Wonder what formula they used to decide this…I cannot imagine a little old hamster having a footprint that size.

Somehow they arrived at an amount of energy that a hectare of land can produce in a year. Not sure HOW this energy is produced – biofuel? But they then look at how much food needs to be produced on this land in order to feed said animal. And they do such things as raising chickens on the land in order to feed dogs. So basically, they’re saying that the amount of food to feed a pair of hamsters over a year they could use the same amount of land to produce enough energy to run a plasma tv for a year. Again, don’t know how it works.

If you start eating them, they’re livestock, not pets. I don’t think little Sally would be particularly happy if you got her a pet chicken and then roasted it for dinner a month later.

Also, I wonder how many ha they would come up with for a person? I imagine we waste more energy than 100 dogs combined. If that’s the case, maybe people should stop having kids and just have more pets 😉

Nope, we should just eat our dead.

Mark, that sounds a bit like the movie Solyent Green…do you remember that movie?

Heehee, that’s cute Petzy. How did you get him to pose for that :~)

I didn’t know that about city pounds Petzy. I guess it makes sense but most of the news stories about our dog pounds (the negative ones anyway) show the dogs being dumped at the city dump (alive). Sad stuff.

…and then the people who say this probably go to the supermarket and buy a huge turkey dinner, right?

I LOVE that pic, Petzy. It really looks like he’s talking.

Posted By Sarita on 02/04/2010 10:13 AM
Mark, that sounds a bit like the movie Solyent Green…do you remember that movie?

Soylent green is people!!!!!

Petzy, that’s a good point. Also a lot of dog and cat food is made from the left overs of people food - stuff that would probably be thrown away anyway.

…Monkey isn’t big enough to make a meal for even a little dog. I’ll just keep her as a pet.

MB, we (and by we, I mean my college friends and husband) always used to joke about about cooking the gerbils up for dinner. They would have provided about 0.2oz of meat each, maybe  Not really what I’d call an edible pet.

I joke about making Otto into a coat, but never about eating him – he’d be too stringy anyway.

Monkey isn’t even big enough to make a single slipper out of. Guess I’m stuck with her hehe

Our rabbits produce enough poop to fertilize those hay fields, so it works out almost even. ( I am looking into a composting bin, I swear)

I think I’ll quote from another Heston movie…as in they’ll have to pry my bunny FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS.

Personally, I think this stuff is all more hyperbole to get us to eventually be more controlled by governmental policies than we already are. I can remember the anti-pollution movements in the 70’s (remember the Indian with the tear rolling down his eye in the commercials against littering?) and the carbon footprint thing is being sold the same way.

Not that this should stop us from wanting to keep our planet clean and cool, I’m all for that…but come on…a hamster is not taking that big of a bite out of the environment. I think we as a species believe way too much every thing we are told by “scientific” societies. Just my opinion.

My bunny would give off a fair amount of meat as a 6.5 lb bunny, but he’s 2 years old, so he’d be rather stringy. As far as his coat goes, since he has fur mites, I don’t think he’d be the first bunny to be skinned.

well my carbon foodprint is screwed! I have 5 chickens (none of which i will ever eat as they have name!) two dogs, two rabbits, two Budgies, two green cheeks, a quaker (as of yesterday), a cat, 3 horses and a bunch of fish!

But if you snuggle with your pets, you can turn down the thermostat at night.

I get this crap all the time living in a small primarily Czech town. Older people come over and pet them (feel them up) and ask when I”ll be eating them. They look at me like I’m crazy when I say they’re family pets.

My gardening friends call them recyclable pets, they stand in line for the poopy wet hay for their gardens. 😉

Kral, our friends who bunny-sit love Otto for his composting ability 😉 Whenever we have a house we’ll definitely start a compost pile.

I actually use felony poo in the summer to fertilize my patio garden. I plant tomatoes and herbs in hanging baskets and on ledge containers. Simply keep some poo (not the urine or litter) in a container, and whenever I’m ready to water the plants I put the poo in the watering can and let it mingle (or brew) for a bit. Plants love Felpoo tea!!
Also, angelicvampyre what kind of chickens do you have? Are they fancy chicks? If so, some pictures might be required! Do you trim their wings, ro do you not have a problem with them flying around? When I can actually talk myself out of moving out of the city and actually get a yard, I really want to get a pet chicken. I also love fresh eggs 🙂

Posted By Sarita on 02/04/2010 10:39 AM
Heehee, that’s cute Petzy. How did you get him to pose for that :~)

I didn’t know that about city pounds Petzy. I guess it makes sense but most of the news stories about our dog pounds (the negative ones anyway) show the dogs being dumped at the city dump (alive). Sad stuff.

Yeah its real gross thats why we feed our dogs a home cooked diet we have 2 golden retrievers.