Between 2020 and 2024, the vegan companion animal food sector’s global market value reportedly increased from nearly $10 billion USD to $27 billion USD. It’s anticipated to double again to $57 billion USD within the next 10 years, with its growth rate since 2016 being almost six times that of traditional companion animal food. Why is this market booming so spectacularly? Here, we examine the key drivers.

Key Driver 1: The Increasing Moral Status Of Both Companion Animals And ‘Food’ Animals

Animal guardians, such as those in the U.S. and U.K., increasingly regard their companion animals as treasured family members. Equally, there’s a rising interest in the welfare of farmed or ‘food’ animals. The concurrent growth of reducetarianism, vegetarianism, and veganism alongside the growth in the vegan companion animal food sector is likely no coincidence. Indeed, sociologists and philosophers have named the internal conflict that can arise from caring for one group of animals, by feeding them the dead bodies or parts of others, as the vegetarian’s dilemma or the animal lover’s paradox.

In a previous study, we calculated that feeding meat-based diets to companion dogs and cats is equivalent to at least seven billion farmed land animals and billions more fishes and other aquatic animals being slaughtered each year globally*. Confusion often arises about the role of animal byproducts produced during animal slaughtering. Accordingly, it’s helpful to understand the following results from our previous study:

1. Just under 50% of all dog and cat food sold in the U.S. comprises non-animal ingredients, primarily sourced from plants. With the remaining animal-based ingredients, approximately 50% in the U.S. (25% globally) comprises animal parts consumed by humans (so-called ‘human-grade meat’). The remainder comprises animal byproducts. These are cheaper and are used to lower production costs.
2. There’s a plethora of uses of animal byproducts; supply doesn’t exceed demand. This creates competition and demand for use of these byproducts, and further incentivizes animal production. There’s a projected 3.6% annual increase in the animal byproduct industry growth rate up to 2031.
3. When considering a weighted average of the various ‘food’ animal species used within pet food, animal byproducts comprise 31–39% of an average animal carcass, whereas ‘human-grade’ ingredients comprise 53–59%. This means more carcasses are hypothetically required to supply equivalent quantities of animal-sourced ingredients.

These three points highlight the interdependency of the meat and animal byproduct industries. The extra revenue generated for slaughterhouses from animal byproducts also undeniably serves to strengthen the slaughterhouse business model. Aligning with principles of consumer choice, creating companion animal food that’s independent of industrialized animal agriculture also sits alongside efforts to do the same with other industries that often rely on animal byproducts such as energy supply and crop growing.

Key Driver 2: Health, Quality, And Palatability Of Companion Animal Food

In light of companion animals’ elevated status as family members, it follows that the healthfulness and quality of companion animal food are top considerations for guardians when it comes to purchasing it. There’s increasing evidence about the healthfulness of nutritionally sound vegan companion animal food for both dogs and cats. By early 2025 there were 11 studies in dogs, three in cats, and one systematic review covering both species, demonstrating equivalent or superior health outcomes when vegan or vegetarian diets were used. Some of these health benefits are summarized in the figures below. This is a body of evidence generally stronger than that which supports other diet types, and indeed, most veterinary treatments of any kind. Accordingly, concerns about companion health outcomes are receding among companion animal guardians aware of these developments. This is further aided by endorsement from institutions such as the British Veterinary Association and U.K. Pet Food — formerly, the U.K. Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association — provided vegan diets are correctly manufactured to be nutritionally sound.

There’s a growing realization that dogs and cats need specific nutrients rather than particular ingredients such as meat. Both vegan and meat-based diets may be nutritionally sound or unsound, depending on their formulation and manufacturing. Some naturally occurring nutrients within meat-based diets (e.g., the amino acid taurine) are fragile, and are degraded or destroyed by the high pressures and temperatures used within modern companion animal food processing. After processing, these nutrients must be added in — and synthetic (i.e., artificial) supplements are used. The same supplements are used in vegan companion animal food manufacturing.

These steps are normally successful. Commercial vegan and meat-based diets are both usually nutritionally sound, although examples of unsound diets have been reported in both groups. The only systematic study so far has found little difference in steps taken by companies to ensure the nutritional soundness and good quality of diets. Companies producing vegan or vegetarian foods appeared to be performing slightly better than those producing meat-based diets — probably because plant-based diets are newer and more controversial, which could be motivating companies to take extra care to ensure adequate supplementation and nutritional soundness.

