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Moby—yes, that Moby, the one who looks like every white man in Park Slope struggling to reconcile his artistic dreams with his responsibilities as a parent—is part of a bizarre movement to make the dog shelters of Los Angeles meat-free. Lisa Bloom is on board, too.




This initiative is not targeted toward the people employed by the shelters, mind you—it’s targeted toward the dogs, for whom devouring their meat-filled dinners is probably the highlight of their sad day. According to the Washington Post, a proposal before the Los Angeles City Board of Animal Services Commissioners aims to convert the diet of the city’s 33,000 shelter dogs to being entirely plant-based. Moby is among the proposal’s supporters, and told city officials that “If we adopt this, it’s one more thing that proves to the world that Los Angeles really is the progressive capital.”

The idea is to promote health in dogs, as well as cut down on the very real environmental impact of the meat industry. Dogs are adaptable when it comes to what they eat, but they are generally considered omnivores, meaning of course that their diets consist of both meats and vegetables. To research the proposal, the city contacted three clinical nutritionists from UC Davis and University of Pennsylvania’s vet schools, as well as veterinary toxicologist and a shelter medicine specialist, who collectively determined the idea was not a good one, citing inadequate protein and other health concerns in their reasoning.




Another very real worry is that meatless dog food costs four times as much what the city currently pays for its shelter dog’s food, in addition to the fact that vegan dogs are said to poop more—meaning shelter staff will have have to deal with that in addition to everything else. Here’s a great paragraph from the Post:

That argument precipitated several diarrhea-related comments in nearly two hours of testimony at the commission’s Nov. 28 meeting, where pro-vegan voices dominated. Several pet owners, including Bloom, insisted that their vegan dogs had never suffered from digestive problems. Wolfson said the same of his dogs, and he said he’d secured commitments from two plant-based dog food companies to match the price of the city’s current kibble.

In conclusion, did you know that Moby’s real name is Richard Hall? What the fuck?

