I wonder how many people notice the irony in this report headlined “The Keys to Sustainable Pet Ownership.” The irony, to me, is glaring.
Understand: I’m not here poking fun at those who take seriously the idea that they should consciously change the ways they maintain their pets in order to try to make those ways more environmentally “sustainable” (although I do regard such efforts – and the attitudes that energize them – as deserving to be made fun of). Instead, I merely point to the irony of a people fretting about “sustainability” while living in a civilization so abundant in material prosperity that, not only can they keep pets at a standard of living that is arguably higher than many of our pre-industrial ancestors enjoyed, but they can also wallow in the frivolous worry that the manner in which they keep their pets might help to one day doom everyone and everything on the planet to filth and deprivation.
