Interesting dilemma. I had a friend who cooked vegetarian meals for his dogs every day, largely because of dietary issues, not green/sustainable issues.

I'm mostly vegan. I have 2 cats and 2 rabbits plus foster rabbits (sometimes only 1, sometimes 2 or 3). The rabbits are easy to feed in a way that seems ethical to me because I buy them the same veggies that I eat myself.

The cats are another story. I have them on a grain-free diet, but like you, I doubt the meat used to make their food is ethically raised. I think it would be cruel to feed obligate carnivores a vegetarian diet, but I do hope to move to a raw diet for them once I live near my sister. She is a vegetarian as well, but she feeds her dogs raw meat that she gets from a butcher. The health of her dogs improved greatly when she put them on a raw diet.

I always advocate that vegetarians who don't already have pets consider getting something other than a dog or a cat. Rabbits, birds, hamsters, guinea pigs etc. can make great pets and there are organizations that rescue them all so don't go to a pet store!

I am a vegetarian and though I don't have pets, I wouldn't make them vegetarian if I did. That's where I draw the line between my personal dietary choice and messing with another animal's diet. Like if I was a zoo keeper, I wouldn't consider making all the carnivorous or omni animals into vegetarians.

I think you can extend a green lifestyle to your pets that still keeps them as the dogs or cats that they are. But that's a personal choice you can only make. Maybe it's time to revisit what other types of animal based protein your dog can handle and what green options there are. Perhaps you'll find a balance of meat, grains, and veggies your dog can tolerate so her diet doesn't need to consist solely of salmon.

It's worth noting that the grade of meat going into pet food is probably not the same grade that goes into grocery stores. So humans choosing not to eat meat likely has a larger impact than choosing not to feed your pets meat.

I struggle all the time. In fact, there's a review of Eating Animals in this/last week's New Yorker that struck me because the writer kind of ended on the point that nearly everything we do hurts some other being. It's overwhelming.

When I go down that road (is it beneficial to have these online discussions, or would it be better to save energy by *not having the computer on at all*), OR when I think about how much mental energy I spend weighing stupid daily decisions (should I recycle that jar or SAVE it because I might be able to REUSE it??) and how little effect they have in the scheme of things (what's one reusable bag compared with all the paper my company goes through every day?) I want to give up altogether and just live my life without guilt.

I am vegan and healthy. My dogs are vegan and healthy. It's easier for me intellectually to just opt out of the whole meat/fish/dairy thing than to try to justify this use or that, and trying to make compromises by not feeding your pets meat and/or fish feels to me like ignoring the larger issue. There's no widespread, environmentally sound way to eat animal products regularly in our culture.

Ha, I just realized that I said a silly thing - my dogs can't really be "vegan" because they're, well, dogs. I meant to say that I feed them a plant-based diet with no animal products.

I would love to feed my cats raw, local, but my budget does not allow for that at the time. So I have researched and am very satisfied with a local (for me) pet food company that is quite well known for their use of local and free ranged meat
http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/about/ourStory.aspx
I think its very important for cats especially to have a carnivore diet, they just are not built to process vegetation. My oldest cat had some major issues before I switched to a meat diet, he is now completely happy and healthy

My sister races her dogs and has them on a raw diet, they are the healthiest animals I've ever seen. She supplements their diet with beans and blueberries.

I guess I should state that I'm an omnivore, but even if I was a vegetarian, I would want my pets to eat what they were meant to eat.

I've been thinking about the whole idea of "kind of green" lately. It's easy to be kind of green at home by switching to certain products, using less water, etc. It can make us feel good and we can gauge how much water and electricity we've saved and how much we've recycled compared to how much we've trashed.

I've really been thinking about the subject as it relates to business, particularly one like a restaurant. A co-worker brought up the idea of taking some steps to become more eco friendly behind the bar. I look forward to having this conversation with him and the management in the future not just to see what changes are made but to see the reaction and the position of the decision makers on the subject. It got me thinking--in business, are you making a difference if you have one foot in and one foot out of the sustainability/green/eco-friendly world or is it just like at home where we take small steps with the hope of making a difference?

