🚀 go-pugleaf

On Dec 24, 5:11 pm, DirtRoadie <DirtRoa...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Dec 24, 12:23 pm, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° <""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
>
> $southslope.net"> wrote:
> > So we should celebrate contributing to the ecosystem's destruction by
> > overpopulation?
>
> A good cause is worth sacrificing for.  Tom, can we count on you to do
> your part?

And what about all those cats Tom owns? Too small to do meaningful
work and too big for the deep-fryer -- and environmentally unsound
(and I quote some blogger):

It's true. A new study indicates your best friend may be a greater
environmental risk than your car. Pet owners, listen up - here's how
the greenies are plotting against Mr. Snowflake.

Dogs and cats consume meat, a deeply inefficient converter of
vegetation to animal protein. "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to
Sustainable Living" by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale, claims
that a medium-sized dog consumes 360 lbs of meat and about 200 lbs of
cereal a year*. To produce this load of nutrition requires over two
acres of land - more than the equivalent of driving your car 6,200
miles per year - including the energy required to build the car.

A cat consumes the production of about a third of an acre, while a
pair of hamsters is the annual energy equivalent of a plasma TV and
even a goldfish consumes enough energy to power a cell phone for a
year.

That's a pretty hefty carbon paw-print for your pet to justify. Is it
worth it? It seems pets act as anit-depressants, so if you factor in
the prescription drugs that are not necessary, we may get some of that
carbon-investment back.

Of course there are the extremists who claim it's far worse than your
pet's carbon footprint, there's the loss of biodiversity (your cat
eats birds, lizards, mice, etc.) and the matter of fecal matter that
gets into the environment, but overall, researchers claim that pets
are an ecological disaster.

7.7 million cats in England consume more than 188 million wild animals
that are hunted, killed and eaten by feline predators per year, or an
average 25 birds, mammals and frogs per cat, according to figures in
the New Scientist. Worse, your pet's poop gets into rivers and streams
causing bacterial contamination in addition to tying up oxygen and
killing fish and waterfowl."

See http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/pet-dogs-damaging-environment-suvs/story?id=9402234

-- Jay Beattie.