Question:
http://www.petfoodshop.com/
It's VEGAN cat food!!! When I get employed full-time I think I am going to have to start ordering this in!!!


Answer:
Doesn't look like they have distributors in Canada Are they solely an online petfood company?


Answer:
I thought cats could not be vegans?


Answer:
Don't know yet... I just discovered them. I may have to order from the States...
Did I mention that Evolution runs its own no-kill shelter & gives huge amounts of their food & money to other no-kill shelters?


Answer:
Ugh - I hate to bring this up, but what do they mean by "no-kill"? There are many different definitions to the term. Do they not kill *any* animals? Do they screen what comes into their shelter? What about animals that are severely injured or sick? What about aggressive or feral animals? What about major behavioural problems? What about animals that have been in their shelter for 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? What quality of life do these animals have?
"No-kill" is horrible terminology, and I really don't trust organizations who use it. It's media ploy, and sometimes is evidence that a shelter has wimpy people who care more for their own hearts than they do for the welfare of animals.
But I like the idea of pet food companies that support homeless animals.
Michelle


Answer:
Did you check out the ingredients?
I checked out the dog food and the 1st ingredient is whole wheat flour, 2nd ingredient is Corn gluten meal, the 3rd is soya meal doesn't sound to good to me! In fact there is no reason for a high price on this stuff. I wouldn't buy any dog food with corn as a 2nd ingredient.


Answer:
I think the ingredients are like that because it's vegetarian pet food so there wouldn't be any meat sources in the list.
Wheat gluten is a common substitute for meat in Chinese vegetarian diets, so I wonder if corn gluten is similar.


Answer:
I don't like the corn gluten either but it seems to be a trend in low and high quality cat foods.
Michelle, what is your definition of a no-kill shelter. I worked at a no-kill shelter and I never realized that there were so many definitions. At our shelter, all of the cats and dogs were allowed to stay until they were adopted. We were always at capacity and we were fairly picky about what animals came to the shelter...only because of the limited space. People could not just come and drop their animal and leave (although some still did...especially kittens). Some of the cats that were rescued were ferals and they were socialized and adopted out. There were animals that had to be put down for health reasons but other than that, no other animals were killed. Some cats have been there for upwards of 5 years and I think they have a good quality of life. They are played with several times during the day and during office hours, different groups get the run of the place.


Answer:
I think that no-kill shelters seem to pass on the burden to shelters who do practice euthanasia. Like you mentioned Candice, the no-kill shelter you worked in was picky about which animals were allowed in the shelter. This means that the animals that are turned away might be killed somewhere else, just not in the shelter that you work in.
I used to think no-kill shelters were great because they never euthanised their animals, it was a great media ploy because I thought that if I was to donate money, I'd give it to a no-kill shelter. But the fact is that it's impossible to avoid euthanasia and sometimes it's necessary.


Answer:
Very true Di. Just across town was the animal shelter and any animals that didn't make it into our shelter was sent there. They were given two weeks to be adopted usually and then they were euthanized. I guess a no-kill shelter is more like a rescue.