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ENVIRONMENT
to make a complete and balanced diet for the dog with only ingredients from plant material."
me [he] fed them an exclusively vegetarian diet."
As explained by Professor Quinton Rogers from the University of California Veterinary School, one of the leading veterinary research institutes in the world, the dog is usually considered a carnivore anatomically and an omnivore nutritionally." This means that while in nature dogs usually consume meat, a healthy diet would also contain non-meat nutrition.
And many such stories abound. While taking care of Nanook, an extremely foodfinicky dog, I experimented by providing her with vegetarian dog food. To our amazement, she loved the stuff! And we all have stories about that dog in India who survives entirely on rotli (tortillas) and shaak (vegetables). But I am reminded of an adage l once heard on the radio: "The plural of anecdote is not data." We can only hope that in the future, long-term studies will be conducted on the deficiencies or benefits of a purely vegetarian diet for dogs.
However, Professor Rogers urges caution with this conclusion. "Such a diet," he argues, "has not been proven by (scientific] testing to be complete and balanced to sustain optimal health." His colleague, Professor of Epidemiology Philip Kass, concurs. "I think there is much more to learn about this but the financial resources to do such studies are not readily available." Nonetheless, Professor Kass provides the following anecdote. "I have certainly seen two examples of unrelated dogs (different breeds, same owner) that lived into their twenties in seemingly excellent health, and when I inquired about what the owner did to keep them in such good health he told
So, while dogs cannot survive exclusively on meat, is it possible for them to live healthy lives on an exclusively vegetarian diet? Professor Rogers provides the following explanation: "If protein, vitamins and minerals are first isolated from plants, and Vitamin D and Vitamin B-12 were added, then I think (although there is no peer-reviewed published data to support this statement), that it would be possible
Even if such a diet is technically healthy, the question remains: Should a dog be fed a purely vegetarian diet?
illustration: Joanne Wood. Email: futsdesign@aol.com
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