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?
###
h/t to WUWT reader GA
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Dogs love to chase down Rabbits and they will bring them back to their owner with just a little training.
Cats will take on a Chicken and we all know they like to bring birds home.
So what am I missing here.
That would be sustainable living at its finest. We sit at home all day long, being as Carbon-neutral as possible, reading environmental books hand-made on recycled paper, and we let the Dogs and Cats bring home our food and their food. We use solar cooking and we compost the left-overs. We wash the dishes using recycled waste water and …
Somebody should publish a carbon foot print ranking for Hollywood celebrities and Green Peace activists who jet all over the world to protest, that compares them to the typical SUV and popular pets.
I would much rather do without a few Hollywood elitists than any of the pets I have ever had.
Larry
Would it be wrong to suggest eating polar bears?
Scratch that……..how about baby seals, penguins or whales?
Probably knock the CO2 number down a few ticks…..getting rid of all those whales and penguins……
There’s news out that production of Swine Flu Vaccine is way behind schedule, perhaps they’ve already started taking care of the carbon footprint problem. Now where did I put that union card…
I notice the AGW crowd doesn’t seem to volunteer to be the first to die for the cause. The could reduce their carbon footprint drastically if they would just do the honorable thing and expire and they would set a good example too. Just think of what the removal of one Gore would do! We could even name the amount of CO2 saved after him! Of course for the rest of us we would have to use milli-Gores for accounting for our demises. And we could hold a feast of long-pork each year in his honor.
Let them eat Poodle.
If you think my pet has a big carbon footprint, just imagine the carbon footprint of, say, a buffalo, bear or cougar! Forget beef, I’m gonna start poaching for supper and save the world! And when I run out of those, just imagine how much carbon my neighbor is producing!
Soylent Green is GREEEEENNNN!!!!
I read a lot of comments, and it seems the original position has been misinterpreted. They aren’t saying eat your dog. They are saying get rid of your dog and get an edible pet. Perfectly reasonable until you have to explain to the kids why Pecky the Rooster IS joining the family for Thanksgiving, but NOT for Christmas. Dogs and cats have been domesticated (in theory for the latter) for a very long time, before being human made you a bad guy.
If these people really want to do sustainability studies, how about doing one on the sustainability of doing sustainability studies. What is the carbon footprint of studying carbon footprints? What is the carbon footprint of giant supercomputers tracking climate change, launching satellites to study climate change, and so forth. Also, can we get a reading on the amount of hot air spewed by Al Gore and Jim Hansen? That may be enough to account for all of the warmer temperatures we have been seeing lately.
Reply: Hmm..”The Carbon Footprint” might make for a good superhero name. ~ charles the “no I’m not stoned” moderator
Slightly off topic but its annoying when humans call pets their babies and they are the mommy and daddy of their pets.
Oh, and how are you supposed to get rid of the dog? Just ship em off on (grimace) death trains (/grimace)? Let them wander stray? Shoot them? What is the preferred method?
edible pets is some states must be registered with the National Animal Identification System which is filled with privacy issues so i’ll keep spot who i only have to register with the city.
hotrod (18:28:42) :
Gregg Easterbrook regularly points this out in his column on ESPN, Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Not affiliated. It is somewhat strange that the people asking for lifestyle changes are not willing to set the example. Gore selling his house and buying a chicken ranch would be very symbolic, no?
Are the eco-wackos getting more desperate, or just dumber?
Maybe the next step is we should just eat ourselves.
I mean….they did it at Donner Pass.
Sure would cut back on American Obesity…..slicing off a little bit every now and then to reduce one’s footprint.
EWWWWW. Gross.
Enough already.
I can’t even believe that some of the CRAP that comes out of universities these days as a by-product of the AGW-Reduce-Carbon-Footprint-Sustainability Movement.
A ridiculous and atrocious WASTE of academic money, time, and energy.
No wonder the world is in trouble.
These are architects????
