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
now they have put PETA on the Deniers side. Oh Joy.
An even better solution:
Fund research that will destroy the CO2 molecule from the whole whole Universe and prevent it from ever forming again, ever(!), thus destroying life as we know it. Stupid CO2. Go away you bad bad thing! Why did we discover you!! You bastard CO2. We were so happy without for millions of years and now we discover in the past 5 years that youve been around for millions of years!?! I DARE YOU! you you you are going to kill us all!!! How dare you form in our blood and exhale from our lungs! how dare you! I feel sooooo dirty!!!
ahem… CO2 is a necessary part of the ecosystem, and the ecosystem balances itself. end of story.
Logically then cannibalism is the best way for sustainable living… eat the rich anyone?
David (18:47:20) :
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?
I think it’s already covered under ObamaCare. 😉
Words fail me.
Whatever kind of cow produces the milk for Häagen-Dazs ice cream will be my pet!
When I think I’ve read and seen everything, this takes the cake… the Vales are utterly nuts…
My hunch is that these professors and the production and distribution of their publication will have a yearly carbon footprint much greater than several thousands of pets. Add to that all the lamp energy wasted reading such drivel. Truly sustainable folks will only read it by sunlight and then use it for toilet paper. (Only on page at a time, mind you!)
I suppose if some villain were to suggest an alternate guide, “Time to Eat the Professor: The real guide to sustainable living.” some folks might that a tad bit absurd.
Smokey (20:16:39) :
gtrip: does that mean I can chow down on my parakeet?
I don’t think that would be considered chowing down. But yes, you may snack on your parakeet!!!
I don’t care if people want to be nutty like this. I just wish they’d keep it to themselves.
An elderly cousin of mine, born in 1904, passed in 1996 and was an oral surgeon from U of Penn class of 1930, said to me in the year or so before he died, that he was glad he lived in the time he did – despite two world wars, the Spanish Flu pandemic, TB, no antibiotics and the cold war – because it was the greatest time in American history; indeed, with the rapid advancement of medicine and technology, according to him it was the greatest time in world history. He said he felt sorry for me, at the tender age of 30, for the type of world I was facing. At the root of it was the computer – in his view it would bring the downfall of our society. I silently admonished the old fool, knowing (as an engineer) how the computer had advanced us so much in just a few short years – medically, scientifically, technologically. . .
Now, almost 14 years after his passing, I can google my own name and find out all sorts of things about myself. I can do the same for distant relatives I’ve never even met or anyone else who sparks my interest. My employer can monitor my drivers license and be notified within 3 business days of an accident, ticket or DWI. My employer’s “company cars” have dash cams that record my speed along with everything else I do or say. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t hear or read about someone’s identity theft horror story or an identity theft “insurance” commercial. Anyones credit report and financial history are available to anyone who wants to purchase it from one of these credit reporting or investigative background check agencies.
Smart Metering is coming to a community near you, and along with “incentive billing” how much electricity you use during different times of day will be “premium priced” and at worst, you will receive a daily allotment of electricity, beyond which you will either be cut off for the remainder of the period or pay an astronomical price. The incentive, of course, is to get you to reduce your energy usage – and your “carbon” consumption. (Don’t believe that ? I work for a large electric/gas utility and we’re installing them now. Executives and beauracrats have already discussed the need for the “competitive pricing structure” as they called it.) Andy Revkin wants to assign “carbon allotments” to all human beings on the planet and limit all human beings to one child per family. Free speech rights are under assault by the American Government as demonstrated by its recent attacks on a critical news network, talk radio shows, and support of “net neutrality laws” and proposed reinstitution of the un-“fairness doctrine” and/or radio “diversity laws.” Soon we may all have every word of our medical records electronically available to any/every doctor, clinic (or government beauracrat) who wants or “needs” to have access to them whether we want them to or not. I guess the so-called “constitutional right to privacy” doesn’t apply in any of the afforementioned situations………………………..
I’m not saying I agree with my cousin’s perspective, although on the other hand, it is certainly the computer and technology that makes all of the above, and many, many more examples possible. However, for the past year or so I have been unable to shake the feeling that I’m living in a nightmare that I just can’t wake up from, and the preposterous subject of Anthony’s post is just the icing on the cake………………….
Again, I’m not saying I agree with my cousin’s perspective, but inmany ways I’m beginning to envy him.
And I’m becoming frightened for my two young children.
