$16.99 USA/$19.99 CAN
Make the pet-planet connection
This book gives you all the information you need to understand sustainability as a pet owner and arms you with the know-how to make the best choices for your pet and the environment. You’ll get a list of the best available options for:
Thoroughly researched and packed with realistic guidelines for putting ideas into practice, Pets and the Planet is a virtual road map for sustainable pet parenthood.
Carol Frischmann is the author of two books and many articles about animals and nature. As a zoo educator, wildlife rehabilitator, and science teacher, she has been lecturing to the public about pets and wildlife for more than twenty years.
Cover Design: Suzanne Sunwoo Cover Photographs: © Jupiter Images
howellbookhouse.com
A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care
Choosing pet food (and decoding labels) Purchasing green pet equipment and toys Disposing of pet waste responsibly Pets and household health And more
Pets and the Planet
You care about your pet. You care about the environment. You want to make informed decisions when it comes to involving your furry or feathered family members in your mission to live more lightly on the planet. But how do you know if you’re providing for your pet in a way that will leave the Earth as resource-rich as it was before you acquired your dog, cat, or bird?
Frischmann
PETS/General
Pets and the Planet A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care
Carol Frischmann
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Pets and the Planet A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care
Carol Frischmann
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This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2009 by Carol Frischmann. All rights reserved. Howell Book House Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, Howell Book House, and related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here from. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S. at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, please visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Frischmann, Carol. Pets and the planet : a practical guide to sustainable pet care / Carol Frischmann. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-0-470-27573-3 ISBN-10: 0-470-27573-1 1. Pets—Environmental aspects. 2. Environmental protection—Citizen participation. I. Title. SF413.F75 2009 636.088'7—dc22 2008046701 Printed in the United States of America 11
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First Edition Book production by Wiley Publishing, Inc. Composition Services The cover of this book is printed on recycled stock containing 10% post-consumer waste. The interior is printed on recycled paper containing 30% post-consumer waste.
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To my sister, Suzanne Frischmann, for her deep compassion for the planet’s creatures To my friend Nancy Boutin, for her sustained support To my mentor, the late Al McNabney, for his evergreen optimism and energy
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Contents
Introduction
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Chapter 1 How Do Pets Affect the Environment? Why Pet Impact Matters 3 What Is Sustainable Pet Care? 5 What Does “Green” Mean? 7 Caution: The Green Claim 11 What Is Your Sustainability Score? 16
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Chapter 2 Choosing the Right Pet for You 21 Why Pet Choice Matters 21 Exotic Pets: A Special Concern 24 The Consequences of Not Thinking through Your Pet Decision 28 The Impact of Releasing Unwanted Pets 31 A Pet Type for Your Environmental Ethic 36 How to Experience Pets without Having One 40 Sources of Pets 42 My Sustainability Plan: Acting on Pet Choices 47 Resources 48
Chapter 3 Choosing Green Pet Food 49 Why Green Pet Food Matters 49 How Feeding Pets Affects Our Environment 51 Thinking about Your Pet’s Diet 55
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Selecting Diets That Deliver 60 Why Are Labels So Confusing? 68 Pet Food and the Planet: Our Future 72 My Sustainability Plan: Choosing Green Pet Food 73 Resources 74
Chapter 4 Green Pet Equipment and Toys 75 What Does My Pet Really Need? The Stuff of Everyday Life 76 Where to Shop 87 Home Modifications for Pets 92 Cars and Pets 96 Public Transportation and Pets 97 Pets and the Public 98 Green Exercise for Your Dog 100 Planet-Friendly Pet Equipment and the Future 101 My Sustainability Plan: Choosing Green Pet Equipment and Toys 102 Resources 102
Chapter 5 Managing Pet Waste Responsibly 103 Facts and Figures 104 The Dangers of Pet Waste 104 Practicing Responsible Pet Waste Management 108 Dealing with Cat Waste 116 Bagging It Up 122 My Sustainability Plan: Responsible Pet Waste Disposal 124 Resources 125
Chapter 6 Pets and Household Health 127 Why Pets Matter to Your Health 128 The Disease–Household Connection 130 Can West Nile or Avian Flu Affect My Pets? 140 Keeping Your Pet-Filled Home Healthy 144 Removing Household Toxins 152 Preventing Flea and Tick Problems 158
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My Sustainabililty Plan: Pets and Household Health 162 Resources 163
Chapter 7 Pets and Ecologically Sensitive Pet Services 165 Why Pets Services Matter 166 Elements of an Eco-Friendly Pet Service Business 168 Using Pet Services for a Better Environment 174 My Sustainability Plan: Ecologically Sensitive Pet Services 188 Resources 189
Chapter 8 Pets and Community Ecology 191 Community Ecology Never Envisioned Pets 192 New Laws Suggest Communities’ Concerns 194 Pet Overpopulation: A $2.8 Billion Problem 195 Pets and Community Ecology: The Future 220 My Sustainability Plan: Acting on Pets and Community Ecology 222 Resources 222
Chapter 9 Twenty-First-Century Issues for Pets and Sustainability 225 Attitudes about Animals Are Changing 226 Vegetarianism: A Choice for Ecology 237 Solving Sustainability Problems 239 Economic Forces as Motivators 240 Home, Polls, and Offsets 242 Take Action! 246 My Sustainability Plan: Twenty-First Century Issues for Pets and Sustainability 248 Resources 248 Nutritional Requirements Resources 257 Bibliography 271 Index
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Acknowledgments
Listing everyone who contributed to the writing of Pets and the Planet without leaving important people out seems impossible, but I must try. Thank you, Kate Epstein, for your support and encouragement before, during, and after the writing. To my editors at Wiley—Pam Mourouzis, who championed this project, and Mike Thomas, who edited with insight—you have my gratitude. The Multnomah County Library, especially librarians at the Hillsdale Branch and those answering the Central Library Reference Line, made finding reference material a pleasure. Many people provided information and perspective on the topics covered in Pets and the Planet. To each of you, thank you. American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), John Tait, DVM, 2009 President; Jason Merrihew, spokesperson American Pet Products Association (APPA), Leah Nelson, Tierra Griffiths, spokespeople American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Robert Baker ASPCA Anti-Cruelty Investigator; Amy Geduldig, spokesperson; Ed Sayres, President and CEO Audubon Society of Portland, Bob Sallinger, Conservation Director; Karen Munday, Urban Wildlife Specialist Axis Performance Advisors, Darcy Hitchcock, President Barkleigh Productions, Sally Liddick, President and Publisher of Groomer to Groomer Castor and Pollux Pet Works, Brian Connelly, owner
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Christine Myers, freelance writer City of Dallas, Robert Van Buren, AIA Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Patricia Leonard, writer, spokesperson Debra J. White, freelance writer Dogfriendly.com, Tara Kain, founder Doody Calls, Alan Pietrovito, owner Environmental Working Group, Dr. Olga Naidenko, Senior Scientist; Jovana Ruzicic Humane Society of the United States, Nancy Peterson, Rachel Querry International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories (IAOPCC), Brenda Drown Gibbons & Ireland, LLP, Laura Ireland Moore, founder, Center for Animal Law Studies Michigan State University College of Law, David Favre, professor, Editor-in-Chief, Animal Legal & Historical Web Center Naseem Rakha, author NaturesEarth.com, Barbara Abernathy, spokesperson Oregon Environmental Council, Andrea Durbin, Executive Director Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), Thomas M. Egan Packaged Facts, Tom Ehart, Director, Communications; David Lummis, Senior Market Analyst Pet-Butler, Matt Boswell, owner Pet Care Services Association, Nicole Singleton, spokesperson Petfinder.com, Kim Saunders, Vice President Shelter Outreach Pet Travel, Inc., Jerry Hatfield, President Sierra Club, Orli Cotel, spokesperson U.S. Green Building Council, Laurie Mitchell, spokesperson Watt Publishing, Debbie Phillips-Donaldson, Editor-in-Chief, PetFoodIndustry.com www.Makower.com, Joel Makower, author
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Introduction I’m a pet person. I’ve loved and lived with companion animals of every kind: dogs, cats, fish, birds, horses, turtles, lizards, domestic rats. So I needed to understand how we can live in harmony with the wider environment because every aspect of living with companion animals has an effect on it: from choice of species, housing, feeding, and care of the animal, to, finally, the burial of our other-species friend.
About the Writing of This Book Years ago, I decided to find the most ecologically friendly way to dispose of my dog’s doodie. By the time I finished, I had researched and purchased all sorts of bags, bought two different kinds of pet waste collection systems (one of which I couldn’t dig deeply enough to install), and made numerous calls to municipal agencies about how waste is treated in my own city. If a person trained as a science educator found the problem of collecting and evaluating information on how to live sustainably with pets maddening, what could the “normal” pet owner do? Voilà, the book idea. As I searched for information, I talked with experts and reviewed publications. As a writer, I understand that people have their points of view, different environmental ethics, and varying agendas. Separating fact from opinion has been difficult, especially since very little study has been done on the link between pets and the environment. So I offer you a book that: (1) describes the problems each aspect of pet ownership presents for the planet, (2) provides credible solutions, and (3) presents the actions a pet owner can take in response. Because each person is different, I suggest a range of ideas so you can choose those that work for your environmental ethic and lifestyle. Armed with information about household disinfection or diet selection, I asked myself, “Would I do this?” Ecologically sensible habits, products, and services have to solve the problem, be affordable, and be available. They also
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have to be practical. While writing this book, I tried as many of the solutions as possible, and I continue to gather information from readers, companion animal lovers, suppliers, and scientists. Some subjects are more completely covered and provide better solutions than others, either because more information is available or because specific actions can be taken, whether purchasing a particular product or voting for the water district manager on election day. Whenever possible, I’ve turned to recognized experts for help—the Centers for Disease Control, the American Association of Feed Control Officials, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and researchers in community dynamics and wastewater treatment. At the end of each chapter, I include a list of resources from which you can find additional information. A bibliography is included for those interested in more detail. Each chapter ends with a “Good, Better, Best” quiz to help you evaluate the eco-effectiveness of your pet-related habits. A list of options to develop greener routines is included. This book is intended to help you find ways to achieve your goals for sustainability. In each chapter, I also suggest activities that might be appropriate in your home or in your community, or ideas that you might want to consider in your personal beliefs. Ask your family and neighbors for help. Of course, any improvement plan is fine. Just pick a method that works for you. Some people like to post a calendar with dates for items to be completed. Others add a note to their electronic task lists. Still others stop what they’re doing and take action at that moment. Remember, it’s all good.
Updating Information A book cannot include ideas from readers and information that arises after publication. To keep you up to date, I’ve created a free newsletter, “Pets and the Planet: A Conversation.” Please join our ongoing conversation about living sustainably with pets and receive periodic updates of information presented as a part of this book. To join, go to www.thiswildlife.com. You’ll see the special banner there.
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Chapter 1
How Do Pets Affect the Environment? It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are. —Wendell Berry
You care about the planet. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have picked up this book. You love pets. Ditto. You might drive a hybrid or bike to work, support alternative energy, and put on a sweater instead of turning up the thermostat. As you look at ways to live a greener life, you wonder how to include your furred, feathered, or finned family members in decisions about living in harmony with the environment. According to the 2007–2008 American Pet Products Association’s National Pet Owners survey, 63 percent of North American households include pets, and most people have or will have pets in their lifetimes. Despite the feeling all pets owners voice—that we are ruled by our pets—we opposablethumbed beings know we are in charge. Our pets, then, influence the environment in many of the same ways our human family does.
Why Pet Impact Matters Of all the possible subjects related to sustainability, why write a book about pets and the planet?
Because There Are So Many Pets An astonishing 71 million U.S. households—almost two-thirds of the population—keep pets, primarily cats and dogs. Per capita, Australians keep as many,
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but are more likely to choose birds and fish. The Japanese prefer reptiles. European Union estimates claim 41 million dogs, 45 million cats, 190 million pet rabbits, and 5 million horses for the member countries. Brazil has the second largest population of dogs, over 30 million according to www.mapsoftheworld.com. Japan, Russia, and South Africa each have 9 million, following China’s estimated 23 million pet dogs.
Number of U.S. Pets by Type Pet Type
Number of Animals
Making It Real
Dog
74.8 million
If you petted one dog each second, you’d finish in 21⁄2 years.
Cat
88.3 million
An average cat weighs 8 pounds. The cats in the U.S. weigh as much as 100 aircraft carriers.
Bird
16.0 million
Equals the number of wild birds in Wisconsin in the summertime.
Fish
151.6 million
If each fish were the size of a penny, the stack of fish would be more than 150 miles high.
Small Mammal
24.3 million
Equals the number of people in Saudi Arabia in 2008 or the number of people in Canada in 1981.
Reptile
13.4 million
If each reptile is one foot long, the reptiles placed end to end would go from Atlanta, Georgia, to Reno, Nevada.
Horse
13.8 million
Or two times the number of teachers in the U.S.
People Love Their Pets as They Do Few Other Aspects of Life Companion animals are popular worldwide, and the number of households with pets continues to grow because of the special animal-human bond. What I’ve learned as a pet writer, which certainly was reinforced by the writing of this book, is how much more attentive we can be to our pets’ needs than to our own. For many years I ordered Harrison’s Organic Food for my birds and chopped organic fruits and vegetables for them, while I purchased conventional products for myself. I commented to friends that if I ate as well as my birds, I’d be healthier. As I’ve visited pet stores and attended pet-related events, I’ve seen others shop for special diets and products for their pets.
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We learn about ourselves and about our world from our concern for our animals. Thinking about pets and their needs is a way to learn more about how our choices affect the planet in terms of food, housing, medical care, and services. For example, once I heard myself make the remark about eating as healthy as my birds, I realized I could make healthier decisions for myself and for my planet. Because most of us expend more resources on our families than is necessary or sometimes wise, including pets as part of this exuberant lifestyle intensifies our impact on the environment. Imagine if there were no Halloween costumes or designer sweaters for our pets. Our budget as well as our environmental impact would be improved.
Growing Populations Bring Us Closer to Our Neighbors and Their Pets Some people love their neighbors and their neighbors’ pets. Others are terrified of both the people and the pets. Many situations fall somewhere in the middle. Because we live in closer proximity to each other than we did in times past, an increasing number of laws and regulations deal with pets and their behavior. One of my neighbors’ daughters brings her dogs to our neighborhood in the back of her pickup truck and allows them to run loose, starting every dog in the neighborhood barking. Another of my neighbors allows her adorable orange cat to roam. Although he is a perfectly nice cat, I don’t enjoy his digging in my garden. My own dog barks when the UPS, post office, and delivery trucks pass. Although my other next-door neighbor says he likes her guarding behavior making his home more secure, I am concerned when I leave home that she doesn’t make a nuisance of herself. Not only is our impact on the planet’s resources dictated by our choices, but community ecology becomes increasingly important in the twenty-first century.
What Is Sustainable Pet Care? Sustainability means striking a balance between our resources and our needs. In the context of pet ownership, it means providing for our pets in a way that leaves the earth as resource-rich after we care for our pets as it was before we acquired them. To attain this level of care, we must understand the elements involved in sustainability and make good choices for our planet. Sustainability is about maintaining our life on earth and the ecosystems required to support it. Principles first articulated by Dr. Karl-Heinrik Robèrt provide a helpful way to think about natural systems on our planet:
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1. We mine and use materials such as coal, oil, and metals faster than they are redeposited into the Earth. 2. Manufacturing processes create products, like cars and plastic bottles, and by-products, like gases and wastewater, faster than natural processes can break them down, if they can be broken down at all. 3. Society extracts resources, like trees or fish, or removes resources, such as agricultural land, through paving or homebuilding, faster than they can be replenished. 4. Meeting human needs, but not all of our wants, is an essential part of sustainability. When we obtain a pet or purchase things for our pet, we could consider how our actions affect the earth’s resources.
How Green Applies to Pets Day to Day Sustainability, as it applies to pets, is about making decisions about when and what to purchase. The first step is to create some criteria that work for your values.
To Purchase or Not to Purchase Becoming sustainable in our pet-keeping means more than deciding which products we purchase—green also means we decide consciously whether a purchase is necessary. If we remember that a main point about the environment is using no more than is necessary, we may be able to meet some of our pet-care needs through either sharing or recycling. (In chapter 4, “Green Pet Equipment and Toys,” we’ll have specific suggestions on how you can get what you need without purchasing.) When you decide to purchase, consider three points: Purchase as little as possible Purchase products without toxins Purchase locally Not only will you save money, but you’ll support local businesses and those that care about what they put into their products.
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Guidance for Purchases Pets provide plenty of day-to-day opportunities to make decisions about what’s important to us. They need food. What goes in must come out. In addition, we need to keep our pets free of pests and diseases. More purchasing decisions. What makes it easier for me is to recall that what we do and acquire affects the air, water, and earth. When making decisions, the questions I ask myself, in the absence of better information, are based on these four elements: Earth: Are the materials used renewable? Air and water: Are the processes used to configure the materials into products safe for our air and water? In other words, would I be okay drinking that water and breathing that air right outside the plant? Fire: Fire means disposal to me because as a kid living in the country, our family burned our trash. (Yes, I know, but it was an earlier time.) Fire is about the disposal of the product itself when my use of it is complete. Can the product be broken down and returned to the earth? The point is to remember what goes into something you use, how the processes of getting the materials and making them into the product affect the environment, and then how disposing of the product affects our ecosystem. But how do we know what goes into products and how the production and manufacturing affects the environment?
