meet AAFCO
guidelines need only test their
foods on live animals if they state
on their packaging they
performed feeding trials. The vast majority of holistic
and natural brands, meat-based or vegan, do not
formally test their products. This is likely due to both
the economic cost associated with the trials and the
ethical dilemmas related to lab animal environments.