Animals

Is Your Pet Green?

by Stephanie Feldstein

category: Animals and the Environment

Published November 23, 2009 @ 01:42AM PT

• 3140 Views

The American Pet Products Association recently listed "reducing your pets' carbon paw print" as one of the top trends from 2009. You may have noticed everything from natural kitty litter to hemp collars to organic cotton toys. Choosing green products may help the environment, but does it make any difference to your pet?

Let's start by getting the stating-the-obvious out of the way: the health of the environment affects every living thing on this planet.

There are more specific ways that an eco-friendly lifestyle benefits your pet. Take kitty litter, for instance. Traditional clay litters are the product of environmentally-evil strip mining. Clay litters also produce a lot of dust that can be toxic to you and your pets when it's inevitably inhaled. You don't get this 'problem when you use a pine, corn, or recycled newspaper litter. Organic standards may not be as airtight as they should be, but choosing organic food and treats when possible can reduce your pet's exposure to pesticides. The organic options tend to be higher-quality, too, so it's an all-around healthier choice for your pet.

Being closer to the ground, grooming themselves, and eating things they shouldn't (and sometimes as a result of chewing things they should) leaves our pets with a higher level of exposure to toxic chemicals around the house than we get as humans. Bio-monitoring of cats has shown levels of flame retardants 23 times higher in cats than their human companions.

There hasn't been much testing done in this area yet and we don't really know what it means. Some animal organizations and far too many veterinarians are downplaying these results -- saying that just because chemicals are present doesn't mean there's exposure, or that the more immediate threats from toys are choking or intestinal blockage. Maybe that's true. But when many of these chemicals are known carcinogens -- or worse, nothing is known about them because testing isn't required for chemicals to hit the market -- why take the risk?

Depending on who you ask, 25-50% or more of our pets will get cancer. In the past two years, I've battled cancer with four different animals in my house. Personally, I'm not going to wait around for the AVMA to get on board with the concept that toxic chemicals are bad for pets.

For lots of great tips and ideas on how to reduce your pets' carbon pawprint, check out the Raise a Green Dog website.

Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography