Insights from a veterinarian on vegan dog nutrition

A veterinarian (who is vegan herself and has decided to feed her dogs this way too) It is no longer an easy fight. There is war! We are constantly receiving insults, abuse and even threats. But we are not talking about politically explosive topics such as the Greek crisis or the wave of refugees. This is simply about the question: "How do I feed my dog?" For several years now, I have noticed that opinions on this question are not only divided, but also argued about. As a veterinarian who works in the field of nutritional advice for small animals, terms such as "grain eater" and "Taliban raw feeder" are no longer foreign to me. Since I have devoted myself to the development of VEGDOG, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: the dog owner is the dog owner's greatest enemy. Tolerance? Not at all. For many people, the dog has become the center of life (or rather the focus of life?!). Their own four-legged friend is flawless. If there is trouble, it is the other person's fault. Friendships break up over different views on training (the owners', the dogs are usually quite unbiased in this regard). And when it comes to bullying, I am often speechless at the lengths people go to when it comes to putting down a person for their way of thinking. This is what happens to us at VEGDOG again and again. We are often accused of being animal abusers, of not feeding vegan dogs appropriate food and of actually being locked away straight away anyway. I admit it. I personally haven't yet grown out of my thick skin. I love my two four-legged friends too and only want the best for them! They never have to be left alone, are allowed to romp around in the woods and meadows with social partners on a more than regular basis and do mental work. They get lots of cuddles (yes, I admit it - they even sleep in bed!) and are immediately looked after by a vet if they get sick. And - I have decided to feed them a vegan diet. It was a long process for me to make this decision. After feeding my dogs high-quality dry food and quickly developing allergies, it was natural for me to prefer cooking for them and later also feeding them raw food. Who hasn't heard of dog forums? Anyone who asks a question that has more or less to do with the nutrition of our four-legged friends is sooner or later (more likely sooner) advised to feed them raw food. I ended up here too. I also didn't understand how anyone could decide to choose a different form of feeding.
Then I became a vegan myself. I had a lot of thoughts about animal suffering. Of course, my studies gave me very real images. The pigs in their stalls. The cows whose calves were taken away immediately after birth. And of course the slaughterhouse. After I had to do a three-week internship here, I would have become a vegetarian. And not just because of the mass killing that takes place here in an assembly line. The hygienic conditions were more than horrific. So it became more and more strange for me to put my dogs' daily portion of meat in their bowls. I had found one of the few shops that sells organic meat to dog owners, but I couldn't get this one sentence out of my head: "There is no meat from happy animals. Only from dead ones." Through my professional activities, I quickly learned that vegan dog food is not common, but certainly possible. I decided to cook vegan food for my dogs. Just for a few days. I wanted to test whether they would eat it at all, how they would process it and of course how well they tolerated it. I definitely didn't want to force my furry friends, who I love so much as I mentioned, to eat something that wasn't good for them. I got to work on the cooking pots and quickly realized that the contents of the bowl were very similar to the meat. This had just been replaced with plant-based ingredients that provided protein with the appropriate amino acid frequency. My dogs liked their new food straight away. They tolerated it well, their digestion even worked better than before. Their fur was still shiny, they still didn't smell unpleasant and their teeth hadn't deteriorated. For me it was a small step with a big impact. My dogs still enjoyed their meals, they didn't have any health problems as a result, but they saved other animals' lives.

It could be so simple. If it weren't for the people who accuse you every day of doing something bad. That you don't care about what your dog needs and that you torture it with this type of diet. I find that more than sad, because I consider myself to be very tolerant. I have never asked a person who feeds his dog raw food why he doesn't keep a few rabbits and let the dog hunt them and eat them whole, if he is citing the wolf. I have never commented that people always talk about natural nutrition, but a dog can never catch and kill a pig or even a cow. I have also never explained that wolves in the wild only live to an average age of 5 years (I personally wish my dogs a much longer life expectancy), let alone asked whether a wolf is allowed to relieve itself even every few hours because it is let outside according to the human's measurements (and kept on a collar and leash). The big discussions about the topic of "species-appropriate" are more than ignorant. And it borders on arrogance when people claim that they can actually keep a living creature in a species-appropriate manner. The bird in the cage, the horse in the box or the rabbit in the stable - none of them have a chance to live a life like in the wild. Do we really have to discuss what ends up in our dogs' food bowls?! No person in the world can offer an animal a species-appropriate life, not even a pet. But they can try to give it a happy and healthy life. That is exactly what we want to achieve with VEGDOG
The fact is: dogs are not wolves. They are usually fed differently, including when they are fed raw food. We can no longer guarantee dogs a natural, "wolfish" way of life. They have lived close to us for around 100,000 years and have adapted accordingly. In comparison, cats have only been domesticated for around 9,000 years. We all love our four-legged friends and want the best for them. We have to decide what that means individually and judge it ourselves based on our dogs' health and zest for life. But I would like to see more tolerance. I don't want to constantly have to justify the fact that my empathy is not just for a few living creatures, but for all of them. I don't want my four-legged friends to be pitied, even though they lead a great life, are loved and are also the focus of my life. I hope that all dog owners will treat each other more openly and fairly. In times of breed lists, leash requirements and muzzle requirements, we already have enough to endure within our community. Your Lisa from the VEGDOG team