Episode Details
Back to Episodes“Is EA sleeping on making dogs and cats vegan?” by Alistair Stewart
Published 2 months, 1 week ago
Description
New paper on plant-based diets for companion dogs and cats: Sustainable Pet Diets: A Leading Effective Altruism Issue.
The paper argues that transitioning companion dogs and cats to plant-based diets is:
- Important – a full global transition would apparently spare around 7 billion land animals each year (and reduce environmental harm, and improve food security).
- Tractable – 13 to 19% of guardians are open to plant-based diets for their dogs/cats if their concerns are addressed, according to two recent surveys.
- Neglected – annual global funding for tranisitioning companion animals to plant-based diets is well below $1m.
If the numbers hold up, the case seems strong! But I'm curious about the counterfactual impact of transitioning companion cats and dogs to plant-based diets, especially given that humans wouldn't eat or use some of the animal-derived food that companion animals are fed. What do people think about that, and how do the numbers and arguments look in general?
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First published:
February 19th, 2026
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.