Flying, meat consumption, cruise ships and SUVs – today’s climate killers are well known and sustainable and climate-neutral alternatives have long been sought.
But what about the life cycle assessment of pets? How big is the ecological paw print of “Balu”, “Tiger” and “Findus” really?
And what can pet owners do to reduce their carbon footprint? We answer the most important questions.
What is the carbon footprint of a dog?
What is the life cycle assessment of large dogs? Scientists from the TU Berlin have also asked themselves this question and have already investigated it on a large scale in 2020. Factors such as the production of animal feed and the consequential damage to the environment caused by urine and faeces were also taken into account.
The results are sobering. A dog weighing 30 kilograms causes around 1,050 kilograms of CO2 per year – i.e. a little more than a ton.
If the climate is not to be further burdened, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), every inhabitant of the earth should only cause two tons of CO2 per year. For example, anyone who owns a small Doberman bitch uses half of their annual CO2 capacity just by keeping animals.
For comparison: Keeping a small Labrador causes about as much CO2 emissions per year as a single flight from Berlin to Washington. According to calculations by the CO2 flight calculator myclimate, the CO2 emissions for this one-way flight are 1.1 tons.
Matthias Finkbeiner, head of the Institute for Technical Environmental Protection at the TU Berlin, also points out that dog owners are often not sure about the ecological balance of their four-legged friends: “If someone goes to a demonstration for more climate protection with a 50-kilo mastiff and then demands that short-haul flights be stopped, that is a double standard.”
What is the carbon footprint of a cat?
As early as 2019, the Eco-Balance Institute examined ESU-Services based in Switzerland the carbon footprint for the most common pets such as dog, cat, horse to ornamental fish. Factors such as the heat loss of a cat flap were also taken into account for the analysis. The study found that keeping a 4.2-kilogram cat every year has about the same carbon footprint as driving a car 1,164 kilometers.
For comparison: A car trip from Berlin to Venice causes as much CO2 emissions as keeping a cat in one year.
Is the pet a CO2 blind spot?
That the pet factor in calculations of climate balances so far was rather overlooked, confirms the climate protection expert of the Federal Environment Agency Michael Bilharz.
Interested consumers can calculate their own personal CO2 balance on the website of the Federal Environment Agency. However, according to Bilharz, it took twelve years until the pet keeping factor was integrated into the CO2 calculator about a year ago. In the meantime, the selection point “Pets” can be entered under the point “Other consumption”.
The question to what extent keeping pets tarnishes the ecological balance is often a source of heated debate. Especially climate-conscious pet owners, who attach great importance to a CO2-neutral and sustainable way of life, often hit such balance sheet calculations suddenly.
Animal lovers often counter such calculations by saying that pet owners take fewer long-distance trips, spend more time in the fresh air on walks and that Pets are generally good for people. For example, it has long been proven that cats can accelerate the recovery process from mental illness and depression. In addition, their purring can not only lower blood pressure in humans, but also boost the release of serotonin.
Many scientists agree: it’s not about pillorying animal lovers in general, but reveal blind spots. An important point is the question of proportionality. Finkbeiner from the TU Berlin points out: “Having a dog, eating meat every day, driving the biggest car and flying a lot – maybe that’s too much.”
As a pet owner, what can I do to reduce the carbon footprint?
If you are aware of the ecological balance of your pet, you can make many small adjustments to improve the individual CO2 balance. In this way, the environmental impact can be reduced, at least in part, by Dog excrement is collected during daily walks – even if a plastic bag is used as a container. According to Finkbeiner, the CO2 pollution from burning the plastic bag together with the faeces is still lower than if the faeces are simply left out in the open.
Another point is the number of pets. According to the Association of Pet Supplies, around 15.7 million cats and 10.7 million dogs lived in Germany in 2020. Since pet ownership has experienced a boom in times of the ongoing pandemic, these numbers are likely to have increased noticeably again. The founder of the ecological balance institute ESU-Services Niels Jungbluth asks accordingly: “Do you have to have three cats with three children or is one enough?”
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Negative carbon footprint: Should I feed my pet vegan?
It is already well known that a purely plant-based diet improves the individual ecological balance. According to Bilharz, anyone who eats a vegan diet can annually save between 800 and 1,000 kilograms of CO2, which corresponds to the yearly keeping of one Labrador or Retriever.
In the life cycle assessment of pets, animal feed accounts for the largest item in the climate impact. Many pet owners ask themselves whether, for example Dogs should be fed purely vegan – a question that is not only discussed in pet forums, but also concerns science.
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Will a vegan diet harm my dog?
Volker Wilke from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover says, “It is theoretically possible to feed adult and healthy dogs on a purely plant-based basis”. So would have experiments with a purely vegan diet in dogs no negative consequences shown. In these experiments, dog food based on peas, lentils, sweet potatoes or soy was used, to which vitamin A, taurine and other amino acids were added.
However, care should be taken when changing your diet. Poor nutrition can cause damage to the heart and nervous system, muscle atrophy or other problems in dogs. Therefore, when changing your diet, you should always seek the advice of a knowledgeable expert or the treating veterinarian.
According to Wilke, “but it doesn’t have to be about them Basic question meat yes or no go“. For example, it could make a difference if more dry food is used than wet food when feeding.
Wilke also points out that feeding purely vegan dog food Under certain circumstances, the ecological balance could even deteriorate: “Vegan food with a large proportion of soy from Brazil and additives from other parts of the world as wet food in a can can be many times more harmful to the climate than dry food containing meat that is produced here.”
Can I feed my cat vegan?
According to Wilke, the shape vegan diet for cats more difficult: “It’s almost impossible to feed a cat a plant-based diet.”
Nevertheless, the ecological balance can also be improved here if cat owners give their animals more dry food if possible or use cat food that does not contain a lot of muscle meat but more animal by-products. (with dpa)
