Last week, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel invested $450 thousand in eco- and animal-friendly pet food startup Wild Earth.
With Thiel’s contribution, the company is just shy of $5 million in funding. This money will help the company create plant-based cat and dog food — with zero animals killed in production.
Why is this investment important?
The goal is to eliminate the unnecessary slaughter of animals for the $30 billion (and growing) pet food industry.
Photo via Pexels
Wild Earth’s solution? Fungi. It’s vegan and has been used by humans for thousands of years. More specifically, the Asian koji (Aspergillus oryzae)–a tasty and safe protein source.
Koji is eaten daily by a billion people. You can find it in your soy sauce, your bean pastes, and your sakes and misos. Wild Earth’s team of veterinarians and animal advocates discovered that koji was the perfect choice for sustainable, healthy, and delicious dog food.
According to Wild Earth’s white paper, “We’ve taken an ancient food and created a modern protein to help heal the future of food for pets and people.”
Photo via Pixabay.
In the United States, we love our pets, and want to provide them with plenty of food and reward them with treats—after all, our pets are family.
But as more people populate the earth, so do their animal companions. Over 60 million households reported having a pet in a 2017 survey. Combined, that’s 107 million dogs and cats, all of whom need to eat.
Pet food prices continue to increase. As a result, many pet owners have to resort to the most affordable food. That means mass-produced, cheap pet foods that have undergone an alarming number of recalls in recent years.
Photo via Pixabay
This new pet food could help change the tide of the industry.
Have you ever read the long list of unpronounceable, chemically-derived ingredients on your pet’s food? (See the gruesome ingredients here.) People who can’t afford organic, raw, or other expensive products on the market are forced to feed their pets food that largely consists of corn and wheat—and often, much more harmful ingredients.
This vegan pet food has all 10 essential amino acids dogs need. It is a “clean protein”— meaning it was produced without harm to the environment and animals.
Wild Earth’s koji-based dog treats will be available in late summer, and their dog kibble will be released in 2019. They are in the process of developing an eco-friendly and humane cat food, as well — and we can’t wait to see it in stores.
Perhaps we should be considering a more radical alternative (and please know I am in no way suggesting we all start abandoning our pets). http://animalfreedom.org/english/index.htm This site has some alternative ideas. One radical idea: Do we really need to keep pets? If human consumption of meat and dairy is contributing to the destruction of the planet then the keeping of pets (the majority of which are dogs and cats) which also consume meat, must bear some of that responsibility. Where does all that excrement go? Should we replace/add to the pets we keep? Perhaps we could start by not paying for puppies or kittens which would help cut the supply through the lack of demand and instead adopt unwanted pets only? Adopting would ease the pressure on rescue centres and gradually, the number of unwanted dogs and cats would decrease because we would no longer be demanding the supply of puppies and kittens. We could also not so readily give positive validity to those who choose to carry on purchasing puppies and kittens and instead whilst agreeing that their new pet is beautiful point out to them what a shame that they missed the opportunity to consider giving an unwanted pet a home instead.
Yes; can’t wait to see it.
Vyborny napad buducnosti! Aj pre ludi treba nieco take.
Uzasny napad, verim, ze v dnesnej vyspelej dobe nebude problem do takejto stravy zakomponovat potrebne ziviny. Verim, ze v blizkej dobe bude aj pre ludi….
Would be really nice if vegan foods can be made for dogs and cats and other animals that completely gives them an good diet, and that they like. A good start !
Good grief! They sure didn’t do any research. Cats are obligate carnivores…they eat meat & meat alone. Their digestive systems can’t handle pure plant material and all that fiber. There will be lots of sickly cats on this stuff.The ‘green’ people are apparently not getting enough brain food themselves.
Absolutely.if you don’t want to feed a cat meat, don’t get a cat.
They didn’t say vegan for cat food. They said humane. Nonetheless, if someone can develop a non-meat source that contains all of the amino acids and fats cats need without the things they don’t, the result would be the same as consuming meat. It’s coming and should be encouraged. And looked forward to !
I was thinking the same thing- cats are OBLIGATE carnivores, not omnivores like humans and dogs, etc… They need meat because they cannot absorb protein from plants and algae. We need to develop a humane way to raise certain animals for consumption, sad but true.
