It’s an absolutely horrible idea. Dogs cannot be vegans and thrive. They’re not vegetarians and they’re not even really omnivores in the same way we are- while dogs will eat everything we do (and more), feeding them a vegan diet is terrible for their health. A lot of vegans who make this decision will blather on about supplements in the vegan food or about how you can make artificial amino acids or how dogs can survive on it so therefore it’s safe, but dogs can also survive eating Ol’ Roy, the worst dog food in the world. Surviving isn’t the same thing as thriving! A dog’s biological structure means that eating plants and only plants isn’t going to work well in the long run- so let’s look at some of the reasons why dogs need to be fed a diet based in animal protein.
1. The canine digestive tract is not good at digesting plant matter.
Plant matter is really tough to break down! Meat, on the other hand, digests quickly. Carnivores and herbivores have differently structured digestive tracts that work with their diets. Let’s look at a rabbit’s digestive tract and a dog’s.
See how a rabbit has a functional cecum, while the dog’s is just a little snub of a thing? The cecum is an organ that plays a really important role in non-ruminant herbivore digestion. It’s a large pouch where cellulose and tough fibers in plant-based food get broken down. Dogs, like humans, don’t have one that’s functional for digestion.
In addition, herbivores like rabbits have very long, complicated digestive tracts. Their food sits in there and breaks down over a long period of time. An average adult rabbit (with a body of about 40 centimeters long, we’re not talking the giant breeds or the dwarf breeds here) has about three meters of small intestine. In American units, that’s a 15 inch animal with almost 10 feet of intestines. A dog, on the other hand, has a small intestine that’s about two and a half times the length of its body- so for instance, a dog that’s two feet long would have about five feet of small intestine. There’s neither enough time nor space in the canine alimentary canal for dogs to fully extract the nutrients they need to survive.
2. Dog drool doesn’t have amylase.
Amylase an enzyme that converts plant starch and glycogen into simple sugars. Herbivores and omnivores typically have amylase in the saliva, which starts to break down those starches immediately. This means by the time the starches hit the intestine, they’ve already started to convert into something that’s actually useful. Dogs, however, only produce it in the pancreas. There’s no salivary amylase in dogs or any other carnivore. This means that digesting plants and converting their energy into something that’s actually useful is really inefficient for dogs; they can only get something like half of the energy and nutrients they’d get from a comparable amount of meat. It also means that to digest plant material, dogs’ pancreases have to go into overtime to make enough amylase, which can lead to severe pancreatic strain.
3. Dogs can’t digest cellulose.
While the dog pancreas makes amylase, something it doesn’t make is cellulase. Granted, herbivores don’t make it either- in fact, very few animals do. Termites are one of the only animals that make their own cellulase. Herbivore digestive tracts have a reservoir of symbiotic bacteria that produce plenty of cellulase. We’ve actually talked about it- it’s what goes on in the cecum! The bacteria in carnivore ceca, however, is linked to the lymphatic system, not the digestive system.
There’s also the issue of their teeth not being adapted for a plant-based diet or even the way they eat being good at taking in plants- but the same is true for anything that’s not animal carcasses, including kibble and wet dog food. That’s just evidence that defines them as opportunistic carnivores; what makes a vegan diet so bad for dogs is their digestive biology.
There is one exception to this rule, and that is when a vet prescribes a vegan diet for an animal with significant food allergies or other dietary issues. This is not something vets do unless it’s the best course of treatment for the animal.
Veganism isn’t the same thing as being an herbivore. Herbivores don’t have a choice; their bodies aren’t built for eating meat. While they might take in animal protein on occasion (deer, for instance, will eat birds sometimes), their teeth, their digestive systems, and their metabolisms all work together to make eating plants the best way for them to survive. A rabbit’s not a vegan- it’s an herbivore. Only humans can be vegans. To be a vegan is to make a choice; it’s to evaluate your place in the world around you and to renegotiate your relationship with all sorts of things- your own body, the food industry, the people around you, and of course the animals you don’t eat. Responsible vegans understand that humans can thrive on an all-vegetable diet; they know that we evolved to be really, really flexible when it comes to the source of our nutrition. While humans are biologically omnivores, we can make that choice.
A dog can’t, and it’s not humanity’s place to force that on them. There are some pets that thrive on an all-vegetable diet. Rabbits, tortoises, finches, hamsters, snails- but not dogs.
I will never not reblog a post that hits this issue home. The last link in @kaijutegu‘s post is my article on the topic – if you want to argue the point, go read it first and then we can chat.
