My hiking partner, Karen, is a vegan. She feeds meat to her dog.

Even PETA would go haywire on that person. Carnivores eat meat. Cats need meat or they suffer. Someone wants to not eat meat, fine with me. Someone wants to smoke, away from me, fine as well. Why say those two seemingly unrelated ideas: a cat should eat meat and a child should not be exposed to second hand smoke, and both cannot take care of themselves.

I try really hard to "live and let live".
I get some people have reasons why they are vegetarian or vegan.
I don't really agree with those reasons, but whatever. I'm not living their
lives and paying their bills, and they aren't living my life or paying my bills.
So, everyone gets to do what they want in that respect.
Eat what you eat, don't eat what you don't eat.

However...
Those reasons do not extend to meat-eating pets.

Cats are not meant to be vegans. Attempting to put them on a vegan diet can cause them serious illnesses. Imo it is putting your dogma above the well being of your pet. I don't believe in letting anything suffer for something as subjective as beliefs.

I think denying someone their nature when it hurts them can be defined as abusive.
Change the fact pattern to see if the arguement is legit. What if the cat was a herbivore and he forced it to eat meat?
What if it wasn't a cat but a person?

The cat has been sneaking mice all this time and not telling his owner!

I feel you shouldn't force people (or animals) into unnatural lifestyles that could risk their health.

to me it is simple. it's a matter of consent. an animal cannot choose to be vegan, and a human who chooses something unnatural for the animal, as being vegan would be, the animal cannot say "hey wait a minute; i'm a carnivore!" it is as if the humans are trading the suffering of a cow for the suffering of a cat. quite frankly, i think making a human child eat strictly vegan is abusive. if an adult wants to make that decision for him/herself, that's one thing. making it for someone who has no choice is quite another thing, and i wouldn't be concerned about it if the decision were, say, only to serve organic food, or not to serve twinkies. but i have known vegans. well, i still know them. they're not vegans anymore. i'm not talking about just one couple or a friend or two. i mean it seemed to be all the rage among people i knew for a while. every single one of them got sick and had to go back to eating some kind of animal products. they didn't have to eat a steak a day, just some whole protein, fish or at least cheese and milk. they could not sustain their health being vegan. not a single one of them. by the way, not one of them made their kids eat vegan while they did. the kids ate normally. the kids stayed healthy.

g

My daughter is vegan. She feeds me meat. Cats need meat too. ?

People should not be arbitrarily banning people just because they can. Have them look up community, compassion, and tolerance. Perhaps even megalomania.

Life is too short for exclusionary elitism.

Cats need Protein from meats..as do humans..

Oh man. I saw these kinda words in this post.... something about a vegan forcing their carnivorous pet CAT to be vegan. Yeah I don't blame whoever for blocking that person.
Pure cruelty. Cats REQUIRE TAURINE FOR SURVIVAL. Taurine = found only in certain meat products!

Ugh!

This topic (feeding cats a vegan diet) is often banned in vegan groups on FB simply because it’s divisive even among vegans. I am vegan but my cats and dogs eat non-vegan foods currently. I’m still doing research on the now available commercial vegan foods for both dogs and cats. There is now a brand of vegan cat food that is much more sophisticated than just feeding your cats fruits and veggies. I’m still doing more research into this so for now not switching from what I’ve been feeding. I’m looking into vegan dog food for one of my dogs because she’s allergic to just about all animal proteins.

Interestingly, a lot of commercially available cat foods, especially the popular brands sold at grocery stores might as well be vegan because they barely have any meat anyway. Even the ones sold at the vet clinics. Take a look at the ingredients list (I always do): corn, soy, brewers rice, etc.

That’s all I’m going to say because after reading most of the previous responses I just shook my head. It’s not worth my time to get into arguments.

1. to me that is the worst kind of anthropomorphism, as it is actually dangerous for the cat. Cats are cats, peeps are peeps.

2. does anyone else think it's a little hypocritical for a vegan to own a cat, since veganism is typically closely tied to animal rights, cruelty, and exploitation? BTW I could argue both ways logically, but it just feels hypocritical. ?

If you have a pet then you must always try to act in its best interests, regardless of your personal ethics. Domestic dogs are omnivores, and can live on a meat free diet provided that it is appropriately supplimented. Cats however, are obligate carnivores... The good news for outdoor cats is that they will just hunt their meat, and so owning a "meat free" cat as a vegan is pointless.

Honest opinion, I think a cat is going to eat what it wants to eat.

My cat eats meat, and feelings.

I saw a clip on PBS where a deer ate a bird. Odd. But the narrator said it needed protein.

Cats are mainly meat eaters. So it would be changing the natural nature, of the cat! They are hunters...it may not look so great, but nature has been balancing itself, way before humans entered the life cycle! In the not to distant future, (at the rate we are becoming individualized), every person will be in his own clan! Wonder how that will play out?

So many comments.
My thoughts: No. They’re carnivores and need the nutrition.

"Ethically we understand how Vegans would feel about it."

I've never understood vegan "ethics", and not for lack of trying. Seems to me if animal autonomy was so sacred, they wouldn't want to keep them as pleasure slaves. But I'm confident there's a vegan "rationale" for that.

Remember that bible believers think that in a future time lions will no longer eat meat and they will play with children. I can imagine those big cats with pearly white teeth like a cow. People are so strange. My own now dead mother used to give her little dog a tiny part of her heart pill when she was alive. She just knew that he dog had heart trouble too. Oh, well.

I also want to add how reeeeeeally difficult it is not to start a fight right now.

there is a theory called "food chain"...doesn't allow all beings a right to life...

If they wanted to go to the extra effort to maintain the cats proper nutrition and health I would say, knock yourself out. But if it’s just a soapbox for her opinion, I would cry foul. This is done for a lot of different “causes” not understanding the consequences.

If I saw a cow attacking a bear for sustenance, I would give pause for cogitation. Each of us knows what our system needs. If someone feels the need to gnaw on semi-thawed meat, who am I to say that there are better ways? If a salad suffices for others, who am I to say that's wrong?