Meanwhile….across the world…bridges fail, power grids short out, and, in Victoria AU, close to home for these “enlightened” academics…many people are still grieving the unnecessary loss of so many of their kin and friends in…
…the tragic wildfirestorm of February this year….because??….because WHY???….becuase homeowners, in fear of the GREENS, could not clear the brush from around their houses!!
Sustainable enough for ya??
More like DIABOLICAL.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
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.
Hey, they are on to something. Chickens are a superb vector for various diseases. If more people keep them as pets, this will create a constant source of plagues that will kill many people. It’s a “two for one” deal.
Published in New Scientist. That’s sort of like a peer reviewed journal, isn’t it?
When you’re starving, when you’re starving
the whole world starves as well
When you’re eating, when you’re eating
it’s probably a rat or someonelse’s pet.
When you’re hungry, you eat. That it is suggested we should eat pets demonstrates how hungry the greeners think we should be. However, does this tick with PETA?
This article underscores the bizarre and obsessed fixation these green zealots have with labeling everything that emits CO2 as contributing to world destruction. It is evident they are off their Prozac again.
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.”
Hahaha….yeah poor pups.
Was the USA’s esteemed NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Director among the bitten??
Just curious….
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Let’s see, Andy Revkin thinks there are way too many people on the planet, and now we’re told that feeding our dogs has a huge carbon footprint – Please, nobody send this article to Limbaugh.
Anthony would be very unhappy with the win-win absurdity that Rush would come up with!
“Donald (Australia) (18:02:16) :
Victoria ‘University’ must have more parasites than the average woofer would ever collect.”
You are not wrong, wealthy students with their iPods and iPhones. Based in Wellington (Until recently was nicknamed Helengrad for obvious reasons), the capital city of NZ and the home of the political and academic elites.
Ray,
Once you get set up, chickens are easier than dogs. Just don’t keep them too close to the house. Do a little reading, keep them away from the neighbors dogs, and your own too, btw (Henny Penny, RIP).
North of 43,
Mine seem to get tough, I am probably doing something wrong, I know.
Greetings from “On 45”
Utter Nonsense. The Carbon footprint of food production and eating it is close to zero (ignoring the fossil fuel input to growing and packaging it). It is almost carbon neutral. The footprint of burning fuel is the CO2 produced. They need to go back to designing buildings, perhaps starting with a couple of kennels, and leave the atmospheric chemistry to folk who know something about it.
“Rick Sharp (18:51:49) :
Climate change protesters bitten by police dogs
http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fearth%2Fearthnews%2F6365728%2FClimate-change-protesters-bitten-by-police-dogs.html
I hope the dogs are OK.”
I woinder what the outcome would have been if Hansen was there too? No arrests? I wonder how many of the 52 arrested will actually be convicted, or will they receive a slap on the wrist with a wet, used, bus ticket?
From the article…
“One protester, Laura McFarlane-Shopes, 23, wore a bandage on her arm to cover a bite she had received from one of the dogs.
She said: “We were near the fence and some people were trying to get over. I was just in front of them.
“Horses and dogs started charging down. Police shouted that they were coming.
“They let the dogs on to me and one leaped up and bit my arm.”
The student from Leeds added that after she had received the painful bite, officers continued to push her and her friends.
She said: “I wasn’t trying to break the fence, I was just near people who were and I was supporting them.””
Classic copout. “I wasn’t going anything, I was just standing here.”
“A police spokesman said: “We certainly haven’t set dogs on anyone. Dogs have remained on their leads at all times. If people have received dog bites, that’s regrettable, but dogs are a legitimate way of helping to maintain order.”
Another protester, David Martin, 28, said a friend of his had been bitten in the stomach by a dog and had to be taken to casualty.
The student from Hackney, east London, said: “A lot of people had puncture wounds from the dogs. People were bleeding.
“I saw at least 10 or 20 people who had been bitten.”
He added that police told protesters to get inside a designated protest zone they set up on Sunday morning.
But a police spokeswoman said “kettling” had not been used to contain protesters in one area.
She said: “At no time throughout the protest were protesters contained by police. Protesters were free to leave at all times.” ”
And they chose to stay? Tuff luck. Maybe the messages is getting out.