If it was a choice between eating my pet or eating a liberal progressive psycho environmental whack job, should I find myself starving to death, I’d slice up the liberal progressive psycho environmental whack job, skewered and barbecued with a touch of lemon and Tabasco, and feed me and Fido first.
Pete M. (20:27:47) :
An even better solution:
Fund research that will destroy the CO2 molecule
Hey, add to that the deadly compound dihydrogen monoxide and I’ll sign on.
Each year, Dihydrogen Monoxide is a known causative component in many thousands of deaths and is a major contributor to millions upon millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment. A few of the known perils of Dihydrogen Monoxide are:
* Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
* Tissue damage from prolonged exposure to solid DHMO.
* Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
* DHMO is a major component of acid rain.
* A major component of soil erosion.
* Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many substancess.
* Atmospheric DHMO is a major component of global warming
“Climate change protesters bitten by dogs… I hope the dogs are alright.”
Precisely. Next to a self-righteous alarmist, a plump policeman makes an excellent meal. Except that I came down with a nasty case of hives after swallowing Ranger Rick. And three bites of Dudley DoRight caused me to lose my lunch! Yechhh!
The vet told me it was a case of “tainted flesh” and that there was a lot of it going around. Hmmm.
“What about CO2 emissions during forest fires ignited by lightning?
Solution: Pass a law that makes thunderstorms illegal: lightning causes fires.”
This is already the case in IPCC climate models.
The problem with this idea is that most people care more about their companion animals than they do about Brenda and Robert Vale. I’m trying to remember if Thursday was Soylent Green day…
This is an indication that our society is doing TOO well. When we have time to worry about stuff like this and make these kinds of arguments, then it means we have a surplus of both resources and time.
If you take this argument and put it in the context of a global famine from unexpected cooling, it takes on an entirely different (and just as silly) meaning as many pets would have been eaten already and nobody will give a rat’s pair of hips what kind of car you have. And mark my words, such a time will come to pass, it always does. A major volcanic eruption about now while we are already in a period of natural cooling could be catastrophic. Arguments such as these would instantly disappear.
This is more about people way having too much time to think themselves out into crazier and crazier tangents than anything else. If they actually had to work at surviving from one day to the next, they would have less interest in telling other people what they should be doing.
Well, I have a pet. Norwegian Elkhound who thinks she is a coon dog. She has treed dozens of raccoons in my backyard. If times get bad enough, we’ll eat the raccoons rather than the dog.
If any environmentalists come into the backyard, she’ll probably tree them also. Anyone have a recipe for environmentalist? I was thinking a very slow oven, with lots of liquid. Heard that they are rather tough and stringy.
Here is the ultimate solution…get rid of all domesticed animals and humans and the world will be free of AGW. The scarey thing is, someone, likely a government agency, PAID for this research!
crosspatch (21:12:08) :
“This is an indication that our society is doing TOO well. When we have time to worry about stuff like this and make these kinds of arguments, then it means we have a surplus of both resources and time.”
YES. Well said.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
@ur momisugly gtrip (20:08:27) :
I think that the only reason that most societies don’t eat dogs and cats are only because they are carnivores. It has nothing to do with them being companions. Humans just don’t generally eat carnivores. Some eat bear (omnivores) and seals (mostly seafood). Could be a taste thing, could be a health thing, could be a farming thing. We just don’t eat mammals that eat other mammals.
Guess what goes into the food that cows eat and why we have mad cow disease and Creutzfeld Jacobs. We do eat animals that eat other animals.
I’d like to imprint my eco-footprint right on the Vales’ faces.
Here’s something amusing from Snopes:
Hound by the Pound
Claim: A Korean company solicited American dog shelters for excess dogs to turn into soup.
Status: False.
Example: [Letter from Kea So Joo, Inc, 1994]
Dear Executive Director,
Excuse my English Please, Thank You. First congratulation on all you good work with animal. We support. We would like to help your company make money, so we like to offer help so you make money.
Dog shelter kill million of dog, cost money. Dog shelter cremate dog cost money. Dog shelter need money to operate. Where it get money? Hard to get money.
Many people like to eat dog. People need to eat dog. Where do they get dog? Some people they raise dog to eat. Some steal dog, make some people angry, hurt some people. That not right.