As far as eating meat, in my opinion, as long as it's conventionally processed, it's not unlike most other things that get produced at a factory--food and non-food. There's waste in the form of trash, by-product and emissions. There are environmental scientists at every plant for every product to monitor and mitigate environmental damage and to sweet talk environmental agencies. American meat feeds the world. That fact is real. How we get that done needs a lot of work. But just think about the amount (still on the subject of food) of garbage, meat or non-meat, candy for instance--empty calories that is industrially processed for human consumption. Think about the packaging, the corn syrup, the factory farmed dairy or in the case of meat garbage food--meat that is processed for some of these things.

We all want stuff and we all want to be happy and we don't like the idea of hurting our environment in the process. We'll know how far we're willing to go I guess when create a list of things we don't agree with and cut them out of our lives. Back to restaurants--is it as simple as replacing beverage napkins with recycled fiber beverage napkins? Or is it better to use coasters? Or neither?

On the subject of pets, there are many people who believe that idea of owning pets is cruel--I don't believe that to be true. I think some people shouldn't have pets but if they are taken away, where do they go? This is an argument against supporting a system of neglect and animal cruelty. Here I go babbling again. I am babbling when I could be making a difference.

I'm curious if you read to the end of the Omnivore's Dilemma? Because I really didn't see that book as necessarily advocating a meatless diet, so much as a thoughtful one, and the final chapters were quite critical of one-size-fits-all vegetarianism.

For myself, especially as northerner, reintroducting (locally produced) meat, in particular the wild game my relatives hunt and share with me, was a far greener choice than eating soy-based protein products which cannot grow in my climate, and are hurting natural habitats elsewhere by radically increasing demand for monoculture soy crops. Farmers' markets of any size will sell sustainably produced, ethically harvested meat products.

Animals have very specific dietary requirements, and it's probably best to look for food that's responsibly sourced but still meets their nutrition needs. Dogs are omnivores (like humans) and cats are primarily carnivores. Denying this will lead to poor health for your animals, and it's not necessarily greener. My cats eat Orijen, which is made from sustainably harvested fish and chicken.

Kuri, you make some good points. I probably wouldn't feed cats a vegan diet, I don't eat soy-based products, and I do buy all my produce at local farmers' markets, but there are some beans and grains I buy that I know aren't grown locally.

However, I think most people who eat meat will (knowingly or unknowingly, if they ever go out to eat or eat with friends or family) consume meat that has been raised far away in factory farms. And I'm pretty sure that animals raised for food, not people and pets becoming vegetarian and drowning themselves in tofu, have radically increased demand for soybeans, as well as corn and even small ocean fish, the harvesting of all of which has destroyed plenty of natural habitats.

The bottom line is that it's doable and healthy for people, and sometimes pets, to live without animal products, and personally, I couldn't really think of a good reason not to. My dogs certainly don't care; they go crazy for lentils and now I'm actually paying attention to what nutrients they're getting when I make their meals.

There is no such thing as "mostly vegan". You are a vegan, or you arent.

I am a vegan and feed my dog a plant-based diet. My son has made the decision to be vegetarian, but he always eats vegan at home. I know that my choice to eat a plant-based diet made up of mostly local and organic produce and reducing the amount of processed and packaged foods I eat has greater impact on the environment than any other steps I could make. I don't believe there is a line when it comes to being "green". The fact is that our planet is hurting and we're at a point where serious action needs to be taken. Yes, it's overwhelming to think about, but we can't give up. It's about making conscious decisions everyday and taking small steps. I didn't become vegan overnight, it was a process of learning and adapting. Once you start making green choices, it just gets easier.

I had a twinge of guilt when we got our second cat, then reasoned that I'm in my late 30's and my partner in his early 40's and we've got no plans for children. There does exist a balance in our lifestyle even though we have chosen the luxury of companion animals. We stick to "natural" and "organic" cat food, though of course I think that is a label that does not necessarily mean what I would like it to mean anymore, and I don't hold that I am making a green choice when I purchase them. For ourselves, we buy our animal products locally--eggs, goat milk, and stock a freezer with meat from small, local farmers within an hour's drive from where we live (try Googling "local harvest"!). The only conventional animal products that we purchase are butter and cheese. We garden and purchase our produce locally. We bake our own bread, avoid processed foods, and save the restaurants for special occasions. And we feed our cats what they nutritionally need. The essential cessation of industrial animal products for us, and the fact that we are only two, more makes me feel very comfortable about the food that we provide our pets.