Oh, you mean the Peter Thiel who used Hulk Hogan to smash Gawker…
Why would you want to feed your carnivores a vegan food? Do you really think they’re going to be healthy feeding this stuff? They need meat and i make my own dog food and my dogs actually get real food and not that crap in a bag. Dogs are really not considered omnivores although they can eat veggies and stuff they are really carnivores also. If you are vegan that’s fine..that is your choice but why force your carnivore pet to be vegan??? https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/is-your-loving-kind-fluffy-dog-friend-a-carnivore-or-an-omnivore/
They need the components of meat, the breakdown products produced in digestive system. If those can be met using non-meat sources, the results would be the same physiologically for dogs and would solve an enormous problem that isn’t serving people or dogs in the long run. It’s a good thing.
Hooray, finally a healthy dog food. I buy from Costco and it is the best one can buy for 1/4 the price, but this sounds fantastic. Hope they can make human food for us too.
Well thank you, it’s about time. The pet food industry is really taking advantage of pet owners trying to find good healthy food for their pets. I am one who has five cats at home and I feed a colony of six stray cats elsewhere everyday. As was mentioned, I can’t afford the organic, healthier foods all the time. I try to when I can. The colony that I feed I can only afford a brand name and even that’s costly for me but what’s the alternative? Pet food companies know this and yet they put crap in our pet’s food. Looking of ways to make my own eventually. Get rid of the pet food stores.
What a wonderful idea.
My dogs eat vegan food and my cats have a little vegan cat food mixed in with there. Sadly cats do need meat so it is true they can not be total vegans. While waiting for this new food you could check out Evolution. It is high quality. I am happy to hear there will be yet another option for dogs.
I am delighted to see this…and hope the food will be affordable. WE run a Cochise Canine Rescue and get our food from Rescue Bank….hope to get donations thru them at some point!
Vegan cat food is an amazing way to end up with a blind cat. They can’t get certain nutrients they need from a plant source, as it is ONLY digestible from meat. And without it cats go blind. Don’t want to feed your cat meat? Have a pet rabbit instead.
They include taurine in this food, ya dope!
Actually all of the nutrients in meat can come from non-meat sources, include taurine of which you refer. So far, it’s just been too expensive to put it all together into a cat food. If this company can accomplish that at a reasonable cost, it would be something to celebrate.
a move in the right direction. hurry up with cat food, just make sure it is not contaminated with GMO ingredients and Round up.
Bravo!
Poor animals.
This will work well for dogs as they are omnivores. I don’t think that creating organic food for cats will work as they are obligate carnivores.
I would so like to see more plant based, cruelty free cat and dog food brands in the UK…even considering becoming a distributor if possible or needed. Please contact me if there is any further news on this and if more will be coming to the UK?
It’s the act of EVIL what these freak people do
good news!cruelty-free per good are ne edes.
MUST BE STOPPED!!!!
I can’t wait till a vegan cat food is available! I know cats are obligate carnivores. Even though I’m vegan, I would never ever feed my cat a vegan diet…at least till a proper vegan food is created. For now, it’s Blue Buffalo.
Try Halo
Haven’t heard good reviews about blue Buffalo either. Have a friend that does cat rescues and does the spade,neuter and release program. That’s what she feed her own cats. However, I recently showed her an article about a lawsuit going for blue buffalo which claims it has all natural ingredients but has been exposed they don’t. Pretty much all the pet foods on the market today are no good for our pet’s. Things have changed and pet food companies no longer take pride in making a good, healthy food for our babies. It all boils down to, of course, MONEY. There is a website TruthaboutPetFood.com all pet owners should read. It will really make you see red of what the pet food industries of today are doing to our pet foods. Very few of the foods (that includes, wet, dry, treats, even some claiming to be organic) are good or healthy for our pet’s. Also they (cats) really shouldn’t be eating dry food or fish as people have been taught to believe. I’ve !earned lots of things. It’s a shame but that’s what’s happening and our pet’s are the ones who have to pay with their health and lives.
Some people just care about money, Not animal’s or what’s best for them.even the president don’t care because he’s evil like the rest of people. That abuse and kill animal’s
People don’t care about animal’s just money, Some do it’s a ack of war on animal’s from the sorry pos president to the evils of all kinds of people
Congratulations PayPal for making the right move.! I too will invest in this remarkable product, with hopes that it becomes a reality for millions of people around the world.
Namaste🍀
The Galarneau family
Your forethought in this manner is what we all should do. Eat clean as humans.
I am a pet lover and have a cat and a dog and I think this is a great choice moving forward. This is healthy for pets with no side-effects.
I don’t believe cats, being obligate carnivores, can eat a plant-based diet.
Those that have been fed that way develop several health issues.
Dogs are actually omnivores – their dentition says so.
And we all know dogs will eat just about anything 🙂
I would like to see people respect cats for who they are.
Maybe you should respect ALL animals for what they are.
Make the right choice.
Thank you, thank you!