The animal welfare implications of pet food extend beyond the pets being fed to encompass the billions of farm and wild animals used as ingredients, raising questions about the ethics of different pet feeding approaches.
Pet food represents a significant but often invisible animal welfare issue. Dog owners concerned about farm animal welfare who feed their dogs conventional meat-based pet food may be unaware that this contributes to farm animal suffering at scale. Dogs are omnivores capable of thriving on well-formulated plant-based diets, making this a genuine welfare choice. Cat nutrition is more complex — cats have specific nutritional requirements for taurine and other compounds most efficiently derived from animal sources, though synthetic supplementation is available. Insect-based pet food offers a potentially lower-welfare-impact protein source, depending on assessments of insect sentience.