Abstract

When faced with feeding animal items to their omnivorous dogs and carnivorous cats, people who choose not to eat animal products frequently live with animal friends. Feeding pets a food devoid of animal products—a “plantbased” or “vegan” diet—is one way to resolve this dilemma. It is unknown how many pet owners refrain from feeding their animals any animal products at this time [1, 2]. This study’s goals were to quantify the number of pet owners who avoid feeding their animals meat, pinpoint issues with traditional pet food made from animals and plants, and calculate the number of animals fed a plant-based diet. To gather information on the demographics of pet owners, their diets, the kind of pets they own, their diets, and their worries about pet foods, a questionnaire was distributed online to 3,673 English-speaking pet owners. The findings showed that, compared to the general population, pet owners were more likely to be vegetarians (6.2%; 229/3,673) or vegans (5.8%; 212/3,673). Only vegans (1.6%; 59/3,673) were the only pet owners that fed their animals a plant-based diet, with the exception of one dog owned by a vegetarian [3]. A significant fraction (45%; 269/599) of pet owners who said they were interested in feeding plantbased meals but did not currently do so wanted greater proof of the foods’ nutritional sufficiency. Concerns for the welfare of farm animals were voiced by pet owners more frequently than any other concern (39%; 1,275/3,231) [4].