Reply #67: It's a hard question to answer. [View All]

I do appreciate the opportunity to really talk about this stuff--so often these discussions are veiled accusations, and so it's great to find a way to hash some of this out in a nonconfrontational discussion.

I do have a dog as a companion, and I've struggled with this.

My feelings about meat consumption (for me) are clear, and at the same time, I don't feel that I should be making what are essentially ethical decisions for another, human or dog. So, yes, here we are.

I do feed my dog meat-based food, because I believe that it's a healthy choice for him. On one hand, it would seem the most efficient and economical way to feed him would be by using waste products from human industry. I can't do that, though, because the companies that make dog food routinely add rendered animal products, which can and do contain euthanized animals, roadkill, downers, and all sorts of unsavory shit.

The route we've decided to go is to feed him with a product that has (single-source) lamb as the first ingredient and no other animal products. The lambs, as far as I have been able to find out, are slaughtered for human consumption and then the remaining carcass is sold to the dog food company. So, while the animals are not specifically slaughtered for dog & cat food, we are absolutely contributing to the industry.

I'm not happy about that part of it, but that's the compromise that I've decided I'm able to make.

So, to answer your question, I don't know if I really can justify feeding animals to my doggie companion. It's the best way I know to keep him healthy, though, and so that's what I do to have him in my life.