In February 2010, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an episode of their environmental series, ‘Costing the Earth’, called Greening Fido. The programme focused on the environmental cost of pet ownership.

Normally, I would leap for the radio’s off-switch at these types of programmes - I have a very low tolerance for the self-righteousness that is behind many of these shows - but I was intrigued to hear this latest attack on our favourite species.

Firstly, the facts were baldly stated: the dog has been man’s best friend for over 10,000 years.

Currently there are over 18 million dogs in homes in the U.K. - and according to this programme, this was too many.

Cat ownership was also criticised - the moggie's predatory instincts making it the ‘Genghis Khan of the animal kingdom’.

Various scientists were interviewed and expressed concern that owning dogs was a thoroughly bad thing for the planet - with no mention being made of human over-population, nuclear proliferation, or the vast military stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

No, they thought that mankind should worry about the damaging effects of walking our dogs in the countryside, the massive carbon cost of supplying our dogs with food - especially meat - and the, apparently, massive amount of faeces they produce.

They all agreed that the days of keeping dogs as pets were numbered.

We learned that keeping a large dog was as bad as driving a ‘gas-guzzling’ 4x4.

Oh dear, for me this is a double whammy!

One ‘barking’ boffin - not Korean, I think - even suggested that instead of keeping dogs we should eat them. Though, this went very much against the pro-vegan tenor of the rest of the programme.

Our dogs’ meat-eating diet was criticised - though a pet food manufacturing spokesman said that the ingredients used in dog food were mostly not fit for human consumption anyway. So in one sense it could be seen as a very efficient use of resources.

The programme’s presenter, Dr Alice Roberts owns two small terriers and put one of them on a vegetarian diet by way of an experiment. Is there not a canine version of Childline?

Well, all this proved nothing. The dog ate the vegetarian meals - obviously quickly working out that this was better than starving - and so we learned that dogs were omnivores. Surprise! Surprise!

One suspected, and hoped, that this would not be a permanent regime change for the little fellow.

This programme seemed to be jumping on the bandwagon of similar anti-dog outbursts heard of late. Indeed, the BBC seems to enthusiastically back this crusade with their wholesale ban on Crufts television coverage and the ‘Pedigree Dogs: Exposed’ broadcast.

I suspect that in the coming years we can expect more programmes in a similar vein. Indeed, a sequel to ‘Pedigree Dogs: Exposed’ is already planned.

An entire industry seems to be built on these Doomsday theories.

The joys and benefits of dog ownership are rarely emphasised - such as their calming influence on us - much needed when listening to programmes such as this.

Text by Tony Roberts; drawings by Sheila Williams ©2010.

(Ed. note: By way of balance, I just want to add that I have got absolutely nothing against vegetarians or vegans. Some of my very best friends are vegetarians - no, they are not the pasty-faced, miserable ones).