Dogs: Great For Pet Lovers, Ruff on the Environment

Cows belch methane gas. Cats hunt wild birds. But dogs don't harm the environment, do they? Not so fast, scientists say.

A new study was published recently in the journal Pacific Conservation Biology. It looked at the ways the planet’s billion-plus pet dogs shape the world around them.

“The impacts of owned dogs can be direct, indirect, highly localized and wide ranging,” Philip Bateman and Lauren Gilson wrote in the study. They are biologists. They found that dogs can disturb wild animals. They can also pollute the environment. And the dog food industry produces climate-warming greenhouse gases. 

Bateman and Gilson discovered that, in Australia, more dogs (62%) killed wild animals than cats (47%). Dogs were also more likely to attack larger species. In the US, studies have found that native animals are driven off from parks and forests where humans walk dogs. That's because the dogs pee and poop along the trail. It convinces wild animals that a predator is nearby.  

The study also examined the carbon “paw print” of the dog food industry. Bateman and Gilson estimate that making and shipping dog food generates twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the entire United Kingdom does each year. They also surveyed dog owners. Only 12-16% of them said they would be willing to pay a little extra for eco-friendly dog food.

Reflect: What responsibility do pet owners have in minimizing the impact of their pet on the environment?

Photo of dogs from Unsplash courtesy of Bruce Warrington.