As noted by our friend over at Shifting Baselines, apparently Aussie cats are consuming more seafood than their humans.
Excuse me?
That's correct. The country's cats consume on average 13.7 kg of fish and seafood, which is 2.7 kg more than the average human Aussie. And the worst part? They are eating cat food made of wild forage fish -- think sardines, herrings and anchovies -- which are important in the diet of larger fish like tuna and swordfish.
I'm a dog person myself, though I can (somewhat) sympathize with cat lovers. But when popping a can of cat food means contributing to overfishing... come on guys.
[Image via flickr.com]
cat food
Of course, we're supposed to not mention just how much dogs consume (and a good portion of that is seafood in one form or another, I'll wager). And I'd like to see a source or two listed for these claims.
Why not have a link or two to the corporate headquarters of a couple of the cat food producers? And maybe providing some links for "alternative" cat food, some ideas, etc. .....another set of links might be for the alternatives to the mined sources of cat litter..............
alternatives
Great ideas, thanks for bringing those up.
I haven't come across any numbers about the amount of seafood consumption in dog food, although I bet with some digging we could find something...
In terms of alternatives, I found a lot of "eco pet" sites, but the definition of that label appears to vary. Most of what I see is about improving the health of the kitty, not the oceans. (Example: see http://sprig.com/green_and_healthy_cat_food_kitty_litter_beds_toys_clean...)
I also found one promising source of eco-friendly cat litter at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/03/pets_ecofriendl_1.php.
Anyone else have ideas?
Emily Fisher is Oceana's online editor.
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