There are lots of reasons not to feed your pets human food. And some folks have a hard-and-fast rule about it. What a change from when I was a kid. Farm dogs never got ‘dog food’ at all. And many urban dogs got only human leftovers…
“Yah, well…” I hear you saying, with a superior tone in your voice. “Folks didn’t know then what we know now about animal nutrition.” True. And that was also a time when many dogs lived outside year-round, sheltering in ‘dog houses’, or were left to find any warmth they could in the barn, among the large animals and straw bales.
A very different view…
Back when I was elementary school-aged, most folks who had dogs kept them for ‘home security’ reasons. There were also many ‘junk yard dogs’, who only saw people during the day, and were rigidly trained to be suspicious and, when necessary, violent.
Dogs only became full-fledged members of the family later in the last century, when the concepts of ‘family pets’, companion animals, and service dogs rose to legitimacy. And electronic burglar alarms and surveillance cameras came into wide-spread use.
Same with cats. My birth Dad was a prime example of that mentality. We only got a cat when he started growing a serious vegetable garden. He wanted to keep pests out of it – especially birds.
Before that, the other major reason for keeping a cat or cats – denying rodents access to the house – wasn’t really an issue for us. If other folks in the neighbourhood had cats, there was a good chance one or more of them would consider your yard part of their territory, and keep it rodent free as a courtesy.
And both cats and dogs still hunted, like their forbears, often but not always eating their kills.
Day and night
Except on farms, where working dogs and cats are still a part of everyday life, today’s prevailing attitude toward the world’s leading domestic mammal species is as different to ‘back then’ as day is to night.
The vast majority live almost exclusively indoors, and are seen, first and foremost, as companion animals. Alas, they are also seen as ‘little humans’ in many ways. That’s a dear, sweet sentiment. But it leads to many behaviours exhibited by humans toward their ‘little furry darlings’ that are at least mistaken or ill-informed. At worst, dangerous.
The ‘human food’ thing…
Take, for instance the phenomenon of feeding human food to dogs and cats, and considering a treat for them. Veterinarians spend a lot of time, especially with new and inexperienced pet lovers, ex-plaining that’s not only wrong but potentially abusive.
Dogs are omnivores. And cats are obligate carnivores. Which is to say, broadly, that dogs can and will eat anything, while cats must have meat to enjoy a balanced diet. That’s why there is a global retail market for specially-formulated pet foods we and veterinarians have been taught are the best way to go, to ensue out pets enjoy the longest, healthiest lives we can give them.
The pet food makers insist there’s now ‘a better way’ to feed every species. (And they provide it, of course.) I always get a chuckle out of the subtle joke in the beloved family film, Secondhand Lions (2003), starring Michael Cain and Robert Duvall, when one of the old gents is shown at the feed store picking up a burlap sack of ‘Purina Lion Chow’!
Look inside…
Look inside a dog, a cat and a human. All three have 2 lungs, 2 kidneys, a liver, very similar digestive tracts, one heart, and so on down a long list of features that make all mammals akin under the skin. But our kidneys and livers, for example, don’t work exactly the same as a dog’s or cat’s. Some foods we can eat with impunity – or even enjoy benefits from – may make our furry pals sick or even kill them.
Which is why it’s so important to be aware of what is and isn’t good for our pets. As someone who’s lived with cats and dogs my whole life, I thought I knew the drill, But I was genuinely surprised by some of the foods veterinarians say are off limits for pets.
My take
One of the most obvious reasons for withholding human foods from your pets is, what’s making us fat will also make them fat. And that’s just as bad for them as it is for us. Another is the same foods that are bad for heart health in humans are also, generally, hazardous to cardio health in pets. And processed foods are just as bad for pets – maybe worse – than they are for us!
I once had a beloved old feline friend who developed type-2 diabetes (T2D) in his later years. I had to give him an insulin shot every morning from age 14 until he passed away some years later.
And there’s one attitude that’s arisen in parallel with the shift of dogs and cats from working animals to pet status: It’s the strong emphasis on the responsibility that the humans in their lives assume for their well being and security.
My questions for you:
Are you a modern pet lover? Or do you still adhere to the notion that cats and dogs should ‘work for their keep’?
Do you feel you know enough about what’s good for your pet(s) and what’s not?
Have you been (albeit unknowingly) giving your pets human foods that are potentially harmful to them?
Were you as surprised as I was to discover some of the human foods that are dangerous for cats and dogs?
Has this ‘think piece’, and our look last week at foods not to give our pets, changed your notions at all about how to feed your pet(s)?
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.