"Eat the Dog" Nonsense from New Zealand

Wok the dog to save the environment?

That's the nonsense put out by two New Zealanders (both architects), who thought that idea would work well to hype their book on sustainability:

In their book Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living the Vales says the average dog eats about 164 kilos of meat and 95 kilos of cereals each year. They estimate producing that food takes about 1.1 hectares of land. Riding 10,000 kilometers in a 4.6 liter Land Cruiser takes, they say, the equivalent of .41 hectares of land.

Only one problem with these numbers. They are nonsense.

The average driver in this country puts 10,00 miles on a vehicle a year, not 10,000 kilometers, and the average dog is NOT eating 164 kilos of meat (361 pounds) and another 95 kilos (209) pounds of grain. Give me a break!

Let's start with the fact that the average dog weighs about 40 pounds, and eats about 3/4 pound of food a day (half the amount suggested).

Of that food, the majority is actually grain or vegetable matter (corn or soy) if it is eating commercial dog food (as most dogs are). The "meat" that dog is easting is actually animal byproduct -- ground up chicken feet, chicken neck, chicken guts, cattle shin meat, trash fish, cattle guts, noses, ears, bits of tail, face meat, that is the byproduct of human meat production.

If this stuff was not turned into dog food, it would rot or be turned into some other industrial product (such as glue, cosmetics, poultry food, etc.).

If Robert and Brenda Vale, the authors of this book, are really interested in sustainable living, might I suggest surgical sterilization?

You see nothing they, or anyone reading this, will ever do is as likely to have as big as negative impact on the environment as procreation.

Bottom line: Go ahead and pat your dog and eat all the meat you want. Yes, try to live small and be good to the environment. But if you really want to do something good for the environment, get a vasectomy if you are a man, and a tubal ligation if you are a woman. You say you want children? Excellent! Adopt. Kids all over the world are (literally) dying for what you have to offer as a parent.
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