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Earth

Save the Planet, Eat Your Dog 942

Posted by timothy
from the children-too-stringy dept.
R3d M3rcury writes "New Zealand's Dominion Post reports on a new book just released, Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living. In this book, they compare the environmental footprint of our housepets to other things that we own. Like that German Shepherd? It consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs. Cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. Two hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV. Their suggestions? Chickens, rabbits, and pigs. But only if you eat them."
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Save the Planet, Eat Your Dog

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2009, @01:19AM (#29869199)

    It sounds like the time for a modest proposal ;-)

  • OMG (Score:5, Funny)

    by symbolset (646467) on Monday October 26 2009, @01:19AM (#29869201) Homepage Journal

    My offspring and their offspring probably have the eco-footprint of a coal-fired electric plant.

    What to do...

  • by JustOK (667959) on Monday October 26 2009, @01:24AM (#29869221) Journal

    thank goodness I have an unlisted time period.

  • Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)

    by brad3378 (155304) on Monday October 26 2009, @01:25AM (#29869233)

    My offspring and their offspring probably have the eco-footprint of a coal-fired electric plant.

    What to do...

    Well......
    They say that it's a dog eat dog world.

  • by rtilghman (736281) on Monday October 26 2009, @01:26AM (#29869237)

    I think I know where I'm having dinner tonight! :)

    -A Committed Environmentalist

  • by hyades1 (1149581) <hyades1@hotmail.com> on Monday October 26 2009, @01:36AM (#29869289)

    "Two Hundred Interesting Ways to Wok Your Dog"

  • by ScentCone (795499) on Monday October 26 2009, @01:38AM (#29869301)
    Most ppl above me seem to be freaking out like hicks thinking the government is coming to take their guns. Its a joke guys. Its kind of interesting but they can't srsly suggest eating our pets.

    Pretty easy talk from a guy that has obviously had the government come and take away many of your vowels.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2009, @01:44AM (#29869341)

    but I don't think anything realistic has been proposed here

    So little imagination. The "proposal" is implied.

    This gem of enviro-wennie research will rattle around among the cocktail parties of the jet-set ruling class until one of them becomes convinced they can make a big splash by regulating pet ownership in the name of the "environment." Expect this to appear first in San Francisco in the next few years in the form punitive pet taxes. Thereafter limits and outright bans will be created.

    Except for horses. There won't be any meaningful limits on horse owners.

  • by Burning1 (204959) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:02AM (#29869425) Homepage

    I've owned a dog and a Porsche.

    With the amount of time I spent driving, fueling, polishing, and lovingly caressing that car... Yeah, I kind of did treat it like a pet.

    Of course, the car was too big for my current apartment, so I had to buy a pair of motorcycles. I'm having a hard time training them to stay off the couch.

  • by phantomfive (622387) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:03AM (#29869433) Journal
    Don't know, sounds like a really useful statistic to quote to Prius-driving dog owners. Mainly to confuse them. "You think you're saving the environment....Bwahaha"
  • by TubeSteak (669689) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:14AM (#29869493) Journal

    My dog could land the Space Shuttle. My neighbors dog, however, is worthless. That's a dog who should be sacrificed for the environment.

    If humans hadn't spent the last 1000 or so years breeding dogs to look goofy they might be running the show by now.

  • by techno-vampire (666512) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:16AM (#29869503) Homepage
    I have two cats.

    So do I. And our four cats combined have a smaller carbon footprint than one environmentalist. If we're really serious about reducing CO2 by getting rid of redundant organisms, I know what I'd be getting rid of...

  • by weirdo557 (959623) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:30AM (#29869575)
    im not sure how useful my dog is, perhaps he could crash a probe into the moon.
  • Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)

    by dougisfunny (1200171) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:40AM (#29869609)

    Soylent green is Poodles!

  • by ProfM (91314) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:52AM (#29869667)

    Do you have idea what the carbon footprint of a human is?

    Depends on the human ... if it's Al Gore, with his mansion [factcheck.org], or his private jet(s) [businessweek.com], I guess it would be a lot.

  • by Amiralul (1164423) on Monday October 26 2009, @03:07AM (#29869729) Homepage
    How about calculating the environmental damage done by printing this stupid book?
  • by r00t (33219) on Monday October 26 2009, @04:12AM (#29869993) Journal

    I think my daughter ought to accept where food comes from and not be bothered by it. There is also a disection opportunity here, helping her to learn about the organs found in a typical mammal.

    The rabbit is also excellent eating. For bonus points, make a fur hat or some ear warmers.

