Important note before I begin:  Do not confuse veganism with vegetarianism:  The two diets are worlds apart.  One is a very practical way to eat, fairly easily adopted.  The other is a political machine, and breeds pale-skinned twigs.

Incidentally, they also sparkle.

A small rant, here, now that the new pictures are up.  Okay, a bit of a large one, but I need to get this off my chest, because I'm at wit's end, here.  So, excuse the angry tone.  An unnamed dog-community I frequent online has convinced me that dog owners must be composed of the most idiotic people on the planet.  They scorn skeptical thought, believe anything thrown at them so long as it is already something they want to believe, and even condone animal abuse.  I'm honestly sick of it, my tolerance for idiocy only stretches so far.

You see this?

 Your dog is a carnivore.  Anyone attempting to prove otherwise is an idiot.  It's akin to trying to prove the sun rises in the west.  Yet there are people on this site who will fight hand-over fist to "prove" that dogs are omnivores, just so they can justify forcing their political vegan crap on their dog.  You know, the same diet that isn't even healthy for humans without heavy supplementation...humans, who actually ARE omnivores.  But, you know, it's okay when people do it, because we can choose to do that.  I may find the entire idea ridiculous, but hey, it isn't my call.  It's yours.  If you're really that offended by some video PETA made up, or some stupid blog you read on the internet, get a kibble manufactured from free-range animals.  (Yes, I know factory-farm conditions are quite terrible in some instances.  90% of the time you'll find vegans have absolutely no idea about this.  As usual, they are convinced by rhetoric and dogma, truth only stands in their way).  But, as I said, whatever:  You can choose this.  You can even choose to ignore your basic sensory input, and believe that humans are natural herbivores.  (Yes, believe it or not, there are people who believe that.  Heard everything, yet?).

Your dog, however, can't choose.  He doesn't give a crap about your willy-nilly morals, he doesn't live in human society, he is a meat-eating protein processing machine.  I have news for you:  Nature is ugly.  Get used to it.  Animals kill, maim, destroy, and eat each-other - and not usually in that order.  The most grotesque method of butchering is a hundred times more humane than the way nature works things out.

Anybody forcing their vegan ideals on their dog is committing animal abuse, and is of despicable moral character.  They shouldn't be allowed to own a dog.  Given how strongly linked veganism is with organizations like PETA or HSUS, I'm not surprised the people on those diets (with no supplementation, and even then, I am wary as to how well it can sustain life at a healthy level) are morons.  No fat or protein also stagnates the brain - your brain requires an enormous amount of calories not supplied by the caloric-ally sparse veggies that vegans dine on.  Higher mental thought stagnates, and it shows.  Panda bears are perfectly capable of eating meat (they are BEARS), but for some inexplicable reason they have chosen to eat only bamboo.  They spend almost all of their waking time foraging for massively in-efficient plant matter, and sleep the rest of the time.  We humans waste millions of dollars on breeding programs because they've bred themselves down so horribly that they don't even have sexual drive anymore.  They've been living vegan for years, and are sick of it.  They want to die.  Take that as a lesson.  (Intended as humorous commentary only, not a serious argument).

There isn't a single canid trait which lends itself to a herbivorous diet.  Your dog can live on it, you say?  Sure it can.  Dogs are opportunistic carnivores - able to survive off almost anything, in the absence of meat.  Does it make it right?  Um, no.

As for me, I don't want my dog to just live, I want him to thrive, and his biology screams that in order for that, he needs to have meat.

All this wouldn't bother me so much if the site administration didn't tolerate this abuse.  Although, I think it might be less that then the fact that they suckered money out of the vegan idiot, so they don't want to risk losing that cash.  I haven't paid a cent.

As far as the first two links go:  Look, the pet food industry can be really disgusting.  But there is absolutely zero logical thought behind the idea that Mr. Bigglesworth ends up in your next bag of dog chow.  There's plenty of disgusting and/or nutritionally dead ingredients in pet food without needing to invent more, and resort to flights of moronic fantasy.  Ann Martin fans, spouting off her book (Food Pets Die For) like it is biblical truth, don't care about reason or rational thought, however.  She tells them what they want to believe, and like gullible simpletons, they eat it right up.  I'm not talking about the people who read stuff like this, and simply believe it is true.  Anyway, that's natural and rational - read something from a source which sounds authoritative, and you're probably going to adopt it into your circle of beliefs (let's be honest, most of us don't go to great length to fact-check and look at sources).  But when confronted by rationality, you continue to repeat the same tired crap over and over again...that crosses the line from being misled, to being an idiot, finally winding up with nothing more than "Well, it's just my opinion, we're allowed that."

Sure you are.  But that's not a matter of opinion.  You're still wrong, you've just been finally backed into a corner and have nothing else to say.  Although not proof in and of itself, it is quite damning in its own right:  Ann Martin self-published her stupid book in '96, meaning that the public has been made aware of this for nearly fifteen years.  Why has not a single case of this ever been found?  Nobody has ever found dogs or cats winding up in pet food.  Ever.  Not once.

Funny she had to self-publish her book - you'd think every newspaper in the world would be grabbing at her, trying to get exclusive rights to the story if there were actually anything of substance to it.

As I said before, there are plenty of disgusting ingredients in some pet foods.  You don't need to make things up to make it worse.  Oh, but what is the harm in thinking they do?  Well, for one, you're believing post-melamine recall hype with no logical substance to the arguments, nor any physical evidence to support it.  That should concern you more than anything else.  But, as a lesser reason...if these pet food companies ever do have to answer for using low-quality ingredients, I don't want them to be able to shrug off all those "lesser" charges by easily dismissing flights of fantasy (pets winding up in pet food).

So, there you have it, harsh words.  But I had to vent, and maybe it's just evidence they've won that they got to me like this.  I should remain detached.  Why do idiots anger me so?  Reason is lost on some people, I should just leave it at that.