"Vegan Companion Animal Diets" ????

If you feel there would be something wrong with your interacting with non vegan food for your companion animal then don't choose a for companion animal species that are predators and for whom "dead animal" is NORMAL food. Stick to pet bunnies, gerbils, and the like.

Whether it is wrong for YOU to kill and eat another animal is a very diffrent moral question from whether it is wrong for a dog to kill and eat another animal or for a cat to kill and eat another animal, maybe playing with a bit first.

PLEASE --- I am NOT saying you are wrong but want you to face what you are choosing to believe. If animals that eat grass are better/more moral than animals that kill and eat other animals you are in effect saying that Nature is evil. Immoral and not just amoral.

This isn't a question about whether your dog or cat can survive on a vegan diet but SHOULD THEY HAVE TO. In what way is THEIR refraining from eating meat making them better dogs or better cats.

It might not only explain the reasons why some people choose to feed their companion animals vegan diets but also highlight the horrific "ingredients" in store-bought foods. The book "The Obligate Carnivore" is a really good one to read to find out about processed "pet-foods". I understand people's concerns about feeding a carnivorous animal veggie food and I've looked after (rescue) animals in the past who have eaten meat. I'm against keeping dogs, cats, etc. as pets anyway as whatever you do is forcing your choices on to them, but while we have animals that are being over-bred, abandoned and taken into shelters which are often inadequate, we have to make some choices for them. And it has been extensively researched to make sure those animals are getting what they need from food, even if it's from supplements. Store-bought, processed meat foods also use supplements as they too lack the nutrients animals need.

Winchester Prison? Loads more of us could make it then.

... and I've never seen cat food made from mice, rats, etc.

just sayin'. Face it, being a "pet" is an unnatural state for an animal. Its lifestyle and its diet are going to be unnatural no matter what.

Whether or not I agree with you about whether it's immoral to kill and eat an animal I will insist (and many of you folks will agree with me) that the SPECIES of that animal is irrelevant to the moral question. A sheep, pig, or cow is no more entitled to its life than a mouse or rat.

But this was dogs and cats? Maybe a yorkshire terrier size dog has to stick to prey no larger than a rat but even mid size dogs will prey on sheep. Large ones might tackle a calf if momma cow isn't nearby. Ask any sheep and they will tell you "dogs are wolves". And at least over here the meat in many (if not most) commercial cat foods is chicken. A grown chicken of the larger breeds can put up too much of a fight for a cat but they'll take young chickens, ducklings, etc. Even goslings if the parent geese aren't nearby.

Again consider the moral question "is a vegetarian dog (or cat) better than one that eats meat?". If you answer yes to that then "is a vegetarian species better than an onmivorous or carnivorous species?" Do you like the road you are now travelling? Does it still makes sense to you?