We like make proposal to your dog shelter to sell us dog. You save money, you make money. We buy all dog, regardless of size or color. We prefer big, young, strong dog but we take all dog from your dog shelter. We cook dog in America. We can dog in America and sell some dog in America in Asian market place. Lot people in America eat dog. Most dog we ship oversea. Lot people eat dog. Many country eat dog. Korea, China eat dog, Philippines, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia eat dog. Dog is healthy for you. This way your cost of business is less. You make more money, more people happy. You get cleaner air. No burn up dog. No waste dog. People pet no disappear. Everybody happy.
Cause we understand some people no like idea to eat dog. But they make trouble for people who like eat dog. Those people called two face. Those people eat cow, rabbit and mice, squirrel and frog and every thing else, but still give us trouble. But dog is good food. Dog is good medicine, make sick people strong, make old people young, make penis hard, make sex good again. Our business getting very big. Need more dog. We are prepared to offer you ten cents per pound per dog. We pick up dog every day, so you also save on feeding dog. We like very much to speak with you and make deal. Please tell us how many dog available in your business. We have deal already to do same with dog shelter in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. We hope to be eventually in big city cross America. You can join us now, save money and continue doing your good job. We do big business together. We have big business already with many dog breeder and many dog hospital. Dog no suffer, We have quick death for dog.
Looking to hear from you soon,
Thank you
Kim Yung Soo
President
Kea So Joo, Inc.
Origins: The letter quoted above raised a media firestorm in 1994. Fifteen hundred such missives were received by animal shelters across the U.S.A. Though some recipients saw it for the hoax it was, others immediately hit the panic button and summoned the media to decry such a horrid proposition. Imagine wanting to eat dog! Imagine approaching American animal shelters with such a slimy deal! Never mind that in 1992, 6.3 million dogs were euthanized in animal shelters! At least they weren’t eaten . . .
Shelter workers and animal rights groups were appalled. The media had a field day. And the greater the outcry, the more all of them did the work of a prankster extraordinaire for him.
Kea So Joo (Korean for “dog meat soup”) wasn’t a real company. Its only real-life manifestations were letterhead, a P.O. box, and a phone number. The idea for the sting came from Joey Skaggs, a man who has been the bane of the media for thirty years.
Skaggs sees himself as a performance artist on a mission. Where others use canvas and paint, he uses telephones and fax machines. His medium of choice is the imaginative prank. His messages often get lost in the fallout over his pranks , but they are always there. And you usually don’t have to look very far for them.
For the dog project he set up a phone line and recorded an announcement in Korean and English, complete with dogs barking in the background. Two days after the letters were sent out, the line was swamped as Skaggs logged thousands of calls and taped messages from animal welfare officials, police, reporters, and various appalled cow-eating Americans. Animal lovers called him a filthy yellow devil and suggested Asians be deported, killed, or canned.
The phone was never answered by a person. All incoming calls were answered and recorded by a machine. That didn’t stop various outraged parties from claiming they’d spoken to someone at the other end.
”I asked what I could do with dogs since I’m in Colorado and they’re in New York,” said Robin Duxbury, director of the Denver-based Animal Rights Mobilization. “He said, ‘We have people that come pick them up from you, even in Colorado,”’ said Duxbury, who then claimed to have hung up.
Dozens of newspapers and television stations carried staff-written and wire-service articles reporting investigations by concerned officials at animal welfare groups. One article noted a possible link between the letter and the disappearance of large dogs in upstate New York; another quoted an official on Long Island as claiming “proof” that the letter is from a real company.
After the furor had been hullabalooed in the news for a week, Skaggs completed his work by sending a news release headlined, “Dog Meat Hoax Exposed.” In it, he confessed his role and explained that his purpose has been “to bring to light issues of cultural bias, intolerance and racism,” as well as to demonstrate the media’s tendency to be “reactionary, gullible and irresponsible.”
Skaggs believed the American public, with its own prejudices regarding which animals it’s okay to consume, would go bonkers when confronted with the dog-meat proposal — and he was right. Animal rights groups and public officials took the story completely out of his hands — in the process, he believes, exposing their own racism and cultural bigotry. One of the messages of the prank, Skaggs maintains, was “We are culturally intolerant. It was about prejudice, as illustrated in the letters, faxes and calls I received.”
Shows the complete absurdity of the impending CO2 eco-footprint taxation scheme…
When I was 9 I ate an edible black licorice Saturday Night Special revolver. But that probably wouldn’t count. I threw it up.