Well, dogs theoretically don't need meat, so if we can feed them impossible burgers, they'd be fine. Cats don't have a choice, but I'm feeling like they get a bad rap now. If we feed them meat we produce, we're destroying the planet. They're perfectly capable of finding their own food if we let them, but then they're decimating local bird populations and disrupting ecosystems.
For what it's worth, the trends these researchers are talking about in the US with younger people having more pets and treating them better with higher quality foods is because younger people are having fewer children, instead replacing the lost affection and need to care with pets. Surely, replacing a human child with a cat is eco-friendly. Even if the cat eats nothing but meat, it never grows large, never grows old, and never learns to drive or require its own separate house. Carbon footprint has to be lower than more babies.
For what it's worth, the trends these researchers are talking about in the US with younger people having more pets and treating them better with higher quality foods is because younger people are having fewer children, instead replacing the lost affection and need to care with pets. Surely, replacing a human child with a cat is eco-friendly. Even if the cat eats nothing but meat, it never grows large, never grows old, and never learns to drive or require its own separate house. Carbon footprint has to be lower than more babies.