To whom it may concern,
My name is [omitido], Biologist and PhD. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I am
in charge of Media and International Relationships in the Spanish Vegetarian Union (UVE).
I feed my cats and dog using vegan/vegetarian feed, since I consider that this is
currently possible and even healthy for my pets.
We are receiving several doubts and messages from members of the UVE asking about this
issue. Many of them reports from your website as a resource.
I detected several inconsistencies in your FAQs and statements regarding the vegetarian
feed. For example it seems you encourage giving some of meat:
"Is it true that vegancats.com is telling some people to feed their cats meat?
Yes. After much soul-searching, we have decided to change our official recommendations
for certain cats.
Urinary tract problems are fairly common in cats, and because of the relative acidity of
meat to vegetable protein, some vegan cats suffer from them.
Although we have been giving advice for some time on how these problems can be minimized
while still feeding a completely vegan diet, we have found that many of our customers
have not been following this advice. It is imperative to feed your cat a vegan diet
properly for optimal health, as not doing so may jeopardize your cat's well-being (as is
the case with improper feeding on any other diet - ideal nutrition is a necessity for
optimal health!)
Unless you are very committed to following the advice outlined on our site by feeding
your cat a properly balanced diet as per the information below, we recommend that you
mitigate the risk of urinary tract problems by feeding males cats only a 25-75% vegan
diet and females a 50-100% vegan diet. Of course, many cats (both make and female) will
thrive on a simple vegan diet and never have any complications from urinary tract
infections or crystal formations; you need to be prepared to adjust the diet accordingly
for cats who may be prone to such issues."
or
"Because of the greater risk to males, you may want to give your cat some canned
meat-based foods (a veternarian-prescribed pH balancing formula is ideal) be given along
with vegan food, particularly if they have had any past history of urinary tract issues
or crystal formation."
And here it seems you leverage the vegetarian feed without any doubt:
"Can Cats and Dogs be Vegan?
Without a doubt, cats and dogs can be vegan. Over our many years in business, we have
heard countless success stories from people whose companion animals have transitioned to
a vegan diet and have been happy and healthy the entire time. There is a lot of
misinformation out there regarding the various theories and opinions as to why some
people insist that it can't be done, but time and time again, people have proven it's not
only possible, but many times a better diet than what they'd previously been feeding
their companion animals."
I would like to receive from you a clear position regarding this issue:
¿Do you think that cat can be veganized? ¿Is this healthy for them?
I look forward to receiving a clear feedback from you,
Best regards,