Freshly developed Mantang Narrow-mouthed Frog (Microhyla borneensis/nephenticola), more commonly known as pea-frog, one of the tiniest frog species in the world.
The truth is, there will always be people who divide the world into ducks and swans. When they do that, they erase the diversity of appearances that exist. We aren’t all ducks or swans. We’re toucans, sparrows, and goldfinches. Some of us are even potoos. We won’t win any beauty pageants but we’re lovable all the same. That variation in us, all our squishy bits and pointy bits and bits that never quite look how we wish they would, is what makes the world interesting. That’s not to say it will always be easy to love, or even tolerate, your belly (or any other body part). There will still be days where you’ll wish you could snap your fingers and look entirely different. But the more ways you learn to love yourself, the easier it will be to shake those days off and concentrate on the magnificent creature you’re becoming.
Luna’s life after Hogwarts is a search for answers, a nonchalant and never-ending travel to find the legends her family had depended upon for years. Forests, jungles, deserts, islands; legends, creatures, plants, facts and fictions; books, oral traditions, sciences, deeply held beliefs.
She finds some of them, doesn’t find others. She travels, she writes, she has adventures, she barters for a night’s stay, she meets people (human and not) all over the world. She falls into brief and beautiful passions. It’s exactly what she wants. Her friends and lovers are always delighted to see her, but never expect her to stay too long. She’s happy: her world is as fluid as her mind.
Rolf, the father of her twins, is one in a long line of lovers of all genders and from all over the world. She loves him, quite a lot, but not in a way that means she’ll stay in one place, or share her boys with him. She’s a wonderful mother, teaching her boys how to fined beauty and answers, how to view the world so pain is learning experience rather than an obstacle. Even when their grandfather Xenophilius dies, Luna is a beacon of calm and wisdom in the middle of what feels to them like a storm.
Lorcan and Lysander travel with her – learn everything they can from her and the people the three of them meet. They live a happy and nomadic life, full of love, respect, and autonomy.
Lorcan chooses not to go to Hogwarts. He stays with Luna, helping her continue her life’s work. He finds purpose in it like she does, but his joy comes in the people they meet, the stories he hears. He loves the ones his mother tells, especially the ones from her mother, but learning new ones is more important to him than school could be.
Lysander, though, does go to Hogwarts. He goes to school while his mother and brother travel the world. It’s the first permanent home he’s ever known, and he revels in the stability. He’s a Hufflepuff, drawn to the home and hearth in the canary yellow house that adopts him as family the night of his first September 1st. His Aunt Ginny is his favorite person in the entire world for most of his life – she is just brave and adventurous and free as his mum, but still sleeps in the same bed each night and never makes her children learn at their own expense.
He never resents Luna, though, never could. Her love and care is more than enough for him, combined with the brick and mortar of Hogwarts…it’s all Lysander Lovegood needs.
1) Put four pills on each side. The heavier side has the pill. Take the four pills from the heavier side.
2) Put two of the potential pills on each side of the scale. The heavier side has the poison pill.
3) Take the two potential pills. Swallow one. If you survive, you are holding the poison pill. If you die, you have eaten the poisoned pill. Either way you will find out which one it is for sure
1) Weigh 6 of them, 3 on each side
2a) If both sides are equal, weigh the 2 you didn’t use before.
2b) If one side was heavier, pick 2 of the 3 and weigh them. Heavier one is poisoned. If they’re even, it’s the 3rd.
Well, all I can say is that we all have our methods and some of us are more willing to take a risk in the name of science
And here we see natural selection at work.
1) eat them all 2) wait for death
1) eat the weighing scale
I mean all three approaches are equally scientific
here is an idea: normalise the idea that adopting kids is a valid option even for parents who could conceive a child themselves, and not just an inferior backup option for parents who can’t
Just coming from an adopted kid, the benefits of adoption: -When your kid asks where they come from you can literally say you pre-ordered them and waited for them to come in. My dad always equated picking me up from the hospital to ordering a sofa at k-mart and it always made me laugh. No need to explain pregnancy till they’re older. -Your child will always know it was wanted and on purpose. My parents waited 5 years for me. They waited. For me to be born. I was wanted, from the moment I came into this world, by the people who raised me. -You don’t have to pay for pregnancy or birth. Just adoption fees. No thirty thousand dollar hospital bill. -You don’t have to give birth, or be pregnant, both of which objectively suck. -The biological parents of that baby will be so happy that there is someone in the world who is willing to watch over their child. The relief that comes with that is overwhelming. -You’re saving a child’s life that would otherwise potentially be stuck in the adoption and foster system for their entire childhood.
