The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has ended its opposition to (nutritionally-sound) vegan diets for dogs. Until recently, its opposition was regularly reported. However, the BVA also has a corporate partnership with Mars Petcare, which makes large sums from selling meat-based pet foods. Stated Andrew Knight, veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare: “The Mars-BVA partnership represents a significant conflict of interest. Veterinary associations have a responsibility to ensure their positions are evidence-based, up-to-date and not influenced by conflicts of interest.
Following such critique, in 2023 the BVA ceased its public statements opposing vegan pet food and established a working group to review its position on companion animal diets, including vegan diets.
And on 24th July 2024, the BVA ended its opposition to (nutritionally-sound) vegan dog diets, publishing an article and policy position on pet diet choices. The new policy confirmed that: “It is possible to feed dogs a plant-based diet…”. It did not attempt to determine the ‘best’ diet for individual pets but rather, “focuses on supporting pet owners to ensure they are meeting their pets’ nutritional needs as well as meeting their own lifestyle choices.”
Pet guardians have been keen to adopt vegan pet diets. The BVA noted that 42% of companion animal vets reported they had clients who feed meat-free diets. The switch to such diets is being driven by concerns about the health, environmental, and food animal welfare impacts of meat-based diets. Considering pet health, by mid 2024, 10 studies in dogs and three in cats had demonstrated equivalent or superior health outcomes using (nutritionally-sound) vegan or vegetarian diets. These included large-scale studies, studies using veterinary clinical examinations, diagnostic tests and laboratory data, and studies reporting veterinary health assessments, as well as owner opinions (which were recently found to be uninfluenced by diet choice, also increasing confidence in their reliability).
When considering environmental benefits, the key study in this field recently found that a global transition toward nutritionally-sound vegan diets for the 471 million pet dogs and 373 million pet cats owned worldwide in 2018, would provide major environmental benefits. If all pet dogs were transitioned, it would save more greenhouse gases than produced by the entire UK. If all pet cats were transitioned, sufficient food energy could be saved to feed 70 million people – more the entire UK population. Transitioning pet dogs would allow 450 million people to be fed – greater than the entire EU population. And around seven billion farmed land animals would be spared from slaughter annually, or 9% of the global total, with significantly higher proportions in countries with high pet ownership, such as the UK or US.
Stated Prof. Knight: “It is commendable that the BVA has finally ended its unscientific opposition to (nutritionally-sound) vegan dog diets and has noted the environmental benefits that plant-based ingredients may provide. It is now up to international veterinary associations to follow suit.” Further information is provided at Prof. Knight’s website.
Contact Information
Andrew Knight
Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare
andrew.knight@murdoch.edu.au
SOURCE: Prof. Andrew Knight