What Does “Green” Mean? For pet and other consumer products, green often means nothing substantive. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “green marketing” was used for the first time in 1989 to mean “marketing of products on the strength of their (supposed) environmental friendliness.” The example from the New York Times reads, “Their new approach is called ‘green marketing’ and in their efforts to portray themselves as environmentally concerned, some companies are making claims that do not stand up under close examination.” Green is a descriptive term with no formalized standard that allows manufacturers or companies to stamp products as “green.” In contrast, the word “organic” has a specific meaning. Products labeled “organic” must conform to a set of complicated standards verified by certified examiners who are independent of the manufacturer or grower. More meaningful than “green” is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s 2007 Word of the Year, “locavore.” A locavore is a consumer who eats food that is
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produced locally. Originally applied to eating seasonal food grown locally—for example, not eating Argentinian strawberries in Connecticut over winter holidays—the word is gaining a broader application. Many people use “locavore” to mean a consumer who buys low-environmental-impact products locally.
Other Often Used Words People and product packagers use “green” and other words and phrases to appeal to those of us who want to live more lightly on our planet. These words include: Recyclable Biodegradable Compostable Eco-friendly Energy efficient Minimal packaging Locally grown Nontoxic Earth-friendly Natural Organic No animal testing No genetic modification Fair trade The truth is that many of these words mean nothing in themselves. They can be used at will, even though marketing claims are supposed to be true.
“Green,” “Sustainable,” and Pets The market for products and services that qualify under the headings “ethical” and “environmentally sound” will grow to $2.5 billion by 2012, projections say. Although this figure may seem high, retail sales of natural pet food topped $1 billion in 2007. The massive recall of pet food in 2007, producing concern not only about pet food, but about pet product safety in general, accelerated this trend. “Natural” everything skyrocketed in sales. Organic product sales surged also, buyers perceiving “organic” to be even safer than “natural.” Other desirable
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traits following the recall are 100 percent U.S.-sourced ingredients, ingredients from local growers, and products that are labeled “no cruelty.” In addition to the entry of major pet food manufacturers into the green product arena was the distribution of green products through major retailers, including “big box” stores such as Wal-Mart, major pet chains such as PetSmart, and local pet specialty stores. In addition, many pet owners include Trader Joe’s and natural grocery stores such as Whole Foods in their weekly shopping circuits, since those stores now carry green pet products. According to a report from Packaged Facts, a major marketing information publication, almost 60 percent of the people who shop in pet specialty stores are eco-friendly, along with the 9.1 million “premium” pet households. Since 2000, the market size has grown, and major companies such as Nestlé, Purina, Mars, Del Monte, Hill, Hartz Mountain, and other familiar names as well as new specialty companies have filled store shelves with newer, greener products. An interesting sidebar to this marketing research: cat owners are slightly more eco-friendly than dog owners.
The Broader Green Trend: Socially Conscious Consumers Speak Socially conscious consumers are changing the rules of marketing, concludes BBMG, a branding and marketing agency. Its “BBMG Conscious Consumer Report,” said to be the first study to combine field observations with a national survey on purchasing and social values, states that nine in ten Americans say “conscious consumer” describes them well, and that given products of equal quality and price, they are more likely to buy from companies showing good environmental practices. Consumers showed a desire for companies to meet their personal needs and positively impact society. According to the study: Top on the list is health and safety, where consumers look for “natural, organic and unmodified products . . . avoid[ing] chemicals or pesticides that can harm their health or the planet. They are [also] looking for standards and safeguards to ensure the quality of the products they consume.” Magazines and newspapers, certification seals and labels, and the Internet inform their decisions. Ads and friends and family influence, but are no longer the primary source of, information. In addition, “consumers willingly engage in ‘easy’ behaviors, such as recycling . . . and using energy efficient appliances . . . but do not adopt more ‘demanding’ behaviors . . . like public transportation . . . or . . . carbon offsets.”
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Kids and “Pets and the Planet” Kids are learning about green initiatives in schools. Weekly Reader featured a “Green School” tour in one issue. There kids learned about: Temperature control through reflective windows Solar panels for electricity Rooftop gardens for temperature control and fresh foods Green buildings for saving energy Lots of schools have recycling programs, emphasize reuse of items, and plant gardens. Other schools study ways to divert rooftop water runoff from city sewer systems by constructing bioswales. Still other schools are using wind to power their classrooms. Talk with your kids about the ideas presented in each chapter of this Pets and the Planet adventure you’re starting. No doubt they’ll be interested in how they can play a part in your plans. In fact, getting your kids’ ideas about how to be more planet-wise about your pets may inspire them to take responsibility for family pets. Think about it. Besides, great ideas are rewarded. The Youth Venture-Lorax Challenge offers prizes for kids with great ideas about saving the planet. Although rules don’t require the idea be about pets and the planet, that would be a great topic for an entry. Prizes range up to $1,000, and grand prize winners get a trip to the University of Florida to attend an environmental camp. See www.newleaders initiative.org for details. My web site gives smaller prizes for great ideas from kids: we feature kids and pets in our newsletter, and provide every kid with a certificate signed by my own “Pets and the Planet” pets, Onyx and Gray Bird.
Echoing the findings of the BBMG study, Jefrey Pollock, president of Global Strategy Groups, a leading research firm, summarizes: “Many consumers evaluate the social and environmental impact of their purchases. They tend to prefer to buy from companies that reflect their values and are increasingly likely to buy from companies that demonstrate they are good for people and the planet.”
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Caution: The Green Claim Alarming are the claims on packages of products that do not merit them. A recent study from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing concluded that most environmental claims on packages have no supporting evidence. TerraChoice’s report “The Six Sins of Greenwashing” includes the most frequently seen “Sin of the Hidden Tradeoff,” meaning that claims present a misleading picture of the product, one that a complete analysis would not support. Many claims have no proof easily accessible to the public. Another common problem is that claims are so vague as to be meaningless. “Chemical-free” (nothing on earth is free of chemicals) or “All natural” (natural products are some of the most toxic chemicals on earth) are examples. These terms have no meaning.
Labels with Meaning While there are labels that have no meaning, there are a few relatively dependable labels you can look to.
Energy Star U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy award the Energy Star logo (www.energystar.gov) to products consumers can depend on to realize large gains in energy efficiency while reducing pollution.
Environment Canada’s EcoLogo Program Canada’s EcoLogo label (www.ecologo.org) means a product has met stringent criteria for environmental leadership. Manufacturers can apply to have their product certified as qualifying for this logo. Products that qualify need to be biodegradable, nontoxic, low VOC (volatile organic chemical), recycled or recyclable, or a combination of these characteristics. Administered by the Government of Canada since 1988, this program has certified more than 3,000 products and services, having them examined by a third party who validates the product claims.
Other Meaningful Labels Package labels can be difficult to understand, since product names and claims are not the same as product certifications. Then there are so many different kinds of labels. Here are a few of the more important categories.
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IFOAM Accredited (International Organic Label) The IFOAM (International Federation of Agriculture Movements) Organic Guarantee System assures organic integrity internationally. IFOAM provides a label and a guarantee that products that say they are organic are actually organic. The Organic Guarantee System (OGS) unites the “organic world” through a common system of standards and verification. See chapter 3 for more on IFOAM and visit www.ifoam.org/press/media_contacts/index.html.
Organic Trade Association Member The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is the membership-based business association for the organic industry in North America. OTA’s mission is to promote and protect organic trade to benefit the environment, farmers, the public, and the economy. OTA envisions organic products becoming a significant part of everyday life, enhancing people’s lives and the environment. Visit www.ota.com/index.html.
Co-op America’s Green Business Network The Green Business Network, the nation’s oldest and largest network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses, investigates each applying company to determine: (1) its familiarity with and commitment to social and environmental responsibility, and (2) significant action in terms of this commitment. For more information, go to www.coopamerica.org/about/newsroom/index.cfm.
No Animal Testing The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) provide an opportunity for companies to certify through them that their products are not tested on animals and are vegan. PETA (www.peta.org) allows the use of the “bunny ears” logo and the modified logo to those companies completing certification.
Decoding Other Labels An excellent resource for decoding certification labels is located at www.greener choices.org/eco-labels. Categories of certification logos include organic, animal welfare, sustainable agriculture, sustainable wood, social responsibility, pest management, no genetic engineering, sustainable fishing, and environmental persistence.
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Pets and Product Labeling Consumers would benefit from a “Good Housekeeping Seal” that applies to the environmental status of a product. Although ecolabels are many (Consumer Reports lists 147 of them), few of them are used widely. Organic certification labels and the Energy Star labels are two widely recognized ones. What, then, is a consumer to do? Rely on our common sense and tips from the experts. To do less is to reward the companies that place meaningless labels on their products and suppress consumer support for truly innovative products and companies.
The listing includes the certifying organization, the logo picture, and an interpretation of what the logo actually means.
Greenwashing Greenwashing is creating the impression that a product is environmentally friendly when it is not. As a result of people’s desire to have low-cost green products, consumer products often use labeling on the package front to persuade the consumer to purchase those green benefits. In consumer products—the things we buy to support everyday life—abuse of the word “green” is so rampant that the term “greenwashing” applies. Because no standard green certification similar to a “Green Housekeeping Seal of Approval” exists as yet, you need to look at the back of the package. Are the ingredients listed? A proprietary ingredients list usually means that the product contains chemicals the manufacturer does not want to claim. Is the packaging itself minimal or recyclable? Is the product endorsed by an organization known for its environmental standards? If the answers are no, but the information on the front of the package looks like an environmentally friendly product, the product has been greenwashed. However, packaging won’t tell you anything about the water and energy usage of a manufacturer. Major corporations should consider the savings in water and power they can obtain from thinking more closely about their manufacturing processes. Multinationals such as Unilever and Schweppes Cadbury lead a new way of thinking and create marks for manufacturing suppliers that benefit the major providers of companion animal products.
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In fact, it’s tough to understand advertising regulations in the United States, difficult to believe they are strictly enforced, and, well, many of us are jaded about labels that do not carry certifications. Enter “The Greenwash Brigade,” a panel of folks on American Public Media who comment on various and sundry green items. An exchange by the brigade sent me scurrying to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) web site for more information. The brigade said in essence, “Hey, we’re confused about what’s green, and we’re very educated consumers.” They’d like a green “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.” This designation would take into account the manufacturing of the product, as well as the use and disposal of the product. In other words, the information given would compare the total impact of one product versus the total impact of the other. Current designations normally deal with the cost of energy the product uses when it operates, not the costs of manufacture and disposal. The group also said that carbon offsets, where consumers pay others to reduce greenhouse gases, are something the FTC should regulate to ensure that those offsets are real and not just a credit-based shell game in which the same credits are moved around and around.
What the FTC Now Requires So, keeping the information to what we pet caretakers need to know, the FTC Act doesn’t allow companies to be deceitful in commerce. In its “Guide for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims,” the FTC requires that package labels be clear. A package labeled “recyclable” should be clear about whether the box or the product itself is recyclable. The FTC says a company can’t overstate their claims. If the box says a trash bag is recyclable, then the label asserts a claim with no meaningful benefit. No one recycles trash bags. Claims such as “biodegradable,” “environmentally friendly,” “compostable,” and so on should be substantiated by the manufacturer. In addition, the claim should not mislead the consumer. “Environmentally friendly” needs to mean just that. But simply because the FTC creates guidelines doesn’t mean the guidelines are being followed. These are voluntary guidelines, but violations can lead to serious consequences. However, the case must be brought to the FTC.
Updating to Combat Greenwashing The FTC plans an update to “Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims,” last updated in 1992. The update to the “Green Guides” addresses claims about renewable energy and carbon offsets. A company’s claims about their carbon footprint or the carbon neutrality of a product or process need to
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be considered after a company has taken reasonable steps to reduce emissions and then purchase offsets greater than remaining emissions. In other words, carbon offsets should not be a “get out of an environmentally horrifying process free” card. There needs to be some honest effort to reduce emissions without carbon offset purchasing. In addition, third-party verification and certification will be a means of substantiating these claims.
To Combat Greenwashing The types of questions you might ask about products and services you purchase include the following, suggested in Shaila Wunderlich’s June 22, 2008, article on greenwashing in the McClatchy-Tribune Business News: Look for a product’s distance shipped. Distance shipped = energy required. When you can, choose materials that are the least energyintensive to produce, although most of us are hard pressed to know what materials are the least energy-intensive to produce. Try to buy from companies that are family-run businesses or community co-ops. Look for labels like USDA Organic, Energy Star, Green Guard, and Forest Stewardship Counsel. If ingredients are not listed on the label, beware. Buy from companies you trust. I add one more point. If a product manufactured overseas is incredibly cheap, you can assume that whatever is in the product probably would not pass muster in the United States, or that the manufacturing process is “too dirty” to take place in the United States. We see this kind of manufacture in cheap children’s toys, and certainly in the pet toy aisle in any superstore. The toy looks cheap and doesn’t last because it is made with materials and by processes that provide no value for sustainability. Just say no. If no one bought these products, no one would sell them. If you have children, you know that the recall lists on toys have been long. Some manufacturers are getting the message, and the same standards for children’s toys are being applied to toys for animals—but not by the low-end product manufacturers.
Juggling Materials and Planetary Requirements Even when we see the information about what’s in a product, understanding the impact is difficult. Consider plastics—not the cheap, brittle kind, but those
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used to make cat litter trays, or bowls or toys for your dog, or housing for the heat lamp for your reptile, or the acrylic for your tank. A major component of plastics is petroleum, which also powers the manufacturing process. Many technologies have been invented to reduce dependence on petroleum. New technologies to make plastics include elements made from plants like corn. Corn requires lots of fertilizer to grow, and corn is a means of feeding people. Even newer technologies involve the waste from corn production. Other approaches use bacteria, but genetic engineering of the bacteria is required. Japan in 2002 set a national goal of sourcing 20 percent of all plastics renewably by 2020. Belgium encourages product biodegradability for shortlived products like shopping bags. The government taxes nondegradable bags at 300 percent, making the degradable ones more economical. Italy mandates that by 2010, all two-handle bags in Italy must biodegrade. The conclusion from all of this is that no product is truly free of effect on our planet. New technologies come with new problems. Nevertheless, through new technologies we will find a way to make products that have less impact on the planet. Supporting innovation in technology is an important activity for consumers to consider.
Certifications Certifications such as Energy Star appear on packages for qualifying products, and certifications are the best way for you to know what you’re getting. In chapters 3 and 4, labels that apply to purchasing are explained in some detail. Certifications are available for food, to tell you whether an item can be recycled, or to tell you whether an appliance is energy saving relative to others. What you can’t find out from certifications is what the net impact of a product is on our environment. Europeans come closer than North Americans on this demand. The environmental impact of various products is beginning to be shown on packages in grocery stores and other consumer products outlets in Europe, where environmental regulations typically are more stringent than in the United States. Although certifications don’t evaluate the complete environmental impact of a product from creation through disposal, use them as guides that provide facts instead of “marketing speak.”
What Is Your Sustainability Score? Some people love quizzes and scoring systems. Others of us run in the other direction. For readers who love scores, or for family leaders who want to
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encourage other family members to participate, a sustainability starting point assessment may be helpful. Like measuring your speed at the butterfly before you begin training in the pool, this quiz helps you create a benchmark against which you can measure your improvement. Often we don’t realize how far we’ve come without such a benchmark. Some people are motivated by competition—not just with themselves, but with others. For those who are willing to share their sustainability scores, I’m providing a place to register your scores and compare yourself against others. Visit www.thiswildlife.com and see the “Pets and the Planet” section. Assessments can help you prioritize areas for improvement. Once one area is under control, you can work on the next area. The scoring system I use is “Good,” “Better,” “Best.” Hey, we need to give ourselves credit for what we do. If you bought or borrowed this book, you’re obviously interested, so even if you’re struggling, you deserve points. Throughout the book, we think in terms of “Good,” “Better,” “Best.” Circle the answer that best fits your situation and total your points (105 points maximum).
My Sustainability Score: A Starting Point Choosing a pet
Good
Better
Best
I didn’t know much about my pet in advance, but my choice has worked okay so far.
Knew what I was getting into with a dog or cat, but I did go to classes and learned how to solve problems.
Considered species, age, life span, and the cost of the pet over the lifetime of the animal, got help when I had problems, and we’re still together.
I volunteer to take pets to shelters for neighbors who are too embarrassed to take them.
I work with shelters to do outreach to the community on pets.
The impact Releasing pets of “releasing” doesn’t seem animals right to me, so I take pets to the shelter when it doesn’t work out.
continues
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Good
Better
Best
Feeding pets impacts the environment
I don’t know much about pets and their food, but would like to.
I feed my animals natural foods, but am a little hazy on why this might be better for the Earth.
I help other people understand what sustainable agriculture is. I just reevaluated my pet’s diet and confirmed with my vet.
Nutrients pets need
I buy a major brand.
I check for the AAFCO label.
My vet and I discussed the best organic food with the AFFCO label.
The musthaves for each pet type
My vet told me what I needed.
I do have the vet’s list, plus a way to confine my pet when I need to.
In addition to the vet list and a confinement area, I continually find new enrichment toys for my pet.
Exercise
I make sure my pet gets some exercise every week.
We’re on an everyday exercise schedule.
Exercise we do is a function of weight and conditioning, and we work on building this as much as we can.
Waste and your pet
I bag my cat litter and throw in the trash. My dog poop I put in trash cans at the dog park.
I put pet waste in biodegradable bags and put it in the trash or bury it in my backyard at least 200 yards from a water source.
I use a waste service that takes pet waste to an industrial composting facility.
Waste and the community
I can’t worry about others right now. I can just worry about myself and my own pets.
