Dogs are the mother of all externalities producers. Most of the costs they impose on “society” are not in fact borne by the owners of the dogs but by the rest of us.
In “Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living,” authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog — including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food — give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser …
Dogs are near the top of the food chain and require lots of methane producing meat to survive. Not only that, the resources needed to raise the meat that dogs live on must come from somewhere. The authors estimated that each medium size dog requires 2.1 acres of land to be fed each year, and having a dog emits as much CO2 per year as a giant car. Since nearly half of all Americans own dogs, by banning dogs we’d “save” something like 200 million acres of land for wildlife and food for people, and we’d save the equilavent of approximately 100 million cars on the road. I don’t know of a single proposal out there that is so easily within our grasp and can do so much good for the environment with so little direct cost. So let’s do it. It’s a no brainer, right?
Is this Swiftian satire?
Steve, not sure… if wintercow had suggested EATING our dogs, then yes, Swiftian.
Steve, I wondered the same thing. But I think Wintercow has had it with dog poop sticking to his sneakers. (Let it be known that I do not have a dog in this fight. I live near a busy road, and knew the last dog that was killed by a car. We have cats, all of who showed up at our door. One lives inside, another lives in the garage during the winter, and two males live in the barn. We got the garage cat spayed, after we lured her into a Havaheart trap; so far, she and all of the other cats are smart enough not to go into the trap, which has trapped four raccoons, four skunks, and a thousand (I exaggerate) ground hogs. Just two days ago, I got two ground hogs in one trap, a record.
Friends shoot the skunks and raccoons, and they get buried in assorted places and sometimes get dug up and eaten by another hungry animal, or animals who relish rotten skunk. Only once did I think I glimpsed a coyote (as opposed to the esteemed Coyote) jump over the fence toward the woods, but we have plenty of buzzards and crows to clean up after a larger animal, maybe a raccoon takes a few savory mouthfuls of dead skunk or aged raccoon.
However, we live in a free country (so far) and I do not want the township, state, or federal police to look over my shoulder to monitor what I do with my cow’s manure in the winter.
This does not mean that the Puritans cannot regulate what happens in the common, nor the Wesleyans do with the animals in the dormitories.
I’m not getting a dog, and I sympathize with WC’s sentiments. It is not as difficult or big as raising a child, but it is a big responsibility.
Rereading wintercow polemic, he is the Lake Ontario and Erie Canal Swift.
When I was fifteen, I watched a swimmer near a lock in the Erie Canal go underwater and spit out a mouthful. In the lock, my friend and I sunk our hands into inches of slime to protect the boat.. This was not Al Gore’s love canal.
Then there are the running dogs Mao spoke of. Mao, as stupid as Obama. Maybe not stupid, just ignorant, but thrilled with power.
I know WC hates distractions from his point. I prefer running dog capitalists over jackals like Mao and Che Guavera, both of whom took many lives to promote their selfish cause.