Bernie presses his wet nose against the front window of our house and meows. His mom, our neighbor, is at work. Bernie visits our house, oh maybe, two times a day to meow, get pet, and indulge in a small dish of milk that Annabelle and I offer him. Bernie’s presence and gentle nature (he doesn’t mind when Annabelle tugs at his fur when she pets him) have made him a favorite around our house. A budding friendship began and now continues from afar since Bernie now lives on several acres of land at his mom’s sister’s house in North Carolina.
With the recent media buzz surrounding contaminated pet food and with raising awareness about our pets’ exposure to dangerous chemicals in the home environment, this week on Green Mamma we feature your pet as the green friend of the week.
A wonderful new organization who is working on behalf of your pet is Eddie and the Pets for the Environment, an extension of the non-profit research and advocacy group better known as the Environmental Working Group. Together Eddie and the Pets for the Environment and the Environmental Working Group conducted research about the chemical body burden of pets and found that our pets carry a higher level of dangerous chemicals like phthlates, fire retardant chemicals, and stain and grease resistant chemicals than 80 to 100 % of humans.
I think about the average day for our feline friend Bernie (before he journeyed to his aunt’s house for new adventures). In the morning, Bernie stops by for a snack of diluted milk, lets us pet him, and then dashes off into our yard, through our grass, and makes his way around to patrol the neighborhood. When his mom/owner returns home from work, Bernie likely plays with plastic cat toys, eats a daily dish of cat food, and uses his cat litter. The day to day events for Bernie involved walking through grass treated with pesticides (our neighborhood association hires landscapers who use pesticides to treat the grass–unless otherwise advised as will happen in our yard this month), playing with plastic toys that are potentially full of chemicals (phthaltes), eating cat food that may be made from questionable ingredients (according to MSNBC Pet’s Section: “The FDA said that it had not found rat poison in the tainted pet food, but melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastic cutlery, and also used in fertilizer in Asia.”), and pawing around in cat litter that if clay based is not only hard on the environment (is mined and often ends up in landfills) but contains silica which can cause lesions on the lungs and throat (click here to read Marina Michaels’ “Alternatives to Clumping Clay Kitty Litters”).
Man’s best friends need some love and advocacy from their human friends. Fortunately, there are a number of ways human moms and dads (or owners if you must) can look out for and take action on behalf of their pets. Eddie and the Pets for the Environment shares a long list of ways that pet owners can help reduce their animal friends’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and potential disease; some notable changes include:
1) Go organic and choose petfood that is free of BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin. Click here to read MSNBC’s “Tips for Buying Safe Petfood.”
2) Take your shoes off at the door. Shoes off is practically a mantra in Green Mamma’s house. Learn more about the health advantages of leaving your shoes at the door, click here and here.
And to read the full list of Eddie and the Pets for the Environment’s healthy pet tips click here.
Greening your pet’s lifestyle and home is easy. Visit the following sites to find out how:
1. Organic Pet Foods:
- U.S.A. Today’s “Organic Pet Foods Get Paws Up”
- Newman’s Own Organics Premium Pet Food
- Karma Dog Food
- Lifes Abundance Pet Food
- OrganicAuthority.com’s “The Top Five Benefits of Natural Organic Pet Food for Your Dog”
2. Environmentally Friendly and Healthy Cat Litters:
- “Alternatives to Clumping Clay Cat Litters”
- Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter
- World’s Best Cat Litter
- Nature’s Logic Ponderosa Pine Cat Litter
3. Chemical Free and Organic Pet Toys:
- Fetch Dog Earth Friendly Toys
- Simply Fido Organic Pet Toy Collection
- Purrfect Play! Organic, dye-free, and fair trade pet toys
- Tiny Birds Organics’ Pet Beds and Cotton Dog Toys
Creating a healthy and environmental home and lifestyle for your family’s favorite pet is an invaluable way to show your animal that you love and care for him or her. To learn more about protecting your pet’s health and the environment too, read Planet Green’s “Detox Your Home: Maintain a Poison-Free Home for Your Pets” by Jasmin Malik Chua.
As always, I’d love to hear from other pet owners and animal lovers about ways to protect and enhance our furry friends’ lives. Please comment or e-mail me at greenmamma@greenmamma.org
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May 13th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
One of my students had a horse that died after eating tainted food. This is a very scary situation, and since we think of our pets as members of our families, we should treat them that way. Many of us spoil our pets like they are our children already, anyway. One thing I want to point out is that I have always believed that table scraps can be a healthy part of an animal’s diet, especially my dog, Duke, and my parents’ dog, Eddie. They have always eaten people food, and they have never had any health problems (except maybe being a little overweight, like their owners). Think about it, if we buy unprocessed, organic, local foods for ourselves, then feeding our dogs cooked meats or fish can be a healthy part of their diets.