Ban Dogs – not Planes

Introduction

Britain loves its pets. In 2024, there were an estimated 12 million dogs and 11 million cats in the UK. Whilst surveys were sent to all properties suspected of harbouring animals, the precise number of canines and felines is unknown. The dogs frequently reported that they were too busy chewing bones and sniffing other dogs wee stained lampposts to complete the forms, and the cats said they just couldn’t be arsed to stay awake long enough.

Whilst these creatures supposedly bring joy and companionship to their owners, clearly everyone can see this is a poor second to the throaty roar of a powerful piston engine or the thunderous exhaust of a jet engine at take-off thrust – that’s proper companionship!

“Ah, but we have to consider the environment,” I hear the Labrador loving and cat cuddling flight phobic protest. Yes, let’s consider it.

Pet Food: A Hungry Industry

To keep our pets fed, the UK consumes around 2 million tonnes of pet food annually. This includes approximately 1.3 million tonnes of dog food and 0.7 million tonnes of cat food. The environmental impact of this volume is staggering:

1. Pet food manufacturing requires meat rendering, industrial processing, drying, and packaging, not to mentions agricultural emissions. This results in over 2.5 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of finished food, depending on the meat content and energy source used.
2. Total manufacturing CO₂ emissions: 2 million tonnes × 2.5 tonnes CO₂ is 5 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, or in other words, ‘LOTS’.

Then we have to get the food to the pet owner.

Transport Emissions

Approximately 86,000 lorry journeys are required annually to distribute pet food around the UK.

Assuming an average of 150 km per journey, and 1.02 kg of CO₂ per km (typical for a 44-tonne HGV), that adds ≈ 13,200 tonnes of CO₂ annually from distribution alone

Packaging and Waste

Pet food packaging (plastic pouches, tins, and cardboard) adds further emissions and waste. This doesn’t include the so called biodegradable plastic used for picking up the dog’s ‘doings’.

CO₂ from packaging production and disposal: 250,000–300,000 tonnes annually.

Water and Land Use

Meat-heavy pet food is water, and land, intensive. One tonne of dry dog food can use 4,000–5,000 litres of water in production.

For 2 million tonnes, that’s 10 billion litres annually.

Total Environmental Impact of Feeding UK Pets (2024)

Manufacturing: 5 million tonnes CO2 per annum

Distribution: 13,200 tonnes per annum

Packaging/waste 275,000 tonnes

Total (approx.) 5.3 million tonnes

We can probably add on another decent chunk of CO₂ for plastic toys, food bowls, trips to the vet, and all the plastic the vet uses, etc, so let’s round this up to 6 million tonnes.

How Does That Compare to Flights?

In 2023, all flights to/from UK airports generated about 31 million tonnes of CO₂ (DfT).

So, feeding pets accounts for nearly 20% of the UK’s total aviation emissions — without them ever leaving the ground. Well, ok a dog jumps for a stick, and cats can sometimes do weird gravity defying tricks.

Or to frame it another way:

Feeding dogs and cats in the UK each year produces nearly the same CO₂ as flying London to New York 6 million times. I might have made that number up, but it’s BIG anyway.

Not Just CO₂: Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and More

The meat industry, which underpins most pet food, emits:

1. Methane from livestock (25 times worse than CO₂)
2. Nitrous oxide from fertiliser use (298 times worse than CO₂)

Thus, the true warming footprint of pet food is likely higher than CO₂ estimates alone suggest.

FYI – planes don’t produce nitrous oxide (N₂O), they produce NO and NO₂

Loss of Economic Activity

These millions of dogs and cats are causing a severe loss of economic activity. All over the UK pet owners are saying, “I can’t go away, who would look after Rover?”, or, “I must be back by early afternoon, Tiddles gets stressed if I leave her alone for too long.”

These pet owners should be out there, working, contributing to our economic wealth, raising GDP, or at the very minimum, buying a flight to somewhere!

Conclusion:

Owning a pet is not carbon neutral. Whilst there is a case for a dog or a cat on a farm, why do the owners of no.1 Acacia Avenue need a dog, and how would Tiddles – a supposedly bred ‘indoor cat’ – (What the hell is that?) really survive a fall from the eighteenth floor of a tower block?

Pet food production rivals entire sectors in environmental impact. should we have fewer pets and more runways? Discuss.

In any case, if dogs were banned, there would be one other huge and unexpected benefit. Women on dating sites would no longer be able to post a picture of themselves snogging their pooch! Phew!