Do you own a cat and what do you feed it?!

Do you own a cat and what do you feed it?

I know a vegan is a vegetarian who omits all animal products from their diets.

I'm asking because I am curious since you don't believe in eating meat would you impose the same beliefs on your cat?

Every once in a while in the Pets section people ask how can I make my cat eat like a vegetarian/vegan.

2 days ago
Cats are obligate carnivores - that is, their digestive system is totally unsuited to break down the cell walls to release the nutrients in vegetable foods.
Food will only remain in their system for a couple of hours, as compared with about 24 hours for omnivores like ourselves or days as in most herbivores. They are adapted to eat relatively small amounts of highly digestible, energy-dense food, with an optimal level of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients. Proteins derived from vegetables are much less easily digested, lack many of the vitamins, minerals and micronutrients that are necessary for complete absorbtion and must be consumed in much greater quantities to obtain sufficient energy for healthy functioning.

2 days ago
Humans, whose need for high-quality protein is far less than those of cats, have a difficult time remaining optimally nourished on a solely vegetable-derived diet, and must pay particular care with food types, quantities and combinations, as well as take a variety of supplements, to avoid becoming malnourished or suffering from various deficiencies.

I find it highly unlikely that any vegan diet could supply all the nutrients a cat needs to thrive.
While I can appreciate the philosophical stance that can lead to a human's eschewing all animal-derived products, and recognise that they have a perfect right to opt for this for themselves, it can only be regarded as cruelty, and ultimately abusive, to force a cat to follow such practices. They need meat not just for the protein, but for all the other factors that are found in it, for its concentrated energy and for its speed of digestion. For a cat, plant-derived foods are simply not good enough.

It's a mixed question of morality and also of what is needed to survive. Humans no longer need to feed off animals to survive-that is, they are able to function quite nicely-and perhaps in better health-as vegitarians or vegans, and there is enough of a surplus of vegetarian foods to keep humans healthy and alive. With humans the only question whether or not to eat meat is a question of morality.
Cats, along with several other animals, are simply not created to function on vegetables and fruits alone. I feed my cats pet food that contains several meat products-in fact, it is flavored by chicken, and the flavor they had when they were kittens was a salmon flavor. When my parents have salmon at the table (yes, I am the only vegetarian in my house) I ask for the leftovers to be given to my cats. With them, the question is of survival rather than morality.
Also, cats do not abuse animals in order to eat them like humans do. The animal they eat will be perfectly healthy and happy and then-snap-it's somebody's dinner. They do not torture and raise them specifically to be eaten, they just find them and eat them. There is nothing morally wrong with them eating animals, then, because they can't function without meat, and they don't torture the meat.