There’s also increasing evidence about the sufficient palatability (enjoyment) of vegan companion animal food — as indicated by dog- and cat-based measures. A study of 2,500+ dogs and 1,300+ cats focused on known behavioral indicators of palatability (10 in dogs and 15 in cats) when these companion animals were fed vegan or meat-based diets; the study found no significant differences overall. Companion animals consuming vegan diets appeared to enjoy their meals as much as those fed meat. This stands to reason as if companies produced vegan foods that were unpalatable to dogs or cats, they would rapidly go out of business.

Key Driver 3: Environmental Sustainability

Along with other researchers, we have previously demonstrated the considerable environmental impacts of meat-based companion animal food. Okin (2017) calculated that this accounted for at least 25% of all environmental impacts arising from animal agriculture in the United States. As summarized in the graphic below, land larger than the size of Mexico or Germany, and greenhouse gas emissions exceeding those emitted by the U.K. or New Zealand, could potentially be spared if the world’s companion dogs or cats respectively transitioned to nutritionally sound vegan diets. An additional 6.8% of the human population or almost 520 million people (equivalent to the populations of Europe and central Asia) could be fed, and more than an additional 1.4 billion dogs and cats (over 1.5 times the current dog and cat world populations) could also be fed.

And, as mentioned earlier, far from simply using waste products from slaughterhouses, roughly 50% of meat-based companion animal food ingredients in the U.S. come from human-grade meat. What’s more, the remaining animal byproducts theoretically require 1.4 to 1.9 times the number of ‘food’ animals to produce the same amount of product compared to human-grade meat. Thus, from this perspective, using animal byproducts is actually less efficient than using human-grade meat. So, if focusing exclusively on companion animal diets, using animal byproducts could be said to increase the number of ‘food’ animals killed and the environmental impacts created by their production*.

From fertilizer to energy generation, there’s a plethora of other uses for the waste from slaughterhouses (as long as slaughterhouses exist). Indeed, due to the demand for using animal byproducts as a renewable energy source, there are also fears of companion animal food shortages if alternative means of nourishing our companion animals are not prioritized. Increasing consumer and industry awareness about the contributions of conventional companion animal food to environmental harms is fostering environmental sustainability as another key driver of more sustainable companion animal food options that are wholly independent from animal agriculture.

The Future: Other Emerging Ethical Companion Animal Food Alternatives

Alongside the vegan companion animal food sector, other more sustainable and ethical alternatives are just emerging. On February 7, 2025, in a world first, cultivated meat-based companion animal food went on sale in London, U.K., which captured the mainstream media’s attention — including BBC Breakfast TV. Cultivated (or cell-based) meat is meat grown in a bioreactor (akin to those used in breweries) from one single source of animal cells (in this case from an egg) that can be used indefinitely to make more meat without any further use of animals. This is a particularly important avenue to support as among all possible alternative more sustainable companion animal foods, cultivated meat seems to garner the most support among guardians of companion animals. Recent industry-based life cycle assessments of cultivated meat also demonstrated it to have numerous environmental advantages, although these are sometimes contested by authors linked to the livestock sector.

Other promising alternatives include protein production via microbial fermentation, which may prove more efficient than all other options as no arable land would be required. Companies such as Feedkind and MiAlage are leading developments in this area, with the first product also launched in February 2025. Of note is that companion animal food based on insects is not a viable more sustainable or ethical alternative to conventional companion animal food due to: 1) concerns about the sentience of insects and 2) unproven environmental sustainability. There has also recently been news regarding the insolvency of one of the world’s biggest insect protein companies, raising concerns about the economic viability of such ventures. Further vegan companion animal food research is also in the pipeline.

Safeguarding Health Of Companion Animals

For anyone wishing to transition their cat or dog to a more ethical and sustainable alternative to conventional companion animal food, nutritionally sound vegan companion animal food is the most widely available alternative option at present — and you can browse some of the global suppliers. You will need to prioritize nutritionally complete companion animal food from reputable companies that work with veterinary nutritional experts to formulate nutritionally sound products. Also, it’s helpful to be aware that some companion animals may resist new diets of any kind. It’s important to introduce the new foods gradually; this also helps to prevent any gastrological disturbances. Find out more about the transitioning process.

*Note: We stress both the theoretical nature of these calculations as well as their exclusive focus on companion animal diets.

A Factsheet Responding To Common Concerns

Faunalytics has created an easy-to-share factsheet that addresses some of the common concerns that people may have about the nutrition, efficacy, environmental impact, and economics of vegan companion animal food.