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THE PROBLEM There are hundreds of brands and varieties of cat foods available today from companies such as Science Diet, IAMS, Eukanuba, Purina, Pedigree, Waltham, Nutro-Max, 9-Lives, Sheeba, Wysong, etc. The vast majority of meat-based cat food companies includes some amount of slaughterhouse waste, sick and diseased animals, road kill, euthanized veterinary and shelter animals, insecticides, natural and artificial toxins, flea collars, cross-species hormones, antibiotics, plastic and other non-human food substances, as part of the product they market. Non-edible waste products from the human food industry, ends up in the food you feed your dearest companions. Think about it. Your cat is probably ingesting parts from diseased, disabled, or dead animals, including the sodium pentobarbital drugs specifically utilized to kill animals. The harmful effects from your current cat food can take 10 years or more to materialize and devastate your family. Cats are carnivores and must eat meat to survive, right? Yes and No. Wild cats are indeed obligate carnivores, but our domesticated cats have had their diets far removed from their natural food source. Read the ingredients list of any cat food and see how much meat is actually in the product. The main ingredients are usually grains. Meat by-products, yes. Meat digest, yes. Meat meal, yes. Meat, rarely. Cats need Taurine for good health. Correct. Taurine is an essential amino acid found naturally in animals but not in vegetables. Taurine is part of every cat food product that meets AAFCO standards for nutritional completeness. The animals who die for their by-products to make cat food, in veritably lead a life of misery and abuse. Their suffering is part of every bowl of cat food you feed your cat. Every time you purchase one of these products, you vote with your dollars in support of animal cruelty for both the slaughtered animals and your companions. THE SOLUTION Your cat should only be fed small animals which they can hunt, kill, and eat on their own. Aside from this natural diet, a commercial product should contain no animal by-products, meals, or digests as an ingredient, to protect your cat's health. Most commercial cat foods use primarily vegetarian ingredients, grains for the most part. Animal fats sprayed on this otherwise vegetarian product, adds palatability. The animal fats are dangerous and should be replaced by vegetable sources. There are perfectly good vegetable sources of ingredients which can easily substitute for the animal garbage typical in most meat-based cat foods. A vegetable-based commercial cat food is far less likely to harm your cat than the meat-based food you may be currently using. A vegetarian cat food has special considerations. For cats susceptible to FLUTD or other urinary disorders, an acidifier is added to the product. The same acidifier is used in meat-based products designed for the special diets of neutered male cats. Sufficient water ingestion is the best solution to FLUTD susceptibility. Preformed Vitamin A and Arachadonic Acid must be added since these nutrients are naturally found in meat and not in vegetables. Both nutrients are synthesized artificially, and serve the same function. Taurine is a synthetic nutrient which has been manufactured since 1930. Commercial meat-based cat food manufacturers utilize the same synthetic Taurine because the meat digest rendering process neutralizes the naturally-occurring Taurine. No animal is required to die or suffer abuse and pain when you feed your companion cat a vegetarian diet. Yes your cat is designed as a carnivore, but unless you are prepared to provide your cat with fresh live prey on a daily basis, the commercial meat-based cat food is not the solution. Thousands of cats around the world now enjoy the many benefits of a cruelty-free, healthy, safe vegan diet. THE PRODUCT There are two commercial vegetable-based products which provide proper nutrition for your cat. Evolution manufactures a fully prepared kibble, ready-to-eat out of the bag. It is low cost and easy to use. However, from personal experience, we can not recommend this product for male cats, due to the manufacturer's inability to maintain quality control to yield a target pH of 6.5 as promised. For those requiring a wet product, Evolution also produces a canned product with the same ease of use at a reasonable cost. We believe the Evolution product is safe for female cats. Another product called Vegecat contains all the nutritional ingredients required for sustaining feline health, but requires an investment in both time and other ingredients to make your own cat food. Vegecat, a cat food supplement, is mixed with a number of different grain products, is formed into small pieces, and baked to provide a complete kibble food product for your cat. Some experimentation is required to find the right combination of ingredients that your cat likes to eat. Vegepet, the manufacturer, provides a number of nutritionally complete recipes for your use. In addition, several of the recipes make a wet food product that works well for many cats. The advantage is in the flexibility to adjust the content of your cat food from time to time. Our personal experience is that this product is in fact safe for both male and female cats. Many people find the convenience, cost, and palatability of the Evolution kibble to be the vegan food of choice. Some prefer the canned Evolution product for its moisture content. Not nearly as convenient but probably nutritionally better for your cats, we would recommend the vegecat product because of it superior level of manufacturing quality control. Because of the dehydrating effects and gastrointestinal issues associated with the consumption of dry food, we highly recommend that ALL cats consume ONLY a wet food product. THE OFFER The folks at the Vegan Cat Institute are concerned about how animals are used and abused by people. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you already avoid animal products for one or more reasons. If you have a cat and are not feeding Evolution or Vegecat, you are still contributing to the animal industry. Your cat's health and safety is paramount. If you weigh the risks and benefits between commercial meat-based and vegetable-based cat foods, you may conclude that it is time to stop supporting the animal cruelty business with your cat food dollars. Vegan Cat Institute wants to help you with this process. We are an educational resource on issues pertaining to vegan cats. For further information about moving your cat to a vegan diet and the entire issue of dangerous meat-based cat foods, we invite you to our web site at: IxaMall.com/VCI
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