Cats are obligate carnivores. While understanding of cat nutrition remains incomplete, it is clear that cats require a number of nutrients in their diet, including taurine, carnitine, and arachidonic acid, which normally are derived only from animal flesh. It is theoretically possible to augment plant-based diets with plant-derived or synthetic substitutes of necessary nutrients that normally come from animal flesh. But, in light of recent studies that have proven two commercial vegan diets to be nutritionally deficient, nutritional adequacy of plant-based cat food diets cannot at this time be reliably assured and are, therefore, not recommended. Further, long-term studies on the effects of plant-based cat diets are needed to insure that nutritional adequacy can be provided at all life stages of the cat. While those humans who make an ethical and healthful choice to sustain themselves on a plant-based diet should be applauded, there remains an ethical quandary over imposing human philosophy regarding the harming and killing of animals onto other species. Further, until such time that a vegan diet for cats can be formulated so that there is no risk of harm to that animal’s life or health when fed that diet over time, cats should continue to be fed a diet containing animal flesh. For those people who absolutely cannot condone purchasing any animal products, they could conceivably obtain animal flesh to include in their companion cat’s diet from sources which do not rely on the purchase or support of animal agriculture, such as discards from restaurants, animals killed on roadways, or animals who died of natural causes. Adopted by the Board of Directors August 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20080516110747/avar.org/publications_position.asp#p27
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 16:01:47 +0000
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