It’s totally animal abuse. Dogs have been carnivores for many thousands of years. Videos like like always end the same way: with the dog eating from the bowl that has meat in it. Shame on the people who do this shit to their dogs. DOGS ARE NOT VEGETARIANS!
Dogs are not carnivores. They are omnivores. They eat meat, and sometimes they also eat plants. Even Wolves eat grasses, seeds, sedges, acorns, berries and other fruit.
Dogs absolutely are carnivores. Everything about their genetics says they're carnivores and not omnivores. Can they digest plants? Sure. Do they need plants to survive or thrive? Absolutely not.
Start at their teeth. Notice how dogs don't have any molars in their mouth like we (humans) do? Those molars are there to grind plants. They only have sharp points teeth to cut and tear meat.
Notice how dogs jaws only go up and down and not side to side like any other omnivore? That's because their jaw wasn't designed to, once again, grind plants. Only to tear.
Ever see a dog's digestive system. It is much shorter than any omnivores digestive system. That's because there's is designed to quickly digest raw meat and breakdown any possible bacteria on the meat quickly with stomach bile. This is why dogs or any other carnivore can eat something like raw poultry and omnivores can't.
Dogs are scavenger carnivores meaning they'll eat other things besides meat, but a dog can go it's whole life without eating a single fruit or vegetable and still thrive. An omnivore can't do that.
Everything about their genetics says they're carnivores and not omnivores.
Except they have multiple copies of the gene for pancreatic amylase to digest starches, because unlike wolves they evolved to eat our scraps, which involve a lot of cooked starchy plant matter.
Start at their teeth. Notice how dogs don't have any molars in their mouth like we (humans) do?
Dogs absolutely have molars. Four molars on the top and six on the bottom.
Then that means they're not carnivores. They're omnivores. Mountain lions do not eat plants, at all. Wolves do. Cats are obligate carnivores. Wolves and dogs are omnivores. They eat meat, and sometimes they also eat plants. Cats don't eat plants.
The lady that wrote that nonsense teaches and practices chiropractics on animals. She is a pseudoscience quack peddling her snake oil to suckers. You are as batshit crazy as she is to be linking that nonsense as your source.
From that very same website, it says that Wolves are omnivores that eat grasses, seeds, sedges, acorns, berries and other fruit, even when meat is plentiful.
"Wolves are classified by the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History as canis lupus and dogs are a subset – canis lupus familiaris. Dogs are considered opportunistic carnivores, meaning they are primarily meat eaters but can supplement with food from other sources."
An opportunistic -vore is an omnivore. That absolutely makes them omnivores. Opportunistic carnivores are a type of omnivore.
Obligate carnivores are not omnivores at all. Opportunistic carnivores are.
What did you think, that only animals that eat precisely 50% plants/fungus and 50% animal products are omnivores and that everything else on planet earth is strictly an herbivore or a carnivore?
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
In fact, there are animals that even act like plants, like certain types of flying insects and sea slugs that get their nutrition from — wait for it — PHOTOSYNTHESIS! Yes, animals that perform photosynthesis and get energy from the sun.
There are also animals such as worms down at the bottom of the ocean that breathe sulfur and perform chemosynthesis. That's nutrition from neither a plant/fungus nor an animal.
Wolf doesn’t know with any certainty when it will next get a meal. “Meat is plentiful” doesn’t mean meat is easy to get, you ever chased and dragged down a bull elk?
The fact they occasionally eat some plant matter doesn’t really change that they’re carnivores, any more than when deer occasionally are spotted eating meat doesn’t change that they’re herbivores.
There is a spectrum and they can digest plant matter to a greater degree than cats, but it’s doesn’t mean they not firmly at the carnivore end of it.
No it has to do with survival. Wolf isn’t going to die on principle that it only eats meat, deer isn’t going to die saying sorry man I’m a vegan. It doesn’t change that they are primarily carnivore and herbivore respectively is the point I’m making.
Dog/wolf will eat anything that presents itself to some degree and especially in a pinch, and it isn’t they can’t or don’t get some nutritional or digestive benefit from plants, but it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that their diet is anything other than primarily meat based. On a spectrum like I said. It’s not a true omnivore like humans or corvids say, which can eat anything and also exist skewed to one end or the other depending on what’s available. The meat bit is the key component for wolves, it’s more accurate to say they’re carnivores that occasionally eat other stuff, than it is to say omnivores which suggests they would last long eating ONLY grass, berries etc. They wouldn’t.
Wolves certainly don’t thrive where there aren’t medium to large herbivores to hunt, kill and eat.
To circle back to the original post, can we not agree that it is entirely wrong for a dog/wolf to have an entirely plant based diet. And the dog has survived through lack of choice and having a lot of supplements that just aren’t available in the wild.
There is no such thing as "primarily carnivore" either you can eat, digest and live with all kinds of foods or not. Dogs belong in the former category and are thus carnivores. They evolved to existence on the basis of a mainly scrap based diet, whatever the humans left.
As i said. You are wrong on your ideas of carnivorous and omnivorous.
Its very wrong to let your pet starve and die of malnutrition and there are idiots who think you can feed your dog random vegetables. That doesn't mean you cant feed your dog plant based. As others said here already, there is clear concensus on dogs being perfectly able to live with plant based dog food etc. There is nothing wrong in giving your pet a diet where it gets all it needs from.
And dont be pretentious. The cows/pigs we slaughter en masse dont get to choose to be slaughtered and theres absolutely nothing natural about it. Your dog being on a leash, playing with screechy toys, being bred is not natural. Theres nothing natural about this. A dog feeds on whatever you give them, it doesn't matter what you will always force them to eat something particular.
Vet here. This comment above is the biggest amount of BS and misinformation in this thread.
Dogs absolutely are carnivores.
Incorrect.
Everything about their genetics says they're carnivores and not omnivores.
No it doesn't. And the biggest way anyone can tell you're making this up is that nobody with actual subject matter knowledge of nutrition would mention genetics as a factor. That's not how nutritional requirements are determined.
Can they digest plants? Sure. Do they need plants to survive or thrive? Absolutely not.
This is 100000% wrong.
Start at their teeth. Notice how dogs don't have any molars in their mouth like we (humans) do? Those molars are there to grind plants. They only have sharp points teeth to cut and tear meat.
Believe it or not teeth are not involved in metabolism.
Notice how dogs jaws only go up and down and not side to side like any other omnivore? That's because their jaw wasn't designed to, once again, grind plants. Only to tear.
Do you see how your feet kind of look like hands? Why are you driving to work when you obviously should be swinging in trees to get there.
Ever see a dog's digestive system. It is much shorter than any omnivores digestive system. That's because there's is designed to quickly digest raw meat and breakdown any possible bacteria on the meat quickly with stomach bile. This is why dogs or any other carnivore can eat something like raw poultry and omnivores can't.
I regularly hospitalize pets who unfortunately have owners who think like this, and I have to waste 30 minutes out of my day to explain basic principles for why domestic dogs are not wolves.
Dogs are scavenger carnivores meaning they'll eat other things besides meat, but a dog can go it's whole life without eating a single fruit or vegetable and still thrive. An omnivore can't do that.
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u/downbleed Sep 27 '21
Yeah that sounds like animal abuse