Yahoo: Polluting Pets - The Devastating Impact of Man's Best Friend

Now, I own a dog. Our little Lucy is the queen of our house and definitely the apple of Brian's eye. So, I'm not anti-dog, or anti-cat (I own two cats).

What I am opposed to is people who support cat and dog ownership, but oppose chickens and goats because "they don't belong in the city." To hold that belief one must willfully disregard certain facts about cats and dogs. Cats and dogs are known to bite people, they can carry diseases that transfer to people, and their feces is toxic. Dogs can bark loudly at anything and everything.

In contrast, chickens and goats do not bite people, do not carry rabies or anything like it, and their feces is easily compostable. In fact, these animals are great at converting kitchen and garden waste into usable fertilizer. Plus, although goats and chickens may make noise occasionally, it is no comparison to dogs (specifically, the dogs in my neighborhood).

Now, Robert and Brenda Vale have analyzed the carbon footprint of dogs, giving us another fact to consider when looking honestly at the animals we surround ourselves with. The last paragraph of this article made me smile:

"But the best way of compensating for that paw or clawprint is to make sure your animal is dual purpose, the Vales urge. Get a hen, which offsets its impact by laying edible eggs, or a rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table."

"Get a hen," indeed! If only it were that simple.

Click here to read the full article.