• pjwestin@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I mean, leaving .world is a pretty fair response. That community is full of insufferable idiots, but an admin overrode their moderating decisions, and then the admin team made up rules to retroactively justify their decision. That’s pretty egregious.

      • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, to be clear, you should not feed your cat a Vegan diet. Cats are obligate carnivores. Synthetic Taurine has made vegan catfood somewhat more viable, but cats don’t just need Taurine from prey. They need several vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids from animal protein to survive. Beyond that, their digestive tract isn’t very efficient at digesting plant matter, so even if these foods have the nutritional value they need, they might not be absorbing it. Also, a lot of these products seem to be made from grains and other carb heavy products, and cats need a very low carb, high protein diet. If you want to completely divest from the meat industry, you simply shouldn’t own a cat.

        That being said, Vegan catfood products are on the market, so whether or not they are good for cats, they have been approved by several regulating bodies. You can claim that they’re unsafe (I certainly do), but having an admin nuke a comment section for claiming otherwise is a huge overreaction. It would be like going into a vape community and banning accounts that claimed vaping is safer than smoking; it probably isn’t, but I don’t need admins deciding who gets to have discourse about that.

        Finally, I’m also not a fan of dead cats, but if you’re dumb enough to take veterinary advice from an internet vegan group, you’re probably too dumb to keep a cat alive anyway.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Vegan catfood products are on the market, so whether or not they are good for cats, they have been approved by several regulating bodies

          Yeah, that’s not how it works. Especially in countries with extreme regulatory capture like the US.

          Unless a product has text that says in a very specifically worded way that it’s been tested and approved by a relevant regulatory body, it hasn’t.

          The fact that something hasn’t been taken off the market YET does not necessarily mean that it’s been approved. Especially not when you’re dealing with politically volatile stuff that could lead to lengthy public lawsuits sapping the resources of the already chronically underfunded and understaffed agencies.

          If it’s vegan food for obligate carnivores, it MIGHT technically be “safe” (as in won’t be outright lethal), but for the reasons you yourself mentioned, it’s likely to significantly decrease the animal’s enjoyment of life at best and more likely to be downright torturous.

          It would be like going into a vape community and banning accounts that claimed vaping is safer than smoking

          Except for the fact that those accounts would be absolutely right and have reams of scientific evidence from the world’s foremost experts in related fields to back up their claims. Unlike the people abusing cats in the name of not abusing animals.

          it probably isn’t

          It is. It’s not even anywhere near the next city over from the neighborhood of close.

          but I don’t need admins deciding who gets to have discourse about that

          Except limiting the spread of dangerous misinformation, such as common myths that are keeping smokers away from one of if not THE most effective smoking cessation tool, is a big part of what admins are FOR.

          if you’re dumb enough to take veterinary advice from an internet vegan group, you’re probably too dumb to keep a cat alive anyway

          Yeah…that’s not a valid argument either. A lot of vegans avoid getting a cat because they’re too overzealous in their veganism to even want carnivorous animals to eat meat.

          The Venn diagram of people vegan enough to love carnivores but refuse to give them meat and people who would trust a vegan online echo chamber more than competent veterinarians is a circle within a bigger circle.

          • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Well, various vegan catfoods have been approved for use in not only the U.S. but also the E.U., but your point about regulatory capture is fair. Unfortunately, it’s undercut by your support for vaping, a nicotine product brought to market with an insane lack of oversight. Ironically, most of what you’re complaining about with the cat food is exactly what makes vaping so dangerous. We don’t have as much research or long-term studies on the effects of vaping to say it’s as dangerous as smoking, but we know that they contain propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, which are toxic to cells, aldehydes, which are associated with lung disease and heart disease, acrolein, which can cause COPD, asthma and lung cancer, as well as various heavy metals. I’m pretty sure that a lot more people will die of vaping than cats will die of veganism. That being said, I don’t think people who support vaping should be removed from lemmy for using a product that’s probably unsafe, and and it’s not the job of admins or moderators to stop people from taking bad health advice from strangers on the internet.

            • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              4 months ago

              In the UK the NHS is advocating for vaping as a way to stop smoking, and it works. Also, i don’t know where you get your information about VG and PG (especially regarding their toxicity), but i am more than sure that your information is outdated/obsolete by now.

              A large part of your cells walls are made out of vegetable glycerin. The LD50 for rats is about 12g/kg body weight (mice 8g/kg) when ingested (so about 1kg for a 100kg human), and the seen adverse effects when inhaling were minimal and only visible in hourlong exposures at the highest tested concentration.

              Propylene Glycol has an even higher LD50 in rodents (20 GRAMS/kg b.w.) and is in use in every theatre in the world for fog and smoke effects (in HUGE volumes in contrast to vaping - i vape a lot and am somwhere between 5-10ml VG/PG 1:1 per day) for ages now, and there would have been found a correlation between stage workers and lung cancer by now. It’s widely used in the agricultural sector as a feed additive in pretty large quantities too.

              you get acrolein when the e-cigarette overheats. modern devices should not even really do this anymore. The heavy metals are a hypothesis i heard in the beginning and for which i haven’t seen any source in the last 5 years. At least if you aren’t overheating your NI80 coils on purpose to a dull red glow. all my homies use SS316 for smooth automatic temperature control :-)

              I’m with you regarding the aroma additives (which i assume you meant as source for aldehydes); not many of those have been tested regarding inhalation (except for aromatherapy probably), and they might prove to be detrimental. i also believe that if i had kept my pack or two a day hobby for much longer, it would have had a real chance of killing me. i am also advocating that this stuff should be 18+ - by that age the whole “peer pressure” thing that led to me starting smoking with 14 should be mostly over.

              in the end, the most important part is: i choose to use e-cigarettes since it’s harm reduction in comparison to smoking (and nothing else worked for me), and i know that it would be healthier not to do it. cats don’t have much choice regarding their food, especially when combined with an religiously motivated owner.

        • socsa@piefed.social
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          4 months ago

          I feel like nobody is approaching this from a consent aspect either. If someone offers their cat an array of cat food options and makes an actual honest attempt to determine a long term preference and the cat legitimately prefers the vegan cat food, then that’s way less problematic than saying “you will eat this weird food or you will starve.”

          The forced veganism thing just feels a lot like saying “studies show that a human can technically survive on roaches and rat feces as long as they get a vitamin C supplement.”

        • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          I just wanted to add: the reason why most carnivores go for the digestive tract first when eating their prey is that they eat the predigested plant matter with the entrails, making those nutrients much more readily available to them.

          It’s a shame; i’m sure there are vegans feeding their cats this way, and when those animals lose muscle mass quickly, the first thing that gets really damaged by that are their kidneys - and this does normally only get noticed shortly before the cat is going to die. And it’s an ugly death. I’ve had a young cat which had nearly dead kidneys when we got her, and it’s pure torture for them - we tried everything we could, but there’s not much to be done after they show symptoms. That one “study” that other poster is throwing around with the owner-reported feedback regarding the health of their cats has actual negative worth.

      • WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        What if we raise them in a factory farm and eat them instead? Don’t worry though. We will force feed them a carnivore diet in their tiny cages

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          4 months ago

          Bruh. This is why I don’t like folks from vegan communities. So full of misinformation and vitriol regarding farming practices. Dead, malnourished and diseased cattle are worthless to a farmer, so they intentionally don’t keep them in conditions like these crazies describe.

          That said I am trying to cut down on my meat consumption because meat production is more climate intensive than vegetables, and my diet is not as vegetable-heavy as it should be. But you folks make it so hard to feel good about making positive changes like that

          • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 months ago

            They literally do though? Have you ever seen a chicken farm? Or a mink farm? Or dozens of different examples of factory farming?