I’ve always heard arguments about wanting the baby to be ‘yours’ but really. My parents are my parents. Just because I don’t share their DNA doesn’t mean I’m not theirs. When it comes right down to it, blood of the bond is thicker than water of the womb.
As another adopted kid, I second every point made here. When I’m asked if it’s weird having been adopted, the simple answer I always give is, “No, because I know for damned sure my parents love me and I love them to death too.”
Let a child into your life who needs a good life of their own. Consider adoption.
Also stop believing TV, Kids wanna be adopted and most of them aren’t gonna get with their adopted parents and then be like “well it’s been fun having you raise me since before I could talk and loving me for the past 12-15 years but fuck you now I’m going to find my real family and live with them forever and be a “normal teenager/child.”
America needs to stop putting blood relationships above every other type of family.
Also, as an addition to everything but especially the last point: TELL YOUR KID THEY ARE ADOPTED. The last situation only happens if its kept a secret because it becomes a grass is always greener scenario. If the child knows, it becomes a normal thing.
As a child who was adopted when I was 12, I was totally in support of my adoption. Actually the final hearing was postponed a short while so I could turn 12 & submit my own statement to the judge. I went through so many years of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. I *wanted* someone who *wanted* me. I love my Mama Bear with all my heart. She’s my world. She saved my life.
Consider adopting. There are so many children in the foster & adoption systems that are desperate for a loving home. I’ve also been through the foster system, and it is hell. Straight up. There is no money, too many kids for the system to handle, and social workers who have been so beaten down by the bureaucracy that they don’t try anything. And that is the Canadian system. I cannot imagine what kind of fresh hell the U.S. system is like. Save a child from that. And not only babies are options. Consider it. Please.
I never thought a post about rabies would be re-blogged as many times as it has! I’m glad that people are paying attention and hopefully learning something after reading it. Since that post I have gotten a few questions and am also seeing questions as well as some blatant misinformation in re-blogs so I would like to hopefully clear all of that up.
First let’s make sure we all understand what rabies is. Rabies is a virus, specifically a Lyssavirus. The virus is found all over the world although there are some places where it has been eliminated or never existed in the first place. Australia doesn’t have rabies but it does have a bat Lyssavirus which is similar although they don’t really like to talk about it. Rabies is only really a problem for mammals (we now believe some birds can be infected but let’s not go there). Any mammal can be infected but in the USA there are different varieties of rabies that tend to infect specific mammals based on geographic location. The Eastern U.S. has lots of raccoon rabies, North is skunk, Central/South is skunk and fox, Southwest has fox, and the West is mainly skunk. Puerto Rico is unusual because their main rabies vector is the mongoose. Bats are also rabies reservoirs pretty much everywhere. This does not mean that if you are bitten by a skunk in Puerto Rico you don’t have to worry about rabies, just that a mongoose is more likely a carrier. We in the U.S.A. are lucky. Because of our relative isolation from other land masses and our vaccination campaigns, we don’t worry about rabies so much. In other parts of the world like India or Africa, people are killed by rabies every single day. The biggest carriers there are not wildlife but dogs and cats. Can you imagine? Walking down the street and being bitten by a stray dog and then you’re dead in a few weeks. That happens every single day.
Luckily rabies virus only exists in a few select types of body tissue/excretions, specifically saliva and nervous system tissue. Bites are the main way people and other animals are infected although getting saliva in an open wound or on a mucus membrane could also result in infection. Most people are not going to rub brain or CNS tissue on open wounds so that is not a common route of exposure. Theoretically an animal could have saliva on its claws and then scratch you, infecting you with rabies but this is so far of the realm of probability that a scratch is not usually considered exposure. Blood, urine, and feces do not contain rabies virus.
Once an animal or person is bitten the virus makes its way into a nerve and travels up the nerve toward the brain. This can take weeks or months depending on the location of the bite and the species infected. After the virus gets into the brain and multiplies it will head into the salivary glands. Dogs and cats can have enough virus in the saliva to spread it even before they are showing signs. This is likely the same with other species as well. This means that just because an animal is behaving normally does not mean it isn’t rabid.
Animals tend to manifest rabies in two different ways: “dumb” rabies or furious rabies. With dumb rabies animals seem slow, they will just stare off into space or wander around seeming confused. Furious rabies is where animals become highly aggressive, froth at the mouth, and lose inhibition. Again, behavior is not a great indicator of rabies status and some animals will exhibit some signs but not others.
