Thursday, February 4, 2010

Vegan Dog Food From HSUS

HSUS Enters Pet Food Market With ‘Humane Choice’
Posted: Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 6:04 p.m., EST

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has entered the pet food market with the launch of its Humane Choice dog food. The non-profit organization is marketing the product as a cruelty-free, all-natural dog food that does not contain animal-based proteins or support the factory farming industry.

“Americans are concerned about the food we eat, and it just makes sense that we’d be concerned about the food we provide to our pets,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the HSUS.

“Humane Choice is a nutritious, environmentally friendly and ethically responsible food for our best friends. Every bag of Humane Choice helps us celebrate the pets we love, and provides us with additional resources to help animals through our programs.”

HSUS is targeting pet supply and natural grocer channels. The product is currently available at Petco.com, select Whole Foods grocery stores in New York and New Jersey and independent pet supply stores throughout the U.S. HSUS anticipates more Petco and Whole Foods locations to carry Humane Choice in the spring.

HSUS will receive 6 percent of the wholesale price of each 6.6-pound bag sold. The organization plans to use the funds to support programs that provide spaying and neutering and other veterinary care for animals, to rescue animals from natural disasters and cruelty cases, and to conduct undercover investigations of animal abuse.

Humane Choice is produced by a certified organic grower and manufacturer in Uruguay, according to HSUS. Link

There’s a couple of things that need to be addressed with what HSUS is doing. First, HSUS likes to make a lot of noise about how animal agriculture doesn’t allow it’s livestock to behave “naturally”. So what is natural about feeding dogs and cats a plant based diet. The natural behavior of a dog would have it chewing on dead animals and certainly not living in a house. So it’s a bit odd that HSUS would try forcing a very unnatural diet on pets. Also, you might be interested to learn that the pet food comes from Uraguay. Seriously? They couldn’t find anywhere in America to make this stuff? They aren’t exactly doing their part to help out the economy are they. But then again, they are trying to put family farmers and ranchers out of business, so why would they be concerned about any other American jobs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since the HSUS wishes to abolish all animals, what better way than through a vegan diet for dogs, maybe they can come out with one for cats also. This should slowly kill a lot of dogs. This comes from a vegan animal rights social movement. In essenence folks they are trying to get more people to use less poultry and beef - period and if dog food is vegan....well all the worse for the farmers!

Gissel Escudero said...

As a vet, nothing sounds more ridiculous to me than turning a carnivore into a herbivore. If you can't stand that your dog eats meat, go get a hamster. Geesh.

I also live in Uruguay, BTW. Weird news for me (the article, not the fact that I live in Uruguay, duh!). I mean, we raise a lot of cattle and sheep here! There aren't a lot of organic farms here, neither a lot of vegans, and our country is way too small to produce a lot of organic + vegan food for dogs.

Besides, feeding a pet with products that come from so far away wastes such a lot of fuel that it wouldn't be a very organic option anyway. Vegan pet owners, support local farms and give your dog a proper diet, please.

Anonymous said...

That the HSUS would try to do away with animals is a ridiculous statement. Tried the veggie dog food. My two dogs didn't like it. And I, too, wonder why the dog food is made in Uraguay.?

Charley said...

Why are donors so blind to HSUS's pro-vegan America agenda? HSUS does nothing for the animals we love and wants laws to prevent America from eating meat and dairy products. The only law we need concerning HSUS is one that forces them to disclose their true agenda and stop sending out donor requests with pictures of kittens and puppies.

Tobias said...

there are many vegan dogs and cats and they thrive on the food, its unnatural for them to get industry-raised meat, and also the industry-raised meat is based on plants from other parts of the world, so in an enviromental sense its better to eat the plant directly. of course they should use as much local produced plantfood as possible, but even when they make it in another country its better than when you feed the animals meat from industrialfarms that feed their animals soy-beans from brazil..... open your minds and do some research people, dont just have a set opinion and stick to it no-matter-what.

hugs from tobias Norway