We’re experimenting with a waste disposal service for our dog park.
Our town doesn’t have curbside compostables pickup, but I’m working for this through a local group.
Pets and your health
I take my pets to the vet when they’re sick.
I do an annual exam for my pets.
Besides the annual exam, we emphasize handwashing.
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Good
Better
Best
Pets and cleaning
We use cleaners that get the job done.
Weekly cleaning works for us, and we’re considering converting from harsh chemicals to mild organic cleaners.
We emphasize regular cleaning with soap and water, and disinfection when pets have been ill. Hepa filter vacuums help keep allergens down.
Pet services
We don’t leave home because our pets are too important to us. That’s got to change. We’re considering a range of pet services.
The need for services caused us to look at the number of animals we have at home. We’ve made a decision not to replace our current pets.
We buy the services we need to be independent of our pet’s most restricting needs—petsitting and day care keep us sane during our job and kid crunches.
Community ecology
Our pets are neutered. We don’t like the leash laws.
The dog park wasn’t for us. We run together. And we’ve committed to keeping our next cat indoors.
The kids and I decided we’re too busy for pets. We volunteer at our local shelter and that feeds our pet need.
Problem pets
We adopted a dog who just didn’t work for us, even after training. We decided that we’re cat people and adopted an indoor cat instead.
I do get frustrated with my pets, and I do research to solve my problems. We get along pretty well most of the time.
We exercise together almost every day. When I have a problem with my pet, I call the behaviorist.
Ecoconcepts
The biggest problem is illegal importing of reptiles.
The biggest problem is the illegal trade in wild-caught pets.
The biggest problem for pets and the planet is keeping pets in their homes.
Ecoconcepts
Product labels may be useful, but I don’t understand them.
I understand that natural may not be better, but I don’t know why.
I understand the nutrition and product labels and know where to look for help when I don’t.
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For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 45–74: You have good prospects for becoming a pet-wise planet supporter. 75–90: You’re better than most people at making the pet/planet connection. You have potential for the Green Pet Award. 90–105: You win the Green Pet Award! You’re doing a good job and are a good person to help others learn about the connection between our planet and our pets. You’ll pick up a few tips from this book, and I hope you’ll share your own tips at www.thiswildlife.com/petsandtheplanet.
Achievable Goals: Growing into Sustainability Some thoughts to make your progress easier and more fun include: 1. Don’t stop what you’re doing now, even though it may not be perfect. 2. Involve your family and spread the fun and the work. 3. Select high-value activities. If you can’t figure out what else to do, give your pet and yourself some exercise—preferably together, so you can burn off some of that eco-angst if you’re a perfectionist. If you’re more laid-back, the exercise might help you mobilize a bit faster. 4. If you can only do one thing, address any behavior issues that make you think you might not be able to live with your pet. 5. If you have no behavior issues, move on to a diet evaluation, and with that, move on to a less environmentally damaging type of food. 6. If you’ve conquered these areas, move on to community activities, especially as they pertain to helping your community move toward a stable population of pets, industrial-grade composting of pet waste, and the issues related to community harmony discussed in chapter 8. Low-value activities to avoid are any on which you get stuck. Examples from my own experience include obsessing about whether to use paper or biodegradable plastic bags to pick up pet poop, whether to use plastic or a cloth bed for my dog, and which cleaner is the most perfect on the market. Moving forward, even in an area that is not as critical or with a solution that is not perfect, brings benefits. In our stressful world, I’m convinced that the best thing each of us can do for the planet is to keep our minds and bodies healthy, to shop based on the best information we can, and to enjoy our environment.
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Chapter 2
Choosing the Right Pet for You Amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. —Maurice Maeterlinck
Human beings first domesticated dogs about 10,000 years ago and cats around 4,000 years ago. (Perhaps we should more properly say that cats have been “living in close proximity with humans” for about 4,000 years.) These well-liked pets have provided companionship and fascination ever since. Today, 63 percent of American homes include pets according to the American Pet Products Association (APPA). In these 70 million U.S. households, dogs are the most popular pets, followed by cats, and then fish. Each pet type comes with its challenges and rewards. This chapter concerns pet choice and how it affects the environment. Having a pet increases our environmental footprint on the earth. How much of an increase depends on the type of pet and the choices we make about the pet’s care.
Why Pet Choice Matters The choice of a pet might at first seem an odd thing to consider when thinking about the environment. But your choice of pet—Tabby cat, Collie, Percheron, Guppy, Bearded Dragon—dictates the food, shelter, and other care required and the potential number of offspring your pet might produce. Consider the resources required to support your pet from the beginning of its life to the end. When you acquire a pet, you make that commitment.
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Pet Ownership in U.S. Households Type of Pet
% of American Households
Dog
39
Cat
34
Freshwater fish
13
Bird
6
Small animal (e.g., rabbit, mouse, hermit crab)
5
Reptile
4
Equine
4
Saltwater fish
.7
Adapted from American Pet Products Association (APPA) National Pet Owners Survey, 2007–2008
Modern Pet Ownership The way many of us live has changed significantly since our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. No longer living our lives in the multigenerational family home, we move, our interests come and go, and our exploration of life takes us away from our family and our community. Even though our pets’ living conditions have become more restrictive (i.e., more urban), their physical and emotional needs still must be met. These needs—proper food, exercise, and mental stimulation—figure into your choice of pet. Ask yourself, “Can I happily provide for this particular type of pet’s life?”
Pets and the Individual In the pet-human relationship, decisions are one-sided; the person makes them all. The most important decision you make to ensure the success of that relationship is whether your family’s expectations of your pet are reasonable. Families may want a cuddly and talkative bird and have heard African Grays are the best talkers. Many African Grays do not talk, and very few like to be held or petted. Families who want a talkative bird that is cuddly need to locate an adult bird that already talks and prefers human contact. Similarly, expecting an Australian Cattle Dog to be happy in a small apartment with little exercise is not realistic. The dogs were bred to be active. Pet owners cannot change an animal’s basic characteristics.
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Families have to provide what their pet needs, whether or not it is convenient. For example, some families want a Golden Retriever, but don’t have time to play with the dog each day. This is a breed that needs at least thirty minutes of active playtime—preferably fetching a ball—each day. This is in addition to the dog’s need to walk or to do his business in the fenced yard. Rodents tend to be active at night. If you can’t stand the sound of the exercise wheel at night, you’re not flexible enough to have a pet rat. Long-haired cats need frequent brushing. Kittens need lots of supervision and limits. Your pet’s requirements are determined by the species, age, and personality of your individual animal. When you select a pet, you’ve made a promise to provide what he needs. When families renege on this promise, their pet becomes a burden to the community. In exchange for a lifetime commitment to their pet, families receive companionship, entertainment, and unconditional loyalty. This may be just the beginning of a pet’s contributions to personal and family happiness. Many scientists and physicians believe that pets fulfill many psychological and physical needs we have in our transient society. Indeed, pets form the most lasting relationships some people have.
Pets and the Community Communities have concerns for the well-being of non–pet owners as well as those of us who cherish our animal companions. Accordingly, our towns and states have health and safety regulations to follow. We license and leash pets who appear in public, to control pet behavior and waste in public spaces such as parks and sidewalks. Some communities restrict possession of unusual pets. You might wonder why until you realize that New York building inspectors routinely find fifteenfoot-long pythons and fully grown alligators in small apartments. Some communities also limit the number of domestic pets. Once you’ve seen news stories about people keeping a hundred cats, dogs, or rabbits (cases of pet hoarding masquerading as pet rescue), you don’t have to ask why. Most city and town health codes forbid pets in eating establishments. Local noise regulations apply to barking dogs—and you’ll appreciate these if you live next door to one. With the number of unwanted pets at unprecedented levels, community governments and many private organizations use surprising amounts of resources that could be channeled into solving other social problems. Regarding pet ownership as a privilege shows concern for your community and honors your animal companions.
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Pets and the Ecosystem While pets can be our best friends, unleashed pets degrade our ecosystem. If you have visited Hawaii, you may be aware of the destruction that cats, in conjunction with other introduced animals, have wreaked on the native bird population. Pet reptiles set free cause serious problems for Floridians. Many cities’ water authorities list pet waste as a significant source of water pollution.
Exotic Pets: A Special Concern Exotic pets are those animals not typically domesticated, such as birds, reptiles, fish, insects, and some small mammals including guinea pigs, hedgehogs, and fancy rats. Exotic pets behave as wild animals and usually require special expertise to handle and incredible dedication to keep healthy. These animals do not have the temperaments of cats and dogs, who have been bred for thousands of generations to be human companion animals. Often selected as very young animals, exotic pets exhibit growth in strength and change in temperament as they mature; many families are not prepared for such change. Some people choose exotic pets because they are unusual. The beauty of the animal’s feathers or scales captivates others. A very few exotic pets, such as some types of fish, guinea pigs, or insects, require less maintenance than domestic pets. Prospective exotic pet owners need to consider the substantial impact of many exotic pets on the community and the environment as well as on their homes. Before purchasing an exotic pet other than a guinea pig, rat, or reptiles who remain very small and are nonvenomous, spend the money for a prepurchase consultation with your local exotic animal veterinarian. What you expect from wild animals is often not what you get, and the consultation could save you a difficult choice or a serious injury later.
Why Are Exotic Pets a Concern? Exotic pets are a concern for several reasons.
They Deplete Natural Populations Many years ago, collectors brought birds, reptiles, and fish from their native habitats as oddities and to form a breeding population to produce unusual pets for those who wanted them. Despite the wide availability of breeding populations, wild animal traders continue to abduct animals from their natural environments, often to the detriment of that population and the ecosystem.
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They Are Physically Dangerous Some exotic pets pose significant dangers because the adults are less friendly than the young are. Owners tire of the demands of an increasingly capable and muscular pet, in the case of reptiles, or the long-term care required for birds, often purchased as “low-maintenance” pets. The culture of wild animals is complicated and requires extreme knowledge and deep sensitivity; most people are unable to provide such care, even with the best of intentions. At that point, a second environmental problem arises when unwanted exotic pets are released into an ecosystem that is not prepared for them or when animals such as monkeys or large cats threaten their owners’ safety with behavior that is completely natural and appropriate for a wild animal.
They Are Often Illegal The Humane Society of the United States estimates that U.S. pet owners keep 15,000 monkeys and 15,000 large cats (of which 5,000 to 7,000 are tigers). Thirty-five states as well as many counties and cities forbid keeping wild animals as pets. Sellers of wild animals, of course, do not inform purchasers about the care required by the animals or the regulations restricting sale or possession of wild animals. Private ownership of wild animals has increased through Internet sales. These new owners, unprepared to deal with the demands of raising wild animals, have overwhelmed zoos, exotic animal veterinarians, and wildlife care centers with overnight drop-offs of their normal but distinctly unmanageable “pets.” The good news is that those animals were not released into the local ecosystem. The bad news is that rehoming those animals in facilities designed for their care is almost impossible.
They Encourage the Questionable Practices of Wild Animal Traders Exotic animal traders market the appeal of the unusual to prospective buyers. Given a market for an animal, traders collect the most unusual animals from the most economically pressured people living in isolated regions. Collecting reptiles or other exotic animals provides extra income for indigenous people who live a subsistence lifestyle, but the winners are the wild animal traders. The losers are the animals, vets, zoos, and care centers who try to cope with an entirely foreseeable and preventable problem someone else created. Ecotourism based on the unique animals in the ecosystem is a more effective way to help indigenous peoples.
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Reptiles: A Case in Point You might be surprised to learn that when it comes to criminal activities, only drug trafficking tops the illegal wildlife trade. The World Wildlife Fund states that the global trade in exotic animals, both legal and illegal, is about US$159 billion per year. We can understand the problem better by examining international trade in wild-caught reptiles. Although the Humane Society of the United States (not affiliated with local humane organizations) called for a U.S. ban on sales of imported and captive-bred live reptiles, several reptile-keeping groups as well as breeders of other species and groups that oppose any trade restraints because of the precedents they set, defended the $2-billion-a-year business. Although a ban on captive-bred trade would be difficult legislation to pass, the pets available exceed market demand. Any shelter or local herpetological group will have reptiles who need new homes; the need to remove any reptiles from the wild is at an end.
High Mortality Rates Reptiles are among the most inhumanely treated animals in the pet trade. A majority of reptiles die before age 3 because owners do not provide properly for their dietary needs and other care. Astonishingly, most potential pet owners do not understand that reptiles are animals. A study showed 10–40 percent of 5- to 11-year-olds did not recognize snakes or frogs as animals. Sixty percent of adult zoo visitors did not understand that a lizard was an animal. Twenty-five percent believed that “animals” was synonymous with “mammals.” This misunderstanding may provide a new insight into people’s narrow concepts of animal protection and welfare. Some less well-informed pet owners help perpetuate the commonly held beliefs that reptiles are cold-blooded and they feel little or no pain. Reptiles do not make facial expressions or noises that alert pet owners to their pain and distress, so sick or stressed reptiles often suffer a long time before owners notice illness or injuries. Reptile-keeping is popular in Japan, Europe, and the United States, where people have money to spend and prize the unusual. After owning one or two common species, reptile owners often look for species that are more unusual. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES) treaty protects only a few endangered species. Nine million pet reptiles were sold in 2000, an increase of more than one million in two years, according to Humane Society International Asia. Each year the United States imports nearly 2 million live reptiles and exports about 9 million.
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“MAC Certified” Ensures Ecologically Sensitive FishCapture Practices The Disney film Finding Nemo skyrocketed interest in clownfish and other marine life as pets. According to a 2003 report of the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Center, the US$330-million-a-year aquarium fish trade threatens not only the 1,500 species of fish being exported but also their native ecosystems. From Southeast Asian reefs to the United States, fish are often captured with a debilitating dose of sodium cyanide, dumped in plastic bags, and left for hours in the sun. The result: lethargic or dead fish upon arrival at your local store. You can help prevent these collection techniques by ensuring that your marine pets are certified before you buy. The Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) has created standards to ensure sustainable marine-life gathering and transport practices internationally, from the collector all the way to your aquarium retailer. MAC also encourages that you never purchase live rock, like coral, for your aquarium. According to the World Wildlife Federation, coral export damages and degrades 50 to 70 percent of reefs and their ecosystems worldwide.
Poor capture techniques compounded by poor shipping methods and inadequate care kill many reptiles before they reach the pet store. An estimated 90 percent of wild-caught reptiles die in their first year of captivity because of injury prior to purchase or because their owners cannot meet their complex dietary and habitat needs. Because reptiles are inexpensive and easily replaceable, businesses factor the expected huge loss of life into their operating costs.
Dangers to Owners and Public Another aspect of exotic pet impact is owner and public safety.
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Diseases that animals can pass to humans can create significant problems. Livestock owners have concerns about heartwater disease, which is carried by reptiles but can affect cattle and other hoofed stock. Salmonella, associated with reptiles, is a well-known problem. Using proper prevention methods, these diseases need not be spread. (See chapter 6 for instructions on how to prevent disease transmission from pets.) The Animal Protection Institute has cataloged about 200 attacks by pet reptiles since 1995. Attacks by Nile and Saltwater crocodiles are reasonably common, as are bites from non-native snakes.
Special Training Although many cities and states regulate exotic pets by species or level of dangerousness, or whether they are non-native, you can obtain permits for most any reptile with proper information. Australia, in an interesting approach, provides permits for venomous snakes after owners complete a training course that includes supervised hours spent in care of specific reptile species. As a result, only more experienced owners may keep the more dangerous snakes. Trade in all exotic animals, including birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish, will continue as long as buyers purchase wild-caught animals. Systems compelling keepers to have education and experience have potential for improving both the lives of exotic animals in captivity and limiting the number of “throw-away” exotic pets either tossed into a public-funded shelter system or released to die difficult deaths or wreak havoc with the environment.
The Consequences of Not Thinking through Your Pet Decision By considering the reasons owners bring pets to shelters, you can anticipate the problems you might face in bringing a pet into your home.
How Animals Come to Be in Shelters The National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy has studied the top reasons that people turn pets over to shelters. High among them is inadequate time for pets. Pets such as cats, dogs, birds, and small mammals require daily care, attention, and exercise beyond meeting their bare survival necessities of food and water. Often, pet enthusiasts overburden themselves with the numbers and variety of pets they keep. The stress of meeting the needs of many animals
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who cannot care for themselves becomes too much, especially when changes such as a job or a move or a pet behavior problem arise. Overburdening also occurs when owners allow pets to reproduce. Following are the reasons owners bring pets to shelters. What you may notice is that most of these reasons for giving up pets are ones the pet owner could have anticipated.
Top Ten Reasons Dogs and Cats Are Relinquished to U.S. Shelters Dogs
Cats
1. Moving
1. Too many in home
2. Landlord issues
2. Allergies
3. Cost of pet maintenance
3. Moving
4. No time for pet
4. Cost of pet maintenance
5. Inadequate facilities
5. Landlord issues
6. Too many pets in home
6. No homes for littermates
7. Pet illness
7. House soiling
8. Personal problems
8. Personal problems
9. Biting
9. Inadequate facilities
10. No homes for littermates
10. Doesn’t get along with other pets
Reprinted with permission from American Pet Products Association (APPA)
The Impact of Sheltered Animals If you are unsure how dogs and cats in shelters can affect the earth, consider the bill sponsored in the California State Assembly in 2007 by Lloyd Levine. The proposed bill mandated spaying or neutering of most dogs and cats in the state. Levine proposed exceptions for working dogs, such as police and guide dogs, and cats or dogs shown competitively. Although the bill was defeated, the bill’s proposal highlights a significant problem in California and in other states. Levine’s reason for offering the bill was the $300 million that state and local governments in California spend annually to house, care for, and ultimately euthanize 500,000 dogs and cats. This figure does not include the private funds that support other efforts. Pet owners can resolve this problem without legislation by taking action themselves. Spaying and neutering of dogs and cats reduces the number of future unwanted animals and taxpayer dollars or private donations that must support them during their time in shelters.
