In my opinion, this over the top idea isn’t sustainable at any level. On a personal note, my cat eats with a footprint more like a Volkswagen microbus. I think I’ll give “Minners” a can of doplhin safe tuna tonight, just for spite.
By TANYA KATTERNS – The Dominion Post
Save the planet: time to eat dog?
The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found.
Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in their provocative new book Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living.
The couple have assessed the carbon emissions created by popular pets, taking into account the ingredients of pet food and the land needed to create them.
“If you have a German shepherd or similar-sized dog, for example, its impact every year is exactly the same as driving a large car around,” Brenda Vale said.
“A lot of people worry about having SUVs but they don’t worry about having Alsatians and what we are saying is, well, maybe you should be because the environmental impact … is comparable.”
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 Fido.
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 the 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.
Professor Vale says the title of the book is meant to shock, but the couple, who do not have a cat or dog, believe the reintroduction of non-carnivorous pets into urban areas would help slow down global warming.
“The title of the book is a little bit of a shock tactic, I think, but though we are not advocating eating anyone’s pet cat or dog there is certainly some truth in the fact that if we have edible pets like chickens for their eggs and meat, and rabbits and pigs, we will be compensating for the impact of other things on our environment.”
Professor Vale took her message to Wellington City Council last year, but councillors said banning traditional pets or letting people keep food animals in their homes were not acceptable options.
[Gee, ya think?]
Kelly Jeffery, a Paraparaumu german shepherd breeder who once owned a large SUV, said eliminating traditional pets was “over the top”.
“I think we need animals because they are a positive in our society. We can all make little changes to reduce carbon footprints but without pointing the finger at pets, which are part of family networks.”
Owning rabbits is legal anywhere. Local bodies allow chickens, with some restrictions.
Full story here: Save the planet: time to eat dog?
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h/t to WUWT reader GA
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For those of you debating the culinary quality of dog , I seem to recall that Meriwether Lewis , after spending a dismal winter at Fort Clapsop , declared that he preferred dog to dried salmon . As for eating AGW wackos , be sure to avoid eating their brains – it can cause Kuru aka the shaking death . Otherwise , it is a commendable idea .
P Walker (10:59:01) :
As for eating AGW wackos , be sure to avoid eating their brains – it can cause Kuru aka the shaking death
That is because of the prions molecules which reinforce when recycled, as in the mad cow disease.
@Richard Dupuis (18:42:45) :
Soylent Green is GREEEEENNNN!!!!
Wish I had said that first! Do you suppose you can trademark that? Is Soylent Green a registered trademark or servicemark? I wonder if we could license the name for a new line of pet food?
Eating a pet reeks of treachery. Raise animals for food or raise them as pets but don’t try to do both at the same time.
Sheesh!
When has human civilization ever been sustainable, except for paleolithic and neolithic societies? Are we never supposed to grow, advance ourselves, invent new machines or medicines?
Imagine barely making a living in subsistence farming. If you can’t live off the land, you die. No medicines, no electricity. That’s the definition of sustainable.
Gene L. (06:51:31) : “Yep. “Think I’ll go hug my chicken.” Sounds a little kinky. I assume these dreamers have also figured out how to housebreak the chickens, rabbits and other critters they now advocate?”
I actually had a rabbit that was housebroken, and used a litter box. The little beastie just had a bad habit of chewing electrical wires (it’s a rodent thing), so had to be confined to certain rooms, which she absolutely hated. She was a junk-food addict, too. Would jump up into a person’s lap and beg, if they had just opened a bag of chips. Didn’t like dip, though. I don’t think she realized she was a rabbit, as she would occasionally scare the snot out of the dog by attacking, jumping up in the air and snarling. The dog had enough sense to get out of her way at those times.
In its more extreme forms AGW drifts off into irrational silliness.
This study is a great example fo that.
John Galt (11:59:34: …Imagine barely making a living in subsistence farming. If you can’t live off the land, you die. No medicines, no electricity. That’s the definition of sustainable.
Hmmm — With an optimal diet (meat and good fat) you might not need many medicines. For the times you do, herbs are all around. One only needs knowledge to use them.
And there are plenty of people who can live without electricity, even now, and not necessarily see it as privation.
We could all “go bush” and the old skills and knowledge will be worth retaining for the future – it could be a physically demanding life but perhaps not a totally miserable one. 🙂
Oops – sorry – I stuffed up a tag. 🙁
Reply:Fixed. ~ ctm
Jim Clarke (10:36:48) : “The pattern repeats throughout history and AGW is just one more emotionally supported ruse that will be our undoing. The real question is why do we never learn!”
Dark Helmet: And now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb!
