Posted on 10/22/2009 3:32:05 PM PDT by Brandonmark
Linda Finlay will not be giving up her dogs any time soon – despite a call from researchers to swap dogs and cats for pets they can eat, like rabbits or chickens.
A longtime dog lover and dog training club member, Mrs Findlay couldn't imagine a life without Thomas, Zarah and Zoe – even if the Bernese Mountain Dog crosses and Alsatian labrador cross do have a carbon pawprint bigger than a Land Cruiser.
"They're like part of the family," Mrs Findlay said.
Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, have recommended pet owners consider what impact their animals have on the environment in their book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.
The couple assessed the carbon emissions created by popular pets, taking into account the ingredients of pet food and the land needed to create them.
In a study published in New Scientist, they calculated a medium dog eats 164 kilograms of meat and 95kg of cereals every year. It takes 43.3 square metres of land to produce 1kg of chicken a year. This means it takes 0.84 hectares to feed the dog.
They compared this with the footprint of a Toyota Land Cruiser, driven 10,000km a year, which uses 55.1 gigajoules (the energy used to build and fuel it). One hectare of land can produce 135 gigajoules a year, which means the vehicle's eco-footprint is 0.41ha – less than half of dog's.
They found cats have an eco-footprint of 0.15ha – slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf. Hamsters have a footprint of 0.014ha – keeping two of them is equivalent to owning a plasma TV.
But the researchers did not factor in the emotional value of the pets, Mrs Findlay said.
Mrs Findlay said she and partner Phil Burton never intended to have three large dogs. "When you have got dogs ... you don't just get rid of them. They are friends."
As far as the environment went, Mrs Findlay said she tried to do her bit to preserve it, and to minimise the dogs' impact on it. Thomas, Zarah and Zoe are mainly fed dog biscuits and only get meat occasionally.
"What the dogs give back to me is probably equal to what the environment gives me – but probably on a more emotional level."
And as for swapping pets, she already has a cat, two budgies, one horse, six sheep, chickens and a huge bullock steer
Why not....these are the same type of people that butcher their babies! < sarcasm - just in case some people can't recognize it >
Yep - then there was the rabbits folk brought to Australia for food and fun - only 24 of them
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/rabbits-down-under/
http://www.geocities.com/wpsmoke/canetoads.html
these people need to find something to do with their lives besides trying to run everyone else’s
To be fair my big dog does convert a lot of kibble into natural gas...if only I could harness that power!
**In a study published in New Scientist, they calculated a medium dog eats 164 kilograms of meat and 95kg of cereals every year. It takes 43.3 square metres of land to produce 1kg of chicken a year. This means it takes 0.84 hectares to feed the dog.**
One acre is about .40 hectares so .84 hectares would be about two acres. Average yield of Iowa corn per acre in 2009 was 189 bushels. 1 bushel equal 56 pounds of corn so that 10584 pounds of corn per acre or a little more than 21,168 lbs for the .84 hectares. When you divide that by 365 to calculate the daily requirement of corn to feed the dog you get 58 pounds of corn a day to feed a dog (pretty impressive dog)
Oh and it takes 7lbs of corn to make a pound of beef, 6lbs to make a pound of pork, and 2.6lbs of corn makes a pound of chicken therefore the .84 hectares of corn would produce about 8000 pounds of chicken yearly or about 22 pounds daily for fido.
The reason for the reported ozone layer depletion is not the use of aerosol, but all of the hot air and gas being released by the whackos doing these studies.
Post of the day, but I am glad I am not married to you!
Anyone that grew up on a farm knows you don't name your food. These "researchers" need to get out of the lab ...
Maybe they give insane orders just to test the loyalty of their followers. “How far can we push these dummies? Will they kill their dogs because we tell them it will save the planet? Anyone who does that will not mind shoving Christians in the ovens when the time comes”.
Maybe now more people will pay attention.
These “people” are modern day Technocrats, dealing in ergs & joules as their “currency”.
They are supposedly spending their time licking their pencils (and flicking the spittle off their foaming mouths) as they list and total up column after column of smudged and fudged meaningless figures...then try to pass their sums off as "facts".
What they are really doing (besides showing the world exactly what king of asses they are) is driving people away from their dying cause, by absurdly pushing their "research" and "findings" beyond all bounds of even borderline rationality.
IOW, they are, in popular parlance, AKA “Plain English”, barking mad NUTS.
That’s a nice lookin’ Dal.
Joyce is 8 months now and was first pick of the litter.
<{"Goody, goody, goody!"}> <slapping sounds> Naughty, naughty Hannibal! Bad, bad doctor!
lol
You might try some of the California sauternes and sauvignon blanc. And if you can find some, I thought that Gundlach-Bundschu's fume' blanc was the best white I've ever had, and I've had some good ones.
IMHO.
That would leave them nose-to-nose with an eight-inch-high killing machine! LOL!
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