Plant Powered Planet Magazine

The Vegan Vet
Dr Lucy Claire
McKinna
About
Lucy
Dr Lucy Claire (LC) McKinna
- Veterinary Surgeon, BVSc,
MSc, MRCVS graduated
from Melbourne University
in 2007, and has been a
small animal veterinary
surgeon since then. LC
founded and ran the Fat
Salad vegan food stall ‘Get
In, Get Fed, Stay Healthy’ at
UK summer festivals from
2012 to 2017, also supplying
independent health
food shops in London. She
has a lifetime interest in
sustainability, corporate
responsibility and animal
welfare and has been vegan
for 9 years now.
Can companion
animals be vegan?
Yes dogs and cats can both
be vegan. It’s very exciting
actually - I remember sitting
in a lecture hall many
years ago as a vet student
being told by a (rather old
and probably well set in his
ways) university lecturer
that feeding dogs and cats
a vegetarian diet is tantamount
to animal cruelty
- I imagine probably what
he had in mind was bowfuls
of boiled potatoes and
beans, not sophisticated,
nutritionally-complete recipes
that tick all the boxes
set by European Pet Food
Standards Authority FEDIAF
with compelling and delicious,
natural flavours.
Our knowledge has increased
so much with the
dawn of the internet- from
the increased visibility and
inherent cruelty of the meat
trade, how animal protein
from different species’ body
parts goes through significant
rendering and into
many of the meat-based
pet foods, our increased
knowledge about the impact
of farm animal production
on the environment - to
the increased knowledge
of animal nutrition and sophistication
to use plants
and yeasts to provide the
same amino acids found
52 I Plant Powered Planet