With one billion cats and dogs around the world it's time to start asking the question, what is my dogs carbon paw print?
Pets have a surprisingly bad impact on the environment… The manufacturing of kibble has a massive impact on the environment, and the think about the amount of bags you use a week to clean up after your dog, now times that by the amount of people living on your block.
Owning a medium sized dog can have a similar environmental impact as a large SUV. We need to be looking for ways to cut down where we can. Dogs and Cats eat meat based diets, and we all know those are the most energy intensive diets This is where the choices we make as pet parents come in. Beef production has a much higher environmental impact than chicken or fish, so even by picking pet food brands that use chicken you will make a positive impact.
Another way to help lower your dogs carbon footprint is to upcycle ingredients from your own kitchen into their diets. Food waste is a major issue. Canada alone produces 2.94 million metric tonnes of household food waste per year. 63% of Canadians throw away or compost food that could have been eaten. These objects in your fridge are perfect options for your dog. At home cooking is one of the best ways to have a healthier more sustainable dog. By using upcycled foods, or making dog food with leftovers from their own kitchens, you will be able to proactively tackle the issue of food waste. Great items to upcycle from your kitchen are broccoli stems, egg shells, fruit and vegetable peels to name a few.