Taking care of the environment is becoming an unavoidable talking point in a world in which the single greatest threat is climate change. There’s only so much one person can do to reverse the damage that has already been done to the planet, and waiting for legislation to tackle this problem from the policy perspective will take time. In the meantime, individuals still have a role to play, and it can start with pets.

Feeding Your Pets

Pet food presents an insidious problem for the environment, one that is nearly invisible because it relates to a different problem entirely. Pet foods tend to be meat-oriented unless a given animal’s diet outright excludes meat. This means the average cat or dog consumes a fair amount of meat, beef in particular.

This creates an issue, because factory farming is one of the major contributors to the greenhouse gases that cause the warming effect of climate change. Cows in particular are known to produce a staggering amount of methane. This is all the more troubling when you realize that dogs in particular are commonly allergic to beef, so it’s often a good idea to avoid beef for dogs.

Do some research and find some pet food alternatives that aren’t based on meat. Reading Nutra Thrive reviews can help you determine for yourself what ingredients you’ll be feeding your pets and how it can contribute for better or worse to climate change.

Addressing Farming Issues

At the core of the pet food problem is the problem of factory farming itself. Factory farming is a highly effective model of agriculture, but it causes more than good as it stands. For starters, this practice contributes heavily to the total greenhouse gas emissions from industry, as mentioned above.

However, this is a problem even at more basic levels, because such farming is generally considered to be cruel to livestock, and it also fuels the practices of wasting food en masse by first overproducing and then reporting conservative best by dates and failing to donate food items to those in need in lieu of letting them go to waste.

By feeding your pet a plant-based food or simply consuming fewer animal products, you can incentivize better business practices among farms. Consumption of animal products can be ethical, but you’ll need to do your homework. Terms like “cage free” can be misleading, so never take producers at their word and find out for yourself.

Spaying or Neutering Your Pets

The practice of spaying or neutering pets may rub you the wrong way, understandably. After all, you wouldn’t want something like that to happen to you. However, there are greater forces at play that make this option the lesser of two evils.

Domesticated animals have been bred over generations to meet human needs, and that has left them unable to adequately care for themselves in many cases. In addition to that, the above problems concerning pet food and industrial pollution are compounded by growing numbers of puppies and kittens. This in turn can lead to more neglected or abused animals, and feral or stray animals can further contribute to overpopulation. In some cases, the animal not being able to take care of itself in the wild isn’t as much of an issue as a former pet becoming an invasive species that disrupts the local ecosystem by overhunting.

Other than spaying or neutering, the only way to be sure that your pet can't possibly be propagating its species is via constant monitoring, something that just isn’t feasible when you’re holding down a job.

Being a responsible pet owner is a full-time job in its own right, but doing so in a way that’s also good for the environment is another story entirely. The good news is that both problems can be solved by learning about the subject matter and committing to better life choices that make change possible.