Feeding Cats Raw Meat? You Might Be Feeding Them Bird Flu

Another raw pet food recall, another warning - this time for bird flu-contaminated chicken flesh. Cats in multiple US households have been infected with H5N1, and some have been euthanised as a result. The common factor? They were fed raw poultry from Wild Coast Pet Foods.  

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an alert, urging cat guardians to watch for symptoms - fever, lethargy, eye and nose discharge, breathing difficulties, seizures, even blindness. Meanwhile, nearly 100 US cats have contracted bird flu since 2022, some after drinking raw milk from infected cows.  

Here’s the kicker: it’s still unclear how contaminated meat is ending up in pet food. Flesh from bird flu-infected poultry farms is supposed to be prohibited from entering the supply chain. But pet food doesn’t face the same scrutiny as flesh for human consumption. While the US Department of Agriculture inspects flesh for humans, pet food often bypasses these checks, making it a dumping ground for low-quality, potentially dangerous ingredients.  

And yet, despite these risks, people still cling to the idea that feeding cats raw flesh is "natural." But let’s unpack that myth.  

The Fiction of the “Natural” Cat Diet

If cats are "naturally" meant to eat fish and poultry, then somewhere out there is a terrifying apex predator: a creature that swims miles out to sea, wrestles half-ton tuna into submission, and emerges dripping wet, hissing and clawing. This monster? Your house cat.  

According to this logic, Africa must also be overrun with feral cats hunting cows, sheep, and pigs, nursing their kittens on cows’ milk, because, of course, cats “naturally” drink it 🙄

Sounds ridiculous? That’s because it is. Yet millions of cat guardians don’t question the absurdity of feeding their cats canned tuna, chicken, and cow flesh while scoffing at the idea of a nutritionally complete vegan diet for cats.  

Here’s the truth: cats don’t need specific ingredients; they need specific nutrients. And those nutrients can come from plants and synthetically derived sources, just like they do in fortified commercial flesh-based diets. 

The Ugly Truth About Flesh-Based Pet Food

If you’re worried about nutrients, you should be far more concerned about what’s lurking in standard pet food. Flesh-based diets come with a host of risks, from heavy metals to harmful bacteria and diseases. Studies have linked these diets to increased rates of kidney, liver, heart, thyroid, neurological, and skin diseases - conditions that are disturbingly common in older animals.  

The reason? Pet food is an industrial dumping ground. When you buy standard flesh-based kibble or canned food, you’re often feeding your companion:  

- Flesh from dead, dying, diseased, or disabled animals.

- Expired supermarket meat, complete with plastic packaging ground into the mix.  

- Rendered dogs and cats from shelters.  

- Old restaurant grease, packed with trans fats and free radicals.  

- Spoiled fish containing mercury and PCBs.  

To make this mess palatable, pet food manufacturers douse it in digest - a soup of partially dissolved intestines, livers, and lungs.

Raw feeders like to claim they’re avoiding the dangers of processed pet food. But with recalls like this one, it’s clear they’re just swapping one problem for another. 

Vegan Pet Food: The Science, Not the Hype

If the idea of a nutritionally complete plantbased diet for cats still sounds radical, consider the science. Multiple studies have found no significant health differences between cats fed plantbased diets and those on flesh-based ones.  

- A study of 34 vegetarian cats found them just as healthy as their flesh-fed counterparts.  

- A study on 12 racing Siberian huskies showed they thrived on a flesh-free diet, even through competitive racing season.  

What matters is not whether a diet contains flesh, but whether it meets all of an animal’s nutritional needs.  

When properly formulated, plantbased pet food can provide everything cats and dogs require - without the bacterial contamination, disease risks, and ethical implications of animal-based pet food.  

Of course, any diet change should be gradual, and urinary pH should be monitored to prevent potential issues like urinary stones in male cats. But these are practical considerations - not reasons to dismiss plantbased diets outright.

Time to Rethink “Natural”

The raw food recall is just another reminder that feeding flesh-based diets isn’t the safe, natural choice many believe it to be. The truth is, flesh-based pet food is a risky, unregulated industry where contamination is common. 

Meanwhile, science has shown that cats and dogs can thrive on plant-based diets when formulated correctly.  

Feeding cats slaughterhouse byproducts isn’t “natural.” Feeding them contaminated raw flesh isn’t “natural.” What’s natural is making informed choices that keep our companions safe and align with justice for all animals.