Is it ethical to keep a pet?

[JohnK]

In "Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog -- including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food -- give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser. Noting that a cat's pawprint was roughly equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf's, "New Scientist" (www.newscientist.com) asked an environmentalist at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, U.K., to independently calculate animals' environmental impact, and reported that "his figures tallied almost exactly."

http://www.physorg.com/news176582720.html

I'm not a big environmentalist , but I do care for the environment, however I don't really like the idea of killing my pet for the greater good...

Is it ethical to keep a pet?

 

[XRATED.]

Yes. You're giving the animal a home, and treating it with respect and amazingly. :3

 

[MegaMatt]

The article is insisting that keeping pets is ruining our earth, compare that eco footprint to the eco footprint that humans would have in a dogs point of view lol. Not that they could ever keep track of any of it, but if we fuck up the environment too much they're going down with us.

 

[Verity]

From a human point of view, it is ethical to care for pet animals. Humans have a moral conscience to care for other living animals.