Study: Dogs Pollute More Than Cars

Two New Zealander researchers have far too much time on their hands. Robert and Brenda Vale who specialize in sustainable living at Victoria University of Wellington have written a book titled Time to Eat the Dog. In it they calculate that it takes more energy to keep a dog as a pet than to run a car. 

To calculate the energy a dog uses, they found that an average dog eats 300g of dry food a day. That food is made up of 90g of meat and 156g of cereal. Annually, that means it take about 0.84 hectares of land to feed the average medium-sized dog. 

In comparison, the Vales drive a Toyota Land CruiserToyota Land CruiserJapan, 1951 > present10 series
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with a 4.6-liter engine an average of 6.000 miles a year. They calculated that over its life the car has used 55.1gigajoules of energy including the energy used to build the car. From that data, the Vales estimate that it takes the amount of energy needed to cultivate 0.41 hectares of land per year. 

“We’re not saying that we think SUVs are a good idea, but we did find it interesting how they have been vilified for their damage to the environment, while pets have been completely ignored,” said Robert.

The Vales also did calculations for cat owners in their book and found that the average car uses about the same amount of energy as Volkswagen GolfIsettaItaly, 1939 > 19552 models
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in a year. 

It appears that from a purely energy-based perspective, dogs and cats are not good for Earth, but the Vales do not seem to be looking at the situation practically. There is a major difference between the amount of energy used and the way that energy is produced. For instance, you can power a city with a coal-burning power plant or a hydroelectric power plant. They produce similar amounts of energy, but the amount of pollution produced is completely different. While this is an extreme example, it shows there is more to consider in these calculations than just energy production. 

Source: Auto Express