Our furry friends are having more of an impact on the environment than you may think

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but their relationship with the environment is much more frosty.

As I was leafing through the Guardian this morning this article in G2 caught my eye. Some people are beginning to argue that us pet-owners should be giving much more consideration to the ecological impact our furry friends are having. The debate has been sparked by a book called ‘Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living’ by Robert and Brenda Vale.

The article cites some quite surprising statistics that made me sit up and take note: the ecological footprint of a medium-sized British dog is greater than that of the average citizen of Vietnam. A cat has the same footprint as a Volkswagen Golf. It takes 0.84 hectares of land to keep a medium-sized dog fed. In contrast, keeping a 4.6 litre Toyota Land Cruiser running, the energy needed to build it and then drive it 10,000km every year only requires 0.41 hectares.

Despite this I cant see myself giving up Lady and Lucky (my dog and cat).