Doggone: Wet pet food 'seven times worse' for climate than dry

A diet of dry kibble dog food is the canine equivalent of eating processed food for every meal. It's not a healthy diet. Kibble has its place in a dogs diet but should not be their entire diet. We supplement kibble with fresh steamed rice, mixed vegetables, Asian yam, boiled chicken or turkey meat, kidney beans in the evening and blueberries in the moring. We alternate among four different brands and flavors of kibble. We top it with a little warm broth, chicken in the morning and beef broth in the evening. The "kids" certainly do not complain or leave their bowls half eaten. They polish them clean!

I think before worring about a pets diet worry about coal power stations.

Did they indicate what was better for the pets? Perhaps that should have been worth a paragraph or two.

The study's authors examined the environmental impacts of the diets of 618 dogs and 320 cats in Brazil.

I don't think that's quite accurate. The study says it examined 618 dog diets and 320 cat diets - not the diets of individual animals. It used data from labels and website information for homemade diets.

One question I have is to what extent dog and cat food is made from "leftover" food. If, for example, pet food is made from the parts of animal meat that are not normally sold to humans, is there really any additional environmental impact? I only glanced through the paper (link below), but I couldn't find any clear information about that.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22631-0

the United States has the world's biggest dog population with over 69 million

Assuming that this refers only to pet dogs, not strays.

How about the humans stop eating meat and leave it for the animals! I am definitely not feeding my dog that dry crap everyday. Study was probably sponsored by a kibble company!

What about wet human food? There must be a lot more of that than pet food. Or are we just trying to cast the blame for climate change onto animals?

I think the article is appealing to people that want to make good ecological decisions, and gives strong science based evidence to show that dry food is much better in that aspect, It does not for example makes the arguments that nobody should have pets (which would be the case if the blame was to be put on them) but instead it gives an argument about how to feed them without too much ecological impact.

What about wet human food? There must be a lot more of that than pet food. Or are we just trying to cast the blame for climate change onto animals?

I don't have any pets, but the hedgehogs (now hibernating) and foxes are fed a dry mix formulated for the hogs. Hogs have quite specific dietary needs so be careful what you feed them. Any leftovers are eaten by birds, although the foxes often lick the bowl clean. The squirrels and birds eat peanuts and seed. Buying in bulk saves money and packaging. What packaging there is, is recycled. Buy peanuts from reputable suppliers to ensure that they have been tested for aflatoxins.