By owning a pet, you are doing more damage to the environment

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/pets-uk-ownership-cats-dogs-carbon-environmental-impact-b1249610.html

by bilsbie • 1 year ago

2 8 1 year ago

independent.co.uk

bigyabai• 1 year ago

Of real concern is the vulnerability of endangered bird species in habitats close to urban cats. When some species are down to the last few dozen, every one lost to cat-predation may be a final step to extinction. The study also showed cats only consumed 24 per cent of their prey; 28 per cent was brought home to their owners and the rest just left where it was killed.

The logic in this article is unreal. I genuinely cannot follow how they're connecting "percent of carcass consumed" to "threatening endangered suburban bird species" here.

pitpatpitpat• 1 year ago

The implication seems to be, "it might be one thing if they ate the whole bird, but mostly the bird deaths are completely needless". Not that it's much of a consolation prize if the cat enjoyed their snack.

jleyank2• 1 year ago

Well, my decades of pet ownership didn’t kill any birds because they were indoor pets. All sorts of other things, natural and otherwise, killed them without my help. We fed and watered them from time to time, so I think of myself as a net positive re birds.

And is the impact of pet ownership larger than, say, the impact of those involved in sports? Huge amounts of unnatural green spaces are maintained and direct and indirect carbon emissions are created. This directly impacts the former natural population of these areas, usually driving them away or just eliminating them. And I suspect the economic distortion caused by those into sports exceeds those into pets (although there is significant overlap).

Will the authors propose banning sports?

I would think that the impact on the biosphere from having children greatly exceeds having pets. We only had the latter, so I guess we did our part in reducing aggregate damage?

mattl• 1 year ago

The UK doesn’t have the same thoughts about indoor pets as other countries especially cats.

redczar• 1 year ago

Will the authors propose banning sports?

That there are other things that are possibly harmful to the environment does not negate the author’s points. You sound overly defensive. Given the number of rescue cats and dogs I think it’s safe to assume that there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners.

ahazred8ta• 1 year ago

Huge amounts of green space? There are only 5.6 square miles of football fields in all of north america. Other sports have a similar footprint.

jleyank2• 1 year ago

Every golf course, recreation field, stadium, their parking areas, …. These areas can’t be lived in and in n America at least they’re car playgrounds.

Cinderrella• 1 year ago

More communist propoganda!

By owning a pet, you are doing more damage to the environment

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