Truth-telling about pets can be a painful process but cats and dogs, particularly, are having a devastating impact on the planet
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/pets-uk-ownership-cats-dogs-carbon-environmental-impact-b1249610.html
by Call_It_
29 comments
8 000 000 000 bald apes have a devastating impact on the planet.
Take that, vegan pet-owners! You’re guilty too!
By existing we’re damaging the environment. Except we *are* the environment. As are our pets. We’ll rise and fall together.
Those colourful clown collars for cats should be mandatory when they go outside! They cut successful bird hunts by cats by around 80% so I’ve read.
This article is idiotic. There are legitimate claims being made in there, but such a stupid conclusion. Rather than deciding that we shouldn’t have pets, think of ways to reduce your environmental footprint or that of your pet.
Fewer people, fewer pets. There, fixed that for you. One way or the other, it’s going to happen.
Man, the UK will say anything at this point, like when they mentioned growing your own vegetables was not eliminating carbon footprinting. Sure its not what everyone wants to hear, but life is already miserable enough, dont take the moral high ground assuming you know whats best, cause the millions of dogs/cats in the shelters can get a chance
Breeding new pets should be illegal. We have an endless supply of accidental pets for the next couple hundred years.
Less than kids.
Whatever. This is BS.
How about the government and corporations take some responsibility for their practices and incompetence and stop blaming everybody for the most mundane things?
Fact is there are so many humans that almost nothing we enjoy is sustainable at our scale.
UK needs to shut the fuck up. My cats roam outside and there’s more dead birds hitting my windows on a daily basis flying into glass. I also heard your insects are almost totally gone and there’s no bees. Maybe your sky is falling too?
So cats kill birds. True.
What about all the rats they are killing?
Remember, TNR doesn’t work. All feral cats need to be culled and laws need to be passed mandating that cats need to be kept indoors.
I think the humans owning the pets are probably what we should be talking about
Simply existing is bad for the environment.
Yeah its carbon emissions from pets thats the problem! Because we all know all the cars, trucks, planes, factories are definitely not the problem. /s
Things having a devestating impact on life on the planet :
In order
global warming
destruction of the oceans by industrial fishing
destruction of the forests by cutting of old growth forests
industrial agriculture
mining of coal, gold, copper, uranium ,silver, iron, and potash
Letting cats attack wildlife is definitely a local problem though.
Watch what political forces are opposed to heavy fines on cat breeding and sales .
My cat has killed zero birds, maybe 3 mice, and a few lizards. The local mouse and lizard populations are quite abundant and replace themselves quite abundantly.
Cars and plastics have a MUCH worse impact than pets on the environment. Can’t we please start there for the greatest effect, by far? And from there go down to the lesser threats, one by one? Makes much more sense.
ugh… this shit again -_- leave cats/pet owners alone, they are **not** the cause.
Cats and birds/rodents/small reptiles (etc etc) have been endemic to these isles since before the Romans came here & wild cats like Lynx were here before then… they have literally co-existed and co-evolved alongside each other on these islands for literally thousands of years and the predator-prey numbers are pretty much the same as they always have been (i.e. domestic cats aren’t killing anymore/less than they have done previously). Sure there’s more people now which means more pets, but the difference is; most people reliably feed their pets which lowers their hunting habits and most people put bells on their cats now which also lowers their hunting success (in contrast to when they were semi-wild “pets” up until relatively recently and they had to hunt more). Did you know foxes opportunistically hunt birds too? Did you know magpies and birds of prey kill more (small) birds than cats do? …it’s literally just ecology.
You wanna know the real cause of the damage?? **habitat destruction by HUMANS** and our insatiable hunger for capitalistic-unsustainable development. Don’t get me wrong, cats/pets aren’t helping, but they are NOT a significant factor; it is *predominantly* humans destroying habitats and polluting the environment that causing the damage.
Also, this guy Donnachadh McCarthy, no obvious ecology/environmental qualifications (which you’d think he’d have front and centre for all the opinions he throws around about the environment), and arrogantly bangs on about shit like not having a shower every day and other micro-insignificances that do fuck all to actually help the environment; constantly trying to force veganism on people (despite the outrageous backfiring of soil erosion and pesticide use that comes with vegan-only diets; news flash Donnachadh, mostly vegetarian with significantly cut down meat/dairy intake is actually the most sustainable diet). This guy needs to sit down.
I fucking promise Exxon and Aramco can do more to impact the planet than me not having the one thing that brings me joy on this shithole rock.
*Humans* are having a devastating effect. Cats and dogs make existing in this dumpster fire we’ve created a little bit more tolerable. They are NOT the problem, *WE ARE*.
What a bag of nonsense
Is this satire ?!
If I was about to get a pet and a friend said “Uhhh actually you shouldn’t get a pet because pets come with a non-zero carbon footprint,” I’d unkindly tell the friend to fuck off and get a grip.
This is such a shit article that it genuinely made me angry. Try telling the general public that they should give up their pet, and we’ll see how that makes them feel about environmentalism. This seriously reads like big oil astroturfing.
Trash post
Ok. So I want to take this seriously. I have a clear conflict of interest. I have cats. They are all 100% indoors, so no wildlife killed. They are all neutered. They are all rescues. I don’t use clay based litter.
What exactly is being suggested here though? Euthanizing them all so they don’t consume food and resources? Aren’t they also living beings with rights?