Now that I've moved into my new apartment, in addition to my own cat, Maggie, I now also share the responsibility of caring for my roommate's dog, Archie. So animal care has been a lot on my mind lately, as I juggle emptying the litter box, walking the pup, and trying to figure out what to prepare the two of them for dinner every night, since my roommate works late. That last part is the trickiest; I think a lot about what I put in my body, so wouldn't I put the same amount of thought into caring for my pets?
Jane E. Brody, writing for the New York Times, notes the huge variety of pet foods on the market, joking that "people's pets eat better than their two-legged companions, or their companions children." You can find a product to meet your pet's needs, whether he or she is vegetarian, organic, holistic, natural, raw, kosher, all-meat, gluten-free, high-fiber, high-protein, grain-free, low-fat, "lite," and anti-allergy.
This brings up an important question, to me: If I consider an organic diet important, for ethical and health reasons, shouldn't I also consider it important to my pet? And if I eat a vegetarian diet (I don't, but let's say I do), should I only allow my pet to eat a vegetarian diet, too? I stopped reading, looking forward to many sleepless nights wrestling with this question.
Then I kept reading.
Brody interviews two pet food experts, who say that these labels and price differences on pet foods mean next to nothing. If it makes you feel better to do it for Fluffy, they say, then go ahead, but you won't be making any measurable difference to her diet. So what's the alternative? Cook your own pet food? Nope.
"The pet food industry serves an important ecological function by using up food that would otherwise be thrown out," one expert tells Brody. "If everyone cooked human food for the 472 million cats and dogs in America, it would be like feeding an additional 42 million people."