Vegan Diets Could Be Best For Dogs' Health, New Study Finds

Researchers at the University of Winchester have published a peer reviewed study that followed 2639 dogs and their guardians over a one-year period on three different diets; those fed conventional processed meat wet and dry food, raw meat or vegan diets. 

Several indicators of health were surveyed and analysed over the 1 year time frame including the incidence of 22 common canine health disorders, the requirement for giving the dogs routine medications and the necessity to visit the vet for a health concern.

The findings, published in the reputable scientific journal, PloS One, showed that overall, dogs fed a conventional meat-based diet were ‘more unhealthy’ than their vegan and raw meat counterparts, with poorer health indicators in almost all cases. 

17% of dogs on conventional meat-based diets had four or more visits to the vet over the course of a year, compared with 9% for those on vegan diets. The proportion of dogs in each dietary group reported to have suffered from health disorders were 49% for conventional processed meat diets, 43% for raw meat diets and 36% for vegan diets. To add to this, more than 50% of dogs fed a meat-based diet required non-routine medication, but only a third of those fed vegan diets did.

These results have gained considerable attention amongst dog guardians globally, up to 91% of which say that their pet’s health is their most important concern when choosing an appropriate diet. It is also of interest given the WHO’s classification of processed meat, a common ingredient in these foods, as a ‘Group 1 Carcinogen’. Interestingly, despite the age of the vegan diet cohort of dogs being higher, on average, than the other groups, their health outcomes were considered amongst the best.

Some results from the study showed that dogs fed raw meat diets fared ‘marginally better’ on some parameters but according to veterinarian and University lecturer Dr. Andrew Knight ‘A substantial body of prior studies have also shown that raw meat diets are much more contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and parasites’, so overall are considered more hazardous to both dogs and members of the household. 

The professor, who is the head of  animal welfare at the University of Winchester, also explained that the dogs fed raw meat diets were in the study were ‘significantly younger’, thus giving them a health advantage.  

When ages were equalised and non-health related barriers to visiting the vet were accounted for (such as the fact that guardians who feed their dog a raw meat diet are less likely to seek veterinary advice due to the perceived opposition of most vets to the feeding philosophy), the researchers said it was not possible to conclude that dogs fed raw meat diets would be likely to have health outcomes superior to those fed vegan diets. 

‘Pooled evidence to date from our study and others in this field indicates that the healthiest and least harmful dietary choice for dogs among conventional, raw meat and vegan diets, is a nutritionally sound vegan diet,’ Knight claimed. 

‘The key limitation of our study is that we didn’t have a population of animals locked up in a research facility and fed one specific diet without any alteration,’ Knight told The Guardian.  

‘We studied what real dogs in normal homes ate and their health outcomes. It gives us a good indication as to what the outcomes are for dogs in the real world.’ 

References 

Knight A, Huang E, Rai N, Brown H. Vegan versus meat-based dog food: Guardian-reported indicators of health. PLoS One 2022; 17, e0265662.