I just find it wild that vegans can simultaneously come to the conclusion that all forms of animal farming is unethical but still accept that keeping pets is ethical. My wife grew up on a milk goat farm, every single goat had a name (and they had hundreds of goats), and the goats generally lived lives as good as the average pet. They’d run around and play, get attention from the people who lived and worked there, and every once in a while escape the pens just to prove that they can (they’d literally be standing around the yard waiting for their escapades to be discovered)
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AnxiousOtter@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
ITT: People still unironically arguing that feeding a cat a diet that is biologically incapable of meeting a cats dietary needs is a good idea.
smh.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Almost all vegan pet owners ADOPT their pets.
Compared to Franky who pays a breeder so he can gift a cat like it’s a fucking toy.
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
What does adopting vs. buying from a breeder have to do with this person’s point?
Omniforous@mander.xyz 1 week ago
The argument is that breeding more animals for the enjoyment of humans is bad, but the existing animals should be given as good of a life as we can. Since rescuing does not directly support the breeders, some vegans are OK with rescuing to give these animals a better life. Some vegans use similar logic to thrift wool sweaters for yarn, when they would not support buying new wool.
BluesF@lemmy.world 1 week ago
There are many different vegans with many different viewpoints. I am not vegan, but I come pretty close - I do still consume a limited amount of dairy, but otherwise I don’t buy animal products. This is for the reasons you say - I don’t want to support factory farming. I also have a limited amount of time in my life for investigating everything I eat, however - I don’t honestly have the stamina to check every egg-containing product to see if it used battery eggs or not. I really don’t have the time to check if the “free range” eggs I’m buying are really free range or if they have sneaked around the regulations and it’s battery farming in disguise. It’s just easier not to buy any eggs.
I will accept eggs from people I know who keep chickens - no problem from me there. I think that humans having relationships with domestic animals is fine, generally we both benefit - the animals because they are protected from predators, they get fed, etc, and us because we gets eggs.
Some vegans would not agree with me. Some vegans don’t believe humans should keep any animals, including pets. I don’t believe there’s an issue with keeping some pets though. Domesticated animals wouldn’t even exist without us… Like it or not their “natural” habitat is living with humans. You couldn’t release all the dogs and expect that to be better for us or them.
BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 1 week ago
She grew up on on a milk goat farm but never learned that goats don’t give milk from the goodness of their heart?
Objection@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
Honestly at that point I think it’s lower effort to just go vegan. You’re already avoiding meat in every situation where you can’t investigate the supply chain, so no meat at restaurants, fast food, other friend’s houses, etc. I guess if you really crave the taste of meat or something or if you live on a farm already I could see a case for it. For me, the case of going to the grocery and making a meal at home was always the easiest case to have a vegan diet (and avoiding all the extra prep and cleanup from preparing meat were nice perks), the parts that were actual hurdles were the convenience of fast food and not wanting to assert myself in group meals.
Personally, I figure that the tiny sliver of meat that’s produced ethically can go to the tiny sliver of people with weird dietary restrictions, and to cats, I guess. We still need to see a massive reduction in meat consumption if we want to address the abuse that’s rampant in the vast majority of meat production.
x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Biologically incapable is a lie. Vegan pet food is fortified with all the nutrients they might need.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
We’ve been putting supplemental taurine in cat kibble for decades.
parrhesia@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Just because there is supplemental taurine in cat kibble doesn’t mean that’s the only thing they need from their diet. Just get a different pet jfc
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
How many live mice do you feed your cat?
evranch@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
That’s practically all my cats eat! I only put cat food out in the winter or if they start to look slim. All summer they eat mice and sparrows and get fat. (Note that sparrows are a terrible invasive pest and removing them has a positive impact on the local ecosystem)
They are barn cats though and that’s their job so it’s a little different from the pet cat situation.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
You’d hate a snake lol.
Also my cat ruthlessly murders any creature unfortunate enough to stumble into her den simply for the pleasure of doing so. She doesn’t eat them, usually, but she isn’t exactly gentle regardless of whether or not she consumes her quarry.
parrhesia@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I don’t feed her any, but she willingly hunts for them.
Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
It’s a little known fact, but if you killed an animal yourself, its meat is vegan.
Omniforous@mander.xyz 1 week ago
Taurine is usually singled or because it is the only nutrient required to meet the AACFO cat food guidelines that can not be readily sourced directly from plants.
AnxiousOtter@lemmy.world 1 week ago
There’s a world of difference between supplementing taurine and engineering a synthetic meat-free diet for a cat, which requires continuous blood and urine testing which, if done incorrectly or not monitored correctly, will 100% fuck up and probably kill your cat.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 1 week ago
What do you think the supplemental taurine is intended to accomplish?
This just reminds me of people who lost their fucking minds when they found out a big chunk of McD’s hamburgers were soy protein. This is a cost-cutting measure as often as it is any ethical consideration. Your cat may be far closer to vegan than you even realize.
AnxiousOtter@lemmy.world 1 week ago
First of all, taurine is not the only thing you need to supplement. Second of all, you can’t just sprinkle some taurine over the kibble and call it a fucking day. This is serious shit. It needs to be calculated, tested, monitored by a God damn licensed veterinarian with literally continuous blood and urine testing. I had a diabetic cat for 21 years. Keeping her glucose stable throughout the day was deceptively challenging, and that’s one of the easiest long term care conditions for a cat.
You people are going to kill your cats. Fucking shame on you.
Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
If I met a human who needs constant blood and urine tests, I’d assume said person is ill.