What happens if a pet is bitten? This really depends on the vaccine status of the animal, the species of animal, and where the pet lives. Generally a dog or a cat that is up to date on rabies will be quarantined for a prescribed amount of time and re-vaccinated. A dog or cat that is overdue for vaccination will be quarantined for a longer period of time and then vaccinated. This quarantine is to make sure if the pet was infected, we give the virus time to show symptoms without being a danger to the public.
Because wild animals have not been studied to see if the rabies vaccine is effective, they are always euthanized and tested for rabies. Even a pet skunk, raccoon, etc. is considered wild and will be euthanized. We just do not know if the rabies vaccine is effective in them and the risk to human life is too great. Even in dogs and cats the rabies vaccine is not always 100% effective.
People that get rabies tend to feel sick, as if they have the flu. This then turns into CNS signs like confusion, aggression, delirium, difficulty sleeping, ataxia, etc. ONCE A PERSON SHOWS SIGNS OF INFECTION THERE IS NO TREATMENT! This is why rabies is such a huge health concern and why we play safe and test animals even if there is a suspicion of infection. People die. That’s it. Let that sink in.
If you are infected with rabies and do not get immediate treatment you will die. There is no alternative. 10 people in the entire world have survived rabies, 8 of those people had been vaccinated against it previously. 2 people without pre-exposure vaccination have survived rabies, in the entire world. And these people are not “normal”, they will have medical problems for their entire lives. The fact that they survived is the closest thing to an honest to goodness miracle that I can think of.
RABIES WILL KILL YOU. YOU WILL DIE IF EXPOSED TO RABIES AND DON’T GO TO THE HOSPITAL.
Ok. So what will happen when you go to the hospital? Many people are afraid of rabies treatment because they have heard it’s an ungodly number of shots into their abdomen and horribly painful. That is not the case but let’s pretend for a moment it is. Let’s say you need 50 injections directly into your abdomen and they hurt a lot. The alternative is death. I think the shots are preferable. In reality, if you have never been vaccinated against rabies here is what happens:
Your wound will be cleaned
You will get an injection of immune globulin
You will get a rabies vaccine (day 0) in your arm
You’ll come back on days 3, 7, and 14 for rabies vaccines
That’s it. 5 total injections spread out over a two week period. None of them given in your abdomen.
If you have previously been vaccinated you will simply get two vaccines, 4 days apart.
It is ridiculous that we even have to discuss paying for life saving medical care, but that is the case here in the USA. As someone who had to pay off an emergency surgery over a decade, I completely understand the fear of medical bills. Again though, the alternative is death. Bills are better than death.
If you have medical insurance your rabies treatment should be covered. If you don’t, you still need the treatment. Bills are better than death. Many hospitals have discount programs if you ask, you will have to fill out lots of paperwork but it will lower the cost. You can also sign up for prescription assistance via https://www.pparx.org/prescription_assistance_programs/sanofi_patient_connection it’s free and it covers the rabies vaccine and immune globulin. Unfortunately the less money you have, the more paperwork you will need to fill out but your life is literally on the line.
Lots to read but I hope that it helps clear up some confusion. Speak to your vet and human physician if you have questions and please, always go get medical help if you are bitten by a wild animal or pet that might have rabies.
@theexoticvet, thanks for throwing out some more basic rabies information! Some stuff I want to add.
Many exotic animals species are vaccinated for rabies off label – pretty much any zoo mammal, for instance, will have had one – but this does not mean they are legally protected and they will still be euthanized if they bite someone. This is something a lot of people are unaware of. The rabies vaccine has not be proven effective by the government for non-domestic animals, which means nobody is not willing to accept the liability if it doesn’t work. There’s a good amount of anecdotal evidence that it does protect exotic animals (from known exposure situations that were quarantined monitored), but this is not a guarantee of safety and does not change the fact that any non-domestic animal must be euthanized and tested, no matter if they were vaccinated off-label or not.
Rabies shots, from what I know of them, contain about 1ml-2ml of fluid. It’s a similar amount of fluid as the intra-muscular birth control injection (depo) – so it’s uncomfortable for a day or so, but not nearly the same as the horror stories you’ve heard about what the shots used to be.
If you’ve encountered a potentially rabid animal, do not try to take care of it yourself. Get anyone who might be nearby further away, call animal control, and keep an eye on it. Animal control will have the correct tools and training to safely capture and contain a rabid animal. Please don’t try to shoot it if you’re somewhere that’s legal – the last thing you want to worry about is exposure to aerosolized brain matter. This is one of those really important times to let the professionals do their job.
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