Snobby Pet Store

[Ezio]

Quoth AmbrosiaWriter

It is sad that some people do, or they try to FORCE their pets that are either omnivorous (dogs) or majority carnivorous (cats) to become vegetarian.

I can't tell you how many times a handful of people brought their cats into the vet clinic where I used to work, not understanding why they were sick.

Of course, we TOLD them it's because cats are carnivorous and need meat. They refused to believe us, then not long after the poor cat would be back in the veterinary clinic and we'd be calling the ASPCA.

Some people need to be taught about the food chain aka "Circle of Life".
Herbivores eat plants and carnivores eat the herbivores.

Half the problem is that a lot of people refuse to believe their not living in "rainbows and butterflies" land.

[Lovecats]

Quoth LillFilly

I was watching 'Animal Cops' and this woman who was vegetarian and a cat hoarder had 40+ cats and fed them nothing but cooked rice! Most didn't make it.

I remember that one!

[Aislin]

When I adopted my cat he was a vegan. His old owner fed him vegan canned food. I, of course, got him a tin of cat food at the first store we came to. He wolfed down the whole thing and then puked all over my cat carrier. Over the next month he learned to love real cat food. He also jumped off a table and shattered both his hip bones due to malnutrition. See he had been a vegan since kitten hood and had massively demineralized bones. He lived 12 years after that but his kidneys gave out. They think early due to his early malnutrition

[Polenicus]

Quoth Aislin

When I adopted my cat he was a vegan. His old owner fed him vegan canned food. I, of course, got him a tin of cat food at the first store we came to. He wolfed down the whole thing and then puked all over my cat carrier. Over the next month he learned to love real cat food. He also jumped off a table and shattered both his hip bones due to malnutrition. See he had been a vegan since kitten hood and had massively demineralized bones. He lived 12 years after that but his kidneys gave out. They think early due to his early malnutrition

See, this bothers me.

If you're vegan, and you want a vegan pet, get a rabbit or guinea pig, or something else herbivorous or at least omnivorous. Cats CANNOT survive on a vegan diet, their digestive systems simply are not designed to process plant matter properly.

I understand if you are making a moral choice to ensure no animals are harmed due to your eating habits, but your pets don't eat based on moral choices, they eat based on what nature designed their biology for. If you're saving the animals by not eating them, then starving your own pet by trying to force it to be an herbivore when evolution says otherwise, you are batting in the karmic negatives.

[wolfie]

Quoth Mr. Anubite

I was reading a book about a woman's trip to British India in the 1800's, and she visits an animal hospital run by the strictly-vegetarian Jainists. They made their carnivorous animals eat vegetarian food, and the animals hated it. I'm a vegetarian, and I feed my cat canned fish.

Quoth quoted offline material in original post

We were present when an old tiger, wounded by an English bullet, was fed. Having sniffed at a kind of rice soup which was offered to him, he lashed his tail, snarled, showing his yellow teeth, and with a weak roar turned away from the food. What a look he cast askance upon his keeper, who was meekly trying to persuade him to taste his nice dinner!

Ironic that part of the Jainist philosophy is to not harm ANY animals (some won't walk at night in case they might step on a bug that they don't see), but that their animal hospital was excersizing extreme cruelty to its carnivorous patients. From the tiger's reaction, it was probably trying to say "I want MEAT, dammit! Either bring it, or be it!".