Vets Warning Vegans Not To Put Their Cats On A Plant-Based Diet

When a person decides to become a vegan, they will usually have read up on enough information to give them an informed choice.

They will know what they're getting themselves into and will understand how to make up the nutrients necessary to have a wholesome diet.

However, that's not really the case when you do it for a cat.

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Evolution has led these beautiful, sometimes scary creatures to have a specific diet and any deviation from that can be fatal.

Vets have spoken out about the dangers of putting cats onto vegan diets because their stomaches won't be used to it. According to the RPSCA, cats are strict carnivores and making them eat nothing but plants can kill them. You've been warned.

Dr Richard Gowan from The Cat Clinic in Melbourne said: "I understand the move towards socially acceptable food, but I think people need to make these informed social choices in the best interests of the health of the animal rather than the person.

"I don't think we've got many people wanting to feed their cats vegan diets, I think most cat owners are fairly sane.

"We've got two devout vegan staff members who fully appreciate they own little carnivores and if they wanted a vegan pet they'd get a rabbit."

According to news.com.au, cats don't have the right gut enzymes to properly break down plants, meaning anything that went into their gobs that wasn't meat wouldn't be processed. They would eventually starve and die.

RSPCA scientific officer Dr Sarah Zito told the site that people should be cautious about putting other types of pets on a vegan diet.

"The nutritional sufficiency of commercially available plant-based pet foods and the potential health effects for the pets who eat those foods have not been adequately assessed," she told news.com.au.

"There is risk that feeding these diets could result in insufficiency of essential nutrients and there is no evidence that there are health benefits from feeding vegan diets to dogs or cats."

While there are loads of people who reckon that their pet shouldn't be buying into meat eating agenda, they should really consult their vet before doing anything to the animal's diet.

Their intentions might be pure but you hardly want to make a delicious looking salad for your cat every day for a week and then come home and find Mittens has carked it.

Just be smart.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Community, Animals, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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