8 Ways to Green Your Pet
by Earth 911 on July 5th, 2007
The following post was developed in partnership with Earth 911’s sister site, PETS911. To learn more about ensuring a better life for your pet, visit Pets911.com.
Can man’s best friend also be a friend to the environment? According to the United States Humane Society, 73 million dogs and 90 million cats currently inhabit U.S. homes, meaning household pets are an important consumer of valuable resources in many families. Here are eight tips on making your pet owning experience a “green” one.
1. Adopt Your Pet From a Local Shelter
PETS911 maintains a list of over 20,000 adoptable pets from 8,000 animal shelters. All these animals need things like food, water and vaccinations to survive. They are not disposable, just in need of a loving home. Before you consider buying from a pet store or breeder, see if your dream pet is just a shelter phone call away.
2. Help Control the Pet Population
Bob Barker’s famous television line says it best, and spaying/neutering your pets can also have environmental impacts. According to Animal World Network, seven puppies and kittens are born for every human, which means animal overpopulation is a more serious issue than human overpopulation. A neutered/spayed cat will also be less likely to suffer from ovarian or testicular cancer, which means less resources spent on treatment.
3. Find a Local Vet
Every time you drive your pet for a routine check-up, you’re emitting carbon dioxide into the air. A five minute drive creates far less damage than a 45 minute commute to the vet you started seeing when you lived five towns away. When you move over 10 miles, consider finding a veterinarian in your new community. PETS911 has a database of more than 6,000 vets organized by zip code for your reference.
4. Investigate Healthy Food Alternatives
If your family is good enough for the latest trends of a healthy diet, why not your pet? While organic pet food may cost a little more money, it is made with renewable resources and no pesticides or environmentally unfriendly fertilizers. Any extra expenses on food could easily be offset by less medical expenses for your pet from a healthier diet.
5. Recycle Food Containers
As the #1 recycling resource on the internet, it’s only natural that Earth 911 would encourage pet owners to practice good recycling. Whether it comes in cans, bottles or bags, chances are your pet’s food containers can be recycled. Recycle pet food containers using Earth 911.
6. Make Poop Disposal Environmentally Friendly
All animals go to the bathroom, and disposing of animal waste is no fun no matter what kind of pet you own. Biodegradable bags are sold at most pet stores, and provide an alternative to using plastic bags that are nearly impossible to decompose. Flushing any remains down the toilet is a smart option as well because most traditional landfills don’t lend themselves to composting.
7. Buy Your Pet Sustainable Toys
These can range from eco-friendly beds to hemp collars to stuffed toys made from recycled soda bottles. Your pet may not realize that its playtime is saving the environment, but that won’t stop it from having fun with its toys.
8. Keep Your Pet Identified
Everything involved in searching for a lost pet takes up environmental resources. Whether it’s printing up paper flyers to post information or driving around the neighborhood yelling your pet’s name, losing a pet is an environmentally unfriendly process. While tagging your pet can’t prevent it from getting lost, it will surely help with the retrieval. PETS911 has a Lost Pet section for posting both lost and found pets.
This story is part of Earth 911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas. Click here to see Earth 911’s “Green Eight” archive.
9:33 pm on July 7th, 2007
Good ideas, but I’d simply add to number 4 that it is incredibly important to detach ourselves from the environmentally destructive meat industry. Vegetarian food is readily available and does not contribute to the economy of violence against animals and the earth.
Cheers.
7:32 pm on July 11th, 2007
This is great and helpful! It would benefit everyone if links to these items were attached as well. Just a suggestion, but I am grateful to find such helpful ways to help out. Thank you! Love.
11:44 pm on July 12th, 2007
These are great ideas to help the environment! However in response to a previous comment regarding animal diets- cats are carnivores and dogs are omnivores, they require meat in their diets. It is not necessary (and often detrimental to the animal’s health) to feed a vegetarian diet. Look for alternatives and you will find foods that don’t contribute to the meat industry!
1:53 pm on January 23rd, 2008
Just because I never eat meat doesn’t mean my animals shouldn’t.
I am with eng104 - Dogs and Cats have very different systems than humans. Just look at our teeth and theirs - they are designed to eat meat. Finding pet foods that aren’t full of junk fillers and finding foods that actually list what type of meat are in their food is even tougher, but not impossible. Just read the labels.
“Meat byproducts” does not sound healthy to me. If the company selling it to me cannot identify it I am reluctant to feed it to my dogs.
I realize that my buying meat products for my animals could be seen as in conflict with my personal beliefs on eating meat - but then again I can survive just fine (actually better) without meat. They cannot.
Life feeds on life. I just have the choice of feeding on plants.
8:07 am on May 18th, 2008
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