Cats kill over a billion birds a year, if you own a cat you must keep it in doors. If a cat is not sleeping it is hunting.

And all you dog loving vegans out there with neurotic dogs that bark all day when you are gone.
for the little pleasure you get from your dog, your are disturbing everyone’s piece and quite.
To few people who are actually in charge of their dog, not the other way around, thank you

I’m a strict vegetarian attempting to do a vegan life style but i adopt a lot of homeless pets cats, dogs, birds, and reptiles. and all but the birds eat meat and even the birds need eggs in there diet. so i don’t think i can ever consider my self a vegan as i buy foods and products for my animals that are animal based though i do not consume any of it.

1) Domestication is not a finality that happened 10 000 years ago or so. Animals are being domesticated every day with the very same techniques that were used from the very beginning. It is an ongoing process. If you stopped controlling them for a while, your nicely civilized and subdued pets would revert back to some of their less-welcome natural habits before you knew it. This is not to say, however, that they could survive on their own. Some rare ones do, but because they are so denatured, most cannot. So it would be absurd to set them free on principle. Also, this would cause insurmountable environmental problems for our own species. However, if collectively we chose to stop buying into it, domestication would cease to exist. It’s a simple question of supply and demand. And this is true for all catgories of animal use including pets.

2) Pets are not truly pampered as most people presuppose according to their own anthropocentric criteria. The world doesn’t begin and stop at one’s doorstep. Some pets are better treated than others, whatever that means, but unless you look at the big picture and take into account the issue as a whole you are blind to the true nature of this very subtle form of exploitation. Here are a few of these aspects taken from a very thick file: the making of pets (factory farms are just one aspect), the legal and illegal trade of exotic and more familiar pet species (counless species are subjected to ferocious trade), genetic diseases due to intensive breeding (this represents millions of dollars of veterinary care), food related diseases (most of pet diseases are from iadequate diet), anatomical deformities (countless breeds are disfigured for esthetic reasons), psychologial effects of captivity (animal psychology right now is the most sucessful branch of the pet industry), the physical conditions of captivity, surgical mutilations (declawing, spaying, tail docking, ear triming, anal gland removal and their complications), medical anthropomorphism (the animal medical care fallacy viewed from the animal’s cognitive perspective is a form of abuse), vaccination mania, effects of domestication in general on health and longevity, the disease of euthanasia, etc.

3) Sometimes it’s cruel to be kind. We use various shows of affection to cover up the fact that we are actually using pets just for fun, to make our lives less dull and fastidious and to create wealth and jobs. But this is another con job.

4) Categorization of the issues. Also, I think it’s a mistake to categorize the animal condition. It’s much more efficient, energy-wise, to treat the problem as a whole. While you are busy defending Chinese dogs or chickens, you are not dealing with what you yourself are innocently doing in your own backyard. For me, the pet link is the strongest of the chain. It is where our efforts should be concentrated to blow this whole thing apart, but it is where we put the least amount of effort, I suppose because it looks so innocent on the surface. If activists actually acknowledged this, the whole chain of exploitation would crumble in no time. But the large majority of animal protectors and their leaders have pets and refuse to make the link between our use of pets and our use of other animals. Most of these protection outfits actually get their funding from pet owners who are under the impression that enslaving a pet for one’s comfort and pleasure is rather virtuous. Those held responsible for the pitiful animal condition are mostly far from home, at farms and laboratories and in foreign countries. There’s a lot of bad faith involved. Like the saying goes, no mask is more dangerous than the one of virtue.

5) Nature cannot be used as a moral justification for our behavior. We find everything in nature, from stealing to infanticide. In other words, if we looked to the natural world to answer our ethical quandaries, any behavior could be justified.

6) Adoption from a shelter is certainly a more conscientious way of exploiting a pet, but unless we also deal with the core issues, it just feeds the problem viciously. Puppy mills and lack of sterilization are not the root causes of the surplus pet problem. And we are all accessories to the fact the very instant we get a pet, no matter where we get it and how we treat it. Animals are certainly paying the toll. Millions of unwanted pets are destroyed each year by the mushrooming business of pounds and recycling outfits in disguise, euphemistically called “animal shelters” or “humane societies.” And millions of others are cruelly exploited under the auspices of kindness.
For every animal saved, countless others are handed a death sentence, or worse. Every animal on a leash, or lavishly displayed on the PETA website or on the cover of one of Ingrid Newkirk’s many books on pets for instance, is a publicity board which implicitly states: “The exploitation of others (nature, people, and animals) for our sole pleasure and comfort is morally right, natural, legitimate, and irrevocable.”
Is it really the case though?
And if not, when will we change?
How many animals must we adopt, how many more studies, forums, laws, reforms, protests, and campaigns must we orchestrate before we realize that what we are doing to pets is not better than what we are doing to laboratory animals, farm animals, zoo animals and the like?
To paraphrase Patrick West, author of Conspicuous Compassio11, a book I strongly recommend to any would-be animal lover, if you do genuinely care about animals, don’t just adopt an animal, become a vegetarian, wear an empathy ribbon, or give money to a pound or PETA. If you want to stop animal abuse, leave your ego at home, get to know yourself a little better, ask yourself why you really need an animal, and more important, consider your motives for helping them, and the real consequences of your words and actions. Most of all, next time you profess that you care about animals, try to look at the facts behind the good intentions. More often than not, the only animal you really care about… is yourself.

