Re: Vegetable oil for your chain - WHY NOT?

On 14 Aug 2006 13:17:18 -0700, doug.landau@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

carlfogel@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
On 11 Aug 2006 13:29:53 -0700, doug.landau@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
carlfogel@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Just as you can't turn a cat into a vegetarian, you can't run those
waspish little glow-plug engines very well without castor oil.

Dear Carl,

You can, in fact, turn a cat into a vegetarian.

Cheers,
Doug

Dear Doug,

Not for long.

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/catfood.html


Dear Carl,

For as long as you like.

http://www.vnv.org.au/Articles/Dogs&Cats.htm

Doug

Dear Doug,

First, cats of a "vegetarian" diet invariably require special
supplements to provide what they cannot synthesize from vegetables and
normally get from their natural prey, as your link makes abundantly
clear.

Without supplements, the "vegetarian" cats sicken and slowly die. A
person might just as well claim to follow a purely carnivorous
diet--with regular vitamin C supplements to stave off scurvy.

Second, even when kept alive with supplements, "vegetarian" cats
suffer (among other difficulties) far more kidney and urinary tract
problems than normal, which is what your link is hinting at.

Third, "vegetarian" cats are rarely as "vegetarian" as claimed. If let
out of the house, they kill and eat anything that they can catch. When
kept indoors and ill-fed, they will kill and eat moths, flies,
crickets, mosquitoes, and even spiders--if they can't catch mice.

As for the phrase "as long as you like," I wouldn't ill-treat a pet
for moral satisfaction at all. The obvious choice for a vegetarian is
to keep a vegetarian pet, such as hamsters, chinchillas, guinea pigs,
rabbits, parrots, iguanas, and fish.

(As other threads make clear, the evil squirrel serves best as cat
food and cannot in good conscience be included in a list of pets.)

It could just as easily be claimed that we can keep pancreas-free cats
as long as we like. Remove the pancreas, follow a regular insulin
injection schedule, and ignore any nagging little details.

In another month, the neighborhood cats will be sitting on my sidewalk
and driveway, staring intently at the thick ground cover plants, heads
cocked to detect the faint rustling in the first fall leaves, ready to
pounce. Drives my dog wild to watch them from the picture window wild,
but he gets to chase rabbits on weekends.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel
.