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No-Kill Shelters Private funds support no-kill shelters, which are usually very selective about the animals they take to ensure people will want to adopt them. This high adoption rate is what creates space to take in more animals. By contrast, publicly funded county shelters are required to accept any animals who are presented to them. County shelter employees care no less for animals than workers in the nokill shelters. The policies of publicly funded shelters are dictated by their funding constraints not by their personal feelings. Please remember, people who patronize puppy mills and exotic animal traders, and the vast numbers who fail to neuter or give up their pets, cause shelters to be overwhelmed and to resort to euthanasia.
Achieving a Sustainable Pet Population The pet overpopulation problem results from owners not taking responsibility for their pets. Of the 6 to 8 million cats and dogs who enter shelters each year, new families adopt half. The families accidentally separated from their animal reclaim a few. Euthanasia is the only solution for most of the remaining pets because shelters cannot become homes indefinitely in a system never designed for permanent caretaking. A major source of these unclaimed pets is accidental or intentional reproduction among unaltered pets, especially among those who are allowed to roam outdoors. Consider the following reproduction rates for dogs and cats.
Pet Reproduction Rates Reproductive Numbers
Dog
Cat
Litters per year
2
3
Young per litter
6–10
4–6
Potential number of young per year
12–20
12–18
Spay and neuter programs are essential to control pet overpopulation. We’ll know we’ve managed the pet population when the number of animals entering
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shelters and the number of animals being returned to families or adopted is equal. That means we will have reached a sustainable pet population.
The Impact of Releasing Unwanted Pets Pet owners sometimes tire of their animals or become overwhelmed by caring for a large number of pets or a difficult pet. Rather than face the stress of turning the pet in to a shelter, owners drive pets far from their home range and abandon them. Some people believe the animal has a better chance to survive roaming free than at a shelter, a false belief formed to salve the pet abandoner’s conscience. Releasing your pet, whether a cat, rabbit, or bearded dragon, is not the answer. Typically, people report roaming dogs for pickup by animal control authorities, who take the dog to the local shelter. Cats and exotic or unusual animals, unless confined to a small area, are not usually discovered or reported. Released pets not captured and sheltered suffer from weather, wild predators, and a lack of adequate food. Some pets die a difficult death. Other released pets survive and breed successfully. In these cases, the survivor pets become an invasive species and the environment suffers. Worldwide, invasive species pose serious threats to all our planet’s unique ecosystems.
From Nontraditional Pet to Invasive Species Nontraditional pets dumped by their owners can become destructive, multiplying invaders. In Florida, non-native reptiles, including the South American caiman and the basilisk lizard, Burmese python, and Central American green iguana, thrive. Wildlife biologists in Everglades National Park in Florida have recaptured released pet Burmese pythons who have grown to 20 feet long and 200 pounds. Because the ecosystem has no natural predators to control them, the pythons now breed freely, creating more pythons to feast on even more of the animals native to that ecosystem. Other Florida invaders, the Nile Monitor Lizards, swim in the canals of Cape Coral. Wildlife authorities are concerned that these lizards, who grow to seven feet long (and deliver a nasty bite), eat eggs of the endangered burrowing owl as well as free-roaming animals, including pets. Not only do these invasive species out-compete some of Florida’s native reptiles, they also prey upon smaller natives in unhealthy numbers, upsetting the delicate balance of the ecosystem. A 2007 CNN news photo showing a feral snake who attempted to consume an American alligator provided an eyeopening example of the prevalence of non-native species in Florida. The problem of invasive species is so difficult in Florida that the U.S. Geological Survey conducts a public awareness campaign including trading
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cards for kids featuring eighteen of the species causing problems for Floridians and their native wildlife. Invasive species can also thrive in non-tropical environments. The Monk (or Quaker) parakeet thrives in Chicago, New York, and Colorado, as well as Florida. These colonial nesters live up to thirty years as permanent residents of fourteen U.S. states. Urban residents feed them; in the countryside, they live on berries, apples, and other crops. The problems of pet release and invasive species are significant worldwide. Australia’s Department of Environment and Water Resources defines an invasive or exotic species as a “species occurring, as a result of human activities, beyond its accepted normal distribution and which threaten valued environmental, agricultural, or personal resources by the damage it causes.” The 2004 National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species estimated that the economic costs of invasive species in the United States, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and India came to US$336 billion. The Eastern Gray Squirrel has been nominated among the 100 World’s Worst Invaders by the World Conservation Union.
Examples of Non-Native Animal Releases and Effects Animal Type
Where
Effect
Strategy for Elimination
Black 3 animals released Spiny-Tailed on Gasparilla Iguana Island around 1975.
30,000 iguanas by 2006, eat landscaping, turtle eggs, undermine foundations with burrows, nest in attics.
Trappers paid to remove iguanas. Some resold to exotic pet trade.
Brown Tree Snake (up to 9 feet long)
A few escaped in 1945 in Guam.
Up to 13,000 snakes per square mile, eliminated 8 of 11 native bird species, fruit bats (the native pollinators), caused 2,000 electrical outages, responsible for many emergency room visits.
Halt import of more snakes on cargo planes using detection by snake-sniffing dogs; gas and trapping to eliminate.
Eastern Gray Squirrel
England, Italy, South Africa, spreading through Europe and Asia from small number of pets imported in Italy in 1948.
This pet (imported from the U.S.) has caused the local extinction of native red squirrels, damages woodland by stripping bark, and spreads a virus lethal to native red squirrels.
Trapping and shooting, contraception, poisoning.
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The U.S. native Red-Eared Slider Turtle makes up more than 80 percent of annual U.S. exports of 8 to 10 million reptiles. In the same way U.S. residents are concerned about non-native reptiles damaging our environment, the European Union has banned import of this animal, because the turtle threatens to out-compete native turtles in Africa, Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and Europe. Feral animals have overrun Hawaii, wiping out most of the native birds. The birds that remain are also invaders. The island of Guam has had a similar problem with the Brown Tree Snake. The snakes have become so abundant that the weight of snakes on the power lines causes outages several times a day. While Guam’s native ground-nesting birds are extinct, Hawaii tries desperately to avoid the elimination of the few remaining individual native birds through regulations. Hawaii even employs snake-sniffing dogs at the airport to detect attempts to import snakes. Compounding the problem of the tree snakes in Hawaii is the Coqui Frog, a native of Puerto Rico. In addition to interrupting the sleep of residents with its unbelievably loud call (listen to the call on www.thiswildlife.com), the frog competes with the remaining native birds for their insect diet. Despite the fact that some exotic pets, like the famous San Francisco parrots on Telegraph Hill, survive, most do not. Better to take the animal to a shelter for placement or a humane death than to potentially harm a person or the environment. Instead of releasing hard-to-place exotic animals, wildlife experts suggest the following: Try to return the animal to the place where you bought him, even if the company does not refund your money. Find a veterinarian familiar with the species and ask for suggestions. Contact local zoos or colleges to see if the animal can be used for teaching purposes. Contact groups specializing in your exotic pet species, such as the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society or the International Conure Association.
Feral Cats: The Gorillas in the Room A far more difficult problem is the worldwide free-roaming feral cat population. Of any pet released, the damage from free-roaming cats is the most serious.
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What Are Feral Cats? Feral cats are the offspring of stray cats, cats abandoned by their owners, who were once domesticated. “Feral” refers to members of a typically domesticated species that live as wild animals. Although we can domesticate feral offspring before the age of 12 weeks, most experts agree that many efforts to domesticate adult feral cats fail. Feral cats will often live together in colonies. Colonies of cats thrive around sources of human food such as Dumpsters. The food source supports reproduction of a colony that would die without support; clearly, human habits provide the resources to grow these colonies. Because female cats have two to three litters per year, and cats hunt even when well fed, islands such as Hawaii illustrate what happens when such colonies develop: they decimate local wildlife. The effect, says ecologist E. O. Wilson, is “second only to habitat destruction in the magnitude of the threat they pose. In removing natural barriers to species movements, we’re changing the very nature of wild places, replacing unique animal . . . communities with a generic, impoverished hodgepodge world of hardy generalists: a world not of Sumatran rhinos, golden turtles, Blackburnian warblers, and giant saguaro, but merely one of cats, rats, crows, and West Nile virus.”
Great Ideas: Habitattitude Responding to a concern about the expansion of harmful plants, fish, and other animals accidentally introduced to non-native environments, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has joined with the American Pet Products Association (APPA) and aquarium, backyard pond, and water plant enthusiasts to provide information about the importance of safe disposal of unwanted aquatic plants and fish. The program they have formed, called Habitattitude, provides a newsletter, bags for collecting and disposing of unwanted materials, and ideas about linking people with unwanted fish and plants with those seeking those same fish and plants. In addition, a network of experts is available to answer questions from industry and consumers. Now, that’s a great idea!
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Maintaining Feral Cat Colonies To control the feral cat population and alleviate the suffering of cats and the danger to communities from disease, organizations such as Alley Cat Allies and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) developed a program of “trap, neuter, return” (TNR). Colony managers provide food, humanely trap unneutered cats, and take them to a facility to be vaccinated and neutered. The veterinarian notches one ear on each treated cat so that protected and healthy cats can be distinguished from those needing treatment. Justifications for the managed-colony approach include concern about the inhumanity of destroying animals and the belief that when cats are removed from a colony, other cats move in to take their place. Alley Cat Allies and HSUS believe the size of the feral cat population is so large that no eradication program could ever eliminate the population. Better, then, to manage the colonies to keep the cats healthy. Ed Sayres, president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), explains, “The ASPCA supports the principle of managed colonies for feral cat population control until the colony size can be reduced by attrition.” Supporting the health-oriented approach of Alley Cat Allies for management, the ASPCA agrees that this approach limits the spread of disease and multiplication of the individuals in the colony. Sayres explains that colony management is not appropriate under all circumstances. “The ASPCA does not support managed colonies in areas where endangered or threatened prey species are present, in areas where it is likely that the cats themselves may be subjected to harm or abuse, or where there is little or no community acceptance, as this too could jeopardize the safety of the animals. In such cases, the ASPCA recommends capture and adoption, or euthanasia.” Many wildlife advocates support eradicating feral cats through euthanasia. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that native birds represent 20 to 30 percent of the prey of free-roaming cats. The one thing these groups agree on is that people can prevent the trapping and killing of cats by responsibly looking after and sterilizing their pets. Community solutions to these problems include securing Dumpsters and garbage cans—as you would to discourage roaming wildlife—and the communal will to stop creating more “wild” cats through abandonment. Once established, HSUS advises, feral cat colonies cling to their territories, reluctant to leave even given severe food shortages.
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A Looming Battle What both cat enthusiasts, such as Alley Cat Allies, and environmental enthusiasts, such as the American Bird Conservancy, agree on is that the problem of cat overpopulation lies with people, and that, without human supervision, the lives of cats are short and usually miserable. What they do not agree on is the degree to which unowned and owned roaming cats affect the environment. As a result, in the United States, a body of case law is forming around the topics of domestic cats, feral cats, the legal responsibility for cats of either status, and the unseemly suggestion that to be subject to the same restrictions as dogs for care and control, cats may need to be classified as potentially dangerous animals. Unlike our current concept of dogs’ potential danger to individuals, the cats’ threat is to communities’ environments. The situation posed by roaming cats was analyzed in some detail by Anthony E. LaCroix of Michigan State University’s College of Law Animal Legal and Historical Center. The harm posed by cat colonies is not only to local ecosystems through predation but also to the public “who depend on the health of their neighborhood ecosystems to sustain their quality of life. More important, however, is the preservation of local species diversity,” says LaCroix. This thorny problem requires a complicated solution. If you’d like to get involved, organizations with opportunities are included in the resources at the end of the chapter.
A Pet Type for Your Environmental Ethic Before you visit shelters or breeders looking for Callie the cat or Vickie the homeless mutt, spend some time thinking. Consider which type of pet would work best given your lifestyle and the resources you can afford to commit to the animal’s purchase and care. You should also consider your personal environmental ethic.
Life Span and Daily Care Kim Saunders, Shelter Outreach Vice President of Petfinder.com, a web-based pet placement service that has helped 11 million homeless pets find homes, says, “The right pet is out there for everyone who wants one, but not every pet is right for everyone.” Pets come in all shapes, sizes, and groups, from a Vietnamese Walking Stick insect to a miniature pony. Of course, all of these pets have different life spans, needs, and other considerations, as shown in the following table.
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Choosing Your Pet: Life Span and Daily Care Type of Pet
Considerations
Daily Care Takes . . .
Life Span
Dogs
Need to eat meat. Reproduction and predation control required. Cause problems when owners release them.
1 hour plus
10–15 years
Cats
Need to eat meat. Reproduction and predation control required. Cause problems when owners release them.
30 minutes
15–20 years
Fresh or Deplete the natural ecosystems’ salt water stock, animal cruelty when gathered fish from the wild. For proper sourcing, check for Marine Aquarium Council certification. Can create problems when owners release them.
10 minutes plus 3 hours every 2 weeks
Most 2–5 years
Birds
Collection from the environment depletes natural ecosystems’ stock and creates animal cruelty problem. Certify pets as captive bred before purchase. Eat low on the food chain. Reproduction control through separate housing recommended. Can create problems when owners release them.
30–60 minutes plus 3 hours every 2 weeks
Small birds 7–10 years; larger birds 15–80 years
Small animals
Domestic rats, guinea pigs, rabbits very suitable if neutered. Eat low on the food chain.
30 minutes
2–5 years
Reptiles
Diets vary from low to relatively high on the food chain. Common small reptiles found in your country are the best bet, such as tortoises or small snakes. Collection from environment creates animal cruelty problems. Create problems when owners release them.
10 minutes plus 3 hours every 2 weeks
10–20 years; some much longer
Horses
Feed low on food chain, but require lots of space.
1 hour for basic care plus exercise
20–30 years
Once you become educated about the length of your potential pet’s lifetime, consider your budget. Remember, budget and time required to care for a pet are two major reasons families give up their pets.
$75 $15 $45 $620 $10 $30
$50 $90 $270 $300 $1,190
$60 $15 $35 $420 $75 $25
$30 $60
38 $190 $200 $810
$400 $400 $1,580
$220 $911
$140 $715
$30
$15 $691 $75
$30 $575 $75 $10 $25 $25 $90 $30
$126 $125 $400 $25
Rabbit
$170 $150 $175 $50
Cat
$645
$80
$80
$15 $565
$75 $50 $400 $25
Guinea Pig
$340
$35
$35
$195
$75
$75
$15 $120
$30
$220 $20 $15 $305
$75
Small Bird
$50
Small Mammal
$235
$200 $200
$15 $35
$20
Fish
10:34 PM
$80 $160
$150 $15 $65 $780 $125 $35
$350 $200
Large Dog
1/15/09
1 Premium-brand dry kibble. 2 Exam, vaccinations, heartworm medication. 3 Scoopable litter for cats, scooped daily; hardwood shavings or recycled paper products for rabbits, guinea pigs, and small mammals, changed at least weekly. 4 Basic twenty-gallon setup with light/hood, outside filter, under-gravel filters, air pump, and gravel. Does not include fish. Reprinted with permission of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
$310 $175
$160 $15
Food1 Medical2 Litter3 Toys and treats License Miscellaneous Annual Total Spay or neuter Collar and leash Litter box Cage Carrier Crate Aquarium equipment4 First Year Extra Total Grooming (long hair) First-year total
Medium Dog
Small Dog
Costs
Estimating Pet Care Costs (US$)
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Vegetarianism and Pets If you’re a vegetarian who prefers that your pet also abstain from eating meat, understand that dogs and cats are not natural vegetarians. Dogs may not receive the nutrients they need to thrive on a vegetable-only diet. If you choose to feed your dog a vegetarian or vegan diet, then you must educate yourself about the best, most healthful way to do so. Cats require meat; non-meat diets are not healthy for them. Consider adopting a natural vegetarian such as a bird, rabbit, guinea pig, or horse.
Pets and Your Home Life Your family members have to feel safe and healthy in their home. The purity of the air they breathe, the degree of peace and quiet they desire, and the extent to which they want to help care for your pet are important factors to consider in choosing your pet.
Health Concerns If anyone in your home has allergies or lung problems, your choices are limited to fish or insects or some types of reptiles. Birds and all mammals create dust, dirt, and dander that will exacerbate respiratory problems. Despite claims of hypoallergenic dogs and cats, the problem is neither fur nor hair. Believe the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology: “Contrary to popular belief, people are not allergic to an animal’s hair [or fur], but rather, to a protein found in the saliva, dander [dead skin flakes], or urine of an animal. . . . These proteins are carried in the air on very small, invisible particles, which can land on the lining of the eyes or nose, or be inhaled directly into the lungs.” Saliva is the source of cat and dog allergens; urine is the source of allergens from rabbits, hamsters, and guinea pigs. The academy goes on to say, “A cat or dog produces a certain amount of allergens per week, and this amount can vary from animal to animal. All breeds are capable of triggering symptoms—there are no ‘hypoallergenic’ breeds of cats or dogs.”
