Using Wild Fish in the Pet Food Industry by Margo

Nowadays a lot of people have got pets such as dogs and cats in houses. Many of these people feed their animals with special pet food bought in a shop. There are a great number of pet food we can find in shops — Whiskas or Pedigree. Also many of pet owners use fish to feed their cats, and somebody even feeds dogs with fish. It is also known that there are farms where fish, and poultry, and swines are raised and farms use wild fish as a forage. A lot of wild fish and animals caught in the ocean become a food for the farm-raised animals.

Is using the wild fish in the pet food industry god or bad, profitable or unprofitable, healthy or unhealthy? This question can be studied from different points of view such as moral, economical, and political.

What do you think a usual person will answer if somebody ask him or her, “Is it good to catch fish and kill sea animals in order to make food?” A single person will probably say, “No, killing animals is bad.” He/she would answer in that way without much thinking because it is a habit. Killing is immoral, nobody argues with this statement and this idea. However, as I’ve already mentioned, many people keep pets and feed them with forage made from this fish.

So, I want to stop here because the topic is rather difficult and disputable and an answer depends on a personal opinion. Everybody can give their own thoughts and explaination.

Speaking about economical point of view I want to underline that fishing is an important part of national food production together with planting cereals and vegetables and raising animals on farms. I do not mention the part of caught wild fish that becomes human’s only food. Mentioned farm-raised animals also become a food. Human beings couldn’t imagine their lives without pork, poultry and salmon now. Domestic and farm-raised animals need to be fed as well. Feeding them with ocean fish is very spread in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Russia, etc. So, for the economy using fish is really profitable and it would be hard to refuse this activity.

I have also said there is one more point of view to the problem. Political problems connected with fishing can also be seen as moral in several cases but the main idea is a little bit different than moral’s one. The thing is that some nations such as islanders or people from several Asian countries live just on fish and fishing; and when big good developed countries like the US catching too much fish these people starve. This is a political problem. It is something like a choise between people of poor countries and animals of rich developed states.

I think that fishing and using fish are very important but they are rather problematic as well. Maybe if wild fish stopped to be caught in so big quantities, it would help many problems and misunderstanding. Speaking about the pet food industry I think that scientists could find a solution, maybe even a vegan food for cats and other domestic carnivors.