[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ARIS (AFP) – Man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle.

But the revelation in the book "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living" by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale has angered pet owners who feel they are being singled out as troublemakers.

The Vales, specialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington, analysed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year.

Combine the land required to generate its food and a "medium" sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) -- around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4x4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.

To confirm the results, the New Scientist magazine asked John Barrett at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, Britain, to calculate eco-pawprints based on his own data. The results were essentially the same.

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Barrett said.
Other animals aren't much better for the environment, the Vales say.

Cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares, slightly less than driving a Volkswagen Golf for a year, while two hamsters equates to a plasma television and even the humble goldfish burns energy equivalent to two mobile telephones.

But Reha Huttin, president of France's 30 Million Friends animal rights foundation says the human impact of eliminating pets would be equally devastating.
"Pets are anti-depressants, they help us cope with stress, they are good for the elderly," Huttin told AFP.

"Everyone should work out their own environmental impact. I should be allowed to say that I walk instead of using my car and that I don't eat meat, so why shouldn't I be allowed to have a little cat to alleviate my loneliness?"

Sylvie Comont, proud owner of seven cats and two dogs -- the environmental equivalent of a small fleet of cars -- says defiantly, "Our animals give us so much that I don't feel like a polluter at all.

"I think the love we have for our animals and what they contribute to our lives outweighs the environmental considerations.
"I don't want a life without animals," she told AFP.

And pets' environmental impact is not limited to their carbon footprint, as cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways, the Vales say.
With a total 7.7 million cats in Britain, more than 188 million wild animals are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in the New Scientist.

Likewise, dogs decrease biodiversity in areas they are walked, while their faeces cause high bacterial levels in rivers and streams, making the water unsafe to drink, starving waterways of oxygen and killing aquatic life.

And cat poo can be even more toxic than doggy doo -- owners who flush their litter down the toilet ultimately infect sea otters and other animals with toxoplasma gondii, which causes a killer brain disease.

But despite the apocalyptic visions of domesticated animals' environmental impact, solutions exist, including reducing pets' protein-rich meat intake.
"If pussy is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale.
"If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

Other potential positive steps include avoiding walking your dog in wildlife-rich areas and keeping your cat indoors at night when it has a particular thirst for other, smaller animals' blood.

As with buying a car, humans are also encouraged to take the environmental impact of their future possession/companion into account.
But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge.

Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table.
"Rabbits are good, provided you eat them," said Robert Vale.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/lifestyleclimatewarminganimalsfood

[timmac]

The article forgot one other problem, that is those little brown/black dogie poop bags you see at parks and other places, there is millions upon millions of those bags full of dog waste disposed of in these bags that end up in land fills, I know this very well because I have to purchase these bags for many of my contracts and I spend about $1500 a year for these bags, poop will last for years and years in these bags,, I wonder what future generation a 1000 years from now digging up our land fills to see what we have done and find these bags with almost fresh dog poop inside will have to say ??

[timmac]

Oopps double post.

[mos6507]

If we had a smaller human population, we could have lots of pets. In the age of overshoot, something's got to give. If you don't want to give up your pets, find something else to throw overboard. But denying environmental footprints and continuing BAU to the end is not going to be pretty.

[Novus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Barrett said.

[Jotapay]

This is complete insanity to me. To focus on dogs, they have been human being's right hand for the past ~5000 years. Humans would not be able to accomplish many tasks without dogs. To declare them as environmental leaches is revolting. These trusty servants will give their life for their handler and to portray them as parasites is disgusting.

[SeaGypsy]

This will gross people out:
Dogs are shit eaters. Among nomadic people the dogs get to eat shit/ undesired meat scraps/ over supply; in that order. As this is digusting to most humans and we flush the brown stuff; the pawprint is far larger for modern pampered pooches than for the camp dogs who were their ancestors.
In many old cultures dogs are both detritus cleaners and emergency food supply.
I did warn you....

[Jotapay]

If you want to see what dogs are bred and used for, as far as indispensable human helpers goes, check out this PBS special. This type of environmental Nazism makes me fucking puke. It disgusts me to the extent environmentalism has gone to label dogs as liabilities and parasites.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'T')his will gross people out:
Dogs are shit eaters. Among nomadic people the dogs get to eat shit/ undesired meat scraps/ over supply; in that order. As this is digusting to most humans and we flush the brown stuff; the pawprint is far larger for modern pampered pooches than for the camp dogs who were their ancestors.
In many old cultures dogs are both detritus cleaners and emergency food supply.
I did warn you....

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'I')f we had a smaller human population, we could have lots of pets. In the age of overshoot, something's got to give. If you don't want to give up your pets, find something else to throw overboard. But denying environmental footprints and continuing BAU to the end is not going to be pretty.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'T')his is complete insanity to me. To focus on dogs, they have been human being's right hand for the past ~5000 years. Humans would not be able to accomplish many tasks without dogs. To declare them as environmental leaches is revolting. These trusty servants will give their life for their handler and to portray them as parasites is disgusting.

[Jotapay]

Watch the scenes in this PBS Nature episode to show how dogs have been used to do jobs which humans cannot do. Watch what the German Shepherd "Delta" does.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/lessons/ ... orld/4803/

If you environmental fucktards ever try and take my dog, which I use for home protection, I will leave you still living but emasculated.

This crap has gone too far and it will be stopped. Mos, you and your statist cadre will be stopped.

[hillsidedigger]

There should be many fewer pet dogs, cats and horses and more squ'lls, rabbits, foxes and deer.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'I') agree with you 100%, but the genetic studies say dogs have been with us for 100,000 years. So its no wonder why (most) of us love our dogs so much.. they've lived with us for as long as we've been Homo Sapien.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'I')f we had a smaller human population, we could have lots of pets. In the age of overshoot, something's got to give. If you don't want to give up your pets, find something else to throw overboard. But denying environmental footprints and continuing BAU to the end is not going to be pretty.

[Jotapay]

If you haven't seen it yet, this is an excellent online video about dogs and why we use them as tools to do jobs we cannot do.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/lessons/ ... orld/4803/

It's an amazing PBS documentary "Nature" that shows history as well as modern application. Dogs are our helpers, for thousands of years. I'm amazed that these absolute-devils would describe our helpers as "parasites". Shame on them. SHAME ON THEM.

[eXpat]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'T')his is complete insanity to me. To focus on dogs, they have been human being's right hand for the past ~5000 years. Humans would not be able to accomplish many tasks without dogs. To declare them as environmental leaches is revolting. These trusty servants will give their life for their handler and to portray them as parasites is disgusting.

[Jotapay]

Hrm. I may have to start breeding true german German Shepherds then in response to this. The breed I have is so insanely cool that I cannot let it die like this. I'll get the the pure line fron Germany. Ich spreche Deutchs, wie so dass ist ein dinge dass Ich kann tun.

I'll have to get a camera and show what Angeal can do. It's pretty amazing; she respondss better than most kids, and she's a dog.

There is no way she or any other dog will be labeled as environmental parasites by these tardbaskets.

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'I')f we had a smaller human population, we could have lots of pets. In the age of overshoot, something's got to give. If you don't want to give up your pets, find something else to throw overboard. But denying environmental footprints and continuing BAU to the end is not going to be pretty.

[AlexdeLarge]

If you believe in AGW and want to save the planet, you know what you must do. Fluffy must die!