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Keeping an animal outdoors is only a partial solution, since homes with pets in the yard still have higher concentrations of animal allergens. The academy suggests that you consider getting a pet such as a turtle, hermit crab, fish, snake, or other animal without fur or feathers.
Age Appropriateness If you have small children or plan to, or if you care for an elderly parent, consider whether the timing is right for a pet. Although many families seem to believe that puppies and small children go together, small rodents or fish are a better bet. The elderly may find comfort in a pet but feel overwhelmed by the responsibility. Try inviting a friend to bring a pet for a visit instead.
Housing Covenants Another point to consider is your housing covenant. Most rental properties do not allow pets, although sometimes fish are the exception. Fish tank size may be restricted. Group or co-housing, condominiums, and senior communities usually have policies defining allowable pets. Be sure that you know what these restrictions are before considering a pet.
The Outside Environment Your neighborhood is also a factor in choosing a pet. A potbellied pig probably doesn’t belong in a high-rise building, whereas a farm may be a fine place for this pet. Similarly, a pair of macaws may not be a good fit for a crowded urban environment, but rural communities may accept your noisy duo. These are environmental decisions. Disposal of waste, noise pollution, and the air-filtering modifications to a traditional apartment are substantial issues that do create reasons to think more than twice.
How to Experience Pets without Having One Some people choose to enjoy the benefits of having a pet through an arrangement of sharing a pet or volunteering with animals.
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Sharing a Pet If you want a pet but really don’t have the time, you could offer to provide care for a friend’s pet. Most pet owners would be pleased to have someone walk the dog an extra time or provide a weekend out for their pet. All pet owners need someone to care for their pet while they travel. You can have occasional fun with a pet using these simple approaches that don’t pressure you or risk unintended neglect because your life is too busy to care for an animal full time. Although shared pet services exist, this arrangement does not appear to have the welfare of the animal as a first priority.
Volunteering or Working with Pets Some people feel that with all the pets in shelters, giving even scant care to a pet at home is better than putting him in a shelter to be euthanized. Nice idea, but a neglected pet or one marginally cared for usually ends up going to the shelter a second time. Best to let the pet have the chance for a permanent home and volunteer instead. You can volunteer to help animals in shelters or in foster care programs, or programs that require assistance in raising working dogs. Children especially want pets; parents can use volunteer opportunities as teachable moments about the environment. DoSomething.org helps kids start dog-walking and dog-sitting services to earn spending money. In the process, kids learn about responsible pet ownership. Try KidsCare Clubs, part of the Points of Light Foundation. Meals-on-Wheels drivers, pastors, and rabbis know seniors who require help with animals, and many would welcome kids’ involvement. Breed clubs and dog athletic clubs need help with events. Kids can put up jumps for agility competitions or reset targets in fly ball. Fostering cats or dogs for your local shelter helps the animal and gives families insight into whether they are ready for a pet. How is volunteering related to the environment? Kids learn from this experience that you don’t need to “own” something to participate in activities you love. They’ll also learn that the community is our environment, and that the people and the domestic animals that populate it are part of our environment. Their support and welfare are our responsibility.
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Volunteering with Pets: A Directory Organization
Kind of Activity
Where to Find Hometown Contacts
4-H Clubs
Dog obedience, puppy raising
County extension office of the State Department of Agriculture. See government pages of phone book (equivalent in Canada)
Kids Care Clubs
Service with other kids about animals
www.Kidscare.org (Points of Light Foundation)
Local Kennel Clubs
Help with obedience, tracking, agility, and conformation events
American Kennel Club, www.akc.org Canadian Kennel Club, www.ckc.ca
Your local animal shelter
Kids camps Fostering dogs
Petfinder.com lists contact information for local shelters. Humane Society of Canada, www.humanesociety.com
Guide Dogs for the Blind
In-home puppy raising, puppy petting, or puppy walking
www.guidedogs.com
Canine Companions for Independence
www.caninecompanions.org
Assistance Dogs of America
www.adai.org
Assistance Dog Institute
www.assistancedog.org
Lions Foundation of Canada Guide Dogs
www.dogguides.com
Sources of Pets APPA’s National Pet Ownership Survey 2007–2008 indicates that less than 20 percent of dogs and cats come from shelters or rescue groups; 30–40 percent come from friends or relatives. The remaining pets we purchase from breeders or retail stores. When considering a pet, choose a source that has your prospective
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pet’s welfare in mind. Although you may want a Cockatoo (a large and very loud parrot), no one with the welfare of the bird in mind will help an apartment dweller acquire one. Neither you nor this very vocal and active bird will be happy. A Greyhound, a quiet couch potato, is a better apartment pet choice.
From Shelters and Rescue Organizations The Humane Society of the United States estimates that 6 to 8 million dogs and cats enter animal shelters annually, so the supply of pets certainly is larger than the demand for them. Keeping animals with their families or reuniting separated pets is a shelter’s first priority. Finding new families for dislocated pets is the next most important job. As a result, shelters and rescue organizations can be excellent places to find pets. One good way to connect with pets in these facilities is through Petfinder.com. Most shelters in North America provide Petfinder with information about their animals available for adoption. Among the 250,000 pets listed are cats, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, reptiles, birds, horses, and even a few tarantulas. Not only can you find what shelters are near you, but Petfinder allows you to take a first look at potential pets through listings and photos, without driving—a fuel savings. “In over eleven years, almost 11 million homeless pets have found their families through Petfinder.com,” says Kim Saunders.
From Breeders The best breeders are choosy about their pets’ home and families. As part of their mission, breeders concerned about animal welfare educate you about the animal you’re considering—its care, temperament, and development. The most environment-savvy breeders sell only spayed or neutered pets, and will insist that you bring the animal back if you ever want to give him up. “Visiting the breeder where a puppy was born and raised is the only way a consumer can ensure their prospective puppy did not originate at a puppy mill,” says Robert Baker, longtime animal advocate. “See the kennel first hand; examine the puppy-raising conditions. You will be able to see the parents of the puppy, so you will know what the puppy will look like when it grows up.” Best of all, you’ll be able to see the temperament of the parents of your future dog or cat. If their temperament doesn’t impress you as compatible with your lifestyle, move on. Careful breeders screen their parent dogs for temperament and for genetic traits that can cause health problems. Also, because they want their animals to stay in their original homes, most breeders and some shelters will
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question you extensively about your lifestyle to determine that the breed’s characteristics are a good match for your family. For example, if chess and puzzles are your hobbies, an active Australian Shepherd is not a good match for you. Beyond breed characteristics, the personality of each animal
Making a Difference: Fighting Puppy Mills Robert Baker, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) anti-cruelty investigator, has spent thirty years investigating animal fighting and the commercial dog-breeding industry. Puppy mills significantly contribute to pet overpopulation as well as to animal neglect and cruelty. Just three of the many ASPCA requirements for reputable breeders include socializing puppies from three weeks of age onward, screening potential buyers, and guaranteeing to take back a dog of their breeding regardless of the reason. American Kennel Club (AKC) papers are no guarantee that the puppy meets the breed standards or that the puppy was humanely raised. Nor do claims of health certificates guarantee health. These exams are cursory and cannot detect diseases puppies could be incubating, such as internal parasites. Dogs appear symptom free until parasites have enough time to multiply and the puppy begins suffering. To join the fight against puppy mills, visit www.aspca.org/ fight-animal-cruelty/puppymills. Searching out a reputable local breeder takes time, but Baker reminds families that they are choosing a companion for the next ten to fifteen years. Surely a little more time is a worthwhile investment.
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is different. Breeders, and many shelters, will try to match your temperament with the temperament of an individual. For example, a prospective owner who has a stressful life will be happier with a calm and quiet-natured dog, such as a Greyhound. To find breeders that are more likely to follow professional practices, consult associations of breeders. Most of these organizations have continuing education seminars, codes of professional practice, and rescue organizations that try to pick up the pieces when the relationships between a buyer and a breeder go wrong. To find reputable pet breeders, start with these organizations: Dog breeders: American Kennel Club (www.akc.org), Canadian Kennel Club (www.ckc.ca) Cat breeders: Cat Fancier’s Association (www.cfainc.org), The International Cat Association (www.tica.org) Bird breeders: American Federation of Aviculture (www.afabirds.org), Avicultural Advancement Council of Canada (www.aacc.ca) Reptile breeders: Find clubs near you at www.kingsnake.com/society.html Small mammal breeders: American Gerbil Society (www.agsgerbils.org/Breeders.html), Rat and Mouse Club of America (www.rmca.org/), Pet Rats Canada (www.petratscanada.com/) Insect breeders: Amateur Entomological Society Bug Club (UK) (www.amentsoc.org/bugclub)
From Neighbors or Large Pet Stores Large operations produce dogs, cats, birds, and reptiles for the pet trade and sell to stores, severing the breeder-animal connection. These breeders are not available to help you if a problem arises and have no reason to take their animals back. The worst of these breeders sell pets bred on a production schedule, which promotes health problems and means nothing will be known about the temperament of the animals. As far as the planet is concerned, backyard breeders and friends also fall into this category. Although the intentions can be good, these people are unable to assist with problems or take their animals back. Animals that come from their operations become “wards of the community” if you are unable to care for them.
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From Specialty Pet Stores Some breeders of birds, fish, and reptiles sell only to specialty pet stores, ones that exist to serve that type of animal and his fanciers. These breeders tend to be smaller operations, people who love their species, are knowledgeable, and are concerned about the health and welfare of their animals. Now that you know more about the issues for our planet in choosing pets, try this quiz. Circle the answer that fits your situation best and total your points.
My Sustainability Score: Choosing Pets Category
Good
Better
Best
Type of pet
Animal who meets your needs and one whose needs you can meet yourself.
Pet acquired after experience with the animal type through a fancier’s club or shelter.
Pet acquired after volunteering or caring for a similar animal on a consistent basis.
Source of pet
Reliable source with health certificate.
Source with a return policy.
Breeder or shelter that is responsible for taking pet back under any circumstances.
Plan if you can’t keep pet
Rehome through shelter or breed rescue.
Rehome with owner experienced and involved in the breed.
Breeder or shelter that takes pet back under any circumstances.
Understanding requirements
Has read about the breed.
Has spent time with the breed.
Is an active participant in breed clubs.
Reproduction control
Acquires pet with commitment to neuter at the proper age.
Neuters pet.
Acquires neutered pet.
Indoor or outdoor pet
Commit that next pet will be kept indoors.
Keeps all pets indoors most of the time.
Transition pets to indoor pets. When outdoors, pet is leashed or enclosed in fenced yard.
Exotic pets
Has license or band proving pet bred in captivity.
Cares for exotic from rescue.
Works in a positive way for captive breeding rather than trade in wild animals.
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For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 21–34 points: You have good plans for acquiring pets. 35–48 points: You have a great understanding of your pet and the problems that can happen to the best of people and pets. Potential for the Green Pet Award. 49 points: You have a clear understanding about appropriateness of different pets and work hard for the pet community. You win the Green Pet Award.
My Sustainability Plan: Acting on Pet Choices A list helps to translate thought and feelings into action. Here are some ideas to get you started in your home or in your community. Check the ones you want to act on. Get your family and friends involved. In my home: Choose not to add any pets to the family if we can’t commit to taking proper care of them. Have my child dog-sit for a neighbor instead of getting a pet. Choose my next pet from a shelter. Spay or neuter any unaltered pets. Learn what it takes to bring my cat indoors. Suggest that my child do a school report on invasive reptiles in Florida. In my community: Have the scout troop visit a local shelter. Start a KidsCare Club. Volunteer at a local shelter. Volunteer for a local spay/neuter day. In my personal beliefs: Is there a political action I want to take? Is there a conversation I want to have in the neighborhood?
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Resources Finding Pets Petfinder.com Breed rescue clubs directory: www.akc.org Exotic animal clubs: Search for your state, “rescue,” and the animal you’re interested in, such as “rodents,” “birds,” or “reptiles.”
Animal Education American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: www.aspca.org Humane Society of the United States: www.hsus.org
Problems of Exotic Pets and Invasive Species World Wildlife Fund: www.worldwildlife.org Marine Aquarium Council: www.aquariumcouncil.org World Conservation Union: www.iucn.org/en
Feral Cats Alley Cat Allies: www.alleycat.org American Bird Conservancy: www.abcbirds.org
Pets and the Law The Michigan State University School of Law: www.animallaw.info
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Choosing Green Pet Food We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. —Aldo Leopold
Never has the opportunity to feed your pet a nutritious, earth-friendly diet been better. From 2003 through 2006, 575 new natural or organic pet food products made their way to store shelves. In this chapter, I’ll show you how to select a diet that may improve your pet’s health as well as lighten the load on our planet. We’ll explore why pet food matters to the planet, why natural or organic food may be a good choice, and how to select a diet using labels as a guide. At the end of the chapter, you’ll select the steps you want to take in choosing green pet foods.
Why Green Pet Food Matters When we face major consumption-related environmental problems, such as air and water pollution, global warming, and habitat alteration, why does choosing green pet food matter at all?
Because Pet Owners See Their Pets as Family Members Today’s pets are family members, motivating family decisions the same way a human member of the family does. 49
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A survey by the American Pet Products Association (APPA) reports that seven of ten dog owners view their pet as a child or a member of the family. Holiday gifts, day care, clothing, birthday parties, and even greeting cards for pets support this elevation in status from outdoor working companion to family member. To treat pets as humans is, in effect, to increase the human environmental footprint. The health and well-being of your pets, like that of any family member, depends on the quality of the food they eat. Nutrition is not just about calories. Eating the right foods creates the best chance for your pets to live healthy and long lives. Avoiding artificially induced chemicals gives your pets the best chance to escape environmentally induced illnesses.
Because Food Production Methods Affect Our Planet in Startling Ways With the transition of pets from consumers of human food waste to consumers of human food ingredients, the burden on food production has increased. Methods of raising livestock, fruits, vegetables, and grains have an enormous impact on our planet, whether those foodstuffs are used to feed human beings or pets. The Union of Concerned Scientists, in their excellent “Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices,” explains that food production is second only to transportation as a source of environmental problems. Sixty percent of U.S. land area is devoted to crops or livestock grazing. Associated fertilizers, pesticides, animal wastes, and erosion create water-quality problems, while methane and greenhouse emissions come from grain production, livestock, and energy used in mechanized processes.
Because What We Learn about Pet Food Teaches Us about What We Eat In learning about pet food, we understand better what we feed ourselves. Studies show that women, in particular, regard their pets as a source of comfort just as they do their human families. Ironically, many women provide better support for friends and family than they do for themselves. By learning to nourish their pets better, women also learn about their own nutrition. Children learn about themselves through animals, too. Lessons in good nutrition applied to their pets are lessons that stay with kids. Choosing carrot sticks instead of a cookie to share with a beloved pet dog or hamster reinforces what your child learns by allowing him or her to explain it to the pet.
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Finally, examining how your pet’s diet stacks up to nutritional needs gives you the opportunity to do the same with your own diet.
How Feeding Pets Affects Our Environment To understand the degree to which feeding pets affects the environment, we can estimate pet demands in human terms. The National Research Council reports the average number of calories per day that pets require. We know the population of cats and dogs in pet homes, and the average number of calories a day for each person in the United States. Consider the following table:
Feeding Pets: How Many Calories Does It Take? Dogs
Cats
2004 pet population in U.S. homes
1.7 million
2.4 million
Average calories per day per animal
1,000
280
Percent of average U.S. citizen calories (3,600)
28
8
Equivalent number of people who could be fed
476,000
192,000
A quick calculation tells us that the amount of food needed to feed U.S. pet dogs and cats would feed all of Memphis, Austin, Boston, Washington, D.C., or Las Vegas. American pets consume the same number of calories as 668,000 people. Pet food used to be about selecting a small, medium, or large bag of whatever your local feed or grocery store stocked. Today, choosing pet food from among the hundreds of varieties in the $17 billion United States market can be a complicated task. Beef, duck, vegetables, and salmon are part of today’s pet diets. Once created to profit from human food manufacturing waste, the pet food industry now makes products with human-grade ingredients that sell well because people want something better for their family members who happen to be pets. The number of people purchasing pet food with human-grade ingredients is on the increase. As a result, pets truly do increase the burden on agriculture, because they are no longer eating the “leftover” products.
What Resources Are Required to Produce Food? In its “Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices,” the Union of Concerned Scientists explains that most of the environmental impact of food
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production “comes from cultivation rather than packaging, processing, and transportation.” Red meat production has the highest impact, poultry has less than half the impact, and pasta has even less impact than poultry. Why is this so, given the science behind modern farming methods? The answer lies in the intensive nature of production farming. “Factory-style” farming uses but does little to replenish healthy soil structure, leaving it depleted. Soil is not a machine, but a complicated matrix that behaves more like a living organism. Overgrazed and overfarmed areas suffer from unhealthy soil. Each decade 7 percent of the topsoil erodes from these areas. Nature requires 5,000 years to make five inches of topsoil. When you subtract the prime farm acreage (with the best topsoil) sold and taken out of production each year, our land-use problems come into perspective. The hidden costs for consumers come in soil depletion and chemical fertilizers and pesticides that end up in our air and water. In addition, to keep our crowded food animals healthy, we have overused antibiotics and in the process have bred antibiotic-resistant strains of disease. Concentration of these animals also leaves us with bacterial surges when wastewater from these operations runs into sources downstream. Crammed into tiny spaces, the animals destroy the soil structure, leaving dust or mud and an army of invasive plants that thrive on the changed landscape, making recovery efforts even more difficult. Many farmers would like to convert to organic methods that enhance biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. This means growing many crops instead of one, using a rotation of crops and companion plantings that make maximum use of the land, returning nutrients to the soil, and making a conscious effort to build soil through these practices. The lack of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers allows soil organisms to break down detritus and release nutrients and aerate the soil. Organic methods of food production attend to soil and water conservation. They also have a lower impact than factory farming and livestock rearing that relies on pesticides and fertilizers, antibiotics and feedlots. Organic methods enable farmers and ranchers to spend less money on expensive fertilizers and antibiotics, and provide better soil for the next generation. Currently, organic products come from less than 1 percent of the 950 million acres of U.S. farmland, so the supply is small, but growing. Organic farmers will produce 4 percent of total retail food sold by 2010, according to industry estimates.
