Oct
Worried About the State of the Planet? Then Eat Your Dog!
Dog owners should consider, erm, not being dog owners if they care about the environment – or even eating their pet in order to save the planet, according to a new book. The book claims that the carbon footprint left by domesticated animals is huge, arguing that a medium-sized dog has the same impact as a Toyota Land Cruiser driven 6,000 miles a year, while a cat is equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf.
The book, Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living claims the average Collie eats 164kg of meat and 95kg of cereals a year, giving it a high impact on the planet.
I went on to Amazon to see if the book was only available as a digital (evironmentally friendly) edition. Alas no. The paperback is available for sale ready to be loaded on to a diesel powered truck following the cutting down of some trees and being sprayed with ink. Whether the paper is recyled or not, let’s just hope the book doesn’t sell millions – because the environmental impact might require even more owners to eat their dogs to save this oh so fragile planet of ours.
Professors Brenda and Robert Vale are free to make controversial claims about the “eco-footprints” of pets. It will probably help them sell books and make a lot of money. But their calculations smell bad. When real numbers from reliable sources are used, it turns out that they got things wrong by a factor of twenty.
Best Regards,
Cocoa