How green are our pets? We check the situation from food bowls and accessories to, yes sorry, big business for dogs, cats and horses.
“Woof”: dogs
Lining
Unfortunately, we have to get started right away, because a medium-sized dog needs around 350 kilos of food a year, and thus 64 percent of the environmental impact of a dog is in the bowl. Not surprising, because half of the standard wet food consists of meat and ends up in environmentally harmful aluminum cans. The advantage: After all, the slaughterhouse waste gets away here. If the mistress cooks herself, this can unfortunately make the CO2 emissions even worse: Whoever barks his dog (feeds raw meat parts) triples the impact on the climate, because this is where fresh, high-quality meat ends up in the dog bowl. Is vegetarian and vegan better then? Probably yes, says Dr. Vanessa Bach from the Department of Sustainable Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin: “But there are still no comprehensive studies on it. In terms of climate, vegan feed is probably a little better than feed made from leftover meat.” But even the vegan variant cannot do without proteins such as soy – depending on where it comes from, it increases the footprint. Great, what now? Don’t worry, ecological rescue is approaching: start-ups such as Ofrieda and Tenetrio offer food made from insects. Yeah, took some getting used to. But maybe once or twice a week?
Furnishing
Almost half of all dog owners: Inside regularly gives their four-legged friend new toys. Suggestion: up napf-bar.de you can buy balls & Co. second hand. Or maybe just tinker a pulling toy yourself? There are instructions, for example dogityourself.com. Linen doesn’t have to be leather any more, there are cool alternatives, made from pineapple fibers, for example. Incidentally, with puppies it is like with children: a lot can be borrowed until the little ones have grown out, for example dog harnesses hundelig.de. And if you muck something out, the local animal shelter will be happy.
Legacies
One! Ton! Heap! This is how much the average dog leaves in life. Sorry, you have to let that melt in your mouth. Also not nice for everything that grows underneath, because dog excrement often contains phosphorus, nitrogen and heavy metals that poison the soil. Another reason why the piles belong in the residual waste. There are no really green alternatives to the black plastic bag yet. Experts recommend so-called manure shovels (but you have to carry around with you) or piles of rubbish lying around. Hm, it’s not that great now. Hey, innovations, where are you?
Extra climate killer
As if the poop bag number wasn’t already – well – shit enough: there is so much nitrogen in dog urine (around 2000 liters a year!) That it can completely eradicate certain types of plants. Okay, you have to pee anyway. So, now something positive:
Green hack
Do whole masses of undercoat accumulate when you brush? Off with it modusintarsia.com. The start-up makes dog wool and cozy hats. No joke!
CO2 balance per year: 390 kilos
“Miau”: cats
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Here, too, the klopper right at the beginning – at around 110 kilos, cat food makes up 55 percent of the CO2 paw print. Unlike dogs, house cats are not omnivores. Means: The Animal Welfare Association advises cats not to eat a vegetarian diet. So only organic certified feed remains, for example from Green Petfood (produce climate-neutrally) or from defu (in a bag, saves aluminum). Please do not feed them raw: The clover would need 80 percent lean meat – that would result in a very poor ecological balance.
Furnishing
The same applies here: DIY is the key. Thanks to YouTube, scratching posts are easy to make yourself (for example on the “rascal pet canal”). But the real climate killer is – the cat flap. A poorly installed door allows heat in the order of 50 kilos of CO2 to escape from the house annually. That corresponds roughly to a short-haul flight from Hanover to Berlin! So if you have a cat flap, then please in the basement or hallway – and seal the other doors of the apartment well.
Legacies
An average kitty consumes around 100 kilos of cat litter per year. The raw material for the gray crumbs is often so-called bentonite, which occurs in Germany but is often imported from North America. Easy Hack I: Simply grab the litter from Germany (check the packaging, google the manufacturer). The eco heart is rewarded – annual CO2 savings of more than 400 kilos. And when cleaning up everything in the residual waste, because bentonite often contains aluminum. Easy Hack II: Buy plant-based litter made of wood, straw, sugar beet pulp and other renewable raw materials (for example “Cat’s Best” or “Your best – eco-clumping litter”) dm.de).
Extra climate killer
Sorry, we have to say it: Cats with free access are the nightmare of many animal rights activists: inside. This is due on the one hand to their hunting instinct and on the other hand to the cat droppings, which can spread the disease toxoplasmosis. In Germany, according to NABU, up to 200 million birds fall victim to the claws or piles of our favorites every year. But there is a small loophole:
Green hack
At least from May to July, NABU asks you to leave kitties inside in the morning – there are a lot of young birds around. Otherwise, the classic applies: House tigers that are played with a lot hunt less.
CO2 balance per year: 3100 kilos
“Wiiieeher”: horses
Lining
The climatic knockout among the animals comes at the end. Ready? An adult horse drinks up to an incredible 60 liters of water. During the day! From an environmental point of view, however, almost negligible if you look at what it feeds, namely 3650 kilos a year. Unfortunately, this mass of food turns the horse into a climate killer bomb, because the daily ten kilos of straw and hay account for 33 percent of the total CO2 pollution each year. On top of that comes the daily concentrated feed. Owners can only save on the CO2 balance if they do not add mineral feed. And: After all, more and more manufacturers are now no longer delivering food in plastic bags, but in cardboard boxes.
Furnishing
The dwelling provides 32 percent of the CO2 footprint: The litter in the box has to be changed regularly, the riding arenas have to be watered and lit. Experts estimate the power consumption for a horse to be 860 kWh per year, which is roughly equivalent to a one-person household. But there is also good news: if you use local wood shavings instead of straw, the environmental impact is reduced by almost 30 percent. Horse rugs and riding clothes are often made from recycled PET, leather saddles are second-hand, the DeNiro company makes riding boots from fruit leather and a cork saddle from Rieser Sattel even received an innovation award in 2019. So something is already happening. Keep it up!
Legacies
Unfortunately, like cows, horses fart out the climate-damaging gas methane. This brings horse emissions to a CO2 load of 500 kilos per year. This includes at least the 25 kilos of horse droppings that end up in the straw every day, because excrement and urine decompose in the box to form ammonia – a gas that also heats up the greenhouse effect.
Extra climate killer
After all, the horse itself can do nothing for one of the biggest factors, namely 24 percent of its ecological balance: the car journeys to the stable, because riding facilities are often far out. The numbers are even more difficult with the approx. 80,000 tournament riders: in this country: They drive larger cars to be able to pull horse trailers, and thus jet back and forth between the tournaments an average of 700 kilometers a year.
Green hack
There is not much to gloss over it: Unfortunately, horses are extremely sweet CO2 spinners. The solution? Share a horse! Fortunately, many riders do this: inside Germany: for around 600,000 households with their own horse, there are 920,000 who participate in riding. Another game changer: waste separation in the stable. And one last tip: Nobody goes into the stable without apples or carrots – just take the snacks with you unpacked! Makes an animal difference in the quantities.