Your dog has the carbon footprint of two SUVs - is the answer a robot dog?
A new book from New Zealand, "Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living" studies the carbon footprint of our animal companions and calculates that a dog the size of a German Shepherd has the relative carbon footprint equal to two SUVs.
The primary culprit? The meat that dogs eat - about 164 kg per year for our German Shepherd, and meat uses a lot of resources in its production. Cats = a VW Golf, a pair of hamsters = a plasma TV and even goldfish don't get off the hook - they are the environmental equivalent of two cellphones. Their suggestions on how to solve the issue are provocative - Fido-sharing anyone? Human food? Or have pets that produce food - chickens for eggs and rabbits for, well, rabbit. Although it seems to us that once you've cooked your pet, it's not a pet, it's dinner. Perhaps robot dogs are the answer, although it looks like they'll have to be solar powered to pass muster. http://bit.ly/ViWuZ