            A few dead animals don’t matter if you can fit in 20x the amount of chickens in the same space

            • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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              4 months ago

              Not a mink farm but I’ve been to cow, goat, sheep, pig and chicken farms. You know what you get with 20x the herd in the same space? 200x the disease risk and 20x the loss when you have to cull the entire herd because the USDA started investigating why your cattle tested positive for [insert nastiness here]. Sick cattle are a great way to lose the farm that’s been in the family for generations. Healthy cattle are how you give your kids the option to choose to continue farming

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          What is your intent when replying like this? Did you intend to have a conversation and a sharing of views? Is it just about mocking the hypocrisy what you assume my views to be?

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      If thats true then everyone should probably start leaving .world. If they cant even behave themselves with something as simple as veganism, then you cant trust them to not powertrip with actually controversial political issues.

      • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Maybe, but this seems like a problem that’s bigger than a single instance. A few months back someone came with some pretty good receipts showing .ml admins going after people for having some very fair and moderate criticisms of China. Seems like most instances either have power tripping mods or are too small to have much activity.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          The issues with dot ml and dot world are hardly comparable. I’ve had my concerns with some of the world admin actions (flip-flopping, lack of communication) but I do believe they are trying in good faith. I’m still happy to be registered and to make my communities elsewhere but for now I don’t see them as being nearly as egregious as ml.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        you cant trust them to not powertrip with actually controversial political issues.

        I mean they “preemptively defederated hexbear as a last resort” for fear they might discuss politics, so that ship has sailed.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago
      1. Adding animal abuse to their TOS was a good move. I’m surprised it wasn’t already there.
      2. Encouraging people to feed a cat a vegan diet is a call to abuse a cat through deliberate malnourishment.
      3. Mods on c/vegan were directly calling for animal abuse, and censoring anyone countering them.

      I stand with the admins on this. Zero sympathy for animal abusers.

      leaving .world is a pretty fair response

      Okay, .world account…

      • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago
        1. Agreed, except when it’s being done to retroactively justify your actions.
        2. I think it’s a very bad idea to feed a cat a Vegan diet, but there are vegan products being sold on the market, and if you want to feed your cat one of these products, you should discuss them with a vet or other qualified professional. Regular dry food contains way more carbohydrates than cats are meant to have in their diet, which can lead to obesity and diabetes in cats. Are people who feed their cats dry food animal abusers? Should the Lemmy admins start policing the use of dry food?
        3. The mods of c/vegan were trying to assert their ability to moderate their own sub as they saw fit in the face of a massive overreach from the admin. I think they’re the most insufferable community I’ve seen on this instance, but they should have the right to moderate their own community.

        And yes, I’m on .world, but very little of my identity is tired up in my lemmy instance, and I’m certainly not going to bat for the .world admins when they do something crazy.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          And yes, I’m on .world, but very little of my identity is tired up in my lemmy instance, and I’m certainly not going to bat for the .world admins when they do something crazy.

          Just please make an alt account if you intend on cresting any communities.

        • socsa@piefed.social
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          4 months ago

          So you are cool if we just feed prisoners vitamin fortified gruel since they can technically survive on it?

          • Not_mikey@slrpnk.net
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            4 months ago

            I mean a lot of people are feeding there cats cheap dry kibble that has almost no resemblance to the meat it was rendered from. If your argument is that it’s abuse if you aren’t feeding your cat what it wants then there’s a lot of cat abusers out there.

            • socsa@piefed.social
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              4 months ago

              I will happily argue that this is a form of animal abuse. People buying cheap Wal Mart kibble are shitty.

          • Beaver@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            I mean we do already with nutraloaf. But lets stay on the topic at hand.

            So vegan diets are just “salads, bugs, grass and gruel” whenever it suits your argument for the moment.

            • socsa@piefed.social
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              4 months ago

              I absolutely abhor the idea of nutraloaf. It’s the same modernist bullshit which got us eugenics.

              If you actually give your cat a real option and they choose the vegan food, that is fine with me.

              • Beaver@lemmy.ca
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                4 months ago

                There are many plant-based recipes that are tasty out there, cats would enjoy the vegan food if its made right.

                Its their nature in the wild to choose meat because its what sustained them for so long in the past.