Environmental Footprint of Domestic Dogs and Cats

Jose Herrera-Camacho; Eduardo Baltierra-Trejo; Paul Adolfo Taboada-González; Luisa Fernanda Gonzalez; Liliana Marquez-Benavides

doi:10.20944/preprints201707.0004.v1

Preprint Article Version 1 This version is not peer-reviewed

Environmental Footprint of Domestic Dogs and Cats

Jose Herrera-Camacho , Eduardo Baltierra-Trejo , Paul Adolfo Taboada-González , Luisa Fernanda Gonzalez , Liliana Marquez-Benavides ^*

Version 1 : Received: 30 June 2017 / Approved: 4 July 2017 / Online: 4 July 2017 (16:00:10 CEST)

How to cite: Herrera-Camacho, J.; Baltierra-Trejo, E.; Taboada-González, P.A.; Fernanda Gonzalez, L.; Marquez-Benavides, L. Environmental Footprint of Domestic Dogs and Cats. Preprints 2017, 2017070004 (doi: 10.20944/preprints201707.0004.v1). Herrera-Camacho, J.; Baltierra-Trejo, E.; Taboada-González, P.A.; Fernanda Gonzalez, L.; Marquez-Benavides, L. Environmental Footprint of Domestic Dogs and Cats. Preprints 2017, 2017070004 (doi: 10.20944/preprints201707.0004.v1).

Abstract

Mexico´s inhabitants have approximately 7 million dogs and cats as pets, of which there is no accurate information about their environmental impacts as a result of their feeding and comfort requirements. The objective of this study is to compare the environmental footprint between a dog and a cat in a family environment. For this purpose, a life cycle analysis was performed including, among other factors, its feeding and waste management in one year of life. Different environmental indicators including the carbon footprint were considered. It was found that the equivalent CO2 emission of a dog is twice that estimated for a domestic cat and that the main contribution is due to the food production. The ecological footprint that is generated when satisfying the requirements for pet´s well-being impacts in the environment contributes primarily to the carbon footprint.

Subject Areas

life cycle analysis, dogs; cats; carbon footprint; environmental pawprint

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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