The Dog or the Car... one has to go.

[mgarl10024]

Well, I thought this article was quite good. Whether or not the stats are correct, it was quite funny to be equating hamsters to plasma tv's!

We're always being told to eat less meat because it harms the environment (producing it takes a lot of energy, land and resources), but with a German Shepherd weighing around 40kg (http://www.petplanet...hepherd_Dog.htm) and eating 63% meat is gonna take a fair bit of feeding (http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/2987848/Save-the-planet-time-to-eat-dog, 164kg/(164+95kg)). I wonder if the dog's diet is actually worse than the average human diet in terms of Co2 emissions.

It does remind me of a colleague who was a strict vegan. So strict that he waited an extra few days whilst badly ill for the pharmacy to order in special drugs that were vegan-safe. However, he bred labradors and seemed to be either unaware or ignoring the fact that their dog food was largely meat!

 

[Adasta]

It does remind me of a colleague who was a strict vegan. So strict that he waited an extra few days whilst badly ill for the pharmacy to order in special drugs that were vegan-safe. However, he bred labradors and seemed to be either unaware or ignoring the fact that their dog food was largely meat!

This is the problem with holier-than-thou environmentalists/vegans etc. I'm all for green initiatives and everything but you'll find most arguments fall apart on closer inspection.

However, with regards to the vegan chap, he may just be attempting to take himself out of the "food equation"; humans can exist without meat whereas dogs are carnivorous. This is why these types of articles are largely pointless when they involve sentient beings. Such arguments' faulty premeses subsequently render them pointless.

 

[taxing]

You can get vegetarian dog food, I don't know if you can get vegan though. And whether the dog would like it is another thing entirely, the dogs I had as a kid only ate beef. As in real, solid beef. My chore every day was to take this tough old beef outside with a sharp knife and hack away at it to get it into dog-sized chunks. It took forever, made my hands hurt, and stank.

 

[Arch]

Presumably a three-legged dog has a smaller carbon footprint?

It has fewer footprints, but that's not the same thing...

 

[Amheirchion]

This is the problem with holier-than-thou environmentalists/vegans etc. I'm all for green initiatives and everything but you'll find most arguments fall apart on closer inspection.

However, with regards to the vegan chap, he may just be attempting to take himself out of the "food equation"; humans can exist without meat whereas dogs are carnivorous. This is why these types of articles are largely pointless when they involve sentient beings. Such arguments' faulty premeses subsequently render them pointless.

Dogs are omnivorous, the same as we are, and if care is taken it is possible to feed them a vegetarian diet.
Cats and ferrets on the other hand are obligate carnivores and need meat to survive. I'd happily kneecap a cat owner that tried to feed their pet a vegetarian/vegan diet, a dog owner I'd merely grimace at.

 

[Amheirchion]

You can get vegetarian dog food, I don't know if you can get vegan though. And whether the dog would like it is another thing entirely, the dogs I had as a kid only ate beef. As in real, solid beef. My chore every day was to take this tough old beef outside with a sharp knife and hack away at it to get it into dog-sized chunks. It took forever, made my hands hurt, and stank.

A pure diet of old beef is just as bad, if you're going down that route, whole animals are better as they provide more nutrients than a cut of beef alone can provide. The guts of a rabbit for example give the dog it's daily veg.

 

[4F]

My dog stops next doors cat's from sh*itting in my garden, my car does not.

 

[taxing]

A pure diet of old beef is just as bad, if you're going down that route, whole animals are better as they provide more nutrients than a cut of beef alone can provide. The guts of a rabbit for example give the dog it's daily veg.

Gross. I wouldn't touch a rabbit's guts now, let alone when I was 13. They will have had dog biscuits hanging around to eat whenever they wanted, though those paled in my memory compared to the daily chore of cutting up that bloody beef.

 

[subaqua]

My dog stops next doors cat's from sh*itting in my garden, my car does not.

my shotgun has the same effect. works on Foxes and squirrels too.


that is a joke BTW. cats don't come into the garden anymore since i cut up the old PF blighted inner tubes into 12 inch long bits and put them on the garden.

 

[Mad at urage]

I was taught how to skin and gut a rabbit when I was about 6, last time I did so was about a year ago and I'll eat rabbit whenever it's reasonably easy to obtain (which should be more often now I'm out of the suburbs). I've never understood squeamishness about 'game' animals: What do you think you are made of? Green leaves or plastic?

As long as we are discussing veg(itari)anism:
Of course the most efficient way of feeding the world with current technology would be to destroy all farmed animals, plant GM-modified high-food-value cops on all land (GM modifications needed to reduce insect and smaller pest attack and make the crops grow in the more marginal areas), then of course kill off all the larger pests that will raid the crops (rabbits, badger, deer etc).

In which case would it be socially/morally acceptable to eat the raiding pests we kill?

 

[Amheirchion]

Aye, I've also skinned and plucked rabbits and birds before, as well as removing birds guts, didn't gut the rabbit though. Am I right in remembering that the rabbit needs to be gutted as soon as possible to stop it spoiling?

 

[subaqua]

Aye, I've also skinned and plucked rabbits and birds before, as well as removing birds guts, didn't gut the rabbit though. Am I right in remembering that the rabbit needs to be gutted as soon as possible to stop it spoiling?

all game does.

deer especially so.

 

[Mad at urage]

Aye, I've also skinned and plucked rabbits and birds before, as well as removing birds guts, didn't gut the rabbit though. Am I right in remembering that the rabbit needs to be gutted as soon as possible to stop it spoiling?

all game does.

deer especially so.

Well, I wouldn't leave it in for days in a warm environment , but as long as the gut-sac is intact enough to pull the contents out, it's OK .

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

keeping a dog in the city is unfair to the dog really.

It depends on the breed surely?? I mean, someone's lapdog is hardly the same as say, a Colly.

those irresponsible owners who don't pick the 5hit up and bin it will be 1st up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I do pick up, but what gets me are all the high and mighty people with cats who drone on about it, how we are all awful people and obviously never keep a dog on a lead, therefore not having any control of it ....and then let their cat out every night to, what?? roam about, geting run over by cars, killing and injuring small animals and THEN doing a TOXIC TURD on my lawn!

Cat pooh is FAR worse than dog's, ask any gardener and they will tell you exactly what they think of cats!

 

[Adasta]

Just an observation...

Well it had better stay as that, because it's not much of an argument!

Comparing animate objects to inanimate ones in this context is ridiculous. It is also quite ridiculous to suggest that there is much relation between a starving child on television and feeding your dog. There is a food industry involved here. The wastage from this industry is the problem since it is not "given" to those who could really use it. Not to get too political, but I think we can all agree that capitalism, as an economic practice, necessarily creates waste, a corollary of meeting market demands. It's true that we should take more repsonsiblity over what we eat, but without some sort of systemic change, these dietary changes will be seen as little more than a slight shift on a trend analysis graph.