  • by tomhudson (43916) <barbara.hudson@b ... m ['ra-' in gap]> on Monday October 26 2009, @04:13AM (#29870001) Journal

    they can make a big splash by regulating pet ownership in the name of the "environment."

    As the owner of two dogs, sign me up. I demand environmental offset credits for the offal that my dogs prevent from going directly into landfills and being converted into methane. Additionally, I want additional credits for the conversion of said otherwise-useless offal and meat byproducts into environmentally useful high-grade fertilizer. And a program for harvesting this valuable resource - maybe funded by a tax on stupid university professors dumb ideas?

    I also want another credit for the carbon offset from being able to turn the heat down at night - because happiness is a warm puppy. Dogs are just as good as an electric blanket. Actually, they're better - they continue to work during power failures.

    Also, I should get an additional carbon credit for every kilometer I do with the dogs dragging me around on either roller blades (summer) or a sled (winter). And both investment credits and a subsidy for the purchase of a dog-drawn cart.

    And for the bonus round, you can always grind up those professors who wrote this piece of trash as a quick way to make a buck; my wolf probably isn't too fussy about who he eats - he chews EVERYTHING, and I'm sure their carbon footprint is larger than his. And, since they're already producing shit, why not cut out the middle man ...

  • by Joce640k (829181) on Monday October 26 2009, @04:19AM (#29870025) Homepage

    But if we're honest, only the jealous people say that.

  • by tomhudson (43916) <barbara.hudson@b ... m ['ra-' in gap]> on Monday October 26 2009, @04:23AM (#29870045) Journal

    There is no such a thing as a "circle" of life. Life is not a circle. It is a process of decay.

    Only if there's not enough dark matter to bring everything back together and start the whole process over in a few hundred billion years ...

    I know ... a discussion that has dog poop at one extreme and other dark matter at the other extreme ... only on slashdot ...

  • by qc_dk (734452) on Monday October 26 2009, @05:02AM (#29870209)
    The jealous people with small penises.
  • As the owner of two dogs, sign me up. I demand environmental offset credits for the offal that my dogs prevent from going directly into landfills and being converted into methane. Additionally, I want additional credits for the conversion of said otherwise-useless offal and meat byproducts into environmentally useful high-grade fertilizer. And a program for harvesting this valuable resource - maybe funded by a tax on stupid university professors dumb ideas?

    Denied.The dog is a fine producer of methane and the landfill is a pretty poor one. Additionally, dog feces are a public health hazard and should not be used as manure.

    I also want another credit for the carbon offset from being able to turn the heat down at night - because happiness is a warm puppy. Dogs are just as good as an electric blanket. Actually, they're better - they continue to work during power failures.

    Denied. The dog never turns off and is wasting its heat, as well as being an inefficient heater. In addition, the dog is obviously a workaround for the mandatory rolling blackouts This is unacceptable

    Also, I should get an additional carbon credit for every kilometer I do with the dogs dragging me around on either roller blades (summer) or a sled (winter). And both investment credits and a subsidy for the purchase of a dog-drawn cart.

    And for the bonus round, you can always grind up those professors who wrote this piece of trash as a quick way to make a buck; my wolf probably isn't too fussy about who he eats - he chews EVERYTHING, and I'm sure their carbon footprint is larger than his. And, since they're already producing shit, why not cut out the middle man ...

    Will be taken into consideration, in the meantime it is recommended you feed yourself to your pet.

  • by Jason Levine (196982) on Monday October 26 2009, @09:02AM (#29871301)

    Additionally, I want additional credits for the conversion of said otherwise-useless offal and meat byproducts into environmentally useful high-grade fertilizer.

    Wait, isn't fertilizer one of the components that terrorists use to make bombs? So you're saying that your dog is a terrorist?

    uh oh... Now I've just united the Right and Left in the goal of banning pets. The Left will do it to save the environment and the Right will do it to fight the terrorists!

  • by GeekDork (194851) on Monday October 26 2009, @09:14AM (#29871395) Homepage

    Dogs are not halal.

  • by qwertyatwork (668720) on Monday October 26 2009, @09:15AM (#29871415)
    Eat a dog!

    This message is brought to you by Cats
  • by ElectricTurtle (1171201) on Monday October 26 2009, @09:44AM (#29871691)
    Apparently you're not aware that half-baked, emotionally-driven random people from the internet know better than panels of researchers and industry experts with years of experience.
  • by dkleinsc (563838) on Monday October 26 2009, @02:43PM (#29875451)

    Well, poop and dark matter do in fact have something in common: Nibblonians.

Love is a grave mental disease. -- Plato

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