Vegan diets may be healthiest for dogs
Nutritionally-sound vegan diets are the healthiest and least hazardous for dogs, new research led by the University of Winchester has found.
The ‘Vegan versus meat-based dog food: guardian-reported indicators of health’ study of 2,639 dogs and their owners shows that, considering all general indicators of health, dogs fed conventional meat diets appeared to be less healthy than those fed either a raw meat or a vegan diet.
Dogs fed raw meat diets appeared to fare marginally better than those fed vegan diets. However, the effect sizes were statistically small, in every case. Additionally, the dogs fed raw meat were significantly younger on average, which has been shown to have protective effects, improving health outcomes.
Percentages of dogs in each dietary group considered to have suffered from health disorders were 49% for conventional meat diets, 43% for raw meat diets, and 36% for vegan diets.
Andrew Knight, Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics and Founding Director of the Centre for Animal Welfare at the University of Winchester, said: “Pooled evidence to date from our study and others in this field indicates that the healthiest and least harmful dietary choice for dogs among conventional, raw meat and vegan diets, is a nutritionally-sound vegan diet.
“Vegan diets are among a range of alternative diets being developed to address increasing concerns of consumers about traditional meat-based pet foods, including their environmental ‘pawprint’, their perceived lack of ‘naturalness’, health concerns, or impacts on those animals in the food chain used to formulate such diets.”
Dr Hazel Brown, co-author of the study at the University of Winchester, added: “Alternative diets and pet foods offer benefits to both environmental sustainability and the welfare of farmed animals which are processed into pet foods, but many pet owners worry that they may harm the welfare of pets. There is no evidence that biological and practical challenges in formulating nutritionally adequate canine vegan diets mean their use should not be recommended.”
