Green Pets: A Quick Overview

(Naturalpath Editor’s Note: Today, we're pleased to launch a content partnership with Green Options - a resource for "greening the good life." Each Tuesay, we'll feature a post from Green Options' blog and they'll return the favor to us.)

A frequently overlooked area when it comes to greening your life is greening your pet's life. This can be a tricky subject, since what works best to keep your pet healthy and happy may not always be an ecofriendly decision. Luckily, there's easy ways to make sure that Fido leaves a lighter pawprint.

Where you get your pet can have the biggest overall impact. Rescuing a pet from a shelter or the Humane Society gives an already existing pet a good home and the possibility of a happy life. Why pay a breeder to create another animal? Accordingly, heed Bob Barker's sage wisdom: remember to help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered.

Just like human food choices, your pet's diet has an impact on our environment. However, pet owners know that diet is crucial to your pet's health, and can be very particular to a pet. Always check with your vet when changing pet foods. That being said, there are organic, humane, and sustainably-produced pet foods on a market--in fact, it's a fast-growing niche. Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's have their own lines of pet foods, and there are plenty of other sources online.

All that food has to go somewhere, as pet owners know. Pick up your dog's poop with biodegradable doggy bags. Better yet, compost it. Yeah, yeah, I know you aren't supposed to compost pet waste. However, that rule generally goes for compost that is going to be used on edible plants, like a veggie garden--using that compost on landscaping or flowerbeds is fine. If the thought of adding poo to your pile still makes you cringe, create a whole separate compost just for pet waste. Bury a metal garbage can for a securely-contained poo pile. For your feline friends, avoid clay-based litters--the clay is strip-mined, and the dust from the clay can irritate your cat's lungs. A much more sustainable choice is Swheat Scoop, a wheat-based scoopable litter. Should your precious pal leave a not-so precious present for you on the carpet, there are plenty of eco-friendly pet-odor eliminators, from such companies as Mrs. Meyer's.

Finally, choose greener pet items when shopping for your pet. Scratching posts, toys, and leashes all come in more sustainable varieties. GreenPeople.org is a good resource for finding various vendors.

Authored by Kelli Best-Oliver from Green Options. Green Options focuses on providing knowledge and resources needed in greening up your life.

Comments

May 23, 2007 - 1:42pm — Tom

The market is ready for this

I have a friend who runs Earthbath - a biodegradable natural pet shampoo company - this market is pretty large and growing.

May 22, 2007 - 1:16pm — Rachel

great idea

I love the lack of pet waste around the streets and parks, and yet, wrapping up each bit in Plastic, to prevent it from decomposing naturally, bothers me too. So I like the idea of biodegradable bags, but again, who wants to go out and buy bags to throw pet waste away in, when supermarkets are more than happy to quadruple wrap every single product we buy. This is a larger issue than just puppy poo. I recently heard about a new pet toilet in a pet park that is to be placed in a new residential high-rise building...now, not only are we using unnecessary amounts of plastic to house our pets waste, we are flushing perfectly good water down the drain with it. What will the archaeologists say about us in hundreds of years when they find tons and tons of preserved animal waste?

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