Vegan Dog Food and Ideological Force-Feeding

Dog guardians who choose vegan diets for their dogs often face ridicule or criticism. One of the most common attacks lobbed from across the aisle is that individuals who choose to feed their companion dogs a vegan diet are imposing human political commitments and moral beliefs on their dogs, and this imposition is both unfair and inappropriate. I’d like to unpack this criticism because it seems profoundly off the mark. It obscures the fact that all food choices we make for our companion dogs are morally loaded, and all food choices involve an imposition of our political commitments onto our dogs. There is nothing special about vegan diets.

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Dogs as Victims of Human Lifestyle Choices

In an essay published in Aeon magazine last week, Katrina Gulliver argues that pet dogs are victims of human whims and foibles. We use dogs to broadcast our status and our style and make them conspicuous symbols of the beliefs we want to communicate to other humans. Although Gulliver’s overall point is interesting, and the article is well worth reading, she makes a strange logical misstep when she talks about dog food:

The story we tell ourselves that dogs choose our lifestyles or prefer the things that we want (how fortunate, to have a pet that shares our preferences!) is reflected even in how dogs are fed. In recent years, there has been a trend towards raw food for pets. Some feed their dogs organic, or even attempt to make their pets eat human diets, such as vegan. These owners show both anthropomorphic desire and social status aspiration, as well as some degree of delusion. Those who feed basic pet food are shamed for not caring about their pets.

Contrary to what Gulliver suggests, people who feed their dogs meat-based kibble are engaging just as much ideological imposition as those who choose to feed their dogs broccoli. It just so happens that a carnist, or meat-based diet, is so entrenched and normalized as to not be recognized as a moral choice. Ms. Gulliver commits the same offense she accuses those of who “attempt” to feed their dogs organic, vegan, raw, or anything else outside the carnist lane: She shames us. She tells us that we are placing our own ideological aspirations above the needs of our dogs. Incidentally, describing vegan diets as “delusional” and a “social status aspiration” is just bizarre. Most people I know who avoid animal-based foods and other products do so for moral reasons, and certainly not for “social status” since vegans are likely to be belittled, teased, dismissed as self-righteous and smug, and accused of being privileged, simply for opting out of systematic animal oppression and torture.

The fact is, most people who have chosen a vegan diet for their dogs have done so after thinking long and hard about whether such a diet can be both pleasing and healthy for their companion, and after doing considerable research and talking to their veterinarian.

Do vegan dogs always belong to vegan dog guardians? Though I have not seen any research on the topic, this is likely the case.

Of course, not all vegans feed their dogs a vegan diet. I’ve talked to some vegans who don’t believe that a vegan diet would provide their own dog (or dogs in general) appropriate nutrition, so they make a choice that they find personally uncomfortable and purchase meat-based foods and treats. Others have dogs with specific nutritional needs related to chronic illness, allergies, or age, and follow the recommendation of their vet to feed a prescription formulation (none of which, at this point, are vegan).

In contrast, I’ve never met a carnist who didn’t also impose this diet on their dog, often without much serious deliberation or research. If you eat a carnist diet and feed your dog meat, you are “matching” dog food choices to your own ideology, thrusting your beliefs down your dog’s throat, just like a vegan dog guardian feeding his dog a vegan diet. The decision about what to feed is ethically and ideologically loaded whether you like it or not.

All Dog Food Choices Are Morally Loaded

I’m not arguing for or against vegan dog diets here, but simply suggesting that everyone who keeps and feeds a companion dog is making morally loaded, morally significant choices. We are all imposing lifestyle choices and ideological commitments onto our dogs—no matter what we eat ourselves and what we feed our dogs. If a person gives no thought whatsoever to what goes into their dog’s food bowl (or their own mouth), that’s a much bigger problem, in my mind, than deliberately making careful, well-considered choices.

The fact that meat-based kibble is the “standard” American diet for dogs is the result of historical contingencies; it is not a reflection of some innate truth about what dogs should eat or how humans should feed dogs they keep as pets.

What is the most “natural” diet for dogs? This is a nonsensical question in the context of pet-keeping because no diet is natural; no diet is chosen by dogs for themselves, based either on what they can get or what they need or what they want. Those who specialize in canine nutrition can certainly offer a great deal of information about the nutritional idiosyncrasies of the canine body, and the individualized needs of each dog, and we can use this information to make choices that will support our dog’s well-being.

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We need to pull our heads out of the dog bowl and look critically at the ramifications of whatever set of choices we make. There is no morally neutral way of feeding pet dogs—this simply isn’t an option. There is no such thing as not choosing; floating along on the currents of carnist ideology is still a choice. You just choose to float, rather than to swim against the current.