Comments on: Eating Liberally: Are pets responsible for climate change?

By: Fido's Footprint May Be Bigger Than You Think | Global Animal

Fido's Footprint May Be Bigger Than You Think | Global Animal — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 09:23:35 +0000

[...] bloggers cried foul, claiming that the Vales overestimated how many calories a dog requires and underestimated the impacts of the Land Cruiser. The Lantern has been doing her own due [...]

By: Fido’s Ecological Footprint May Be Bigger Than You Think | The Animal Journal

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:30:36 +0000

[...] bloggers cried foul, claiming that the Vales overestimated how many calories a dog requires and underestimated the impacts of the Land Cruiser. The Lantern has been doing her own due [...]

By: L’impact environnemental de la nourriture pour animaux | Le Portail de Toute L'Actualités du Monde

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:51:40 +0000

[...] blogueurs ont crié au scandale, affirmant que les Vale avaient sur-estimé le nombre de calories nécessaires à un chien, et sous-estimé les impacts du Land Cruiser. The Lantern a regardé avec attention les chiffres [...]

By: Nurse in Md.

Nurse in Md. — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:42:23 +0000

It’s healthy to feed your dog or cat a “raw” carnivore diet anyway. Quit the dried & canned dog food! Go buy the “by-products” from the grocery store before they throw them away! It’s better for your pet’s teeth to eat raw flexible uncooked turkey or chicken neck bones, livers and gizzards, beef heart and tripe, than that weird rawhide stuff from Taiwan anyway! It’s gross looking, YES. But your pet will LOVE it, and your vet bills will be significantly lower, even though your vet will argue incessantly against it! Been there, done that, 5 years now, post mast cell cancer on cheek, post anal gland impactions, etc etc etc..happy healthy, oh, yeah, we did break a tooth on a giant sized bone- my fault, humorus bone from a lamb was way too challenging, left it to dry out for too long as well, dog cracked her tooth biting down on it!
It was an expensive proposition to have oral surgery to have it removed, but dentist said her gums were great! he wanted her to stop the raw diet, go back to canned again…I said..no way.. I would sacrifice another tooth before sacrificing her anal glands again(she was close to needing them removed!), or her general health..that’s a no-brainer!

She’ looks like a dog 3-4 yrs old, she’s a 7 yr old black lab x energy like you wouldn’t believe!

By: James

James — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:20:10 +0000

I am also reluctant to condemn pets as large contributors to global warming when there are so many more obvious culprits, but I don’t like this peremptory dismissal of the pet opponents’ arguments. Is there really no other use for all of the meat and meat byproducts that go into pet food? I’m not an agronomist but I can think of a few: some could presumably be ground up into sausage, other parts could go to animals used for food (much as bycatch is used to feed carnivorous fish like shrimp) and still others can be rendered into fat used for a variety of other purposes such as gelatin and glue. Come on, Marion: you’re usually so careful! What’s with the flippancy?

By: JWtalks

JWtalks — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:41:55 +0000

Hello, this is Joe Ward (JWtalks) again,- and would like to add:- many, so-called canine experts do not reallly understand the ‘real’ natural diet, thru evolution / Nature, is, for Dogs, mostly that of a carnivore, Yes. — BUT, ‘also’ as an omnivore / herbivore, etc.. When, I, as a researcher on dogs, and as a Traditonal Naturopath, Hygienist, Scientist, and Herbalist, have to ask You all why You would Not consider ‘Canines’ as more than just Carnivores. -Here we go:- In the wild, carnivores, including ‘wild dogs’, cats / canines kill and consume fresh live prey grazers. O’k. but, why do these Dogs, lions, etc.- animals, first try to get to and eat the intestines first? The innards, which are only partially digested are of utmost importance for Nutrition, assimilation of Vital nutrients, and survival. Most of the the animals sought, are grass, grain, and plant eaters. The Dogs digestive system can Not adequately digest / assimilate, or use, these grass ‘ grain plant types. – So they eat animals whom have already partially pre-digested these live whole plant foods, which they need also!! – That is why I include very important Herbs, Vitamins, Minerals, Omegas, Fatty-acids, etc.,- in the canine modulator formula for optimum health — ‘ReFidolize’. To assist the innate immune and digestive system of Dogs, to grow toward health, wellness, and freedom of Dis-ease, as “Nature”. intended, they eat mostly sheep, goats, cattle, rabbits, birds, deer, zeebra, rodents, etc! — Joe –p.s.–(yes-GREEN)

By: Jennifer F

Jennifer F — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:27:05 +0000

Thank you for a wonderful response to a ludicrous accusation. Ironically, it is my pet that led me to become “greener” in the first place. My involvement in dog rescue started me thinking about animal welfare in general, which led to researching the issues of meat production in this country (which, I believe is how I stumbled across your blog), which has led to a drastic reduction in meat consumption in our household and a change in our diets. The meat that we do buy now is organic and humanely and locally produced.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:34:46 +0000

Marion has a good point that our pets eat meat by-products, but where does the original meat come from? The industrially-produced meat we are eating. We all know that meat production is a significant source of environmental problems, and that we humans should be limiting our meat consumption (especially the meat with is factory farmed–small scale farming is something else) as a part of dealing with climate change, so our pets–whose consumption of meat help to make industrial meat production profitable, may be part of the problem (but as Marion notes, it sounds like there are problems with the math in the book noted).

Sharon Asktyk wrote about this topic in November, and it is certainly worth reading for those with pets–or those concerned about factory farmed meat, climate change, etc:
http://sharonastyk.com/2009/11/04/fido-and-fluffy-and-the-meat-conundrum/

By: Thursday’s goodies to read by the fireplace with care

Thursday’s goodies to read by the fireplace with care — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:23:36 +0000

[...] have to mention how ludicrous the idea was. However, Dr. Marion Nestle over at Food Politics tears the fallacy apart in a rather (pardon the pun) delicious manner. We think pet food performs a huge public service. If [...]

By: cori

cori — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:12:51 +0000

I feed my dog USDA organic dog food. Ditching our pets is not a viable solution. Learning how to be responsible for where our food comes from is.