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First, a few pet related facts:
That's right 16 million dogs and cats!
I know what you are thinking... and the average dog is reckoned to produce half a tonne of the stuff in its 10-year life.
But it is not what comes out of our dogs and cats but what goes into them which presents the biggest environmental dilemma of pet ownership.
What I am talking about is our pets' environmental "pawprint".
A big dog like a Labrador or Alsatian consumes around 1,000 calories a day - half that of an adult woman.
And, because dogs (and cats) are primarily carnivorous, they get those calories from the most carbon intensive of foods - meat.
The authors claim that keeping a medium-sized dog has the same ecological impact as driving a 4.6 litre Land Cruiser 10,000km a year.
Instead of measuring emissions of CO2, or CO2 equivalent, they calculate the literal footprint or "global hectare" (gha) - the amount of land it takes to support a given activity.
So they work out that constructing and driving the Land Cruiser for a year takes 0.41 gha.
Growing and manufacturing the 164kg of meat and 95kg of cereals a border collie or cocker spaniel eats every year takes about 0.84 gha.
A bigger dog such as a German shepherd consumes even more - its pawprint is more like 1.1 gha.
By their reckoning, that is more than the environmental footprint of the average Indian person, who uses just 0.8 gha of resources.
If you are a multiple dog owner you are in even more trouble. Two big dogs have a bigger carbon footprint than some British citizens.
According to the book the average resident of Cardiff requires just 1.89 gha.
The average American, by contrast, requires a whopping 9.5 gha.
You will be glad to hear that other pets are not so damaging.
A cat needs 0.15 gha, a hamster 0.014 gha, and a canary 0.007 gha.
The most carbon efficient pet is a goldfish. Its tiny "finprint" requires just 0.00034 gha.
So how can we get the companionship and pleasure of pet ownership without it weighing too heavily on our carbon consciences?
The authors have an answer to that - we need to start eating our pets!
They suggest that instead of dogs and cats we should keep chickens and rabbits which will keep us company and make a tasty dinner too.
- The most popular pets are, overwhelmingly, cats and dogs
- According to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association dogs sneak into the number one spot - six million UK households (23% of the total) own a dog
- Cats are pretty close behind though, 5.2 million UK households have at least one cat (20%)
- In terms of actual numbers our affections are evenly split - we own eight million of each
That's right 16 million dogs and cats!
I know what you are thinking... and the average dog is reckoned to produce half a tonne of the stuff in its 10-year life.
But it is not what comes out of our dogs and cats but what goes into them which presents the biggest environmental dilemma of pet ownership.
What I am talking about is our pets' environmental "pawprint".
A big dog like a Labrador or Alsatian consumes around 1,000 calories a day - half that of an adult woman.
And, because dogs (and cats) are primarily carnivorous, they get those calories from the most carbon intensive of foods - meat.
The authors claim that keeping a medium-sized dog has the same ecological impact as driving a 4.6 litre Land Cruiser 10,000km a year.
Instead of measuring emissions of CO2, or CO2 equivalent, they calculate the literal footprint or "global hectare" (gha) - the amount of land it takes to support a given activity.
So they work out that constructing and driving the Land Cruiser for a year takes 0.41 gha.
Growing and manufacturing the 164kg of meat and 95kg of cereals a border collie or cocker spaniel eats every year takes about 0.84 gha.
A bigger dog such as a German shepherd consumes even more - its pawprint is more like 1.1 gha.
By their reckoning, that is more than the environmental footprint of the average Indian person, who uses just 0.8 gha of resources.
If you are a multiple dog owner you are in even more trouble. Two big dogs have a bigger carbon footprint than some British citizens.
According to the book the average resident of Cardiff requires just 1.89 gha.
The average American, by contrast, requires a whopping 9.5 gha.
You will be glad to hear that other pets are not so damaging.
A cat needs 0.15 gha, a hamster 0.014 gha, and a canary 0.007 gha.
The most carbon efficient pet is a goldfish. Its tiny "finprint" requires just 0.00034 gha.
So how can we get the companionship and pleasure of pet ownership without it weighing too heavily on our carbon consciences?
The authors have an answer to that - we need to start eating our pets!
They suggest that instead of dogs and cats we should keep chickens and rabbits which will keep us company and make a tasty dinner too.
China? Communist country, and what do the nips eat? Dogs and cats! 
These people are sadly mistaken about the point of pets...
<---This guy!
I'm no one's pet just yet, so far as I know. 
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