Green Your Pets!
We’ve all heard about reducing our carbon footprint — but what about our pets’ pawprint? When your pet is living green, not only are you ensuring Earth is healthy, but your pet is healthy as well.
Here are some tips that anyone can do:
1. Buy a “Recycled” Pet — Adopt From a Shelter
Why pay hundreds of dollars for an overbred animal when you can adopt one of the 70,000 puppies and kittens born and abandoned every day in the United States?
Don’t forget one of the best things you can do (and one of the most humane) is to purchase a “recycled pet.” Please consider going to a local shelter or rescue to choose your next animal companion.
2. Put Number Two in Its Place
Everyone does it and so do our pets. When walking your dog, please pick up with a biodegradable poop bag so your dog’s waste doesn’t live in a landfill taking up to 100 years to decompose.
You can buy biodegradable bags at your local pet store or online.
And cat owners should steer clear of clumping clay litters. The clay is strip-mined, which is harmful to the environment and the clay sediment contains carcinogenic silica dust that your cat can ingest.
3. Feed Them Natural or Organic Pet Foods and Treats
Most conventional pet foods are made with animal by-products and fillers and processed heavily. Now, if the meat used in these products is deemed unsuitable for humans, why are we feeding it to our most beloved companions?
Natural and organic pet foods are minimally processed and contain meats that are raised sustainably. Certified-organic pet foods must meet strict USDA standards that ensure no pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, artificial preservatives or artificial ingredients go into your pet’s bowl — or belly
4. Protect Native Wildlife — Keep Your Pet Indoors
Cats are hunters. After habitat destruction, the biggest threats to birds are domesticated cats.
Most vets recommend keeping cats indoors because of risks such as cars and disease. It’s a win-win situation — kitty stays safe and so do the rabbits, birds, chipmunks…well, you get the picture.
Keeping dogs on leashes when outside also helps protect local wildlife.
So go ahead, increase the life span of your pet: keep him or her inside.
5. Purchase Eco-Friendly Gifts
Give your furry friends products made from recycled materials or sustainable fibers (such as hemp) and with nontoxic ingredients.
A hemp collar and matching leash is not only hypoallergenic, but the fabric gets softer with wear and tear. And, so that your pet sleeps more soundly, purchase pet beds made from organic cottons and recycled PET bottles.
6. Be a Pet Chef -If you want to know exactly what is going into your furball’s food dish, or your pet suffers from allergies, you can always make your own puppy (or kitty) chow. If the idea of becoming a fulltime pet chef is just crazy talk, making the occasional meal or treat is completely doable. Those broccoli stalks left over from your last stirfry also make some tasty morsels for your pup.
