Clearly flawed statistics...

We trap neighbourhood cats and feed them to our dog.  So he is actually reducing the carbon footprint by 1.5 small cars per month.

I am concerned that the writer's of this report are going to have to go into protective hiding to avoid being mobbed and slain by crazy fundamentalist dog worshipers.

Of course, they're correct.

bah, what a buncha baloney, Qwerty!  Cows farting, dogs eating....yup, that's our planet's problem alright!

At the Colorado Watershed Convention this year it was pointed out that Al Gore has left the largest contributor off the pie chart giving the impression that "people" have a much larger impact on global warming than we actually do.  Water evaporation is the biggest contributor....check it out on his chart...the disclaimer is there.  We do need to clean up our act, but there's not much we can do about volcanoes, either.  

Cows and dogs...pffffffffffffft!! 

Do we eat the kids next?

Adding together the domestic cat population of the ten largest feline-friendly nations, they concluded that it takes 154,400 square mile of agricultural land just to support them. And their calculations apparently didn't include the acreage of cat litter that we dispose of annually.

I'm still all for soylent green ..... free up some of the jobs in the world

I have four cats who keep the rodent population in check.  They earn their keep, and prevent a population explosion of disease carrying vermin.  Plus, they do their 'business' in the garden where it gets returned to the soil, increasing the organic matter and benefitting the soils cation exchange capacity.  The environment is helped, and the savings are passed on to the consumer .

I especially enjoyed your point about how "the savings are passed on to the consumer".   Four "no frills" cats!   A veritable ecological tag team out there doing its utmost to benefit the soils cation exchange capacity of the soil.  Not your stereotypical Puss-n-Boots these!  Rather these are Pusses -n -Jackboots!  Ecological commandos!  Battle hardened troops licensed to kill and out on the front lines turning vermin into cat poo.  Its a dirty job but someone's got to do it!

Way-to-go team joejack!

But dogs are smarter than cats .......

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Dogs rule  and cats droool

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/its-official-dogs-are-smarter-than-cats-but-just/552562/0

However, if you ever visit joejack's house you will find that there is an eerie silence.  At first, you will not even notice it but after a while it begins to seem strange and unearthly.  Then you realize there is no birdsong.  There are no birds anywhere to be seen on or around the property.  Don't be surprised if in the evening, as you sit in front of the fireplace in joejack's living room wondering where all the birds went, that one of the cats lies curled on the hearth soaking up the warmth all sleek, satisfied and comfortable, seeming almost to be smiling as it sleepily keeps a watch on you, and that the little beast eventually turns and looks right at you with that satisfied smile, slowly and deliberately closes one eye (you know the way cats often do) and then opens it again.  A wink!?  Knowing?  Conspiratorial?  Mocking?

Don't be surprised if your sleep in joejack's guest room is fitful. Don't be surprised, either, if you find that in the morning you rise early and leave before breakfast ... pulling out of the driveway with a little spray of gravel from your driving wheels and without so much as a glance backwards in the rearview mirror until well after you have turned out onto the main highway, so that you never see the cat that is sitting in the upstairs bedroom window (as if in a guard tower) carefully and deliberately studying every detail and nuance of your departure.

 Sorry qwerty. If it's a choice between planet earth and my dog Baxter, Baxter wins hands down!

You're welcome.  Further, when my cats see a visitor coming, they start licking their lips and meow in small, hushed but eerie tones.  More organic material to be made into fertilizer.  Don't let their cuteness fool you.  They're organized..... and dangerous.  They don't do it to me.... I'm much too old and tough for their particular tastes.

 My poo is bigger than all my pets put together. 

As for wildlife,  I had a cat that could take on anything, mice, rats, birds, bunnies, squirrels weasils, mink, quail babies . . . his favourite before meal snack. He could down a quail baby in 2 gulps.  We loved him though and we HAD bought him to reduce the rat population, which he did.  But, we weren't quite ready for him to be the murdere of all that he was.  Still, one of the lovingest cats I've ever known. And everyone loved him ( except that you couldn't look him in the eye for about 4 hours or more after he came home from hunting or he'd hurt you.  Well, he'd hurt you.  Me, he loved no matter what.)  In the end an Eagle ate him.  We were so sad.  I still hurt, but I know his life was so much of that world.

We now have 2 very tame cats and 1 tame minidog and 1 very untamable Healer type.  Together between the  4 of them  they manage to keep the rat population just under control but they have no instincts of my previous cat and  the rest of the wildlife is quite safe.   They will  actually share time with a small kill of a rat or a mouse, this is a very bizarre group of animals who act basically as a Lion pack with the female cat as the male Lion  . . . it's so very very odd. 

The Healer is a good Lifegaurd against Eagles for the cats. And we try to not let the cats out if we see that the Eagles are around.  We don't let the cats out before or after dark because of the Owls.    The cats are very much instinctinve about the Eagles and Owls.  Pinto didn't know that anything could eat him. He was leary and disdainful of big dogs and that was all.  But, even if we had bears around he would beg to be let out to, "go see" and he had lived in the bush at night with large owls for years and never ever had issues with them.  Eagles are brutes, truely terrifying beasts and soon we will be over-run by them as they are protected and they are eating more wildlife than you could ever imagine a neighbourhood full of cats eating. 

Well, I think the point is that dogs must serve no purpose and yet we breed them like rabbits.  (Do rabbits serve a purpose).  The argument about cows would be that if we're vegans, then cows serve no purpose and we wouldn't have to worry about their pollution.

