"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2012-11-24 18:26:30 +0000, said:
In article ,
Sacha wrote:
Interesting, Nick and thank you. On the same lines, a friend of mine,
who was vegetarian for 15 years, had to start eating meat because his
stomach acids were destroying his own stomach lining! Again, his doc
told him that we are intended to be omnivorous for this reason. But
the key here, surely, is that we're talking *omnivorous* for dogs, not
purely vegetarian, so perhaps Tina and Dave's views meet somewhere in
the middle.
Probably, though I have serious difficulty in believing that diagnosis!
Humans have no trouble with an almost entirely vegetarian diet, except
that we need enough animal matter in it (whether caterpillars, meat,
eggs or fish) to avoid anaemia (mainly vitamin B12, but to some extent
iron). A far more likely cause is Helicobacter pylori - and, if the
diagnosis was more than a decade or so ago, that was still largely
unrecognised by the medical profession.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
It was certainly more than a decade ago so you may be right. I've just
remembered that, later, the same person had surgery for a hernia, so
whether the two affected one another, I have no idea. Of course, it
doesn't alter the fact that dogs are omnivorous and not purely vegetarian
by inclination.
I think the key thing here is the word 'omnivorous'.
Both humans and dogs are omnivores.
Which means that they can tolerate a wide variety of food, both animal and
vegetable.
The thing I took very great exception to was Christina's somewhat hysterical
accusation that feeding a dog on a vegetarian diet was tantamount to
cruelty - oh, her words were 'bordering on cruelty'.
She may well hold quite violent views against vegetarianism but if she feels
that feeding omnivores on a vegetarian diet is bordering on cruelty then she
should have the courage of her convictions and publicly campaign against
feeding children on a vegetarian diet.
Or reconsider some perhaps rather hasty words.
Some people who don't agree with vegetarianism may well feel that
vegetarians should not be allowed to impose their views on dogs.
However I know several omnivore dog owners who feed their dogs on a
vegetarian diet because they think that it suits their particular dog, so
the choice of diet is not always because the owner is vegetarian.
The statement that started all this was from Bob H
"She had one client that was a vegetarian and therefor so was her dog, poor
dog was always ravenous, would steal any meat, and suffered digestion
problems which was always cured by the time he went home again only to
re-occur immediately."
My point was (and is) that since dogs can survive quite happily and
healthily on a vegetarian diet then the dog wasn't starving because it was
on a vegetarian diet, but because it wasn't being fed correctly (i.e.
sufficient quantity of a balanced vegetarian diet at the correct time of
day).
Sadly dogs can be starved (and are) on an omnivore or pure meat diet just as
easily.
Cheers
Dave R
--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")