Perhaps an annoying irrelevant question ... ?
I definitely don't want to be a "troll", but being an INTP I really can't help being critical on some level:
Having been a pescatarian since birth (my mother worked for PETA ever since the meat-out during the 70's), and having grown up on a suburban free-range/organic/super awesome poultry farm founded in the mid-80's, I find myself constantly questing for defences for and against eating animal. I drove my mother crazy because when she told her clients she was purely vegetarian I would say "that isn't true, you eat fish!" In fact, a little over a year ago my hatred for hypocrisy drove me to give up tuna (which is quite difficult in my new home for some years, Italy, where often the only non-land-meat option available at train stops is a tuna and mayonnaise sandwich, and where if one says "I don't eat meat" the response is "but pig is okay, right? NO?! How about rabbit?", so now I just wait until I get home ...). I feel okay with eating the unfertilized eggs that our chickens and ducks lay (Khaki Campbell ducks lay more than 300 eggs a year: this bred you can find by breeding Mallards with Indian Runners, yippee! They are terrible mothers though: I once found an egg floating in the pond) and am struggling with my dependancy on cheese and ice cream. But since I am so critical of hypocrisy in my self, I tend to be rather intolerant of it in others. Not to say that Tom Kelly is at all in fact a hypocrite, I just need to make sure the he is not for my own ability to sleep tonight:
Dear Mr. Tom Kelly,
What do you feed your cat? I am so happy that you finally recognize your house-cat (I very much hope she/he has not been declawed) for what she/he is: an autonomous agent. I am sure that you meant this post in jest, but I find it disturbing non-the less that one can find another creature in one's house for anything than it already is: an autonomous being who lives by her/his own account. But then I have never been an eater of land animals. I am very happy that your new vegan diet has led you to regard non-human animals as something other than an object. However, I hope you are well aware of the fact that feeding a cat a vegan diet could be detrimental to her/his health (in fact, I am shocked that you do not refer to your poor cat by any gender as one would a human: a cat is not simply an IT). Cats are by nature carnivorous, and a vegan diet is not optional for them as it is for an omnivorous species such as our own. Humans are animals after all, house-animals for the most part at this point in history. One can tell whether a species is carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous by the species' teeth. Cats have the teeth of a carnivore. Humans and most other primates have the teeth of omnivores. Cows have the teeth of herbivores.
Here is my real question, which is not just for Mr. Kelly, but for every vegan/vegetarian cat "owner": how do you reconcile your ethical dietary decision to be vegan with the purchases you must make to feed your feline companion?
Sincerely,
Tanya the Pixie
P.S.
If anyone has any questions about the safety of raising a child without meat, I am living proof that no concern is needed. I have had no problems with growth, I am healthier than most, and after almost 30 years of no land-meat at all (and very small amounts of fish until last year), and only soy milk until I outgrew my childhood lactose intolerance, I can say that I look far younger, healthier, and more robust than any of my meat-eating contemporaries (most think I am 23 instead of 29. And I'm a smoker. HA!)
(This P.S. is probably the only part of this post that is truly relevant, I apologise profusely for my ADHD=genetic, not dietary).