JAKARTA - Is it possible to make 7.5 pounds or the equivalent of Rp. 144,613 while saving the planet? If this was asked of this pet food company, the answer would be yes.
A pet food company is looking to pay dog owners £30 (pro-rata) a salary over three months. All they have to do is, go vegan with their dogs.
OMNI, a plant-based dog food company, is looking for a human-dog partner to dispose of all animal products for three months.
Candidates (humans) should keep a thorough record of their experience, both owner and pet, monitoring their health, energy levels and behavior.
In exchange, successful applicants will receive £2.5 a month, along with a three-month supply of vegan dog food.
The company seeks detailed information about the participant's journey. The job description explains, "a weekly questionnaire will be administered to provide feedback on factors such as health, energy levels, behavior, bowel movements, sleep patterns, and physical attributes such as weight, skin and hair condition."
As for the selected dogs, there was also the promise of sustainable dog toys and vegan food in recognition of their hard work and contribution to the project.
Currently, this opportunity is only open to UK-based dog owners, with applications closing on 31 January.
OMNI said that the implementation of this unusual program was motivated by a lack of awareness around vegan dog food.
"In a society with a lack of education about diets for dogs, we understand there are pre-existing and negative misconceptions about feeding your dog a plant-based diet," said Shiv Sivakumar, co-founder of OMNI, citing Euronews Jan. 28.
"We hope that by hiring someone to change the diet of dogs and themselves, we can communicate the benefits for dogs and humans."
In 2020, Lewis Hamilton announced, his dog Rocco is now "completely vegan," and his previous health problems are now under control thanks to his diet.
At that point, we spoke with veterinarians to find out exactly how healthy a plant-based diet is for dogs.
"Anecdotally, I've seen some dogs do well on a vegan diet. I've seen some improvement in dogs with skin allergies. This may be due to protein changes," explains Michaela Craggs, a veterinarian at Joii Pet Care.
"This is just an anecdote, and there is no evidence to support this at this time."
However, Craggs still felt it could be a good and safe option. "It's possible to feed a dog a vegan diet, as long as it's balanced enough."
Separately, Daniella Dos Santos, president of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) says the situation is a little more complicated, especially when owners make their dog food from scratch.
"It's theoretically possible to feed a dog a vegetarian diet, but it's much easier to make a mistake than to correct it," he told the BBC.
"You should do this under the supervision of a trained veterinary nutritionist," he said.
Dog food, like anything else with such a large market, has gone through several fads and trends over the years. Recently, raw food has grown in popularity, with owners swapping dry kibble for a raw meat mix.
While owners anecdotally comment on their dogs' better coat, stool and overall health, there is a dark side to a raw food diet. Last year, scientists warned, multidrug-resistant bacteria lurked in raw dog food, potentially driving the spread of antibiotic resistance.
Some people have turned to insect-based pet foods. Its proponents say it does this without the risk of protein deficiency that a vegan diet can have, while remaining planet-friendly.
UK-based company Yora specializes in pet food made with insect protein. According to their carbon calculator, feeding two large dogs a chicken-based diet, would emit at least 21,660kg of carbon dioxide over their respective lifetimes.
Switching to maggots, however, would reduce these to just 5,792kg each, saving 32 tonnes of CO2 between them. In short, 32 tonnes of CO2 is enough to heat the average UK home for 14 years.
And that's just from swapping from chicken to bugs. Beef, which is a more common source of protein in dog diets, has a much larger carbon footprint. Feeding a beef-based diet, large dogs use 117,942 kg of CO2 throughout their lifetime.
Moving just one large dog from beef to insects would save the equivalent of the amount of carbon dioxide used to fly from London to Barcelona 640 times.
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