I can't help but put in my $.02 in about whether it is OK to make a
carnivorous animal a vegetarian.
 
First of all, I am NOT a vegetarian therefore I do not pretend to understand
completely a person's decision to become one.  Humans are "omnivores" which
means that their diet consists of meat and vegetables.  In the wild,
omnivorous animals can survive on either meat, or vegetables, or both, and
this provides quite a selection.  Herbivores eat vegetables only, and
carnivores eat meat only.  In the case of carnivores, these animals do not
have the ability to properly digest vegetable foods.  This really means that
they shouldn't live on a diet of vegetable products only (or much of them at
all).
 
The great "food debate" has raised many, many interesting issues, such as
the fact that even the kibbled "ferret food" isn't really the ideal diet for
an animal who, if wild (not domestic), would be hunting and eating actual
animals.
 
Vegetarians choose this way of life for many personal reasons.  Even human
vegetarians have to be careful not to miss out on important nutrients.  I
imagine that vegetarians who just don't "like" the taste of meat and choose
not to eat it for that reason, would not insist that all animals in their
household be vegetarians too.  However, those people who are vegetarians
because they don't like the way livestock are treated (bred and killed), or
whatever, might be boycotting this process by not eating or buying the
product.  I don't object *completely* to this reasoning, HOWEVER:
 
1.  Old fashioned hunting for food is less common these days and has been
replaced by animal farms etc.  which may not be ideal, but it happens.
 
2.  The ferrets ought to be able to eat what is best for them since they
don't get to participate in any debates or have a say in the matter or even
have a CLUE where their food comes from!
 
3.  The kibble food made for ferrets is made with the "leftovers" from
animals which would be killed for food anyway.  Yes, this is a
justification, however everyone draws the line somewhere and I don't think
this is an unreasonable place to draw it.
 
An aside: I don't like the idea of using animals for research.  I'm not
against it entirely because I can be convinced it is necessary for some
things, however I will not do it myself.  I used to work in a research lab,
where the lab down the hall used rats to study lung cancer.  They were only
interested in the lungs of these rats.  Our lab used to "steal" the brains
to use for our research.  We never had to buy our own rats to obtain the
brains.  We felt that our colleague's rats would die anyway whether or not
someone used their brains so we didn't feel "as bad" about it.  Again, it's
an arbitrary place to draw the line.
 
I just wanted to say that I think it's unfair to draw the line "FOR THE
FERRETS (or cats, or dogs).  If you don't want to eat meat, then don't.  I
understand that those of you who want to make your carnivorous animals into
vegetarians actually want to do it right, but I still think you are taking a
big risk in doing it.  It's the "thrive vs.  survive" thing again.
 
Someone else mentioned they almost got a lizard instead of a cute carnivore
(but didn't, and just dealt with feeding the animal a meat-based diet), but
maybe that's what some people ought to do rather than compromise the health
of your pet.
 
I'm interested in hearing responses if people disagree.  Obviously, this is
MHO.
 
- Adrienne
[Posted in FML issue 1739]