Posted on 03/21/2021 12:17:51 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Is your adorable puppy as bad for the planet as a gas-guzzling SUV?
While the precise carbon pawprint of our pets is the source of scientific debate, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: lovable, they may be, cats and dogs have an impact on the planet.
In their 2009 book “Time to Eat the Dog?”, Brenda and Robert Vale sparked anger among pet owners for saying that the meat eaten by an average canine companion had twice the carbon footprint as driving an SUV 10,000 kilometres.
A decade on, the verdict is still out on the planetary impact linked to the diets of cats and dogs.
“I’ve got nothing against pets,” said Gregory Okin, a professor at the University of California’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability.
“I know that they bring a lot of good to people, both working animals and companion animals.
“But I believe that for people who want to make informed choices, they should have the information available to them,” he told AFP.
In a 2017 study, Okin estimated that the 160 million domestic cats and dogs in the US were responsible for between 25-30% of the environmental impact of meat consumed in the country.
That’s 64 million tonnes of C02, equivalent to the annual emissions of 13 million petrol or diesel cars.
Kelly Swanson, a professor in animal nutrition at the University of Illinois, disputes the findings of that study, saying the calculations were based on “a lot of inaccurate assumptions”.
“Because most pet foods are based on secondary products from the human food industry, especially the ingredients that are animal-based, the environmental costs of those ingredients are not the same as those being consumed by humans,” he told AFP.
For Sebastien Lefebvre, from Lyon’s VetAgro-Sup veterinary school, carbon emissions from conventional mass-produced animal food was “negligible”.
He said emissions from pet food would only be a concern “when mankind stops food waste (and becomes) completely vegetarian.”
He said that unfashionable cuts of meat, including offal, which many humans turn their noses up at, would be ideal for pet food in order to avoid waste.
Yet in some countries, including the Netherlands, meat is reared specifically for animal consumption.
Geography matters
Pim Martens, professor of sustainable development at Maastricht University, said that – as with humans – animal carbon footprints “depend on where you live in the world”.
In a 2019 study, Martens found the lifetime emissions of a dog weighing 10-20 kilogrammes in the Netherlands was anywhere between 4.2 and 17 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
For the same dog living in China, emissions were between 3.7-19.1 tonnes. In Japan however, the same dog would be expected to produce 1.5-9.9 tonnes during its life.
Ten tonnes of CO2 are roughly the same as the emissions produced by two cars every year.
But Martens said he doesn’t find that comparison useful.
“Would that mean that if you don’t own a dog or a cat you can drive an SUV or drive more in your car? It doesn’t make any sense.”
But scientists can agree on at least one thing: a large dog, logically, eats more than a small cat and therefore has a bigger environmental impact.
Get a bird instead?
So, what can the environmentally conscious animal lovers out there do to mitigate the damage caused by their furry friends?
Okin suggests considering other species of animals to have as pets, such as hamsters or birds.
“Maybe from the ecological pawprint point of view, everyone should get a lizard or a big spider” instead of a dog, said Martens.
“But if you don’t want to have an ecological pawprint, don’t have a pet at all.”
One solution for animals and the planet would be to cut down or diversify the protein in their diet.
Several dried food producers already use insects in their kibble, although there is still debate over the environmental merits of various animal foods and their production.
Lefebvre said “it’s not impossible, theoretically” to turn your pet dog vegetarian, under supervision from your vet.
But there’s one environmental impact from outdoor cats he said he knows can’t be avoided.
“A massacre all around your home: dead birds, shrews, lizards…”
Cats are the second most dangerous invasive species on the planet. You wouldn’t let a pit bull wander wherever it chooses unsupervised but cats roam and slaughter at will, even well fed house cats. They should be kept in the house or on a leash and all feral ones should be destroyed.
When humans cut the consumption of animal protein completely and eat only plant based protein, there will be a result their bias ignores. All of the waste material will be tilled back into the soil and create methane gas as it bio-degrades. The huge population of humans who would depend on plant based proteins would be astronomical.
Then, there are milk products, like sour cream, cheese, butter and cream that would impact bakery products if they ceased to exist. And don’t forget eggs from chickens.
These eco-vegans would cancel a wide variety of foods and not consider the true results of methane gas production.
Recently there was an article here about a pit bull in New Jersey( my home state) that ripped apart a little kid.
When was the last time a cat did something like that?
[Is your adorable puppy as bad for the planet as a gas-guzzling SUV?]
I certainly hope so. I really loved my SUV that I had 20 years ago. And I certainly loved the dog I had 20 years ago.
With the loss of one recently, I hope to have a new dog one of these days. What a wonderful creature given to mankind.
LOL! This is so stupid. In the Medieval era the number of angels who could dance on a pin was a “thing”.
But anyway...
I have a tomcat- he would destroy the world in a second!
So you aren't as concerned with what's being ripped apart as the size of what's being ripped apart. I get it. So let's try something different:
I have a bird feeder in my yard. The smaller birds feed off of it while other birds like Mourning Doves feed off of seeds that the other birds scatter onto the ground as a consequence of trying to feed up top. This makes them easy targets for cats, who will tear them apart. I've seen it happen.
So let's say I put a pit bull on a chain with easy access to the bird feeder. Pit bulls don't care about birds but if a cat gets in range it will tear it to pieces. Are you cool with that?
Sorry but that’s a specious argument. I’m more concerned about a human life over a bird.
I would only say it’s specious to you because you don’t value the life of a bird so it’s okay for a cat to kill it. You’re trying to deflect from the point that a cat is killing for sport. So what if I don’t value the life of a cat. Is it okay for a dog to kill it?
I can easily say the same for dogs.......
Let’s be more like the Chinese and some Asian states and eat cats and dogs, yeah? It all taste like chicken anyhow, right? /s
God’s gift to humans
That is not to say I don't value the life of any particular animal. I do. All matter and species of fin, foot and feather. It might interest you to know my wife and I have seven cats. All of them rescued from shelters and some from the wild.
thanks for posting. next up. Pet population reduction. (by any means necessary ...it’s for the greater good)
(division of pfizer)
Okay, so we’ll agree that it’s not okay for a dangerous dog to wander freely and be able to indiscriminately kill whatever it pleases, and it’s also true for larger cats. That’s why we don’t see many tigers wandering the streets at will. We can also agree that cats make good pets. I still don’t get why it’s okay for cats to wander wherever they please, even my yard where they are definitely not welcome, and kill indiscriminately just because they aren’t large enough to kill a child. If you want to have seven cats it’s your time and money but what makes you think it’s okay for your cats to go into my yard, use my plants for a litter box and kill any living creature that they can catch while they are there? That’s obviously a rhetorical question since you aren’t my neighbor but I see plenty of cats of neighbors wandering freely and I also see people who call themselves animal lovers (I guess it depends on what animals you are talking about) leaving out food for feral cats even though it’s against the law to do it. Some even have a regular circuit where they drive from feeding spot to feeding spot. Is that okay?
Now we have "environmentalists" versus animal rights "activists".
I have a bird feeder in my yard.
—
How did birds survive for millions of years without bird feeders?
I used to live in a condo. There was a nearby tree that was home to a mocking bird. A neighbor would put cat food under the tree just to watch the mocking bird dive bomb any cats that tried to get to the cat food.
Bird feeders are known to spread disease and concentrate songbirds for predators. They also attract the invasive rats.
Not the point of a bird feeder. People like to watch birds. I knew a girl that wouldn’t go berry picking because she thought she was depriving birds of their natural food. She hit a turkey with her car, and was inconsolable for days.
I see bird lovers with glass windows and electricity, oblivious to the millions of birds killed by windows and power lines.
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