The Journey to a Sustainable Life and How To Live it With Dogs
Editor’s Note: Hi, it’s Christie Catan here! It's so tempting to equate sustainability with recycling, but it's so much bigger than that (for example: I spend more of my energy thinking about what I chose to buy or not buy). Am I perfect? NOT EVEN CLOSE. My hope is that our new TOC Contributor, Brianha Hendey, will help our community learn a bit more about how this home of ours (earth) works and why talking about sustainability even matters. I want to acknowledge that there are a HUGE number of reasons why people behave the way they do, and they are all valid. We are here to talk & learn with you (not tell you what to do). I'm hoping that our conversations will help us all better understand what contingencies are at play (yay behavior nerds!) as we make choices related to our dogs and perhaps allow you to bring even more awareness and intention to what you do (even if your behavior remains exactly the same).
Have you ever stopped to think about who you’re serving when you post a cute gear pic with a discount code on your dog’s Instagram account? When my partner and I decided to start an Instagram page for our dog, Boba, we were excited to share dog pictures, connect with trusted dog professionals, and meet other pet parents in our community and the greater dog world. However, the more time I spent scrolling through “Dog Instagram,” the more concerned I became about the environmental impacts of everything I was seeing. In an effort to make Boba’s Instagram feed a bit less consumeristic, I searched for sustainability-related dog pages and the results were unsettlingly empty. Indeed, I found nothing but a few pages promoting vegan dog diets, which were unhelpful to sustainably-minded pet guardians and the dogs in question.
Full disclosure, I’m a vegetarian. My master’s research focused on sustainable consumption. I was specifically interested in factors that might lead people to reduce their meat consumption and opt for higher quality, more sustainably-sourced meat when they do eat it (as opposed to completely abstaining). Without going into the behavioral science of it all, I am generally interested in helping people live more sustainably in a way that promotes their own well-being and that of the collective.
Dogs undoubtedly increase our well-being (in most cases at least). You don’t have to do much digging to find numerous studies citing dogs’ ability to increase our life satisfaction, as well as improve our mental and physical health in measurable ways. So while our dogs’ environmental “paw print” is far from negligible, for many people their benefits far exceed their costs (although I say this as a self-acknowledged dog-obsessed millennial woman).
This then begs the question, what are the environmental implications of dogs, and how do we lessen them?
Since I couldn’t find answers on social media, I took it upon myself to research and to share my findings with you, with the hopes of creating an open and ongoing dialogue on the topic.
How the Pet Industry Impacts a Sustainable Life and How To Live It With Dogs
In a country like the U.S., where dogs and cats are very common pets, the environmental impacts can add up. Indeed, dogs and cats consume as much dietary energy as ~62 million Americans, or one fifth of the U.S. population!
At a glance, domestic dogs are an environmental disaster. You can’t really sugarcoat the massive amounts of resources spent on dog accessories and what have you, but it’s their food (and the waste that follows it) that is the biggest environmental culprit. Roughly 30% of protein raised in the United States goes towards feeding domestic pets. If you’re at all familiar with the impacts of industrialized animal agriculture, then you know that these aren’t small environmental impacts we’re talking about. Yet even as a vegetarian sustainability professional, it’s very easy for me to mentally distance myself from the environmental and social impacts of Boba’s dry food as I scoop it, twice daily.
Indeed, the pet industry has somehow managed to completely separate dogs from the natural world to which we all belong. While the idea of connecting to nature has been commercialized across dog products, from food to toys, in practice it’s rarely more than marketing. Catchy advertisements with terms like wild, all-natural, and evolutionary, are slapped onto bags of dog food with images of wild animals, yet the food bears no visible resemblance to anything an actual wild animal might eat. And in most cases, it was manufactured with limited to no concern for any wild animals impacted throughout the production process.
In reality, domestic dogs are not “wild” animals. They have been co-evolving with us for thousands of years, along with their diets and behaviors. This is not to say that they are not as much of a part of the natural world as their more wild relatives. On the contrary – dogs are a great reminder that we as humans are also a part of the natural world.
With that in mind, I don’t think meat is the problem here. I think it’s the means by which we produce it that is problematic.
Why Considering Quality and Your Dog’s Needs Can Help You Live Sustainably
Our industrialized society is constantly pushing to be faster and more productive, compromising quality (and our ecosystems) in the process. This also persists at the individual level, where feelings of inadequacy persist if we’re not “productive enough.” So consider this a formal invitation to slow down with me and to connect with your dog in a meaningful way. If the pandemic has taught us anything, I hope it’s that we are all allowed to slow down. More than that, slowing down is necessary for our own health and the planet’s. I think it’s also something that dogs have been trying to teach us all along.
When you see ads on social media for pet gear, what are you considering before you tap "buy now"? Is it something your dog needs? Is it something you want because you saw someone else with it? Is it because it's cute and caught your eye? Are you hoping watching your dog with it will bring you some joy? I'm not here to tell you what to do but rather to invite you to pause and notice. What would happen if we took the time to genuinely consider our dog’s needs, and actually listen to them when they try to communicate those needs? Would they prioritize a bit of time outside with you more than a shiny new collar? When it is time to make purchases for our dogs, it’s much easier to mindfully select products that serve their needs if we’re actually familiar with them. Let’s take the time to observe the subtleties of their body language, and wonder at the way they engage with our natural world.
While living more sustainably with dogs might seem like uncharted territory – especially given the lack of conversation around it – I will leave you with one simple message: slow down. Take the time to connect with your dog, understand their needs and preferences, and actually research purchases before making them. We will explore what it might mean to make "better" purchases in the future, but for now, my invitation for you is to take time to really connect with your dog. Talk to you soon!
