ArticlePloS one2023
The relative benefits for environmental sustainability of vegan diets for dogs, cats and people.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of Red Palm Oil withVeterinary sciences · 2026Article
- How Nutritionally Sound Is Commercially Available Vegan Pet Food Relative to Meat-Based Pet Food? A Systematic Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- The Digestibility of Vegan and Vegetarian Diets for Dogs and Cats.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Sustainable Pet Diets: A Leading Effective Altruism Issue.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Consumer Acceptance of Sustainable Dog Diets: A Survey of 2639 Dog Guardians.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Consumer Acceptance of Sustainable Cat Diets: A Survey of 1380 Cat Guardians.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Comprehensive Review of Alternative Proteins in Pet Food: Research Publications, Patents, and Product Trends in Plant, Aquatic, Insect, and Cell-Based Sources.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Nutritional Profiling and Labeling Practices of Plant-Based, Hybrid, and Animal-Based Dog Foods: A Study of European Pack Labels (2020-2024).Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Establishment & characterization of a non-adherent insect cell line for cultivated meat.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Current Evidence on Raw Meat Diets in Pets: A Natural Symbol, but a Nutritional Controversy.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Nutritional analysis of commercially available, complete plant- and meat-based dry dog foods in the UK.PloS one · 2025Article
- Comparison of the fecal microbiota of adult healthy dogs fed a plant-based (vegan) or an animal-based diet.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Should dogs and cats be fed vegan diets?Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Environmental impacts of the livestock sector are proportional to consumption levels. To assess the relative consumption of livestock animals within the diets of dogs, cats and people, this study examined their dietary energy needs within the US in 2020, and globally in 2018. Also studied were US pet food ingredients, and environmental sustainability indicators for plant- and animal-based foods consumed globally. Relative consumptions of average livestock animals were: US: dogs- 17.7%, cats- 2.3%, humans- 80.0%; and globally: dogs- 7.7%, cats- 1.2%, humans- 91.1%. Full transition to nutritionally-sound vegan diets would spare from slaughter the following numbers of terrestrial livestock animals annually (billions): US: dogs- 1.7, cats- 0.2, humans- 7.8, and globally: dogs- 6.0, cats- 0.9, humans- 71.3, as well as billions of aquatic animals in all dietary groups. Very large impact reductions were also associated with land and water use, emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), acidifying and eutrophifying gases, and biocide use, in all dietary groups. If implemented globally, nutritionally-sound vegan diets would free up land larger than the following nations: dogs-Saudi Arabia or Mexico, cats-Japan or Germany, humans-Russia-the world's largest country-combined with India. Such diets would save freshwater volumes greater than all renewable freshwater in the following nations: dogs-Denmark, cats-Jordan, humans-Cuba. Such diets would reduce GHGs by amounts greater than all GHG emissions from following nations: dogs-South Africa or the UK, cats-Israel or New Zealand, humans-India or the entire EU. The numbers of additional people who could be fed using food energy savings associated with vegan diets exceeded the 2018 human populations of the following nations: dogs-the entire European Union, cats-France or the UK, humans-every single nation or collective region on Earth, as defined by the World Bank. All of these estimates are conservative.
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