kolling@magic.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) (07/24/86)
> To toss out another nice controversial issue : how many > of you feed meat to your pets although you don't eat it yourself. Before anyone runs amok out there, let me point out that cats can't live on a vegetarian diet. Some essential nutrient (which I forget) is missing. I vaguely remember that such a deficiency leads first to blindness and then to death.
benl@lll-crg.ARpA (Benl Leimkuhler) (07/25/86)
Cats need about 30% crude protein and 10% crude fiber (if I recall correctly) and that is very difficult to duplicate in a vegetarian way. Let's remember that cats (unlike people) are natural predators and keep one foot planted in reality. It's OK to mess around with your own diet but it is appallingly cruel to play games with your pet's diet-- unless you know exactly what you're doing. Even the cheap dry cat food you buy in the grocery store must meet carefully determined minimum standards.
mo@well.UUCP (Maurice Weitman) (07/26/86)
In article <4337@lll-crg.ARpA> benl@lll-crg.UUCP (Ben Leimkuhler) writes: > >Let's remember that cats (unlike people) are natural predators and keep >one foot planted in reality. It's OK to mess around with your own diet >but it is appallingly cruel to play games with your pet's diet-- >unless you know exactly what you're doing. Even the cheap dry cat food >you buy in the grocery store must meet carefully determined minimum >standards. I mostly agree with Ben: cats are naturally carnivorous, we are not. A woman I knew tried to feed her cats a vegetarian diet, and all three began looking fairly ill after a few months and two of them actually lost their sight in another short while. Could have been concidence, don't know. Even though I don't like the idea of watching my (or any other) cats killing and eating mice, birds, etc., I think that's their instinctual and biologically-based need. And I do know that many pet foods do contain animal products, some even whale meat, and I go out of my way to avoid eating and using animal products for myself, but for the cats, I don't know of a real alternative. -- Quote: "The police aren't here to create disorder, they're here to preserve disorder." Mayor Richard P. Daly, Chicago, 1968 Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors. Maurice Weitman 9600 ..!{dual,hplabs,lll-crg,ptsfa,glacier}!well!mo | 57600 (415)549-0280 voice (415)549-0388 modem-2400 this^is not 300 mcimail mweitman a pipe 110 P. O. Box 10019 Berkeley, CA 94709