Vegan-Fed Dogs Have ‘Best Health Outcomes’: Australian Researchers

An Australian study has found that dogs fed vegan diets were less likely to fall ill, need medication, or require veterinary visits compared to those given meat.
Researchers from Griffith University looked into the health outcomes of 2,536 dogs and discovered that the vegan-fed dogs were more often assessed as healthy by owners and veterinarians, with reduced rates of illness and health disorders.
Veterinary Professor Andrew Knight said vegan dogs showed the best health outcomes in this major study.
“However, care should always be taken to ensure diets are nutritionally-sound, by checking package labelling and purchasing from reputable pet food companies.”
Out of the 2,536 dogs, 54 percent were fed conventional meat, 33 percent were given raw meat, and 13 percent were provided with a vegan diet.
The researchers looked into the occurrence of 22 separate health disorders impacting the dogs based on veterinary assessments.
“Probabilities of suffering from a disorder respectively appeared highest in dogs fed conventional meat for 11 disorders, raw meat for eight disorders, and vegan diets for three disorders.”
Dogs fed vegan diets were found to have “statistically significant” reductions in the risk of seven general indicators of illness.
“These ranged from 14.4 percent to 51.3 percent compared to dogs fed conventional meat-based diets. For six specific disorders, vegan diets were associated with statistically significant risk reductions of 50 percent –61 percent compared to dogs fed conventional meat,” the scientists said.
“After pooling our results with related studies published to date, vegan dog food was consistently associated with lowered risks of multiple specific health disorders.”
The vegan pet market was valued at US$8.7 billion (A$13.1 billion) globally by 2020 and is predicted to be worth US$15.7 billion by 2028, the scientists noted.
She said while vegan pet diets could have synthetic supplements and nutrients, there isn’t a robust body of evidence to support they are “safe long-term” for feeding pets yet.
Shotton said her advice was to always talk to the vet before changing any aspect of the pet’s diet. Problems could result from all non-traditional diets, including vegan diets, raw meat diets, homemade diets, as well as feeding bones.
“What we know is that your pet needs a balanced diet that is tailored for their age, health, weight, and lifestyle.”
A separate study published by the University of Liverpool also disputed the benefits of a vegan diet for dogs.
Alex German, Professor of Small Animal Medicine, said: “It was evident that the study exclusively relied upon owner survey data and had an observational design.”
“Further, the statistical analyses used did not explore the effect of possible confounding from other variables, such as the age and breed of the dogs and owner variables including age, gender, education, and diet.
“In other words, it was not accurate to conclude that ‘Nutritionally-sound vegan diets are the healthiest and least hazardous choices for owners to feed their pet dogs.’”