archive.today • How Owners Are Putting Their Pets on Human Diets - The New York Times

Karl Malone starts his day with a breakfast that includes ashwagandha root and psyllium husk powder. His dinner is always seasoned with ground turmeric, and then he takes his joint supplements. He goes on two brisk walks daily and avoids restaurant food, as his doctor recommended he lose weight.

Karl Malone is a dog — an 11-year-old sandy-brown Australian shepherd mix.

[...]

The market for what the pet-food industry calls "nutritious pet food" — higher-priced products that claim to contain premium or nutritionally enhanced ingredients — is expected to reach $17.9 billion by 2026, according to a report last year by Pet Insight, an independent analytics company. Pet wellness in general has become an even bigger industry, and has spawned a subset of social media influencers and Facebook groups devoted to refining the diets of all kinds of domesticated animals.

This sentence annoyed me: "Vegetarian diets, he said, are not suitable for most cats because they need animal protein, but can be acceptable for dogs." For NYT pet articles are the words obligate carnivore now taboo?

  • inshallah2 [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    nytimes.com link

    A comment...

    cupla focal

    I work at a public elementary school where eighty percent of the students receive free lunch and breakfast. It is not a choice for them whether they get this free food or not. They would go hungry if they did not get it.

    But the food is highly processed full of salt, sugar and fat. Not high quality at all. I wonder how this must affect the daily ability of these children to learn and their health now and in the future.

    The children are given a few carrot or celery sticks or apple or orange slices with their lunch. But they also get chocolate milk, slushies, fried chicken, very cheesy pizza once a week. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast. You get the idea.

    I worry about the fate of these children. I do not worry so much about my ten year old terrier mix who gets high quality kibble and whatever falls on the floor. She's doing fine. Better than fine. The children of this nation are not.

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    Kb

    About five years ago, I had a conversation with a pet store employee. She told me that a young woman, about 19 or 20, came in asking for vegan kitten food. The employee said there was no such thing, because cats are carnivores. Blank stare. The employee patiently defined carnivore, and the woman, apparently distraught, said she would go elsewhere. Sigh. I still wonder about the fate of that unfortunate kitten.

    By the way, I suspect the dogs are wondering why they can’t have tastier human foods like ice cream and Doritos.