I wasn’t sure how to break THIS NEWS to my two dogs.
[S]pecialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington, analysed popular brands of pet food and calculated that a medium-sized dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal a year.Combine the land required to generate its food and a “medium” sized dog has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares (2.07 acres) — around twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4×4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.
So, I just ripped off the Band-Aid and told them, “Sorry, guys, you’ll have to go. You generate too much carbon dioxide.”
They were unimpressed.
Photo by Mrs. E
It was a long time coming. I’ve been toying with the idea of laying off the dogs for awhile now. In this economy, families like mine have to swallow the bitter pill and make some cuts.
- We switched from portabello mushrooms on our vegetarian pizza to white button mushrooms.
- We started skipping store-bought organic broccoli in our vegetarian stir fries, using only frozen veggies from our 1300 square foot organic vegetable garden and tofu from a local producer.
- We started eating our locally-grown apples all the way to the core before pitching them into the compost pile we use to fertilize our garden.
- We started letting the recycling pile up until we could completely fill our fuel-efficient compact car with it before making the drive to the recycling facility so as to make fewer trips.
- We started buying fewer used books and less second-hand clothing from the resale shop.
But now it looks like we’re going to have to lay off the dogs.
Because they pollute more than the SUV we don’t own.
Dang it. I just hope they don’t come for the cat.
I’m just sayin’…
P.S. This stupid “study” has since been pretty effectively debunked.
