Can you love animals, care about the planet, and still feed your dog meat?

In this listener-requested episode of our FETCH First Friday series, Stacey Renphrey and I have a grounded, grace-filled conversation on the vegan and lab-grown meat dog food debate—sparked by a recent Dragons' Den episode that funded a vegan kibble brand.

Together, we explore the complexities, contradictions, and sacred responsibilities of feeding a carnivore in a world increasingly uncomfortable with the realities of nature, death, and biology.

This episode isn’t about shame or sides—it’s about curiosity, critical thinking, and compassion as we examine the deeper stories at play behind the marketing, science, and ethics of what we put in our dogs' bowls.

✨ Topics We Explore:

• What is a dog, really?
: Reconnecting with biology over belief, and why understanding your dog’s physiology matters.

• The illusion of "clean" food:
How modern marketing disconnects us from the sacredness of death and the truth of nature.

• What wasn’t said on Dragons’ Den:
The missing context in the vegan dog food pitch—and why it matters.

• Bioavailability and the myth of macronutrient math:
Why feeding isn’t just about numbers, and what gets lost in lab-based logic.

• Technocracy, control, and false saviours:
Questioning the rise of food technologies that promise utopia but often serve profit and power.

• Ethics without biology is ideology:
What happens when good intentions override physiological truths.

• Re-sacralising the bowl:
How to return reverence, relationship, and grounded ethics to the act of feeding your dog.

• Insects—innovation or industrial illusion?:
The hype vs. the harm behind insect-based dog foods.

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💭 This episode is for you if:

• You’ve felt torn between your values and your dog’s needs

• You’re curious (and maybe confused) about vegan, insect, or lab-grown dog food

• You want to feed your dog in a way that feels soulful, science-informed, and spiritually aligned

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We’re not here to preach—we’re here to hold paradox with grace.

🐕‍🦺 Keep the Conversation Going: Join our free Facebook group FETCH First Light where dog mamas like you are asking the big questions, exploring ancient wisdom, and nourishing their dogs (and themselves) in more conscious, connected ways.

👉 Join here https://facebook.com/groups/fetchfirstlight

Things we mention:

🎙️ Taking the Fear & Complexity out of Fresh Food Feeding with Kay Stewart, Feed Real Institute: https://youtu.be/4P8W-s6gh8Q?si=s6_-9q_wbBNExE-v

🎙️ Honoring Our Animals + Ourselves: Normalizing Pet Loss Grief with Beth Bigler https://youtu.be/9abmuDAosro?si=QT0mM9LNO2FsJF74

🎙️ F.E.T.C.H. First Friday: Turning the Tables on Parasite Prevention https://youtu.be/69Q02shCEwE?si=WfR2AgKHqYuMkHXm

Grab your copy of our ebook on natural alternatives to chemical flea and tick treatments! https://www.learnfetch.com/products/parasites-our-dogs-a-paradigm-shift-ebook

And grab a copy of our FETCH Fact Check Guide Vegan Dog Food PDF on the studies mentioned!

https://bit.ly/Fact-CheckGuide_VeganDietsforDogs

📖 Jayne Buxton The Great Plant-Based Con: Why eating a plants-only diet won't improve your health or save the planet

📖 Diana Rodgers Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet

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