I’ve written a post explaining how I came across the info from The Ethical Consumer which is shown below. I have found it to be eye – opening yet feeling empowered and wiser for the better!
We CAN make a difference! Simply sharing this information will have a positive impact.
Would you want to feed your pet the the ‘normal’ meat products sold in supermarkets after reading the information below?
Veggie pets?
An acceptable solution could be to feed your pet a vegetarian diet. Dogs can readily be fed a vegetarian or vegan diet. Cats are more complicated because they need taurine – an amino acid which comes almost entirely from animal sources.
A US company, Harbingers of a New Age, has apparently developed a supplement that can be added to home-cooked cat food to allow cats to live on a vegetarian diet. It also comes with recipe suggestions for home-cooked food.
Italian company Ami also produces ‘vegetarian cat food’. Both products can be purchased online from www.veggiepets.com, which also provides information on vegetarian pets.
The Vegan Society has fact sheets on helping cats go vegan.
It has been suggested that cats deprived of meat may turn to other sources, i.e. wild birds and small mammals. Cats already inflict significant damage on populations of these creatures, so it might be irresponsible to encourage this.
Genetically modified
If you don’t agree with the idea of vegetarian pets, or your pet simply will not accept a vegetarian diet, buying organic will ensure animals have been farmed less intensively. It is though much more expensive. Organic pet food will also be free from genetically modified ingredients.
An ECRA shop survey found that a HiLife brand of pet food was labelled as containing genetically modified soya /maize. NestlÁ©, Pets Choice, Procter & Gamble, Town & Country Pet Foods (HiLife) and Wagg Foods did not respond to ECRA’s request for policies on the use of genetically modified ingredients, so received a small mark in the genetic engineering column. All the other companies claimed not to use genetically modified ingredients.