A flaw in the calculation seems to be in the energy to build and fuel the
Land Cruiser for 10,000 km.
A Toyota LC gets an average of 15 MPG.
10,000 km = 6,200 miles.
6,200 miles @ur momisugly 15 MPG = 413 gallons
Gasoline = 48 MJ per kg (that’s the energy you get out of the gasoline, which is less than the total embodied energy that it represents, ie. the drilling, transporting & refining energy inputs)
1 gallon of gas = ~3 kg
48 MJ per kg = 144 MJ per gallon of gas,
Thus the gas used for 6,200 miles is nearly 60 GJ
I haven’t a clue as to how to figure how much energy goes into building a Toyota LC
The 135 GJ per year appears to come from studies done on how much ethanol you can get from an Acre of Corn minus the energy it takes to grow the corn and convert it to ethanol. The number they used is the oldest and highest number.
Other, more recent and detailed studies, suggest the number is lower and nearer to 100 GJ per acre.
Annette Huang (12:20:08) :
We could all “go bush” and the old skills and knowledge will be worth retaining for the future – it could be a physically demanding life but perhaps not a totally miserable one. 🙂
There was such an experiment a few years ago. It was called Pol-Pot.
Patrick Davis
It was Jaqui Dean she failed i’ll be damned it was so clearly a dire problem.
“In 2007 Jacqui Dean, New Zealand National Party MP, fell for the hoax, writing a letter to Associate Minister of Health Jim Anderton asking “Does the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs have a view on the banning of this drug?””
I could say gee NZ polys are dumb but really it is not NZ that is the whole western world descending into superstition. I am thinking since I don’t watch football I should campaign to switch of the lights on games so that is not played at night. We can all do scientific articles that advocate the banning of anything we do not like on environmental grounds and we will be taken seriously!
@ur momisugly Annette Huang (12:20:08) :
I do believe their are many pleasures to be gained from a simple life. A healthy diet and clean living are their own rewards. I’m also a big supporter of natural foods and herbal medicine.
Still, I wouldn’t like to live like the Unabomber, or even Thoreau at Walden Pond without a good medical center and supermarket nearby.
Millions do live that way and millions of people also suffer from malnutrition, chronic diseases and parasites. At the beginning of the 20th century, the average person in the USA could expect a life span of about 50 years. I’ll take modern medicine any day.
The type of living that Annette Huang is advocating is not very efficient. In other words, it is a poor use of the natural resources available. There is no way that 6 billion people could live like that on this planet. It takes modern farming and live stock methods to feed 6 billion people. The simple life is great, but ‘simple’ does not mean we should do away with the obvious benefits of modern technology. Modern methods are better in large part because they use natural resources much more efficiently than more primitive methods.
John Galt also makes the great point that such lifestyles have historically resulted in much shorter life spans.
If you want to see environmental degradation, then have everyone do exactly what the environmentalists say to do. It will get really ugly, really fast.
The suburban environment would be greatly improved by eliminating the noise pollution from barking dogs.
Alternatively all the dog owners should be forced to live under the flight paths of airports as noise obviously doesn’t bother them.
When it comes to dogs, species extinction is fine by me.
“Let’s have a war. ”
– Lee Ving
Interview with Tom Bombadil, one of my three cats (and the toughest of them):
Tom: C’mon, this is unfair. I stay out all night, fighting with any other cat who dare to approch my territory, and I kill lots of mice, rats, birds, in fact I kill anything ‘cept big dogs, cars and people.
So you see, I’m actually working very hard for my carbon footprint. I deserve it. “Edible pets?” My tail.
Rick Sharp (18:51:49) :
“Climate change protesters bitten by police dogs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6365728/Climate-change-protesters-bitten-by-police-dogs.html
I hope the dogs are OK”.
Rick, Where can I get such a dog?
Fox News Channel is running a news story this evening which they are calling “Fondu-ing Fido.”
B-b-but I feed my dawgs on slow racehorses and table scraps!
The Vales should do everyone a favor and “eat worms” or better yet, “drop dead”!
“dhmo (13:07:52) :
Patrick Davis
It was Jaqui Dean she failed i’ll be damned it was so clearly a dire problem.
“In 2007 Jacqui Dean, New Zealand National Party MP, fell for the hoax, writing a letter to Associate Minister of Health Jim Anderton asking “Does the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs have a view on the banning of this drug?””
No I don’t recall it being in 2007 as I was still living in NZ at the time and that was before July 2005.
For all those dining on humans first, may I suggest you accompany your meal with a nice Chianti and some fava beans …ef, ef, ef, ef,
Mike Nicholson (06:04:20) :
Apologies. Missed your post re Chiant & fava beans.