Seems to me that there is a long standing GOOD argument that the useless animals of the world - dogs, cows, whales, polarbears, cats, hyenas, etc - would think humans are not only useless, but destructive.  Imagine how this world would heal if humans disappeared.

The point is not that dogs are polluting, but that they are an apparently useless drain on our resources.  I have a book that says we should all adopt a camel - come the droughts that could be expected as the world decays, those camels could come in mighty handy for long treks to find food.  Plus, it includes, we could milk them, knit sweaters and as a last resort, serve 'em up for dinner.

I'll keep my dogs.

Well, my overweight, elderly Himalayan doesn't know what to do with mice, but at least her kitty litter doesn't go into the landfill. I have recently discovered the rather expensive, but compostable, wheat litter.

 Imagine how this world would heal if humans disappeared.

http://www.worldwithoutus.com/

You gotta read this book ..... that very concept was explored .....

Did we REALLY need to know that, especially when trying to eat breakfast? LOL

If we were to use Star Trek as a model, remember the Trouble With Tribbles episode?  They consumed all the grain, and offered little in return.  Should we put all dogs and cats on giant spaceships, send them into deep space, or give them to the Klingons, where they'll be no 'tribble' at all.

Well I think jlin is pretty cute even if her poo isn't ... and that story of her cat that got eaten by the eagle and the dogs and cats hooking up as a team staying safe from the eagles and the owls ... that was pretty amazing ... like a glimpse into a different world (certainly where I live you don't have to check for eagles before you put the cat out).

The eco-footprints of the family pet each year as calculated by the authors of the book:

German shepherds: 1.1 hectares, compared with 0.41ha for a large SUV.

Cats: 0.15ha (slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf). Hamsters: 0.014ha (two of them equate to a medium-sized plasma TV).

Goldfish: 0.00034ha (an eco-finprint equal to two cellphones).

You could raise chickens and then eat the eggs and later ... the chicken.  This would be a more efficient use of energy ... Turkeys are omnivorous and quite sociable I'm told so you can feed them leftovers, bits of hamburger and old lettuce, worms from the garden and then put a leash on your turkeys and take short after dinner walks with them and then, later,  have one of your turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner (or both!).  Very energy efficient and if you get the table prayer just right (about Mrs. Turkey laying down her life so that you could thrive together as a family), the kids will find it to be a very spiritual experience.

Huh?  I do not want a camel nor do I want a turkey in my one bedroom apartment lol.  Too funny about the table prayer re:  Mrs. Turkey though :-)

I'll stick with my little cat.  She's in my arms right now and she is sooo warm.  Doesn't that count for something?  I think I'm going to be sorry that I asked.

TL

My dog rested her head on my laptop when I first read this thread this morning. She wants to know who would be the fierce and loyal protector of us if we did not have a dog. She feels she serves a very valuable purpose. She said it shouldn't matter if she snores and farts.......some humans do that too. Do we get rid of them?

My two cats talked to her and gave me their opinion. While they are indoor cats who do not get to hunt as much prey as they'd like, they do keep this house free of flies, spiders and other things like that in the house. Of course, if a rat or mouse ever dared to show up, they'd take care of it quickly. The male believes he is here to help his humans make the bed, and do other household duties........humans just do not do things right without cat snoopervision. The female believes that one of her primary roles is to beautify this house.

All three believe there are better things to do to help the planet.

oh!  here's a thing that dogs are good for, truly - lowering blood pressure in humans.  Unless of course the last loaf of bread missing with a torn plastic bag and crumbs all over. Rotten Dogs. 

Nah - rubbing a fuzzy belly is pretty good for the soul.

I'm more worried about my dog and cats being mobbed and slain by fundamentalist eco-fanatics.

However I'm quite sure we can take out a dozen or two before going down.

There is also a series running on History called Life After People. 

The world will become a very pretty place and the Queen's pampered corgis will do very well although the greyhound will not.

LB

The more I see of man, the more I like dogs.     Mme. de Staël

 I raise chickens and am considering a couple of turkeys next year. The chickens eat veggie scraps and provide fertilizer for the garden. They also keep a certain portion of the back yard grass nice and shorn so I didn't have to mow.   My two dogs however are integral part of my chicken keeping system.  They're watchdogs and keep the predators at bay.  Coyotes cross the back of the property and have yet to come and snatch a chicken even though they roam around free.  The dogs chased away a fischer that was stalking the flock and will even chase away birds of prey. My pup is also becoming quite the herder and will actually go on his own and herd back any chickens that he deems are going to far.  They even warn me about things when they're inside the house. One day the pup started getting all agitated and whining at the front door. I couldn't see anything outright but when we went outside I saw that a bunch of chickens decided to do some mega exploring and were up along the road.  The pup took off and before I knew it they were all back where they should be. 

Yes, dogs have carbon footprints. Everything has a carbonfootprint. Does that mean we should all live in caves with no electricity and live on nothing by raw bean sprouts? 

Seriously, I think not.

I do believe there is an domestic dog overpopulation problem and that "breeding" is eugenics that I'm not sure I agree with. However, all of my dogs have been rescued. I didn't pay money to bring them into this world, but I'm trying to makes their lives better while they're here.

As someone else said, is this trying to just state that dogs are useless? Because lots of people could argue that humans are useless (and therefore, should people become cannibals to save Gaia?)

There has to be a middle path. There has to be a moderate solution to all of this nonsense. My dog has the same right to live as I do.

Wins prize for best answer IMO

Don't breed more cats and dogs.  Take care of the ones we have.  Don't let them run wild.