In his monthly column for the Hereford Times educationalist Jonathan Godfrey talks about the problems cats and dogs can cause.

He said: "A survey in 2019 by the PDSA showed 50 per cent of adults in the UK own a pet.

10.9 million people owned a cat, up from six million in 1981.

Many people have bought pets on impulse during lockdown some of which are now being abandoned as people go back to work.

Cats and dogs bring huge pleasure to their owners and the companionship they provide, particularly to those living on their own, significantly improves health and well-being but there are problems associated with ‘man’s best friends’.

The recent incident in which a seal was savaged by a dog on the banks of the Thames was a distressing but not isolated example of an attack on another animal.

Not long before a dog had been filmed injuring a deer in Richmond Park and this is not unusual. Animal rescue centres have reported an increase in cases of wild mammals sustaining injuries from dog bites.

In 1998 The Mammal Society estimated that 63 million small mammals, frogs and snakes and 27 million birds were killed every year by cats in the UK.

Dogs are not just responsible for the deaths of wild animals but attack livestock on farms resulting in horrific, often fatal injuries and causing sheep to miscarry their lambs.

Research by NFU mutual in 2020 showed the cost of these attacks rose by over 10% across the UK to an estimated £1.3m.

64% of dog owners said they let their pets roam free in the countryside with half of owners admitting their dog do not always come back when called.

Unfortunately, dogs do not only attack other animals. More than 3,000 people needed reconstructive surgery and stitches last year after dog bites or attacks - including over 400 under-fives and 11 in their 90s.

Overall there were 8,525 hospital admissions following an attack by or an accident with a dog last year - a record number and nearly double the 4,611 treated 11 years previously.

It has been estimated that dogs produce more than 1,000 tons of faeces every day in the UK. Environmental and human health risks such as toxocariasis are associated with dog waste and there is also a link between the spread of diseases in livestock.

Dog excrement can have a significant economic impact in terms of deterring investment and tourism to an area.

Although it has become more common for dog owners to clean up after their dogs this has resulted in designated bins overflowing at the entrance to parks and, in the countryside, trees becoming festooned with bags of dog muck left by ‘responsible’ owners.

The wider environmental impact of cats and dogs cannot be ignored.

Dog faeces contain large amounts of nitrates and phosphates which can enter drains and rivers and then coastal seas, resulting in depletion of dissolved oxygen causing the death of fish and many other aerobic aquatic organisms.

The biggest environmental impact, however, comes from producing meat-based pet food causing greenhouse gas emissions which have been estimated in the USA to be 64 million tons of carbon dioxide and methane a year, the equivalent of the climate impact that 13.6 million cars make annually.

A 2019 study reported that the carbon emissions just for food of the average dog in the Netherlands were nearly double the annual electricity carbon emissions for the average UK household.

The unrecyclable packaging used for pet food results in billions of containers being manufactured each year.

In addition, over a billion plastic bags are produced for picking up tons of dog excrement while most cat-litter is made from bentonite clay, an unrecyclable mineral mined using open-cast strip mining.

Many activities causing societal and environmental damage are limited and regulated.

Now is the time to review our relationship with cats and dogs.