How to Keep Your Dog Safe From Environmental Damage
Dogs are human’s best friends, immense delight to everyone around them, and the only good content left on the Internet. They also pose a huge burden on the environment. Yes, I’m here to be a complete bummer to tell you that these nice boys and girls and cute fur faces have a giant carbon footprint that causes more greenhouse gases to enter our air. water and toxic chemicals enter our mouths. There are about 78 million pet dogs in the United States, according to the ASPCA , which is roughly one in every fourth American, and all this food, waste, and grooming can be (sorry) nonsense on the planet.
The good news is that there are ways to mitigate the effects of dog ownership – and one of the main ways to feel it better from day one.
Delivery time
Like all domesticated animal life forms that do not hunt or forage in the wild (including you, humans), feeding a dog requires industrial animal husbandry. You probably already know that your love of meat is killing our planet , and your bewildering ethic about what animals to eat may or may not scare your dog into thinking that one day you will turn your horny eyes in their direction. …
In fact, if cats and dogs formed their own country (which is certainly the plot of these low-grade Pixar animated film fakes), it would be the fifth largest meat consumer on the planet, according to a study published by UCLA. last month . A study found that dogs and cats consume about 25% of the calories from animals in the United States. According to one assessment in 2009 by Victoria University of New Zealand at Wellington, owning a dog is tantamount to owning two SUVs.
“Owning a dog is really wasteful, mainly because meat leaves a carbon footprint,” John Barrett of the Stockholm Environment Institute told New Scientist Magazine .
According to a study by the University of California Los Angeles, dogs and cats together produce the equivalent of about 64 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, about the same as driving 13.6 million cars a year. Dogs account for over half of this exposure, as their food tends to be higher in protein.
What You Can Do About It: The good news is that, unlike cats, which are actually obligatory carnivores, dogs do a great job with a vegetarian diet .
“A dog doesn’t need to eat a steak,” said Gregory Okin, a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was conducting a study at the University of California, Los Angeles, when the study was published. “A dog can eat what a man truly cannot.”
Switching your dog to a meat-free or low-meat diet will help reduce its carbon footprint; there will also be a selection of locally sourced products to reduce transport costs.
The National Resources Defense Council recommends buying ingredients that include by-products such as animal bone meal or offal; these by-products are processed foods rich in nutrients and energy that are less efficient than producing meat that is suitable for humans.
You can also just make your own pet food if you like it.
Scoop on poop
Winter seems like the dirtiest season (at least here in New York), when people obviously think that the snow on the ground is causing their dog waste to fly right into the land of winds and ghosts. But as soon as these drifts decrease in size, we all remember how much dog shit is always around us.
All of this excrement accumulates, which can harm our health. According to environmental organizations, dog droppings can have exponentially more faecal coliforms than cows per pound of body weight.
“One gram of dog feces can contain 23 million faecal coliform bacteria, which are known to cause cramps, diarrhea, intestinal disease and serious kidney disease in humans,” said Dena Krebs, DoodyCalls Pet Disposal Service. me by email. “The EPA even estimates that two or three days from a population of about 100 dogs, droppings will bring in enough bacteria to temporarily close the bay and all watersheds within 20 miles of it for swimming and shellfish fishing.”
An EPA spokesperson pointed me to one of the agency’s newsletters, which notes that dog waste does not just decompose or volatilize, so the agency is asking each municipality to develop guidelines to regulate its proper disposal.
When faeces are left unattended outdoors, they can end up in storm water or other wastewater and eventually end up in storm sewers. This is where it can hurt, John Devine, senior attorney for the NSRA’s water program, told me.
“The main problem with animal waste is that it contains nasty substances that can either cause disease or degrade the environment,” Devine said. “Animal waste, like human waste, contains bacteria and viruses that, when released into water bodies used by humans, can cause all kinds of trouble, the most common of which is stomach flu.”
Therefore, if you are downstream where rain or other water is washed off, you can swallow bacteria or viruses simply by swimming, kayaking, or using the water in any way you want. Since 1991, the Environmental Protection Agency has listed it as a non-point source of pollution, along with herbicides, insecticides, oils, fats and toxic chemicals.
Another problem is that waste can help kill animals in these waters. Dog waste releases nutrients into the water that can lead to algal blooms in streams or lakes — those large pea-green patches of water that can come to the surface. They often suck oxygen out of the water, making it inhospitable to plants and other animal species. Scenic RIP fishing spot, hello dog shit, lake.
What can you do about it: scoop up the poop! Just like you won’t take shit on the sidewalk and get away from it (I hope?), Picking up your puppy is the easiest way to do your part to keep out of trouble in the waterways. It’s not safe to compost dog waste at home, so NRDC says throwing it in the bin is still the best option. You can also flush unpackaged waste directly down the toilet to end up in a sewage treatment plant – the EPA recommends this .
Toxic pet syndrome
It turns out that spraying toxic chemicals on your furry friend can be problematic. According to the NRDC, the chemicals in flea and pest control products can be “very dangerous” to humans and can cause nervous system and brain damage; they can also lead to cancer. Children are especially at risk because of their love for the things they touch and then put their hands in their mouths.
What you can do about it: Check out NRDC’s list of flea and tick products that assesses their safety. Generally, the group recommends avoiding foods containing tetrachlorvinphos, propoxur, permethrin, and amitraz. You can also try non-chemical pest control methods such as bathing regularly, vacuuming, and washing your loungers in hot water. Remember, just because something is labeled “natural” doesn’t mean it’s safe.
How to feel better from day one
Yes, having a pet – just like being alive as a human being – is necessarily a burden on the planet. But if this entire guide sounds like a joke to your puppy dreams, there is one way to feel better about having a dog: adopt!
The animals themselves are not really to blame; there is domestication. So it’s not their fault that we created a plastic bag system for poop and heavy-duty dry food bags produced on the farms to keep them tame. While breeders create new animals to take care of, animal shelters are full of adorable stray animals waiting to be taken home.
According to the ASPCA, about 3.3 million dogs are admitted to shelters every year. Adopting a stray dog is naturally easier on the environment than buying a dog from a breeder. In addition, 670,000 dogs are killed in shelters every year. Destruction of these pets has its own impact on the environment and can cause dangerous, toxic leakage from your tear ducts.