Homes

Well trufull its better them have a home than roming the streets, i see more harm in them in the streets, i suppose that cats are no bother, maybe dogs are from people who dont pick there dog muck up

As somebody else has said, if you are to criticise us for keeping a dog, you have to ask how many children we have! I don’t dress my dog, drive her to school, take her into town to meet her mates, etc. etc. I even reuse her poo bags!
David Attenborough is on record as saying that there is no eco problem he has encoutered that could not be reduced if there were fewer people.
For the record, I have three step-children, one of whom lives at home still.

i have two cats and that really impacted the amount my home footprint was. i love them and don’t really understand why or how for that matter

Have you noticed that the question doesn’t actually ask you how many or what pets you have it just asks you how much you send on their bills and things so maybe it’s something to do with that.

I was confused by this also, had never occurred to me that my carbon footprint would be so big from having pets. However, I noticed that on another website it suggested we need more excercise to improve our heart health (less trips to the doctors, medication etc) So walking your dog can also offset other things in the long term. Also If you are out walking the dog you are not sat at home with the telly on.

E Dipstick,
Good point… maybe the reason they ask how much you spend on your pet/s is to give an idea of how much your pet/s consume? A bit unfair if you have to spent a lot on bills for some reason,e.g. an accident, though.

i think this carbon footprint exam isnt that exactly perfect… I live in Costa Rica and i know for a fact that my carbon footprint isnt that bitchy…. In Costa Rica the dog and cat food really expensive, because of the exchange rate…

I think it’s down to how much you spend on resources for however many pets you have, which relates to impact on the planet.
My vet bill tripled my spend this year as it went from from nothing to £300 and that has increased my footprint, but I wouldn’t have not gone to the vet!
Have pets, love them and gain from them in life experiences, relaxation and joy and lower your footprint in other ways. I stopped flying and it far outweighed the extra vet bill in terms of my impact ;-)

Herbivores, like rabbits etc, might be better because they don’t eat meat. I agree with the previous comment too, though.
I think you can get vegan cat/dog food, but it would probably be hard to get your pet to eat that stuff if it’s had meat before. I don’t think it’s much more expensive than usual, meaty food.
We used to have 2 cats, but one was hit by a car. Our other, older, beautiful kitty eats little, and I think she will live to be very old – she never goes near roads, and seems to get the balance between food, exercise & rest just right, and has never had to go to the vet for any reason other than a check-up or to get her incredibly long fur shaved off :S

We have 7 cats – all are rescue cats, so we are not part of the breeding excess (If you get what I mean). I wouldn’t be without them. We don’t fly anywhere so I consider that part of our attempt to balance our usage. Not perfect but there you go. If you consider the amount of comfort and companionship you can get from pets, then compare that to the cost in mental and emotion well being, trips to GPs medications etc if they did not exist there must be a break even point?