Quick question: What is the most harmful industry to the environment in America?
You might be surprised by the answer.
The pet industry is by far the largest cause of pollution in the United States just by looking at the amount of food consumed by pets and the amount of waste produced.
Below are the total number of pets in the United States:
Total Number of Pets Owned in the U.S. (millions)
Bird 15.0
Cat 93.6
Dog 77.5
Equine 13.3
Freshwater Fish 171.7
Saltwater Fish 11.2
Reptile 13.6
Small Animal 15.9
Horses alone eat 7,000 pounds of hay per year. 7,000 lbs * 13,300,000 horses in the U.S.A. = 93,100,000,000 pounds of hay. That number is not a misprint- horses eat over 93 BILLION pounds of hay per year! Horses obviously no longer provide any economic value and consume vast amounts of food and produce equally vast amounts of waste.
Dogs are far, far worse.
The average dog eats 400 pounds of dog food per year (mostly protein from chickens, cows, pork, horses, and other scrap meat. Many owners though now feed their dogs premium dog food containing premium meat that is far better than that eaten by people in third world countries. 400 pounds of dog food * 77.5 million dogs = 31,000,000,000 pounds of dog food consumed in the USA per year. 31 BILLION POUNDS OF MEAT EATEN BY DOGS PER YEAR!
Dogs are worse than horses since they eat meat, which must be derived from other animals. It takes roughly 2,500 gallons of water to make one pound of meat. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of meat. A 1,000 pound steer requires 2.5 million gallons of water through the course of its life. To support the ravenous appetites of Americans pet dog population, 31 million steers must die each year. Basically this means dogs require 496 billion pounds of hay per year – more than 5x what horses require!
Humans in America by contrast eat only 200 pounds of meat per year (though there are more of us at 307 million). 61,400,000,000 pounds of meat eaten by Americans. We eat roughly double what dogs eat. However if you include the pet reptile, cat, bird & fish population I think you would find the amount of meat eaten by pets is greater than that eaten by humans.
What this all should mean to you:
- Cow emissions are far more harmful to the environment than vehicle emissions. A recent 400 page UN report showed that cows are responsible for more pollution than cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, and all other forms of transportation COMBINED.
- Pets require more meat than humans in America.
- Neutering/spaying all pets in America and eliminating the pet industry would provide far more good than completely shutting down all cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, etc- and it would free up huge amounts of human time and attention for more productive pursuits.
Other factors to consider: you drive a car, frida does not. your consumption (trash, energy, gas usage) is far far far greater than Fridas and you probably consume far more grains and meat than frida because you are a huge PIG. don’t pick on my girl until you’re ready to become a vegetarian!
I completely agree with Joel. I also think a law needs to be passed which allows people to legally own gizmos. Every pet owner that gets rid of his or her pet can legally travel to any country of their choice and import a gizmo. we all now that gizmos are way more useful and require much less attention and maintenance than pets.
Gizmos are great workers, the Black Rooster is 100% correct that importing gizmos would improve America.