Is it hypocritical for vegans to feed their cats meat?

The objection

“You lecture people about eating animals, then open a tin of meat for your cat. Isn’t that hypocrisy?”

The answer

Hypocrisy means holding others to a standard you excuse yourself from, and a vegan feeding a cat isn’t doing that. The vegan objection is to killing animals for food people can do without. A cat can’t do without the nutrients it gets from meat, can’t weigh the ethics of its dinner and can’t consent to anyone’s principles, so meeting its needs is part of the duty of care a person takes on with the animal, much as a parent feeds a child what the child needs. Adopting a cat from a shelter doesn’t create that need either, since the cat is alive and has to be fed by whoever takes it in. Breeding more cats for sale is what brings new carnivores into the world, which is why keeping a pet fits veganism best when the animal already needs a home.

Most vegans with pets don’t feed them plant-based food. In a 2019 online survey of 3,673 pet owners, most of them in the US, the UK and Canada, 11 of the 1,545 cats, 0.7%, were on a strictly plant-based diet. Among the 212 vegans, 27% fed their pets a plant-based diet, while 78% of the vegan pet owners who answered said they would do so if one met their criteria (Dodd et al.) [1]. Dogs are the easier case: the British Veterinary Association (BVA) accepts that a dog can be fed a plant-based diet, though it warns that such diets are hard to balance and lack robust long-term safety data [5].

What does a cat need that plants don’t supply?

Taurine, ready-made vitamin A and arachidonic acid are three nutrients a cat has to eat that plants don’t supply: the first two aren’t found in plants (Dodd et al., 2019) [1], and arachidonic acid, a fatty acid, is found in animal fats but not in vegetable oils (Zafalon et al., 2020) [9]. A cat’s body makes too little taurine and can’t turn the carotenoids in plants into vitamin A (Morris, 2002) [2], and it converts so little linoleic acid into arachidonic acid that it has to eat it ready-made [9]. A cat also needs a high-protein diet and has to get arginine, niacin and vitamin D from its food, because its body makes too little arginine and breaks down the raw materials for the two vitamins [2].

Taurine shows what is at stake. In 1987, researchers linked heart failure in pet cats, a dilated cardiomyopathy, to low blood taurine in cats fed commercial cat foods, and found that taurine supplements restored their heart function (Pion et al.) [3]. What the cat needs is the nutrient, wherever it comes from: the taurine authorised in the EU as a feed additive for cats is made by chemical synthesis, and the European Food Safety Authority confirmed in 2025 that it remains safe for them [4].

Supplements haven’t closed the gap in the view of the British Veterinary Association, which said in July 2024 that current research suggests a complete vegan or vegetarian diet for cats is not possible, because cats are obligate carnivores and suitable synthetic essential amino acids are lacking [5]. The studies of cats fed without meat are few and small, and a 2023 systematic review found the main worries in them were taurine and folate (Domínguez-Oliva et al.) [6]. In a 1992 trial it included, five cats on a high-protein vegetarian diet lost about 87% of their plasma taurine in two weeks, while in a 2006 study of cats on vegetarian diets, most of them home-made with a commercial supplement, 14 of 17 had blood taurine in the normal range [6].

Owner reports are more encouraging. In a 2023 survey of 1,369 cats, the 127 fed vegan food did no worse than meat-fed cats on most measures, though the one statistically significant difference, kidney disease, reported in four of them, went the other way (Knight et al.) [7]. ProVeg International, a group that promotes plant-based food, funded that research and its publication; the authors say it played no part in the design, analysis or write-up [7]. The BVA’s verdict on studies like these is that they are usually small and based purely on what owners report, so long-term controlled studies are still needed [5]. The cat studies are weighed, with the evidence on dogs, in the answer on whether dogs and cats can be vegan.

What can a vegan with a cat do?

A vegan with a cat can feed a complete commercial food, adopt a cat that already needs a home rather than buy one bred for sale, and lean towards food made from by-products. The British Veterinary Association says pet food often uses organ meat and other by-products that people find less appealing but that are safe and very nutritious, and it calls the trend towards premium pet food with more higher-value meat concerning, since it competes with food for people and raises the environmental cost [5]. Cultivated meat may offer a way out in time. In a small 2026 trial, nine of ten cats readily ate a complete diet whose only animal ingredient was hamster cells grown in culture, and digested it nearly as well as a chicken-based one, though the feeding lasted at most 17 days and the authors say long-term effects on health still need study (Bortolazzi et al.) [8]. The trial was funded by the company Bene Meat Technologies, which employed one of its three authors and, the authors declare, helped design the study, write it up and decide to publish it [8].