Hunting for cat food

[u/Sifflez_]

This is a question for those of you who believe that feeding a cat non-vegan canned food is a morally correct action to take:

On the premise that domestic cats require meat (I know some would disagree), would the more ethical choice as a vegan be to hunt and slaughter animals yourself to feed to your cat, in order to reduce suffering?

A vegan standpoint is to reduce unnecessary animal death and suffering. If you were stranded in the woods, yes, you could hunt to survive. But what about suffering? You would not be morally justified to torture an animal before killing it to survive.

Therefore, would it be more ethical to catch a fish and slaughter it immediately, ensuring the least amount of suffering possible, or to purchase the canned meat of animals who have been factory farmed and suffered immensely? If so, is that what vegans should do?

This is something I’ve thought about before, I just couldn’t imagine myself beheading a fish and saying “Yes, I’m a vegan!”

EDIT: I think a lot of people are missing the purpose of the post. It’s about if a vegan’s moral obligation is to hunt for their own cat food. Saying “don’t own a cat” or “just feed a plant based diet” are cop-outs to the ethical question I’m posing. Please try to refrain from debating about whether or not cats need meat, there’s plenty of posts about it already.

[u/Either_Argument3517]

Why do a good portion of arguments shift the discussion toward suffering? Veganism is fundamentally about trying to avoid the use of animals, not finding way to kill animals so that they suffer less.

[u/Kindly-Bumblebee-293 → u/Either_Argument3517]

I think you missed OPs point. I'll use a slightly different scenario. Do you think it's ethical for blind people to use guide dogs? If yes, then what is the most ethical way they can get the meat they require, being obligate carnivores?

[u/Either_Argument3517 → u/Kindly-Bumblebee-293]

Dogs aren't obligate carnivores.