• MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    I’m not a vegan. But my $.02 as a cat person is this: the cat has biological dietary requirements. If you fail to meet those requirements, it is animal abuse.

    By trying to squeeze a cat, an obligate carnivore in nature, into a vegan diet, either you have to be extremely careful about it to ensure you meet all their nutritional needs, or simply, and far more easily, just don’t do it.

    Encouraging people who likely do not have the means or expertise to monitor how their pet is doing, to switch them to a vegan diet, is dangerous to the health of the animal.

    I’m not sure I disagree with the admin on this one, though there’s probably a better way they could have handled it.

    • Jerkface (any/all)@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      You don’t have to be super careful. You just have to make sure they get enough taurine. Any number of off the shelf products have sufficient synthetic taurine for a cat to thrive. It doesn’t make sense to get all freaked out about this one nutrient when you trust the pet food manufacturer for every other essential nutrient the cat would die without.

  • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
    01·
    4 months ago

    Cats used to be carnivores back when taurine could only be found in meat, but humans invented synthetic taurine and cats aren’t carnivores anymore

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      No no, they’re still carnivores.

      Nothing about their biology changed so that they’re no longer classifiable as a carnivore.

      Scientifically, they have all the traits of a carnivore, and a predator.

      You can’t redefine “cat” because we can use supplements to round out their dietary needs.

      What you said is like, oh Dracula isn’t a vampire anymore, because we found a way to give him an artificial blood substitute that completes his dietary needs…

      … He’s still a vampire, he’s just getting his fix from something other than a living person.