I could go on for pages…

Former longtime veterinarian

Charles Danten

to be vegan is to STRIVE to avoid the use of animal products, directly or indirectly. just because a vegan takes a taxi that has leather seats is he a hypocrite? sure why not. but who cares? just like any ol religion or creed or belief or political association, veganism is not being on or off, it’s a set of goals that we STRIVE to fulfill.

only an idiot starts splitting hairs when it comes to the taxi scenario above. but still I agree, yes I’m a hypocrite, but every morning I wake up to strive for the goals I value.

people who dislike vegans or any belief system of any sort like to point out flaws and shortcomings and then claim that because of that “you’re not a X”. go fly a kite, my friend.

anyway, back on track: I don’t think vegans should have carnivorous pets, adopted or bought, because there is a huge pet food industry that uses animal products behind that little cutie. even if you rescue fluffy from the pound, you are increasing demand for more pets, and therefore more pet food products.

it’s just one degree of separation from saying “I might aswell eat this burger, the cow is already dead”

People don’t get spayed and neutered for contraceptive purposes. Women have tubal ligations, they don’t have their ovaries removed. A man may choose to have a vasectomy, he doesn’t get castrated! That’s what spaying and neutering means. It is the barbaric, total mutilation of an animal to prevent breeding by the most cruel and extreme measure possible, short of simply killing the animal. I’ve spoken with vets who say that pets will be “happier” that way! I guess those vets must have run out to thier doctors to have their balls chopped off so they could be happy, too!

Some argue that they don’t like the idea of their animals having sexual urges, they find it unseemly or it offends their sense of morality. This hateful intolerance of an animal’s true, honest nature is disgusting. As a man, I would rather be killed and eaten by my non-human enemy than to be castrated and forced to live a life of utterly submissive servitude licking the hand that force feeds me a stinking dead squirrel or whatever a member of that cruel species dictates. Honestly, just because it’s legal to cruelly castrate a dog or cat to force your sexual morality or control over it, and to forcibly constrain its food consumption to an unnatural state, that doesnt’ make it right. Yet it’s legal and very commonly done, just as it is common to force feed pigs in feed lots, constrained knee deep in their own excrement and then kill them and eat them.

Let’s say I can get it that a proper vegan wouldn’t sheer their sheep to produce wool clothing, eat the unfertilized egg of a chicken to sustain themselves, or consume the milk of a cow because it exploits the animal even though no physical harm is done… So why would any vegan find it acceptable to cruelly mutilate a pet animal for convenience, for “morality”, or to change an animals innate drives, behaviors or moods? Indeed, with effort you may find a vet who will provide a tubal ligation or vasectomy for your pet, but most vets will think you’re a crazy nut for caring about the animal’s “rights or feelings”. The same vet probably just artificially inseminated a sow in a farrowing cage, a cage just big enough to stand up and lay down in, but not to turn around or to resist having a a loaded dildo shoved into her so she can give birth to another generation of piglets, never leaving that tiny cage. It’s commonly done, so it must be right, right?

I am not a vegan, but I do care deeply for animals. I find it ridiculous that any vegan would go so far as to so completely mutilate a pet and destroy its nature to force it to conform to an unnatural life. If you hate the animal that much, why have it as a pet?

Also, the idea of not buying from breeders is a bit of a paradox. Purchasing pets from breeders encourages inhumane or questionable breeding practices, no doubt about it. But the animals that they already bred need good homes, too. Just because they were born under the wrong circumstances, that doesn’t mean they should die that way as well, as an example to humans. The only viable solution is for inhumane breeders to grow a conscience. call me when that happens.

I just cannot morally embrace the idea of helping fund animal agribusiness in any way, shape, or form. I don’t believe that a cat or a dog has any more inherent right to have comfort and love than a cow, pig, horse, chicken, sheep, goat, etc… So, I cannot rectify this dilemma in a satisfactory way for peace of mind as I contemplate buying any animal products, even for companion animals. Yes, AA does largely exist for human comsumption of its meat products…but if you are still buying from them, it’s blood money….It’s additional money we are putting into the most cruel and inhumane corporate business in the world which is not only astronomically cruel, but contributes to environmental degradation and unhealthy living all-around, not to mention what it does to wildlife and even to native peoples. I know we are not all perfect, even though we are vegans who do so much good for animals in general, but we grasp that we all can do so much more if we really try our utmost. I can only put my energies into what I believe in and fight for animal rights… I try not to be too judgemental and hard on my fellow vegans, and I hope to get the same treatment. We can point out irregularities and voice our opinions respectfully, though. It has been interesting to read the comments.