Polluting pets: the devastating impact of man's best friend

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AFP - Man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle.

But the revelation in the book "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living" by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale has angered pet owners who feel they are being singled out as troublemakers.

The Vales, specialists 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 4x4 driving 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) a year, including energy to build the car.

To confirm the results, the New Scientist magazine asked John Barrett at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, Britain, to calculate eco-pawprints based on his own data. The results were essentially the same.

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Barrett said.

Other animals aren't much better for the environment, the Vales say.

Cats have an eco-footprint of about 0.15 hectares, slightly less than driving a Volkswagen Golf for a year, while two hamsters equates to a plasma television and even the humble goldfish burns energy equivalent to two mobile telephones.

But Reha Huttin, president of France's 30 Million Friends animal rights foundation says the human impact of eliminating pets would be equally devastating.

"Pets are anti-depressants, they help us cope with stress, they are good for the elderly," Huttin told AFP.

"Everyone should work out their own environmental impact. I should be allowed to say that I walk instead of using my car and that I don't eat meat, so why shouldn't I be allowed to have a little cat to alleviate my loneliness?"

Sylvie Comont, proud owner of seven cats and two dogs -- the environmental equivalent of a small fleet of cars -- says defiantly, "Our animals give us so much that I don't feel like a polluter at all.

"I think the love we have for our animals and what they contribute to our lives outweighs the environmental considerations.

"I don't want a life without animals," she told AFP.

And pets' environmental impact is not limited to their carbon footprint, as cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways, the Vales say.

With a total 7.7 million cats in Britain, more than 188 million wild animals are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in the New Scientist.

Likewise, dogs decrease biodiversity in areas they are walked, while their faeces cause high bacterial levels in rivers and streams, making the water unsafe to drink, starving waterways of oxygen and killing aquatic life.

And cat poo can be even more toxic than doggy doo -- owners who flush their litter down the toilet ultimately infect sea otters and other animals with toxoplasma gondii, which causes a killer brain disease.

But despite the apocalyptic visions of domesticated animals' environmental impact, solutions exist, including reducing pets' protein-rich meat intake.

"If p**** is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale.

"If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

Other potential positive steps include avoiding walking your dog in wildlife-rich areas and keeping your cat indoors at night when it has a particular thirst for other, smaller animals' blood.

As with buying a car, humans are also encouraged to take the environmental impact of their future possession/companion into account.

But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge. Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table.

"Rabbits are good, provided you eat them," said Robert Vale.

"If p**** is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale. "If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

"If p**** is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale. "If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

Raw Fish

Feeding raw fish regularly can result in thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency due to the enzyme thiaminase in the fish. It results in loss of appetite, seizures and (in severe cases) death. Although an occasional treat of raw fish is generally not harmful, over-consumption will cause problems. Cooking the fish will destroy the enzyme.

Raw salmon in parts of North America may carry flukes and Neorickettsia helminthoeca. This can cause salmon poisoning disease in pets. It has been reported in dogs rather than cats, but results in lethary, high temperature, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea and may mimic infectious enteritis. The mortality rate is around 90% if untreated. It is preventable by cooking the salmon.

Some fish also contains environmental pollutants e.g. PCBs or mercury; these are not removed by cooking, but their levels may be higher in raw fish that have not been gutted (the cat may eat the fish organs as well as the flesh). Mercury poisoning has been reported in cats in a coastal region of Japan where fish was a main ingredient of the diet. If fed in excess, oily fish such as tuna can lead to steatitis (Yellow Fat Disease, pansteatitis).

Many feral cats near fishing ports supplement their diets by scavenging raw fish. As long as the raw fish was not eaten in excess and contained no harmful contaminants the cats did not appear to suffer ill-effects.

Fish is a good source of protein and other nutrients, but too much
fish in a cat's diet can be harmful. Tuna is high in polyunsaturated
fatty acids and requires substantial amounts of vitamin E to preserve
the fat. Cats fed a diet containing excessive amounts of tuna can
develop steatitis, also known as yellow fat disease."

Ragdoll Cats: Common Myths
http://www.ragdoll-cats.com/Myths.htm

"Tuna fish, and many other fish species, contain relatively large
amounts of unsaturated fats. Although health-minded people eat fish to
decrease their consumption of saturated fats, the excessive
unsaturated fat in a cat?s diet may be harmful.

9. It may come as a surprise to many that tuna fish is bad for cats. The feline heart muscle requires an amino acid called taurine to maintain normal strength and function. Regular tuna fish for humans does not have this amino acid and cats that eat too much tuna fish will develop heart problems. If you want to give your cats that taste of tuna that they love, just make sure it is tuna fish for cats which has this amino acid added.

"If p**** is scoffing 'Fancy Feast' -- or some other food made from choice cuts of meat -- then the relative impact is likely to be high," said Robert Vale.

"If, on the other hand, the cat is fed on fish heads and other leftovers from the fishmonger, the impact will be lower."

But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge. Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table.

Im definitely not getting a hen, or eating a pet rabbit. Who would do that? Im not sure if those writers are in their right mind if they think people will get fluffy, floppy eared bunnies for their kids and then serve them to them at dinner.... "Oh, that was Mr Bunny"...

One cant help but wonder how much the carbon footprint could be reduced if we started to feed our pets on environmentalists. Such a reduction in hot hair could only be beneficial...

Some pet food commercials make me want to cry. How could anyone buy that absurdly expensive stuff when there are so may hungry people in the world, including the ones down the street living under the bridge? We have a small dog. He doesn't eat that stuff.