Supporters of a proposal to place Los Angeles city shelter dogs on a vegan diet made impassioned pitches to city animal control commissioners this week, but the panel said it first wants to study the benefits and risks before making a decision.

When the analysis comes back in 60 days, commissioners will weigh whether to move forward either with a pilot program at one shelter or throughout the city.

The study was given a green-light Tuesday at the regular meeting of the Los Angeles Animal Services Commission. The meeting drew more than 50 speakers from the public, many of them strident supporters of the idea proposal in November by Commissioner Roger Wolfson.

“We want, as a department, to get all the facts and all the information,” commission President Larry Gross said at Tuesday night’s meeting. “We’re going to do it in a systematic way that’s going to be transparent.”

Experts from both perspectives will be sought to lend clarity to an issue that has stirred much debate since Wolfson pitched it Nov. 28.

Among those opposed is the department’s own veterinarian.

Chief Veterinarian Jeremy Prupas’ board report, citing three clinical nutritionists affiliated with veterinary schools at UC Davis and the University of Pennsylvania along with a shelter medicine specialist and a veterinary toxicologist, wrote that none of them “thought it would be a good idea to feed shelter dogs a vegan diet.”

Wolfson, a television screenwriter and speechwriter, said he welcomes other views, though he remains convinced that the arguments in favor of a vegan diet will win out.

“We’ve been getting some vitriol from the opposition, it’s been rough,” Wolfson said at the close of this week’s two-hour meeting. “It’s rough to be attacked. But tonight was fantastic. … I didn’t expect any of this to be a big deal but I’m grateful people are showing up calm and collected and with reasonable arguments.”

Among celebrity supporters who turned out at the commission’s Nov. 28 meeting were actor Joaquin Phoenix, singer Moby and civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom.

Vegan foods new to pet market

Commercial vegan dog food is relatively new in the marketplace, but has loyal support among those convinced that plant-based diets are not only healthier for dogs but will help end the practice of slaughter operations in which animals are often inhumanely raised in confined conditions for the purpose of being killed for food.

Wolfson said the makers of two vegan dog food products, v-dog and Halo, have offered to provide vegan foods for the same cost as the city now pays for the brand now given to shelter dogs, Canidae Life Stages Dog Food.

But if the city agrees to switch, choosing a provider would have to go through a formal bidding process.

Supporters argue that dogs are omnivores and, barring the need for specialized diets in the shelter (which Wolfson said would be accommodated under his proposal), a plant-based diet is better for dogs and for the environment.

One speaker, Phyllis M. Daugherty, a frequent critic of the department and contributor to CityWatch, took issue with the premise that dogs are omnivores.

“This is a very serious issue,” she told commissioners, adding that dogs by nature and design “are carnivors. They’re only omnivors because we’ve forced them to be (through domestication) and we need to acknowledge that first.”

Wolfson said he hopes the proposal garners widespread support among environmentalists, animal rights activists and rescue groups.