Book: Save the Planet, Eat Your Pet

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - A new book claims that pet dogs are as bad for the environment as driving an SUV, and suggests that dog owners should consider doing without, downsizing or even eating their pets to help save the planet, according to NewScientist .

The book entitled "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," says pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits.

Authors Robert and Brenda Vale, both professors at Victoria University in New Zealand, based their findings on the amount of land needed to grow food for pets. They say an average dog eats 360 pounds of meat and 209 pounds of cereals a year, giving it a high impact on the planet. But a pair of rabbits can produce 36 young annually, which would provide 159 pounds of meat and help decrease the owner's carbon footprint.

The book also states that owning a pair of hamsters leaves the same carbon footprint as running a plasma television.

While the Vale's aren't really suggesting that we eat our pets, they are saying that we need to think more about the ecological impact of the things we do on a daily basis, and how we choose to use land.

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Robert Vale said. "We're not actually saying it is time to eat the dog. We're just saying that we need to think about and know the [ecological] impact of some of the things we do and that we take for granted."

According to the book, canaries and goldfish are eco-friendly pets. If those don't appeal to you there are other pet alternatives including ants and triops -- often referred to as tadpoles or shield shrimp.