How Green Is Your Pet?

There are few pleasures in life like being met at the door by your loyal dog, panting and eager to greet you. Or relaxing with a good book while a cat purrs on your lap. Our furry little friends bring happiness into our lives, but they also eat – a lot.

Some in the eco-minded set, ever vigilant about identifying the drags on the planet’s resources, are now setting their sites on household pets. Yes, like it or not, good old Fido and Fluffy are huge energy hogs. According to some estimates, the energy needed to grow food to feed a medium-sized dog is more than the energy used by two Toyota Land Cruisers.

Reporter Kate Ravilious investigated the ecological pawprints of our companion animals for New Scientist magazine, and joins us with what she dug up as part of our "next green thing" series.

New Scientist: How green is your pet?

(Photo by Sephiroty Fiesta via Flickr/Creative Commons)