This week we’ve had an issue with the school wellbeing dog, Zebedee. He was caught red-pawed rummaging through the children’s’ packed lunch boxes.
By the time he was found he’d snutzgrubbled his way through half of 7D’s food and was starting on 9S’s. The great news is that we did find that there was a remarkably similar corned beef sandwich wrapped in clingfilm to the one found blocking the toilet a few weeks ago in Pupil M’s bag. Surveillance has now been increased – partly to monitor pupil behaviour on responsible consumption and partly to ensure Zebedee doesn’t eat any lunch box raisins which are toxic to our four-legged companions. He’s already looking a little rotund.
Furever friends?
At home on the smallholding Mabel has rolled in fox poo for the fourth time. We’ve scrubbed her clean but there is a serious whiff if you get within a metre or two. My love of her might be unconditional but there are limits. She is a great security dog though and has a bark worthy of a Rottweiler. I suppose her smell might also dissuade visitors for the next couple of weeks.
Our half-Bengal cat, Tikka, has also been causing problems. It’s rabbit breeding season so, although she is treated for fleas, all the wild rabbits are not. She catches the young ones, brings them through the cat flap, eats their heads and leaves the rest. The carcasses have the appearance of small rabbit-skinned rugs. The fleas jump off and will start biting when the weather eventually gets warmer. Spot-on flea-treatments are causing huge environmental problems as they are toxic to aquatic life, but Tikka is pretty phobic of water so I’m hoping it just stays on her. To de flea or not to de flea that is the question? At least it has stopped raining cats and dogs every day.
Dog’s Dinner
Hubster and I have been having conversations about the best food for Mabel. According to experts from Maastricht University, an average size dog might be responsible for emitting over 19 tonnes of CO2 in its lifetime, equivalent to driving a car for around 50,000 miles – or more than twice around the circumference of the Earth.
Mabel weighs 22 kg and that’s between 530-770 kg of CO₂ emissions each year depending on the source of information. We tried her on insect-based dog food which was okay but expensive and Mabel did not seem particularly impressed with the change. I’m definitely not choosing a Great Dane with ~2500 kg CO2 as well as producing poops the size of a small volcano. To live sustainably scientists, recommend an individual’s climate emissions are way less than 5000 kg per year so dogs are not very sustainable. The best idea is to feed them a couple of vegetarian meals a week alongside chicken or turkey dinners but avoid beef. Tikka is less impactful, at 310 kg CO2e and she supplements her diet with mice and rabbits, luckily, she isn’t much of a birder. In the UK, research suggests domestic cats kill an estimated 200 million wild prey annually, quite a few more than those ‘unsightly’ wind turbines.
Apparently, there are almost half a billion dogs kept as pets worldwide. If we’re going to try some radical tactics to reduce emissions and grasp the nettle that is carbon rationing maybe we can say either you stop flying on holiday or Fido gets it. Not sure it would be popular. We might be better off with going down the carbon tax route. Not that that’s popular either but the general, let’s just carry on as we are and ignore the issue is only going to become more challenging. Personally, I’ll keep Mabel the mutt, but that’s because I’ve stopped flying anyway. Now if the choice was to give up chocolate or the dog, I’d have to give it some serious thought! Pets are a bit of a disaster for the environment really.
Stinky ornaments
We went for a walk by the river the other day. We don’t let Mabel swim in it when there may have been a sewage release upstream.Unfortunately this is often after heavy rainfall, so she’s been continually disappointed over the past few months.
The number of dog poo bags hanging from the trees like unseasonal Christmas ornaments is increasing. Since the lockdowns began, there has been a noticeable increase in dog owners leaving mess behind. Many new dog owners seem to be shirking their responsibilities to clean up after their lockdown pets.
With approximately 9 million dogs in the UK, each producing about 340g of waste per day, the cumulative impact is significant. An estimated 5.5 billion poo bags are used each year.
Unfortunately, many pet parents do not opt for products that treat the environment carefully. Responsible pet ownership and proper waste disposal are crucial to address this growing problem. The £1000 fine for dog waste labels peeling off unemptied poop bins don’t seem to be making a difference. Is there any point in writing yet another letter of complaint to the overstretched and underfunded council? Alternatively, if you like ornamental dog poo bags then hang them in the nearest tree to your own house.
Note to self: Ask the Eco Committee if they would like to run a campaign on responsible pet ownership. We could call it ‘How bad is your pet for the planet’ and give scorecards out to parents or carers. This idea is inspired by the Teach the Future project on report cards for MPs based on their environmental action and voting record.
