"Dog Food Goes 'Vegan'... Notable Effect in Preventing Slaughter of 7 Billion Animals"

Reduced Meat Consumption When Pets Switch to Vegetarian Diets
However, Nutritional Standards for Dogs and Cats Must Be Strictly Met

A study revealing that switching the diets of companion animals such as dogs and cats to a 'vegan diet' could prevent the slaughter of 7 billion livestock annually has attracted attention. Recently, some pet foods have been developed by partially replacing certain nutrients with plant-based ingredients.

Professor Andrew Knight of Griffith University in Australia published these research findings on the 5th (local time) in the online scientific journal 'PLOS ONE.' The research team first assumed a scenario where the food for dogs and cats living in the United States and worldwide was changed to plant-based and then conducted simulations.

As a result, it was found that the consumption of 7 billion livestock animals per year could be prevented. Professor Knight pointed out that although livestock farming has a huge impact on the environment in terms of land, water use, and pollutant emissions, previous studies focused only on human meat consumption and paid little attention to companion animals.

Dog food

The research team estimated that the amount of livestock meat consumed by dogs and cats in the United States currently accounts for about 20% of the total meat consumption in the U.S. and 8.9% globally.

Accordingly, if all dog and cat food in the U.S. were switched to plant-based, it would avoid the slaughter of about 2 billion livestock annually, and expanding this globally would prevent the slaughter of a total of 7 billion livestock animals.

Furthermore, if humans also adopt vegetarianism, it was analyzed that switching the entire U.S. population to vegetarianism could avoid the slaughter of 7.8 billion animals annually, and switching the entire global population could prevent the slaughter of 71.3 billion animals.

Therefore, switching companion animals to vegetarian diets is expected to significantly contribute to reducing pasture land use, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. The research team explained, "If every dog on Earth were vegetarian, the land area used for producing dog food would no longer be needed," adding, "This is a scale larger than the territory of Saudi Arabia."

However, feeding 'vegan food' to companion animals is somewhat controversial because dogs and cats fundamentally require animal-based nutrients.

For example, in 2021, American singer Katy Perry announced that she fed her dog a vegetarian diet and was criticized by netizens as "an act that does not consider the animal's dietary habits and health."

Ultimately, to switch companion animals' food to plant-based, it is necessary to develop high-quality food rich in alternative nutrients. Regarding this, Professor Knight emphasized, "For the health of companion animals, it is important to produce plant-based food that meets good nutritional standards."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.