Green nuts want eco friendly pets!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/national/2987821/Save-the-planet-eat-a-dog

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.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569218,00.html

The couple assessed the carbon footprint created by popular pets, taking into account pet food ingredients and living space.

The pair does not actually advocate eating domestic animals but Brenda Vale says: "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 in our environment."

lol

ghost_ie

Idiots

buggles

Funny thing is I've wondered what the environmental impact all my cats are having on the planet, I'd be scared to tot up how much food they go through a year.

Pets one day people the next!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.600-how-green-is-your-pet.html

SHOULD owning a great dane make you as much of an eco-outcast as an SUV driver? Yes it should,

As well as guzzling resources, cats and dogs devastate wildlife populations, spread disease and add to pollution. It is time to take eco-stock of our pets.

To measure the ecological paw, claw and fin-prints of the family pet, the Vales analysed the ingredients of common brands of pet food. They calculated, for example, that a medium-sized dog would consume 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereals daily in its recommended 300-gram portion of dried dog food. At its pre-dried weight, that equates to 450 grams of fresh meat and 260 grams of cereal. That means that over the course of a year, Fido wolfs down about 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals.

It takes 43.3 square metres of land to generate 1 kilogram of chicken per year - far more for beef and lamb - and 13.4 square metres to generate a kilogram of cereals. So that gives him a footprint of 0.84 hectares. For a big dog such as a German shepherd, the figure is 1.1 hectare

jhegarty

Own up , who has been feeding fido on free range chicken ?