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Why Organic Pet Food Costs More Food producers are driven by economics. Costs for food producers include massive irrigation, capital-intensive equipment, and boom-and-bust farm prices, which only the largest modern operations can survive. A significant problem for organic farmers is that retooling for organic production methods is not subsidized, as factory-style farming is. The organic farmer faces years of work to rebuild the soil and to adapt the business to a model that is more labor intensive. Because production requires more manual labor and attention and regulation of organic food is more expensive, the premium for organic foods in most areas is 20 to 30 percent. In other areas, organic food is double the cost, if it is available at all. Without subsidies, the cost of factory-farmed products would be much closer to the cost of organic products.
How Far Does Food Travel? “Food travels an average of sixteen hundred miles from farm to plate,” according to Richard Pirog, marketing and food systems program leader at Iowa State University. “On average, for every calorie we consume, ten calories of fossil-fuel energy are used in the production, processing, transportation, and preparation.” Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, agrees: “Where you buy is as important as what you buy.” That “locavores” was the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2007 demonstrates the increasing momentum of the concept of eating food produced within 100 miles of home. Locavores argue that eating food produced locally is even more important than eating organic. Of course, to provide your pet with food produced from local sources, you’d need to purchase the ingredients and assemble the diet yourself. Aardbarks, in the Denver, Colorado, area, is one company that not only distributes premium brands, but offers their own organic brand to consumers. A locally sourced and distributed product may be the way of the future.
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Around the World: CarbonLabeled Products Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in Britain and one of the top five retailers in the world, has begun to “carbon label” the 70,000 products on its shelves. Like calorie information on packaged food, Tesco’s labels will tell consumers the total amount of carbon dioxide created in the production and transport of a particular item. Although the process of calculating the carbon footprint of a box of cake mix is complex (fertilizer to produce the wheat, tractors to till the soil, fuel for transport), consumers want to know. With practices such as labeling for carbon footprints and better consumer understanding of the positive impact of organic farming and livestock practices, we can continue to make our planet a healthier place for all of us.
In the best of all worlds, our pets and the rest of our family would eat locally produced organic foods. Making pet food from scratch according to a recipe developed by an expert in your pet’s species is one solution. Purchasing a prepared diet from a reliable manufacturer that contains natural or organic ingredients may be a better solution for your family. Remember, one of the leading causes of disease in pets is poor nutrition. Just because a diet is organic doesn’t mean that it meets your pet’s nutritional requirements.
How Much Packaging Is Enough? Packaging makes up one-third of the trash in the world’s waste stream, according to Leslie Garrett’s The Virtuous Consumer. Figured into the 300 pounds of packaging Americans discard each year are pet food containers. Plastics and tin cans, as well as paper bags, are used to package pet food. When considering plastic, remember that recycling codes 1 and 2 denote plastics that are easier to recycle than numbers 3, 6, and 7. Well-known pet writer Christie Keith, who is also the editor of the PetHobbyist.com family of web sites, reminds us, “Even cardboard boxes used
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Making a Difference: Castor & Pollux Organic Pet Food Brian Connolly and his wife, Shelly Gunton, own Castor & Pollux Pet Works. Passionate about providing healthy diets for pets, the company introduced one of the first organic pet foods in 2002. Connolly says, “People are feeding their families more organic food. In fact, organic food is the fastest growing segment of the food industry. People often look for the same attributes in a diet for pets as they would for themselves.” Safety and quality are the two reasons consumers select Castor & Pollux foods. Castor & Pollux Organix Canine and Feline Formulas use Rosie brand certified organic range chicken as the primary ingredient, the same organic chicken found in your local natural food store. Organic chicken tastes great (according to notable canines and felines), and the high digestibility means smaller, firmer stools and a smaller feeding portion compared to other types of food. Castor & Pollux does not offer raw-food diets. “Without cooking, there’s no guarantee the biological contaminates have been eliminated for pets or the human handler,” Connolly says. “This is a personal view and the reason we’re not offering those products.” Connolly left the life of a Hong Kong banking executive for a small town and joined a business community of people committed to organic ways of life. Connolly and Gunton’s foundation, Pet & Soul, contributes to causes that secure the bonds between pets and people.
for dry pet foods are not always recyclable, as some of them are lined with metal or plastic to prevent food spoilage. Check the bottom of the packaging for recycling information.”
Thinking about Your Pet’s Diet Each time your pet food container runs low, you have an opportunity to select a new diet with planet-healthy ingredients. You have many options for a diet
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that will keep your pet and the planet healthy. You can purchase a manufactured diet from a natural pet store, a national chain store, your grocery store, or the Internet. Or you could purchase the ingredients and make the diet yourself using a recipe from a reputable source.
A Quick Word about Nutrition The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) has published requirements to ensure safe and adequate pet nutrition. Members of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) certify which manufacturers’ products qualify for an AAFCO label on their packages, signifying that the latest Research Council recommendations have been incorporated into that particular product. This explains why manufacturers make different diets. Kittens or puppies, young adults, and senior animals require different protein-to-fat ratios and calories per day. The following table shows the NRC’s nutrition requirements for an average-weight dog and cat. Requirements vary in accordance with your pet’s weight, activity, and life stage. Download the National Academies’ helpful pamphlets for dog and cat owners at www.nas.edu/banr/petdoor.html for complete nutritional requirements.
NRC’s Nutritional Requirements for Pets Pet Description
Crude Protein
Total Fat
Calories per Day
Adult cat (9 lbs.)
12.5g
5.5g
250
Adult dog (33 lbs.)
25g
14g
922
Note: Crude protein refers to the method of determining protein amounts and is not a description of the form of the ingredient.
Keeping your pet on the diet you select enables her to maintain a proper weight and provides the relative amounts of protein and fat she needs to have for a healthy life. Of course, you should use these guidelines as a beginning point. You, with the supervision of your veterinarian, will need to adjust the amount your pet eats based on her activity level and metabolism, both of which change with age. Scientists know much less about the nutritional requirements of exotic animals. As an example, the poultry industry originally developed information about bird diets. As you can imagine, parrots and other commonly kept pet birds whose habits developed gathering food in the jungle treetops of Peru have little in common with ground-dwelling poultry kept and fed in cages without fear of
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predators. Fortunately, in recent years companies specializing in bird nutrition have explored the scientific literature to determine what wild birds eat and have created formulas specific to the natural lifestyles of various species. However, even within the parrot family, nutritional requirements vary extensively. With most exotic pets—small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and birds—much about adequate diets is unknown. Providing an adequate diet is one of the difficulties of keeping exotic animals as pets. In many instances, we don’t know enough to feed these animals adequately and maintain them in a healthy condition. Many, if not most, diseases and premature deaths of exotic animals are caused by inadequate nutrition.
More about Exotic Animal Nutrition Key sources of information are your exotic animal veterinarian and the manufacturers who consistently research the nutritional requirements of the different species. To identify the veterinarians who specialize in your pet species and manufacturers of dietary prescriptions that work best for your pet, contact these organizations: American Board of Veterinary Practitioners: www.abvp.com Association of Avian Veterinarians: www.aav.org The American Ferret Association: www.ferret.org House Rabbit Society: www.rabbit.org Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians: www.arav.org Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians: www.aemv.org American Academy of Veterinary Nutritionists: www.aavn.org If you know of a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that displays the same species as your exotic pet, you might contact the facility to ask about their approach to that species’ nutrition.
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For those exotic pets who benefit from picking through produce, try buying direct from farmers for the freshest organic produce. Farmers’ markets or produce boxes delivered to your doorstep are two options available in many locations. To find community shared agriculture or farmers’ markets, visit www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm, www.localharvest.org, or www.foodroutes.org. For resources in Canada, see www.cog.ca/buyorganic.htm.
Factors in Diet Selection: Ingredients, Convenience, Cost If you’re starting from scratch, selecting a diet from among all of the pet diets available could seem impossible. As a beginner in this strange world, you should start by examining the ingredients, convenience, and cost as the determining factors. As you develop a more sophisticated knowledge, you can add other criteria. The key is to compare your pet’s nutritional requirements with the diet’s ingredients. Remember, the majority of the impact on the planet from pet foods is from the production of the ingredients, not from transportation or packaging. Another factor, and for most families the critical one, is convenience. The family needs to be able to purchase food or diet ingredients without a trip to a distant store. An alternative might be to find or form a co-op to arrange for bulk delivery of a certain food. A third factor is cost. Pet diets range in cost from the equivalent of a human diet down to a dollar a day. Although cost is not a measurement of quality, goodquality sources of protein are expensive. The least expensive foods do not include the highest-quality ingredients. A factor to consider with the higher-quality foods is that your pet may need less volume; this might help even out the cost. The “good, better, best” of the three criteria is outlined in the following table. Highlight the boxes that reflect your preferences about ingredients, convenience, and cost. Recyclable packaging gets extra points, as does buying a food produced locally.
Good, Better, Best: Selecting Dog and Cat Foods Factors
Good
Better
Best
Comments
Ingredients
Meets or exceeds AAFCO nutritional requirements.
Meets or exceeds AAFCO nutritional requirements and is natural.
Meets or exceeds AAFCO nutritional requirements and is certified organic.
Emphasis on reducing burden of production on planet.
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Factors
Good
Better
Best
Comments
Convenience
Purchase on the Internet.
Store in town.
Neighborhood Emphasis on store within reducing walking transportation. distance.
Cost
More than what you pay now, but you can afford it.
The same as what you pay now for food and supplements.
Less than what Emphasis on you pay now eliminating for food and waste. supplements.
A Three-Step Diet-Selection Process Given these three factors—ingredients, convenience, and cost—and the exploding number of pet food diets, here are three steps that people with busy lives can use to select a suitable diet for their pets: 1. Start with stores you visit regularly. If you have a neighborhood pet store, ask the store manager to help you. The number of manufacturers, formulations, and other options may leave you frustrated and overwhelmed. Limit diet candidates to those that meet your pet’s nutritional requirements. For a dog or cat, this means choosing only foods meeting AAFCO standards. If you already have a few manufacturers in mind, you can begin your research at home online. 2. Select diets with ingredients produced through agriculture or ranching that meet your standard for “planet friendliness.” You may use this in combination with Step 1 to whittle the choices even faster, especially with assistance from knowledgeable pet store staff. Speed tip: Tell the store staff you want only those pet foods labeled “organic” or “made with organic ingredients,” if that is your ethic. If natural foods are acceptable, mention this to the person helping you. 3. Once you have created a list of candidates that are available locally, look at the cost of each. Use the following Diet Selection Chart for notes about the diets that match your criteria. Finally, rank the diets based on your findings.
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Diet Selection Chart Factors
Diet 1
Diet 2
Diet 3
Rank by answering these questions
Ingredients
Does this diet reduce the production burden on the planet?
Convenience
Does this diet allow me to drive less?
Cost
Does this diet allow me to pay a price I can afford?
A couple of tips you might keep in mind: To reduce your costs, buy your preferred diet in bulk and freeze. If you have no local specialty pet food stores, try comparison shopping online or via telephone.
Selecting Diets That Deliver Among the plethora of diets for pets are homemade diets, including vegetarian and raw diets, manufactured diets, natural diets, and organic diets.
Homemade Homemade diets received a boost in the recalls of 2007, when consumer confidence in the quality of ingredients used in pet foods became a significant issue for many people. Some dog and cat professionals and practitioners of holistic medicine had been preparing homemade diets for their pets for many years because they did not find the diet they wanted from pet food suppliers. Exotic pet owners often use a combination of homemade and basic prepared diet for their particular species. Sometimes the reason is not nutritional, but behavioral: a wild animal is accustomed to foraging for food. Exotic animals often react poorly when denied this opportunity. Pet writer Christie Keith has fed her cats and dogs homemade diets since 1986. Keith warns that although feeding an adult dog a homemade diet is not so difficult, cats’ requirements are more specific and need to be followed more precisely than those of dogs or humans. As examples, she stresses the impor-
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tance of the correct calcium/phosphorous ratio, the necessity of a preformed source of vitamin A, and an essential amino acid for cats called taurine. As much as Keith is concerned about commercial diet contents, she cautions, “Nutritional deficiency diseases can kill and harm cats, too. If you decide to do this for your cats . . . please do it with care.” When it comes to cat diets, one size does not fit all. Kittens have different requirements than older cats. Some cats have medical issues that require a certain diet. Keith suggests that if you want to try homemade diets, a good approach is to investigate the services of a board-certified veterinary nutritionist to formulate recipes for your cats (or dogs) for a fee. Two services you can reach through the Internet are www.petdiets.com and www.balanceit.com. Selecting ingredients and creating a diet that contains all the nutritional requirements of your pet, monitoring the calorie intake, and continuing to make the diet over months and years is a big commitment of time. If you purchase ingredients in bulk and freeze them, you can cut the cost of these diets. Many people rave about the superior quality of their animals’ health. However, the inconvenience and cost factors associated with this approach are significant. Entire books are available on the subject of creating homemade diets. If you’re interested in creating your pet’s diet, do some background research by consulting Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard Pitcairn, D.V.M., Ph.D. A second reference is Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative by Donald Strombeck, D.V.M., Ph.D. Both books provide a good basic education in the nutritional requirements of dogs and cats. The Whole Dog Journal reviews commercially available homemade diets each year. Editor Nancy Kerns suggests three rules for feeding homemade diets: variety, balance over time, and calcium balance. Homemade diets, she explains, need to be composed of different foods, including meats, organ meats, eggs, and dairy. She advises that one kind of food should never make up more than half the diet. Also, the balance between calcium and phosphorous is critical to nutritional success. To calculate costs, figure that dogs typically eat 2 to 3 percent of their body weight per day. Several books recommended in the resource section at the end of this chapter include recipes for home-prepared diets. As with packaged diets, consider how farmers produce the ingredients of your homemade diet. Organic farming and livestock rearing are always more planet-healthy than standard production methods. In addition, a diet that includes fruits and vegetables is more environmentally friendly than an all-animal-based protein diet.
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Pet Food Recalls In March 2007, companies voluntarily recalled more than 150 brands of pet food including pouched, canned, and dry dog and cat food, dog treats, and dry ferret food. This extraordinary action was taken because four cats and one dog, as well as nine cats during routine taste trials, developed kidney failure and died after eating certain “cuts and gravy” style dog and cat food produced at Menu Foods’ facilities. In the following months, consumers and veterinarians reported many more illnesses and deaths due to kidney failure potentially associated with a wide variety of pet foods made by Menu Foods and other manufacturers. Concerned with the widening of the recall, pet owners became confused about what they could safely feed their pets; many wished to formulate their own diets. Although the recalled products represented less than 1 percent of all pet foods according to the Pet Food Institute, the list changed daily. Compounding the confusion were the additional recalls day after day. This happened because some manufacturers produce many kinds of pet foods at the same facility; a contaminated ingredient in one food could cross-contaminate the other foods. Not all of the recalled foods were contaminated, but companies acted out of caution because there was no way to be certain that the foods were safe.
Vegetarian Diets: Pluses and Minuses Vegetarian diets not only correspond to philosophical attitudes toward the treatment of animals, but are also the most planet-friendly, requiring the least resources from the planet. Eating lower on the food chain (“wheat instead of meat”) is in principle more efficient. For each pound of meat they produce, an animal will have consumed 16 pounds of wheat and up to 2,500 gallons of water. While many people choose to lead a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle to lessen their impact on the planet, animals may not have as much of a choice. Dogs have a harder time with a vegetarian lifestyle because their bodies have evolved to work better with meat as the principal component of their diets.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates pet food under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act requiring that pet foods “be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.” FDA laboratories found melamine and related substances in the recalled pet food samples. Melamine has no approved use as an ingredient in animal or human food in the United States. The FDA traced the melamine to products labeled as wheat gluten and rice protein imported from China. The FDA found that two Chinese suppliers added melamine to increase the apparent protein content of their products. In addition, some U.S. firms had added melamine-containing ingredients to feed. In case of another recall, always remember that the FDA posts updated information at www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm. If the recall is extensive, check the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine web site (www.acvim.org) or the web site of the American Association of Veterinary Nutritionists (www.aavn.org) for possible instructions. When in doubt, take your pet to the vet. Two tips on recalled food: First, you need to save the bar code and label if you store your pet food in anything other than the original bag. Recall announcements will list those labels and numbers. If you ever purchase food that is later recalled, return the food to your point of purchase and ask for a refund. Never, under any circumstances, feed recalled food to your pet.
Although it is possible, with plenty of protein supplements, to feed dogs on a mostly vegetarian diet, most veterinary and dog professionals would not advise it. Cats must eat meat to be properly nourished. Snakes also must eat meat. For the majority of naturally carnivorous pets, a vegetarian diet is ill-advised. Your dog’s and cat’s best health bet is an organic meat-based diet. Birds, many insects, and a few pocket pets, such as rats and hamsters, can eat a vegetarian diet, as long as enough protein is provided through that diet. To maintain your vegetarian pet, you could use a diet formulated for the species, or formulate your own diet using the same sources of protein as human vegetarians. Remember, many wild animals do supplement their diet with insects or scavenged meat for extra protein.
