Do we have to eat our dogs to save the planet?

When it comes to winning the lottery with a great book title, New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale have won the jingle jackpot with "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living."

The title alone has managed to attract the frenzy of the popular press. With another title the book would probably have languished among all those books that lecture us on the way we choose to live.

While they may not really be advocating Tudee Tacos or Misty Stroganoff, they claim that dogs are one of the worst enemies of the environment, since the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of an SUV.

I haven’t read the book, just reviews and refutations, but for those who haven’t heard about it, they basically say if a German Shepherd size dog eats a few T-bones and pot roasts with some grain thrown in every day, it takes a buncha cows, acres, and energy to feed the dog.

Since most dog owners I know live simply and try not to squander the earth’s resources, attacking our dogs seems beyond reason.

Unfortunately, this will come as great news to the animal rights groups who believe that we should have no domestic animals, no pets, no farm animals. I’m already reading as fact that “dogs are worse than SUV’s for the environment,” just like so many of their other “facts” that are not factual.

Without getting into an extensive dog food debate, dogs will eat almost anything we eat  and a lot that we don’t want to eat. Most dogs don’t have discriminating tastes. Even a well fed dog can’t resist the tasty morsels in a garbage can, which is extremely annoying.

Many of today’s dog foods contain ingredients which would otherwise need to be disposed of. Dogs don’t mind eating animal by-products which are parts of an animal that humans don’t usually like to eat. Some owners don’t want to feed their dogs by-products. That should be their choice.

However, given the chance, dogs, like wild animals, eat intestines and internal organs. Dogs even relish eating a placenta and not just their own. I’ve seen it happen. It was scary.

My dogs don’t even get that they’re carnivores. O boy!!! Steamed broccoli! Raw carrots! Brown rice! Zucchini! (Green olives and radishes, however, are simply toys to play with and discard. Raw hamburger and liver go down without chewing.)

We probably wouldn’t even have dogs today if our ancestors hadn’t been so messy. Young wolves followed the campsites and ate the garbage the humans left. It worked out well for both.

While I strongly believe in conserving and recycling, I have to confess that this whole carbon exchange “paw print” thing sets off my crap-o-meter.

I tried to follow Cameron Diaz on TV when she lectured us on like how she stayed like carbon neutral by buying like, you know, carbon offsets.

I’ve tried to understand how someone with a huge energy sucking home, who takes private jets all the time can reduce his carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets…from his own company.

And I’ve tried to understand how data in key studies that could drastically affect us all could go missing or not be available for others to examine. For years I’ve heard the “experts” warn that the climate was cooling…no…warming…no…changing… Yeah, that’s it, changing.

The Earth has had climate changes and even continent upheavals for as long as Earth has been around. My own area was once under water and some theorize that a massive earthquake could put it there again. Humans are pretty arrogant to think we can change something so massive.

So feed your dogs without guilt and count this book as just another assault on owning them.

If I have offended any anti-dog people, well, my work here is done.

Comments

[paul mitchell]

I advocate feeding all your animals Eukanuba. I do not have a clue what is in it, but I know that the dogs are very healthy and they do not produce much waste. This is very good when you have to mow your grass at least once a week.

I hope the Eukanuba is laced with DDT to keep the damn mosquitoes away from my yard, too.

And these idiots that think that I am going to give up my dog (even to SAVE THE PLANET) are nuts.

[Buoyant Dog]

Hello....I have been checking out your blog for a couple weeks, and I love it! I just had to reply to this post, and say THANK YOU! Your words are so true.....and many people can go so overboard on "go green" that in many instances, "green fanatics" are either not helping the environment, or even making things worse! Not to mention....making life a bore! Anyhow, you are one of my favorite dog blogs...keep it up! Christina

[Pai]

The best debunking of the 'facts' in that book is here: http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/archive/2009/11/02/dogs-vs-cars

The math and logic used by the authors to claim that pets are not 'sustainable' were completely wrong.

[YesBiscuit!]

Dr. Pitcairn's book mentions reducing meat protein in the dog's diet. While he doesn't go so far as to say dogs are worse than SUVs (tuh!) he does advocate mindful consumption of the Earth's resources and offers a number of recipes which include non-meat protein. An additional benefit of replacing meat protein with alternate protein sources is cost.

[threecollie]

It seems to me that the save the earth global warming folks are the same people as peta and hsus...they have the same goals, which include the elimination of life as we know it in all its forms.

[Marion]

Good grief! I read the link posted by Pai...how can these authors be so completely wrong and still be published? What rubbish.

But I do love the photo of the Taco Dog...how cute is that? Thanks, Jan!

[BunGirl]

Is a world without dogs really a world worth saving anyway?

[rosemary]

Whatever....I can't even remotely imagine a world without pets.....without SUV's, energy sucking homes, anti-dog idiots...youbetcha!

[Hudson]

I am in total agreement with a world without dogs is not worth saving. Green was never my favorite color anyway!!!You can twist stats in every direction imaginable to suit your cause but at the end of the day reality kicks in. I've always found a life in moderation is so enjoyable!!!Love the post!!!

[pam]

So ... no Pomeranian pot pie? ::sadly puts away cook book::

[Khyra]

What about khat khuisine?

[the 4Bs]

i just think that life would be empty and meaninless without my dogs and i will continue to feed them the best diet that i can afford, even if it includes vegetables, pizza and (gasp) - dog food! eek!

[12dogsblog]

Nope, not giving up my dogs.

I do know a couple of people who I'd be delighted to exchange in return for my dog's carbon credit.

I'm pretty sure that the CO2 they expell in an hour is a whole lot more than my tiny little dogs in a week.

[jackie]

dexter said all dogs must go to make room for earth loving cats

[Jimmy]

I've got a carbon foot print I'd like to shove up Al Gore's ass!

[cube]

How does crapola like this book get published anyway?

[SEO Los Angeles]

I love my dogs they are the only family I have here besides my real family and I don't plan to give them up.

[Accounting Jobs]

Dogs are really man's best friend, I can attest to that because I have a dog who has been with me for a year now.

[weight loss]

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[wickless candles]

here in austin, they talk about scoop your poop, harmful gases. Does it really make sense in what they say.