Do you consider yourself a "green" person? Y'know, using canvas shopping bags, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, etc.? Well apparently, that's not good enough! Those actions are "largely cosmetic," New Zealand architecture professor Brenda Vale tells Celsias.com.
In "Time to Eat the Dog?: A Real Guide to Sustainable Living," Brenda and her husband Robert Vale, architects who concentrate on sustainable living, propose an unsavory idea: if you are going to keep pets, make sure they are edible so as to reduce the carbon footprint of the animals you keep.
For the less environmentally-literate, a "carbon footprint" is the amount of greenhouse gases we produce while driving, flying, eating, etc., which contribute to climate change, or global warming. "Sustainable living" refers to efforts to reduce consumption of natural resources and the production of greenhouse gases by "altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet."
"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 tells The Dominion Post. Studying the amount of land and energy it takes to make the dog food your pet eats every year, the Vales found that a dog's carbon pawprint was twice that of a Toyota Land Cruiser being driven 6,213 miles a year. A cat's eco pawprint was "slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf," and keeping two hamsters is the same as owning a plasma TV.
Are the Vales suggesting we eat our cats and dogs? Not exactly, they say, admitting that the title of their book was a "shock tactic." "We are not advocating eating anyone's pet cat or dog, [but] 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," Brenda Vale tells The Dominion Post.
Not surprisingly, the Vales do not own any dogs or cats.
Curious about your own carbon footprint? Check out the Carbon Footprint Calculator at The Nature Conservancy website. You'll note it doesn't inquire about the number and type of pets in your household.
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Sic'em boy!!!
some people will do anything to sell a book, these so called experts are idiots
Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Coyotes and other animals living in the wild "DOES NOT" eat "MAN" made "PROCESSED" cat or dog foods.... So the problem to me is "NOT" having dogs or cats as pets, but rather "SOCIETY" and "BIG BUSINESS" "PUSHING" the view on the masses that "THEIR PRODUCTS", that is the "MAN MADE PROCESSED" pet food is "BETTER" for "OUR" pets... So how can "SOCIETY" blame "OUR" pets for having a "CARBON FOOT PRINT" when "WE, THE CONSUMERS" are the ones "BUYING PET FOOD PROCESSED BY MAN" in the "FACTORIES" of "BIG BUSINESS" for our cats and dogs?
-Reason Man....
So I suppose that we should leave all these animals in shelters instead where they can maintain a large footprint for keeping these animals.
I think that these folks were just trying to raise awareness that pets can have a bad effect on the environment as well but you know it's not the pets fault that the dog food manufactuers produce their food in a non green way.
New Zeland ! They eat people there too ; the island is long know for cannibalism. They have no dogs or cats. Do(did) they have children ? DVM
This is discusting. They most likely dont have kids either, probly ate them.
If these yo-yos were REALLY interested in "sustainable living"; their information would be available solely in the form of an e-book and not as bound and printed matter...
It's FLUORESCENT...not FLOUR...you eat flour, and put the dog out to peee...dammit
OMG!!! The nuts have fallen from the trees and are cracking open!!! Quick! Squash them!! Better yet...cut down that tree!!!
My Brittanys contribute more positive energy to this world than these people combined! Hope they don't have kids.....they will likely leave a big ugly carbon footprint!
One can only assume they are self proclaimed experts!
Honestly? Now I can see where someone would think this, bit by a dog and using the whole going green thing as a cover, but why dogs? Cows deliver ten times that, no one's saying time to eat the cow. Vegans eat only vegetables, which reduces oxygen and increases carbon dioxide in the air, why not step it up! Time to eat the vegan! When it comes down to it, there are some things that, in the end, are just stupid. Way to decrease the biodiversity, why bother helping the environment if we are just going to kill off all life doing it?
Hey i got a another great idea for a book! It's called "If you have kids make sure they are edible!!" I mean, how much of a carbon footprint does a human make over their lifetime? We could just eat our kids, that would be cool and good for the environment!!
If some damn tree hugging hippy ate my dog I'd kick em in the nuts!
This book is dumb. Why would people eat their animals? These people are sick.
What a bunch of douchebags!
WOW....and these loons are allowed to walk around loose. According to her, my 7 dogs, 2 cats, 2 horses, and 2 cows table fare......I don't think so.
These idiots probably have a carbon footprint the size of Al Gore's. When I read this to my German Shepherd, he said he wants their address.
Brenda and Robert: I guess we should resort to cannabilism and then we can eat each other as well. TOTAL JERKS.
These knuckleheads are leaving a carbon footprints publishing this nonsense! Toss these two on the barbie!