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Sample Homemade Raw Diet for a 40-Pound Dog (Reprinted with permission from Whole Dog Journal) 6–8 ounces ground raw meaty bones (include canned fish with bones once or twice a week) 4–6 ounces muscle meat/heart/tripe/leftovers 1–2 eggs daily or every other day Spoonful of yogurt or cottage cheese 1–4 ounces pureed or cooked vegetables (optional)
Raw Diets The raw diets that first became popular among people who made their own dog food are now available in prepared packages, guaranteed to meet the nutrient profiles for “complete and balanced diets.” Raw diets are composed of fresh meat: muscle, organ, bones, fat, and connective tissues. Most, but not all, also include fresh fruits, grains, and vegetables. Many animal professionals like the effect these diets have on their dogs and cats. Raw diets are usually available at natural food stores or specialty pet stores. By contrast, other diets, whether from a bag or a can, have been cooked in the creation or packaging process. The advantage of uncooked food is that heat-sensitive nutrients remain intact, requiring less supplementation of the diet. In addition, the ground raw bone that’s included is an excellent source of calcium and other minerals. Some veterinarians see a problem with raw-food diets because without cooking, biological contaminates may persist. These contaminants, such as salmonella, are a hazard for the pet as well as for the handler. Counterarguments have been made that dogs have natural digestive fluids and enzymes that have evolved to deal with bacteria and other common pathogens; therefore these contaminants pose no problem. Safe-handling practices can protect human preparers of the food from any low-level bacteria normally removed by cooking. The handling issues are the same as those with meat intended for your table. Proper thawing and proper sanitation solve those problems, advocates say.
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Remember, in creating raw diets at home, as in creating any other pet diet at home, you need the guidance of a veterinary nutritionist. Christie Keith purchases her ingredients through a raw feeding co-op, www.sfraw.com, to minimize the risk of foodborne illness that comes with feeding a raw diet. (Not all homemade diets are raw, of course.) Her raw dairy tests every batch of milk and posts the bacteria counts daily. She buys grass-fed, onsite-slaughtered cows from ranchers she knows. To find raw feeding co-ops visit Dogaware.com. If you cannot make these investments in the ingredients, a cooked-food diet is far safer for your animals. Although raw diet recipes for cats are available, they are more complicated and require precise preparation. The books by Drs. Pitcairn and by Dr. Strombeck, which are mentioned earlier in this chapter, provide cat diets you can safely consider.
Store-Bought Organic Foods Each year, Whole Dog Journal evaluates organic and natural diets for dogs. The 2007 evaluation issue listed forty different brands of dog food made with organic ingredients. There are just as many varieties of organic cat food available. Although the manufacturers of these products do keep packaging to a minimum, using soy-based inks and other nods to the Earth, the principal ecological benefit of organic products is in the raising of the plants or animals featured in the product. Buying organic products makes a statement to your family and to your local supplier. Buying organic is a way to live inside your value system, if indeed you want to support organic agricultural methods. In addition to the other benefits, some pets do better on diets that do not contain artificial ingredients. Pets with allergies may thrive on alternative organic meat sources. Many people report that their always healthy pets look and act even better after switching to an organic diet. Just a few years ago, pet stores carried no organic pet foods. Even natural food stores did not feature organic pet foods. Today, organic pet food products can be found in most natural or holistic pet stores, specialty pet shops, and even chain pet supply stores. In addition to natural and organic grocery stores, conventional grocery chains carry organic pet foods. The reason: customers have asked for it. The following manufacturers focus on organic foods. If you begin looking at these diets online, you can also find the complete list of ingredients and food formulations. Most sites have store locators. Although many small pet stores
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carry these and similar organic pet foods, you may also find these foods at chains such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and New Seasons as well as “big box” stores such as PETCO and PetSmart.
Selected Organic and Natural Foods Manufacturers Manufacturer/Contact
Diets for
Type of Diets
By Nature Organics www.bynaturepetfoods.com
Cats and dogs
Natural and organic food
Canidae and Felidae Food www.canidae.com
Cats and dogs
Natural foods
Castor & Pollux Organics www.castorpolluxpet.com
Cats and dogs
Organic diets
Eagle Pack Pet Food www.eaglepack.com
Cats and dogs
Holistic and super premium
Harrison’s Bird Foods Birds www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com
Organic diets
Momo Food www.momofood.com
Cats, dogs, and ferrets
Raw foods
Natura Pet Products www.naturapet.com
Cats and dogs
Natural foods
Natural Balance Pet Foods naturalbalanceinc.com
Cats, dogs, reptiles, and exotic mammal blends
Natural and organic foods
Newman’s Own www.newmansownorganics. com/pet
Cats and dogs
Organic diets
Primal Pet Foods www.primalpetfoods.com
Cats and dogs
Raw frozen foods
Soujourner Farms www.sojos.com
Cats and dogs
Dehydrated diets (add meat and water)
Stella & Chewy’s www.stellaandchewys.com
Cats and dogs
Raw, frozen, and dehydrated diets
The Honest Kitchen www.thehonestkitchen.com
Cats and dogs
Dehydrated raw diets
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Store-Bought Natural Foods “Natural” foods are not “organic.” If manufacturers make a food with organic ingredients, even 70 percent organic ingredients, the package says so because the marketplace values and pays a higher price for organic products. When manufacturers do not use the word “organic,” it’s because they can’t. The good news about “natural” foods is that they probably don’t contain artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives—additives that do nothing to help nutrition and sometimes mask a lower-quality product. “Natural foods” do not reduce the burden on the planet in a significant way and offer pets no clear advantage, except for those pets who may be affected by added artificial substances. However, natural foods are a step up from foods that add all sorts of artificial ingredients, and the quality of the ingredients in them is often very good. The hitch is that they are not produced through organic methods. Accordingly, they are often less expensive than organic pet foods.
Store-Bought “Whatever’s on Sale” What’s so bad about “any ol’ pet food”? One of the problems revealed itself during the pet food recalls of 2007. When manufacturers buy based on price and not quality nutrition, pets lose; purchasing quality ingredients is part of the job of a reliable pet food company. The quality variation in pet foods is enormous. The details are on the label, and in the section on page 68, “Techniques: Label Keywords,” I give clues for easy label reading. I mention this now because the products that are “whatever’s on sale” often do not meet the nutritional requirements of our beloved pets. Manufacturers must list the ingredients by percentage on the label as well as the guaranteed analysis as prescribed by the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine. One important designation to look for on the label is a statement that the product meets or exceeds the nutritional recommendations of the American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). If this label isn’t there, don’t buy the food. The store-bought foods that are not organic continue to support agricultural practices that are not healthy for our topsoil or for the rest of the environment. Not only are soil conditions threatened by production farming, but large-scale livestock rearing efforts also threaten air and water quality. The “any ol’ pet food” usually contains low-cost factory-farmed food that includes traces of pesticides, herbicides, and antibiotics that persist in food that will be passed to your pet. Our planet is a closed system. Pesticides, herbicides, and rodenticides (chemicals that kill mice and rats) circulate through the food web until they degrade—if they degrade at all.
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Some pets appear to do well on the “what’s on sale” diets for many years. What might surprise you is how much better your pets would do on a higherquality diet. Consider this: when veterinarians examine your dog, they’ll know whether she’s on a good food from the overall condition of her coat (or feathers or scales), teeth, and eyes. Get your veterinarian’s opinion about your pet’s overall condition.
Blended Approaches to Pet Diets Many mothers make their babies’ food but keep jars of commercial baby food for emergencies or travel. Other people eat organic frozen dinners during the week and luxuriate in cooking fresh organic meals over the weekend. You can vary your pets’ diet as well. Some pet owners create a blended approach. You could, as many bird owners do, cook for your pet once each day and use a packaged diet for the other meal. Some raw-food diet feeders provide raw food most of the time and occasionally use packaged foods for convenience in travel or when their pet stays with friends while the owners vacation. Although pet owners do make these changes, veterinarians recommend a gradual transition from one diet to another because abrupt changes can lead to digestive upsets. Your pet’s diet, as everything else about your relationship, should create bonds between you and not be a source of constant anxiety. Pets have survived for years eating at the “edge of human settlements.” The planet has withstood the challenges of factory agriculture and livestock rearing. Sometimes you should temporarily choose convenience, even if the convenient solution is not ideal.
Why Are Labels So Confusing? You can tell a lot about what’s in a pet food if you look at the right part of the package labels. Go straight to the back of the package. Manufacturers design package fronts to entice you to pick up their product. The labels on the back provide the nutritional value and normally some indication of the calories so that you can adjust portions to keep your pet healthy. The list of ingredients and the guaranteed analysis are the parts of the labels that matter.
Techniques: Label Keywords Label reading is the key to understanding the impact of what you buy on the planet as well as on your pet. Two designations to look for in labels are “AAFCO” and “Organic.” AAFCO is the gold standard for meeting a pet’s
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nutritional requirements. Without the mention of AAFCO, any other label claims about nutritional adequacy are meaningless. “Organic” is a designation given by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that requires a stringent certification process. Aside from these designations, the guaranteed analysis, and the ingredients list, give whatever else is on the package the same weight as you would any advertising—which is to say, not very much. Following is a table to help you interpret package labels.
Interpreting Pet Food Labels The Label Says . . .
You May Think . . .
But It Really Means . . .
Complete and nutritionally balanced food for dogs
Diet adequate for your dog
Nothing, if the AAFCO reference to nutritional values or feeding trials is missing
Natural
Organic
Probably doesn’t contain artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, but definitely not organic
Made with organic ingredients
All organic
At least 70% organic ingredients
Organic
All organic
95% organic ingredients or higher
100% organic
100% organic
100% organic
What Does a USDA Organic Certification Mean? Pet people pay a premium price for organic foods to ensure safety and quality. Is this premium justified? The USDA requires that products labeled “organic” in your local pet store or supermarket meet rigorous requirements for certification. Use of pesticides, growth hormones, synthetic fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, or antibiotics disqualifies a product from organic certification. Organic certification requires humane treatment of livestock and poultry and separate handling, processing, and storage facilities. A series of certification documents proving these treatments is required. Certification agents from each state oversee this program and inspect certified growers and facilities regularly and without notice. Products certified as
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compliant with organic labeling regulations display the name of the certifying agency and contact information on the package. Natural products, holistic products, or products that claim to use only natural ingredients cannot use the organic label. Although these products may be healthy, a certifying agency has not verified that the product meets the higher-level requirements.
International Certifications To help in international commerce, a standards group, ISEAL (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling) Alliance, monitors and provides an assurance of standards for goods labeled anywhere in the world. The International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) is one seal among others for international commerce. Other international certifications include Global Organic Alliance (GOA) Certified Organic Program, International Certification Services Organic Certification, and the Integrity Certified International Organic Certification. In the future, the question will not be, “Does this come from China?” but “Does this product have an IFOAM designation?”
What’s in Organic Food Organic food is made from the substances humans and their companion animals evolved to eat. You won’t find dyes or artificial preservatives in organic foods, nor substances such as the melamine added by suppliers to boost the protein content of pet foods that created tragedy and panic for pet owners in 2007. Neither hormones that persist in dairy products and in meat nor antibiotics that persist in animals raised in close quarters are in organic foods. These chemicals can lead to trace levels of hormones in children and the genesis of a new breed of “superbugs.” As was the case with mad cow disease, which originated from the practice of feeding cow protein to cows, changing our practices averts consequences larger than economic ones.
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Techniques: Reviewing the Ingredients List For many years, the human food industry recycled food wastes into dog food, similar to the way that people fed their dogs food scraps. Cats caught their own food. As we have elevated pets to family-member status, the basis of their diets has changed also. Rather than being the receivers of our castoffs, pets now receive the same quality food ingredients as other family members. Accordingly, the best way to review pet food ingredients is to use the same criteria that you would for your own family. A few helpful principles the Whole Dog Journal uses include the following: Whole food ingredients are better than food fragments. For example, look for wheat rather than wheat gluten, mill run, or bran. What matters is the number of whole ingredients in proportion to the number of fragments. Whole meats from named animal species are better than unspecific “meat,” which could be animal protein from any source. For example, look for chicken rather than poultry, beef rather than meat. Similarly, meals made from whole meats from named species are better than “meat meal.” For example, select chicken meal rather than poultry meal. Skip by-products altogether. Less-processed foods are more desirable than more-processed foods because they tend to be fresher, have traveled less for processing, and are more nutrient rich. Chicken meal is better than chicken by-product. Look for a named, single-source high-quality fat source such as “grapeseed oil.” “Animal fat,” in contrast, is a low-quality, mixed ingredient of uncertain origin. Eliminate foods containing sugar or sweeteners, artificial colors, flavors, or added preservatives. Foods with quality ingredients shouldn’t need additional attractions.
Evaluating Ingredients Summary Take a look at your pet’s food and complete the evaluation, highlighting good, better, or best where appropriate. When you’ve completed your diet analysis and selected a new diet, try this evaluation again.
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Good, Better, Best: Evaluating Pet Food Ingredients Ingredient
Good
Better
Best
All
Food fragments Whole ingredients
Whole organic ingredients
Meat
Whole meat
Whole meat from named animal species
Whole organic meat from named animal species
Meals
Meat meal
Named animal meat meal
Organic named animal meat meal
By-products
Small amount of by-products
No by-products
No by-products
Processing
By-products
Meals
Whole meats
Fat
Animal fat
Named vegetable oil or named animal fat source
Named highquality fat source
Sugar or sweeteners, artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
No sugar or No artificial sweeteners or ingredients artificial colors or preservatives
No sugar or any artificial ingredients
When You Don’t Understand the Label AAFCO and the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the FDA are excellent sources of information on standards and terminology for ingredients that you don’t understand. Staff members of natural, organic, or specialty stores, or your neighborhood pet food store, have a lot of practice at reading labels and are usually knowledgeable. Your pet food manufacturer or distributor should have the relevant label information on its website. Use your favorite search engine to search for your brand-name ingredient list.
Pet Food and the Planet: Our Future We’ve considered why pet food matters, the basic nutrients pets need, and how to select a diet that delivers. The rest is up to you—and your choices affect not only your own future, but the future of the planet. Change comes from consumer buying habits and from political realities. You vote with your dollars as well as at the ballot box. What we teach our children is what will happen next.
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Circle the answer that applies and add your points for your green pet food score.
My Sustainability Score: Choosing Green Pet Food Category
Good
Better
Best
What’s in my pets’ food
High-quality brand
All-natural brand
Organic brand
Manufacturer standards
I don’t know but I’ll find out
AAFCO certified
AAFCO certified
Packaging
Cans that I recycle
Paper or plastic that can be recycled
Minimal packaging and I recycle the outer paper layer because of liner
Transportation required
I don’t know, but I’ll find out
I buy from a local store
I purchase locally produced food and bicycle to and from the store
For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 12–19 points: You have a good plan for learning more about your pet’s food. 20–27 points: You understand the basics of pet food and now you’re just learning the details. 28 points: You win the Green Pet Award for doing your best for your pet and the planet when it comes to diets.
My Sustainability Plan: Choosing Green Pet Food A list helps to translate thought and feelings into action. Here are some ideas to get you started in your home or in your community. Check the ones you want to act on. Get your family and friends involved. In my home: Use my current pet food as Diet 1 in the diet selection challenge. Read the labels on my current pet food. Learn to recognize the AAFCO and Organic label symbols. Select two other diets to try in the diet selection challenge.
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In my community: Look for local natural or organic pet supply stores. Look for local natural or organic food suppliers. Look for a local farmers’ market. In my personal beliefs: Is there a political action I want to take? Is there a conversation I want to have in the neighborhood?
Resources Business and government groups: American Pet Products Association: www.appma.org Organic Trade Association: www.ota.com Pet Food Institute: www.petfoodinstitute.org USFDA CVM Animal Feed Program: www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm USDA Organic Certifiers: www.ams.usda.gov Additional reading: Wendell Berry. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1986. Nancy Kerns, editor-in-chief. The Whole Dog Journal. www.whole-dogjournal.com. Tom Lonsdale, D.V.M. Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones. Wenatchee, WA: Dogwise Publishing, 2005. Richard H. Pitcairn and Susan Hubble Pitcairn. Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats. 3rd ed., revised and updated. New York: Rodale Books, 2005. Michael Pollan. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Kymythy R. Schultze. Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats: The Ultimate Diet. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 1999. Donald R. Strombeck, D.V.M. Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1999.
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Chapter 4
Green Pet Equipment and Toys And all my toys beside me lay To keep me happy all the day —Robert Louis Stevenson
Just as people need a home and certain furnishings and equipment, pets have their own needs. Some people provide their pets with minimal toys and equipment, while others pamper their animals as if they were the Paris Hiltons of the pet world. The majority of us move between the two extremes, sorting through the enormous number of products made by the pet products manufacturing community. This group, represented by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), estimates that by 2010, annual sales of pet-related items will reach $50 billion. Eco-conscious pet product sales topped $1 billion in 2007, and grow as a proportion of the market each year. As with all other purchases we make (on behalf of our pets, of course!), knowing what we really need, where to shop, and how to avoid unnecessary purchases helps keep the earth and our pocketbooks in better shape. And given our premise that a pet kept in its original home is the best thing for the earth, having proper equipment to maintain the pet through its lifetime is essential. To tread more lightly on our planet, keep these ideas in mind when purchasing: Decrease the amount you purchase. Don’t purchase products containing toxins.