"I probably wouldn't feed cats a vegan diet"

That's good, because you'll end up with a very sick cat if you do. Dogs apparently do okay on a vegetarian diet (I wouldn't try it personally, because it's not the diet they evolved to eat, and so I don't believe you can achieve optimum health for them on it). Taurine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurine) is absolutely essential in a cat's diet - without it they will go blind and die. It's only found in animal tissue.

Both dogs and particualrly cats have short intestines and can't extract the calories from carbohydrates very effectively. They evolved eating raw meat, not commercial dog food, not a vegetarian diet and certainly not a vegan diet. If you want to feed your pet a vegan diet, get a rabbit.

All this talk about forcing vegetarianism on dogs and cats makes me cringe. I am a lifelong vegetarian (that's right, I've never eaten meat) but I would never dream of feeding my three cats a plant-based diet. Cats are obligate carnivores. Please, please please do not attempt to convert your cat to vegetarianism. My understanding is that dogs may be better suited to a plant-based diet, but I wouldn't risk it.

I sometimes feel guilty about the amount of soiled kitty litter that I throw into the garbage. Unfortunately, this is the safest way to dispose of cat waste.

As a vet student I think you're right not to change your dog's diet, especially since he already has dietary issues-if he's healthy on that then why rock the boat? I suppose you could try and find a better source of salmon but I doubt he would react well to a vegetarian diet with his current problems.

I would like to second the points on DEFINITELY not making cats go vegetarian-I'm not keen on it for dogs but cats are obligate carnivores and there are amino acids in meat that cats cannot create (unlike us) within their bodies.

For people who already are vegetarian and want a pet, why not think about getting a herbivore pet rather than forcing an omnivore to eat like you/having to handle all that meat just for your pet? I'm not vegetarian but I do have 2 rabbits and I think they're much greener pets-they eat a lot of my green scraps (like broccoli stalks) that would otherwise go in the bin. All their food is grown locally (i buy it from my local grocers), I only eat local meat (in small amounts) from my butcher and I wouldn't feel right giving a dog factory farmed tinned dog food but would get bankrupted feeding it from the butchers!

I'm a vegitarian 80% of the time, i have a dog and 13 chickens and no they are not for food. If i could afford it i would go strictly vegitarian and this month my entire family are going to try it.
We are thinking about going local and doing 90% of the 100 mile diet challenge but we are not sure yet. There are over 150 farms within 100 miles of my house so it's quite feasible.

My husband and I are both vegetarians. We were vegan for a year but didn't particularly enjoy it and didn't feel that we were being that much more eco-friendly, as a lot of the supplements and things we had to buy extra sort of counterbalanced our efforts. While for most people a vegan diet may be more healthy and more environmentally friendly, my health issues just didn't let me stick with it. Our dog is fed a vegetarian diet and has been on this diet since he was a puppy. He is healthy and eats vegetarian dog kibble, broccoli, green beans, and sometimes other veggies or fruit. When we buy treats for him, we find the peanut butter or cheese flavored ones that are not meat-based.

We try to "green" other areas of our lifestyle as well, but sometimes these efforts end up in epic fail - due to my husband's job situation, we are forced to live in a rental. We do try to recycle, use LEDs or CFLs, etc. We also tend to lean toward restaurants that are family-run businesses and use local and/or organic produce. We got rid of our gas-guzzling beast and switched to a more fuel efficient car. We also use central heat sparingly, try to keep a paperless home, use cloths instead of papertowels and hankies instead of tissues, etc.

I am a bow hunter and eat the meat I hunt. Other than that I will not eat any animal products at all. It started as an ethics thing, and then I was willing to eat certain animal products if I knew the farm they came from and considered that farm to treat their animals well. But the environmental concerns have made me far more strict.

My husband and I are vegan, and when we found a cat on the street who seemed to want to live with us, we had a major dilemma on our hands. Or so we thought. We read a book called "Obligate Carnivore?" whose basic point is that cats need nutrients found in meat, and those nutrients can come from other sources that vegan cat food manufacturers have added to their food. So now we have a happy vegan cat. Her food contains taurine and arachidonic acid, and she eats it with gusto. So, never say never.