Ask A Nice Vegan

I Feel Guilty About How I Feed My Cat

Is it possible reconcile anti-speciesism with feeding dead chickens to my feline companion?

Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash

Ask A Nice Vegan is a weekly advice column by Summer Anne Burton, a nice vegan who is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine you are reading right now. She can answer questions about any topic that you could use a nice vegan’s advice on, be it food, animals, etiquette, philosophy, gifts, dating, family, weddings, parties, or friendships. Email your questions to advice@tenderlymag.com

Dear Nice Vegan,

I live with a cat — let’s call her Garfield to maintain anonymity — that I adopted from the local animal shelter a few years ago. Garfield is the greatest — she sleeps next to me every night and has improved my life more than I can quite put into words. When I first adopted her, I wasn’t vegan or even vegetarian, and I didn’t think twice about purchasing the finest chicken and seafood cans that Chewy.com had to offer for her meals.

Since adopting her, my love for Garfield has led me to examine my relationships with other animals, and I started to get uncomfortable with the idea of eating meat. I went vegetarian a couple years ago, and I recently decided to try being vegan (I watched…