My dog, my 70 pounds of crazy, my Maggie is the world to me. Which is why it’s no surprise that I got all fired up over what people are saying about dogs’ carbon footprints compared to those of SUVs. Sure, the science of it makes sense, but what about the ethics surrounding such a statement?
A friend of mine posted this link on my Facebook wall a few days ago as a joke. We’re always picking at each other because he doesn’t care for dogs as much and I… well… I practically treat Maggie as if she’s my own child. I got a great laugh out of the situation, but once all of the information settled, I got angry [but not at you, Jeff!]. As in, I almost turned into the Hulk and hurled my laptop across the room [wouldn't be the first time I would have thrown electronics].
After a day or so, I forgot about it. Then I read Rebecca Thorman‘s blog tonight and noticed a link to her older posts. One of which discussed this very topic. Really? Really? [Still love your stuff, RT!]
So here’s my tiny soapbox- How on earth can people relate an innocent creature to the problems in our environment? Sure, if you’re feeding your pet piles of processed food, there’s a good chance that its waste is more harmful than you think. But animals are completely unaware of these issues that we’re minorly [or completely, for some of you] freaking out over. They have little control over what their existence costs in terms of “hectares.”
So how about we leave animals out of the ecological mess we created?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
While I love dogs, I think the point people are trying to make is that dogs ARE part of the problem we created. Arguably, there’d be less carbon usage if there weren’t dogfood plants, and companies making cheap plastic toys for dogs, and puppy mills, and that sort of thing.
Right, and I do agree. I just feel like people who are writing these articles and posts are framing them in a way that simply says, “Pets are bad.” The main point should have been something along the lines of, “here’s what you can do to reduce the carbon footprint of your pet,” not, “owning a dog is worse than driving an SUV.”
Thanks for the comment, Andy!
Well.. that’s not a red herring at all, now is it?