Because Animals is a small company with a big mission: to create nutritious pet food without ever harming any animals or the planet. It’s a mission for the future and that future is now as we are working hard to create cultured meat treats and food for cats and dogs.
Cultured meat is identical to traditional meat. It’s 100% meat! The only difference is our animal cells grow inside a fermenter (like beer!) instead of inside an animal.
What this means is safer, healthier meat for cats and dogs without any of the negative environmental impacts and animal suffering associated with traditional meat.
Here, we count the ways that cultured meat is the only path forward.
1. Cultured meat does not cause climate change: We won’t mince words: Animal agriculture is bad for the planet. It’s the leading cause of climate change, it accounts for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it among the single largest contributors, which is a share higher than all modes of transport combined.
2. Cultured meat does not exploit natural resources: Land used for animal feed, grazing and keeping farmed animals accounts for 41% of the United States (nearly 800 million acres). Less than 20% is used as crop lands. Factory farming is the largest source of water pollution.
3. Cultured meat causes no harm, part 1: The animal cells used to grow our cultured meat will always be collected in a humane way to ensure no harm comes to the animal. And, after we collect the cells, we will always ensure the animals are safe and happy for the rest of their natural lives.
4. Cultured meat causes no harm part 2: Cultured meat doesn’t displace or destroy wildlife habitats. Intensive agriculture systems, which take up more space and resources than any other industry in the U.S., have stifled biodiversity of crops and animals and indirectly destroyed wildlife habitats.
5. Cultured meat causes no harm part 3: Animals raised on factory farms often live lives of torment and suffering, and then they are slaughtered. We hate this. It’s heartbreaking. And cultured meat serves not to save these animals, but instead delivers a future wherein domesticated farm animals simply don’t exist - they aren’t farmed and thus aren’t raised into lives of suffering for eventual slaughter.
6. Cultured meat is safer for pets: Did you know that every year, multiple times a year, the FDA issues recalls on pet food products, typically due to bacterial or chemical contamination, including the animal euthanizing agent, pentobarbital?
Because Animals’ cultured meat pet food will be safer for pets as it will be free from these common contaminants: 4D meat (dead, diseased, dying and disabled animals), animal byproducts, Listeria and Salmonella, growth hormones, antibiotics and pentobarbital. By developing custom screening panels, Because Animals’ can also ensure the absence of bacteria, fungi, and viruses (including coronaviruses), to confirm the absolute safety of our cultured meat products.
7. Cultured meat is healthier for pets: Our cultured meat will include nutrients commonly missing from most commercial foods such as omega 3 fatty acids and powerful probiotics. And, our cultured meat will be made from protein sources your pet evolved eating — such as mouse for cats, and rabbit for dogs. One of the coolest things about cultured meat is that we can grow it in a way that maximizes the nutritional profile of the meat. Meaning, that instead of having to add all of the vitamins and minerals back to the meat (as is needed with current commercial pet food) our meat will already contain all of those nutrients your cat or dog needs to thrive.
8. Cultured meat will not be a source of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19: Capturing animals, raising animals, confining animals, treating animals without regard, respect or care and then slaughtering those animals for human use and consumption has resulted in multiple viruses that ultimately have killed millions of humans. To name a few:
- SARS (passes from animals to humans through close contact, butchering or consumption of undercooked infected meats);
- H7N7 Bird Flu (is transmitted via direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry);
- H1N1 (pigs to humans through contact with infected meat at slaughterhouses);
- The Spanish flu, that caused 50 million deaths worldwide, is also caused by the H1N1 virus, but with a bird (chicken) origin.
9. Cultured meat will not cause antibiotic resistance: Cultured meat will not need antibiotics! Did you know that 80% of the antibiotics manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry are sold to the animal agriculture industry, making it the largest driver of the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria infecting both people and pets.
10. Cultured meat means less pet allergies: Farmed animal proteins have become the top food allergens in pets. The most common allergens for cats are: beef, fish, chicken, wheat, corn and dairy products - all ingredients commonly included in commercial pet food. The top allergens for dogs are beef, dairy products, chicken, wheat and lamb. Not only will our cultured meat be made from protein sources your pet evolved eating — such as mouse for cats of which no commercial cat food exists featuring that ingredient, and rabbit for dogs, which is not known to be a common allergen and is often chosen for limited-ingredient diets for dogs with allergies.
