I’d like to preface this blog by saying ‘I Love My Dog’, he truly is my best bud and I spend a ton of my time walking and running him. However, it has occurred to me recently that even though our four legged friends give us so much love they are a large burden on the environment.
 
Environmental issues usually center on the SUV and carbon emissions but rarely will anyone bring up the fact that our pets are contributing to our planet’s downfall as well. The American Veterinary Medical Association estimated that in the United States alone there were over 72 million pet dogs in 2007. That’s an average of 1.7 dogs per household and if you include cats and horses the numbers double. Wow!

No matter how you look at the numbers, that is a lot of animals and with them come a whole lot of consumption. Depending on the number and size of your pets you’re probably making a trip to the pet store at least once a month to pick up a big bag of food. I know that pet food isn’t the top quality stuff we like but it still takes resources to grow those crops and feed the animals that eventually end up as protein or carbs in your pet’s typical bag of food.

Pets aren’t just consuming more they’re also contributing to our waste problem. I know I pick up a couple ‘biodegradable baggies’ full a day while following my pup around and it ends up with the rest of my garbage, in a landfill. Doesn’t seem like the best thing when you multiply that by 150 million. And what about kitty litter, hay for horses, bedding, leashes, collars, toys, bones, ruined furniture…the list goes on. Pets consume and waste a lot and can be destructive creatures at the same time.

Of course, there are a lot of great pets and great owners out there but you also have to factor in all the bad owners. These are the people that don’t take care of their pets and the ones that didn’t know what they were getting into and end up abandoning their pets. Also, the industry doesn’t brag about it but what happens to all those cute little puppies that don’t find loving families? Oh yeah, and don’t get me started on the people that go get second and third pets just to keep the first one busy and happy.

It isn’t nice to think about but could there be a day when limits are put on the number of pets you can have? If you can imagine a day when legislation is in place to keep gas guzzling vehicles off the road then pet limits wouldn’t be much of a stretch after that. When you think about families in some parts of the world barely able to feed their own family, it’s a bit sad to think we find it a pain having to drag our fat asses off the couch so we can shovel food out of a bucket into our dog’s dish who by the way is obese because he’s a little overfed and hasn’t had a walk this week because we just haven’t had the time. Boo hoo hoo, come on people.

» American Veterinary Medical Association