Heyy everyone! I thought this was interesting, I'm not really sure if I believe it or not but let me know what all of you think about pets having a carbon "paw-print."... Robert and Brenda Vale are two architects that specialize in sustainable living. In their new book, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living, they compare the carbon footprints of popular pets and other live style choices (cars). The Vales' say that cats and dogs impact wildlife populations, spread disease and add pollution just as bad as our gas guzzling SUVs. How is this possible you ask? It is all based on the type of pet food we feed them! The Vales' calculated that a medium-sized dog eats 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereal a day. (this means that your dog eats 361 pounds of meat and 209 pounds of cereal in a year!) It takes 43.3 square meters to generate one kilogram (7 pounds) of chicken per year and 13.4 square meters to generate a kilogram of cereal...this gives your dog a carbon footprint of 0.4 hectares (a hectare is equal to 100 ares, or 2.471 acres.) To complete the footprints of cats and dogs, the Vales used a Toyota Land Cruiser. They based their results on someone who drives 10,000 kilometers a year. The results showed that the Land Cruiser's footprint is about 0.41 (less than half of a medium-sized dog!) Another huge issue that is harming the planet, has to do with pet feces. A study was done that proved that faces cause high bacterial levels, especially after heavy rain. Along with making the water un-drinkable, the high bacteria levels starve waterways of oxygen and kill aquatic life. Cat feces have been found to be the cause of brain disease in sea otters, dolphins, and whales. Okay, so how can we reduce our pet's carbon paw-print? The easiest way to lower their impact is to change their diet; you can cut your pet's impact almost in half by feeding it many of the same foods that you eat. This reduces the eco-paw print because our foods are less protein-rich than most dog foods. Robert Vale also recommends buying a pet that serves a duel purpose.
check out this link to find more ways to reduce your pet's carbon footprint:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/questions/how-do-i-reduce-my-pets-carbon-footprint
(source sited: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.600-how-green-is-yur-pet.html?full=true)
