By Jed Gillen

Reviewed by Kim Scott, age 14


Jed Gillen's book is for you if you're vegan, but your attitude toward feeding your pets a vegan diet is "I'll think about it." Although it goes in depth about the reasons for feeding your pets a vegan diet, it's not at all boring; it reads more like something by Dave Barry than a philosophy textbook. With lines like "Yes, I realize that a 'cotillion' is a formal ball in which young ladies are presented to society, but it sounds like a really big number, doesn't it?" scattered throughout and a warm, informal tone, this book makes it easy to focus on the issues instead of the reading.

He starts off by telling us that "Yes! It's synthetic." Yes, there's taurine in the vegan cat food, and it's synthetic - and actually, that's the case in meat-based cat food as well. Gillen goes on to make us question our assumptions about what veganism really means. It's not just not eating animal products that makes one vegan; we need to make the right choices regarding our companion animals, too, and not create a hierarchy with our own cats and dogs above the cows and pigs being slaughtered for their food. Whether or not the meat is eventually going to go to a creature incapable of understanding morality is irrelevant, he argues; what matters is the human's decision to give money to the pet food industry.

Gillen responds to many of the major criticisms regarding feeding your pets vegan or vegetarian food, such as "It Ain't Naturel" (besides, meat-based pet foods aren't natural, either) and that you're forcing your morality on your pets (you're making the moral choice your pet cannot). He discusses the health aspects of a vegan diet for your pets in detail and shocks us with what's really in those "meat" kibbles.

If you have pets, or if you'd like to understand more about this aspect of veganism, read this book. It's a great read, and I think the reasoning will win you over too.

Buy this book now!