Lovee, the vegetarian dog

Vegetarian Baby and Child, March-April, 2003 by Carol LaLiberte

(On dogs eating a vegetarian diet). "Such a diet would also greatly reduce the risks of cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and other common diseases and disorders."

Michael W. Fox, D.V.M. (www.vegetariandogs.com)

Lovee is asleep in my lap as I write this, enjoying puppy dreams, perhaps racing around the yard with my five-year-old son Andrew. Lovee is our 7-month-old bichon frise pup. He is a bundle of white curls with jet black eyes and a coal black nose, which is turned up a bit at the end. Sometimes he looks more like a stuffed animal than a real dog. Like all puppies his age, he is playful and mischievous, cuddly and adorable. Unlike most dogs, Lovee is a vegetarian.

We had waited years for a dog and thought it a lost cause. My husband is severely allergic to animals with fur and so when we heard about a hypoallergenic dog, we were skeptical. But we researched bichons and discovered that not only are they hypoallergenic and do not shed, but they make great pets, and love children. The criterion was met: my husband sniff tested the pups at a reputable breeder and did not even have a single sniffle! Lovee was ours to keep. Although I had wanted a dog forever, I didn't realize that things would work out so quickly. We picked up Lovee and had not a thing for him--no place to sleep, no toys, and no vegetarian food. The only food we had was the puppy food the breeder had given us, which was made with chicken.

I ran to the local pet store and asked the clerk where their vegetarian puppy food was. She looked at me dumbfounded. "Dogs can't be vegetarian unless they have allergies or something. Then a pharmacy mixes up their food. Dogs are meat eaters, pure and simple."

I got that same knot in my stomach, the one I got years ago when people would suggest my child would never thrive on a vegetarian diet. I returned home, without any food, and turned to the Internet once again, where I had first learned about this hypoallergenic breed. Indeed, as with my son, I was reassured that there certainly are dogs out there who are vegetarians and, in fact, just like with people, a well balanced diet, high in protein, was better for dogs than Grade K meat. (Humans who are meat-eaters eat Grade A. You can imagine then how poorly nourished meat-eating dogs are.) I read everything I could about what to feed Lovee to make sure he would grow properly. And then I thought about it a bit more. I asked myself if it would be such a bad thing if he ate meat? Would it be better for him? Would it be easier for me? Would it help him to grow and stay healthy?

I asked myself those same questions just before my son was born. And the answers led my husband and me to decide on a vegetarian diet. We have never regretted that decision, and now five years later, my son is healthy, thriving and the best eater of all of his friends.

We considered the current research that says that overweight, poorly fed dogs are also experiencing the same health problems as humans who eat diets high in fat and animal products. It made perfect sense to us. We began to think also about the contradictions for my son if we fed Lovee meat or animal products. What would we tell him? That we do not eat living things but the dog does? It seemed too contrary to the philosophy with which we were raising him. I explained our choices to our son Andrew. He agreed that it sounded better if Lovee was a vegetarian, since we were all in the same family. We ordered our first batch of food from a company called Wow Bow distributors, and after reading through their catalog I was convinced that I was doing the right thing. I read the book Vegetarian Dogs and got lots of helpful ideas. With every step, with each new morsel of information, it became clearer and clearer to me that we were doing the right thing in raising our dog a vegetarian. But it isn't always easy.

We had to tell our veterinarian about our choices. I rehearsed my rebuttals for that first appointment, when I expected to hear her disapproval. I was surprised when she told me she was pleased to discover our emphasis on healthy eating for our puppy. The dog trainer at puppy school tried to be supportive, but always acted as though our dog was missing out on something the other dogs had. She politely asked if we wanted her to rub meat on our veggie treats so Lovee would go for them and be motivated to sit, stay, and whatever else we were teaching him. We told her no, that he loved his peanut butter treats and didn't appear to miss meat at all. Lovee learned all of the basics that the other dogs learned, without being prompted by meat for treats. By the end of the eight weeks, I think the dog trainer learned something new about vegetarian dogs too!

People still raise their eyebrows when we gently tell them to please not give the dog a treat that is meat based, since he is a vegetarian. They continue to tell us that we are jeopardizing his health and that it is natural for dogs to eat meat. After all, dogs are, people often say (as if we didn't know), animals. Since as humans we don't eat humans, I am always a bit confused by that logic. But I am getting used to it now. For more than five years, first when I was pregnant with Andrew and then once he began eating solid foods, I have listened as politely as possible to well-intentioned but easily threatened individuals who tell me that I know nothing of what I am doing and am harming those I love the most by my restrictive dietary practices. I try not to smile. These people know nothing of good health and peaceful philosophy. They have not done the reading or the research that I have done. I do not mean to sound self-righteous for I am not. But often I have found that these well meaning individuals speak f rom a place of cultural comfort, and I am threatening to shake up their comfort zone, their fundamental beliefs, just by living my life outside of the mainstream. They lack the facts and live with fears that are unfounded. For some odd reason, the way that I feed my family, son and dog included, threatens them in a way I find most curious.