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Look for energy-efficient and water-conserving products. Purchase products that are reusable, recycled, or recyclable. A key aspect of eco-consciousness is to obtain what you need, but no more. Whether you purchase, borrow, barter, or reuse a previously used item, you need only so much paraphernalia for your pet.
What Does My Pet Really Need? The Stuff of Everyday Life Although every pet has different requirements, all pets need certain basics: food and water bowls, confinement systems, grooming products, exercise equipment and toys, and waste disposal solutions. Pets require a safe and secure place to be day and night, a space that is theirs, unshared with other animals or children. You must have a crate or carrier to confine your pet for safety or behavioral reasons or for travel. You need grooming products for your pets. (I know you’re thinking, “What kind of grooming does a lizard need?” We’ll get there.) Pets need something to do during the day; in an urban society, where herding sheep or pulling carts are no longer options, “something to do” means toys and exercise. Exercise requires either equipment for indoor pets or leashes and harnesses for outdoors. For confinement in a yard, fencing and shelter are musts. Finally, you need to dispose of your pet’s waste in an eco-friendly way. The following supply lists pertain to the most common pets. (For information on cleaning products, see chapter 6.) To obtain or request lists for pets who are not mentioned here, see www.thiswildlife.com and go to the “Pets and the Planet” readers section.
For Dogs Food and water bowl Crate with bed or mat Collar, identification tags, and microchip Leash and Gentle Leader–type head collar or harness Poop bags or scooper Umbrella (for those walks on rainy days) Brush Comb
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Nail clippers Chew toys Ball and one or two additional play toys Barriers inside or out to limit dog’s access First-aid kit Basic care book Stain and odor remover (for cleaning floors and rugs)
Green Purchasing One way to think of the things we purchase is to consider their entire life cycle. What raw materials are needed to make the product? What energy and other processing are needed to create it? How is the product packaged and transported to the point of sale? How will we dispose of it at the end of its usefulness? Manufacturers call this the product life cycle. In free markets, consumers make the rules. If consumers buy based on product life cycle, manufacturers will meet those requirements. To think deeply about this for every purchase is enough to give anyone a headache. And every purchase is not a “make or break” for the planet. The point is to be able to conceive of the product life cycle in advance and think, “Do I really need this?” If the answer is yes, then go ahead and purchase it. If the answer is “I’m not sure,” consider borrowing one or sharing a purchase with a friend. A possible light at the end of the tunnel is GreenerChoices.org, a part of Consumer’s Union, the people who bring us Consumer Reports. This trusted name has begun the thorny task of providing consumer information through an information site that includes help with deciphering labels, finding recycling options, and showing the green ratings for products including appliances, cars, electronics, food and beverages, and home and garden products. For those things we cannot buy green, the opportunity to purchase offsets to fund clean energy projects can lighten our collective paw prints.
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For Cats Food and water bowls Litter box Carrier Scratching post Collar and tag and microchip Nail clippers Brush or steel comb Carpet cleaner Exercise toys First-aid kit Basic care book
For Freshwater Fish Goldfish and tropical fish Aquarium and stand Aquarium heater Filtration equipment Gravel Lighting Thermometer Water test kits Water conditioners Aquarium decorations Standard medications Basic care book
For Reptiles or Amphibians Frog or toad, iguana, newt or salamander, lizard, snake, turtle or tortoise Aquarium and stand Aquarium substrate Cage rocks Heating accessories
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Specialized lighting Water Standard medications Basic care book First-aid kit Note: Larger snakes, iguanas, and tortoises need more space than aquariums.
For Small Mammals Rabbit, hamster, guinea pig, chinchilla, ferret, gerbil, hermit crab, mouse, and rat Cage and stand Litter for cage Water bowls Food bowls Lead, leash, and harness for rabbits and ferrets Litter box for rabbits Chew toys Toys including exercise wheels Small animal hut Basic care book First-aid kit
For Birds Parrots and softbills such as mynah birds Cage with perches and stand Water bowls Food bowls Chew toys Toys Nail clippers Spray bottle for misting Specialized lighting Basic care book First-aid kit
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These lists represent the basics—the stuff of everyday life. These are the supplies you should have in place before bringing your pet home. Some pets require additional supplies depending on their individual circumstances. Let’s take a closer look at some positives and negatives to keep in mind when purchasing basic items for your pet.
Food and Water Bowls Food and water bowls (or the equivalents, depending on species) comprise the most basic equipment you’ll need to purchase. Easy cleaning and suitability for the species are important. You want bowls or feeders that promote easy access and ready cleaning.
Thinking Green Bowls must withstand the high-temperature dishwasher cycle that removes germs as well as soil and grease. Stainless steel and stoneware are good choices. Interestingly, much stainless steel is recycled, even though labels do not include this information. Some pet bowls made from recycled plastic can be good choices, especially for cats, who require broad, shallow bowls to accommodate their whiskers. Simple designs and a broad flat bottom for freestanding bowls are important. Rather than a rubber bottom, which keeps bowls from skidding, consider a slip-resistant mat under the bowls to keep the area clean and dry. For birds, the key to buying bowls once is to remember that some birds can pick up their bowls and fling them. Use a bowl that’s either too heavy for the bird to pick up, or that’s affixed to the cage side. Plastics must withstand dishwashing.
Definitely Not Green Some ceramic bowls have lead-containing glazes. Plastic bowls, crafted from nonrenewable resources, are also not biodegradable. Many are not recyclable. Caution: Rubber or plastic may irritate some dogs and cats.
Products to Consider Take a look at stainless steel bowls, with or without the removable rubber bottoms.
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Confinement Systems, Including Cages, Crates, Carriers, and Collars and Leashes I was not able to find cages, crates, or carriers manufactured from recycled materials or employing eco-friendly processes. Again, purchasing a quality product once is a better strategy than purchasing cheaper products multiple times. An alternative to consider is the purchase of a used cage or carrier. Collars and leashes should last for many years. While some collars, harnesses, and leashes are made of hemp, you may choose to purchase a leather or artificial fiber product that is not particularly eco-friendly, because it tends to last longer. When considering leashes, keep in mind that artificial fibers can be uncomfortable on your hands.
Thinking Green Cages, crates, and carriers are investments you hope to make once, unless you have a young animal such as a puppy or a baby bird, where the size difference between the baby and the adult can be enormous. If you’re not sure how large your pet will be when fully grown, ask the shelter whether they have a crate you can rent until your pet is full-sized and you can purchase what you need. Some manufacturers address this problem in their caging design, allowing owners to raise and lower the floors to accommodate various stages of growth. When purchasing for an animal such as a bird, who will spend most of his life in a cage, buy the largest and the best cage you can afford. For example, an Amazon parrot may live to be 50. A large stainless steel cage will last the animal’s lifetime. A powder-coated cage will have to be recoated or replaced. For a dog who uses the crate for nighttime sleeping or daytime confinement and for travel by car, purchase one crate that fits your dog, is sturdy enough for both uses, and can be folded for carrying or for storage. If you know you will be shipping your dog at some point, then one crate that works for the airline as well as for the other uses is the best choice. The critical element to remember with regard to caging is to make sure that the animal cannot open the cage closure or chew through the barrier. In addition, quality manufacturing is important. Sharp edges or cheap welds that can snap could not only injure your pet, but also could allow escape and accidental death. Garage sales are excellent places to find crates and cages at reasonable prices. Remember to check them for sharp edges or missing pieces. If they are safely constructed, then go ahead and purchase them, but remember to clean them thoroughly and disinfect before use.
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Definitely Not Green Metals and plastics manufacturing do not help the earth. This is the reason to avoid purchasing more crates and carriers than you need. This is also the reason to purchase from reputable manufacturers that adhere to decent environmental practices. The raw materials come from mining and petrochemicals. You can’t change that. What you can do is choose the quality manufacturers’ products over the cheap, poor-quality product that wears out quickly. Purchase products that will last the lifetime of your pet—and perhaps someone else’s pet if you donate your equipment after your pet’s passing.
Products to Consider No manufacturers I could find fit the aim of creating a “better for the planet” crate, cage, or carrier. A good-quality stainless steel crate or cage, a good-quality fabric carrier, or a recyclable airplane-acceptable shipping crate for dogs and cats are reasonable choices. Hemp collars and leashes are popular alternatives for leather. “Gentle Leader” type harnesses or head collars for dogs are effective and last well. See “Pets and the Public,” later in this chapter, for more on leashes and muzzles.
Grooming Products Grooming products affect your pet’s skin and internal organs. You might apply a product to your pet’s fur, but your pets groom themselves. In licking their fur, or in the case of birds, preening their feathers, pets ingest whatever meets their bodies, feet included. In addition, the product remains of pet shampoos or conditioners go down the drain or into the soil in the summertime. Adding unnecessary chemicals to our waste streams or groundwater creates water-quality problems. Brushes and combs help reduce the need to wash your dog or cat. The bristle length on the brush should be just long enough to get through the hair but not long enough to prick the skin. Removing the shedding hair not only keeps your animal and home cleaner, but alerts you to parasites such as fleas and ticks before they spread to other animals or to your carpets or upholstery. A flea comb makes a good investment. Some planet-friendly people use their dog hair to make garments or to provide nesting material for wild birds.
Thinking Green Use bathing products—shampoos, soaps, body washes, stain removers—made for your dog’s or cat’s skin. A tiny amount of the correctly formulated gentle
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cleaner removes excess dirt and oil from your pet. To remove all the cleaner, rinse for five minutes past the time you feel all the product has been washed away. Although birds should be bathed in plain water, for a heavily soiled bird (one that became covered in a sticky substance, for example), Harrison’s Clinical Avian Medicine recommends one drop of soap (try Dawn) per cup (250 cc) of water. Brushing and combing frequently gives your pet the most useful grooming help. For some dogs’ coats, allowing the mud to dry before brushing enables you to remove soil without drying your dog’s skin. Purchase good-quality grooming tools such as brushes, combs, nail clippers, and any special tools your particular pet requires.
Definitely Not Green Shampoos or soaps made for people are not correctly formulated for pets’ skin. Also avoid cheap grooming products such as flimsy combs and brushes that don’t last, or inexpensive bathing products, requiring second and third purchases. Buying fewer but better-quality products saves energy and resources. Unless your veterinarian prescribes them, don’t use medicated products. Buying skin products should not be necessary for properly nourished pets. If your pet’s skin (or scales or feathers) looks like it needs grooming often, consult your veterinarian. Nutrition or cage placement may be causing an easily remedied skin problem. For example, many dogs experience flaky skin during the winter. What may be required is an increase in the good oil in your pet’s diet. When you do need prescribed or over-the-counter medicated products, remember that they need to be disposed of correctly. Water purification systems cannot remove all the pharmaceuticals that go into water sources. Visualize swimming in water containing all the medications poured down our cities’ drains. Now visualize drinking this water. Now that you have the picture, return unused medications to your veterinary pharmacy so that they can be donated to an indigent pet.
Products to Consider Take a look at Earthbath soap-free, pH-balanced grooming products for pets’ skin. They are 100 percent free of phosphates and enzymes, and are available in a wide variety of retail outlets and at www.earthbath.com. Cybercanine’s line of grooming products and botanicals for your dog includes vegan products as well as organics; go to www.cybercanine.com. Reptiles may need water containers large enough to soak in to help with their skin shedding. Hartz has created a new Clean Earth product line that uses recyclable packaging and gentle, biodegradable products.
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Beds, Exercise Equipment, and Toys Used properly, beds, exercise equipment, and toys enhance a pet’s life. Birds need a place to play safely outside their cage. Many people exercise their (nonpoisonous) snakes on a pegged board built for the purpose. Mice and rats make good use of tunnels and mazes made of a nonchewable material.
Thinking Green Instead of purchasing something new, consider using old blankets or towels as bedding for dogs and cats. If you must have a matching dog or cat bed, purchase one that will last. Toys made of recycled materials can be very good, and some endure the punishment our committed chewers give them. If you have a pet who destroys toys, be sure to find the extra heavy-duty toys that will last.
Definitely Not Green Avoid excessively cheap toys, whether manufactured in the United States or overseas. Cheap plastic or plush toys reflect poor raw materials and manufacturing quality. Often cheap goods reflect poor worker conditions and lax regulations about process and raw material safety. The 2007 discovery of toxic materials in children’s toys manufactured in China also pertained to toys manufactured for animals. Minute amounts of toxic materials, which may pose problems for children, become increasingly toxic in the even smaller bodies of pets. Worse, pets often consume their toys; if toxins are present in the toys, chewing releases even more toxins into the body than mouthing. Once chewed, these inexpensive toys made of nonrecyclable materials become part of our municipal solid waste. The worst outcome of these cheap toys is the problems they cause if your pet swallows pieces of them. Toxicity is one problem; they may also cause blockages requiring surgery to resolve.
Products to Consider Bed manufacturers to consider include the following: West Paw Design, a Montana-based company, makes dog and cat beds and toys, sourcing its raw materials and manufacturing in the United States, in a nod to the environmental consequences of using quality materials and saving on transportation. Visit www.westpawdesign.com.
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Everyday Studio makes a few amazing dog and cat furniture products combining beautiful design and fine function with environmental consciousness. Find these products through local retail outlets or at www.everydaystudio.com. Toy manufacturers to consider include the following: SmartyKat and Pooch Planet brand toys, kitty scratch posts (including the popular SuperScratcher), and beds use recycled resources to produce durable products widely available at pet retail locations. Go to www.worldwise.com. Kong makes a toy for cats, dogs, and birds. The durable rubber toy line is a very good investment. For dogs, “Kong Time” dispenses food-filled Kong toys that make mealtime a fun activity and works miracles for home-alone dogs. Visit www.kongcompany.com. Simply Fido, a line of organic plush toys for those dogs who must have soft plush, contains only organic materials, using no toxic dyes or stuffing or harsh finishing products. Find retailers at www.simplyfido.com. Keep in mind that manufacturers following the trends introduce new products constantly. Your neighborhood planet-friendly or holistic pet store will likely carry new brands. If you have no such store in your area, check the web by searching on “recycled” and “pet toys” or “pet furniture” to find toys and furniture with recycled content.
Poop Scoop, Litter Boxes, and Related Products Because animal lovers don’t exactly love the process of cleaning up after their pets, companies have put lots of effort into developing products that make the process easier. Some companies have made major strides in offering new and less destructive products because of increasing consumer eco-awareness. Although we’ll have more information on alternatives in chapter 5, “Managing Pet Waste Responsibly,” here are some green takes on products you probably purchase today.
Thinking Green Alternatives to clay kitty litter, extracted by strip mining, include more environmentally friendly materials such as recycled newspapers, cedar- or woodbased litters, wheat, alfalfa, oat hulls, peanut hulls, and corncobs. New kinds of cat boxes include one that is self-washing and carries waste into the home wastewater system.
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Definitely Not Green Many cat litters use additives; if you clean your cat box regularly, you don’t need perfumes, artificial deodorizers, and so on. (In fact, most cats prefer unscented litter.) Since your cat spends a great deal of time grooming, the chances are high that he will ingest some of these unnatural substances. In addition, with your cat’s nose in the litter, scents and dust can irritate his respiratory system.
Products to Consider The CatGenie, a self-flushing, self-washing cat box, is the Cadillac of cat boxes, but this product design also solves some thorny environmental issues. The washable litter granules eliminate the continual need for new litter. The sanitizing solution may eliminate the toxoplasmosis organism; if so, you could flush cat waste down the toilet instead of adding it to the local landfill. If you use a litter box liner in the waste receptacle of a self-cleaning litter box, use a biodegradable litterbag. If you must use a liner in a pan-style litter box, use a biodegradable liner instead of a plastic one. Interesting improvements in litter include the new silica gel litters made from an odorless mineral. “Pearls” absorb and hold moisture. Using this litter enables you to change litter less often and use less litter by weight. Litter made from recycled newspaper is biodegradable, flushable, and mostly dust free, a variation on the use of newspaper as a poop catcher. New plantbased litters, made of corn, corncob, wheat, kenaf, and oat hulls, recycle plant material that would have gone to waste. They provide good odor control and produce less dust than clay litters. Litters to consider include: Trackless Litter Pearls, by UltraPet, made of silica pearls, long lasting and effective kitty litter that does not adhere to cats’ feet. Dr. Kenaf’s lightweight cat litter made from kenaf, a plant also used to make tree-free paper; www.kenaf.com. Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter, a wheat-based clumping litter that’s also flushable (although I don’t recommend it, and neither does your water district); www.swheatscoop.com. World’s Best Cat Litter, a clumping litter made from corn; www.worlds bestcatlitter.com. Green Tea Leaves, litter made from green tea leaves, destroys odor naturally with the catechin contained in the leaves. It quickly forms clumps just under the surface, which keeps waste away from the air.
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Yesterday’s News, litter made from recycled newspapers, comes in three different pellet sizes; www.yesterdaysnews.com. Note: Clumping litters may seem especially attractive to kittens and cats, who may ingest the litter. These litters, including those made of wheat and corn, may expand in the cats’ digestive systems, causing dangerous blockages. Consult your veterinarian about how to monitor your kitten or cat to avoid this problem. Bags to consider for your dog walk include: Biobags’ Doggie Waste Bag, biodegradable, compostable, ASTM D6400 standard, certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, widely used dog waste bags; also cat litter tray liners; www.biobagusa.com. Skooperbox provides the scoop and the bag, both made of biodegradable and recycled materials. Resembling a French fry carton, Skooperbox may be for those who just are not satisfied with the bag approach; www.skooperbox.com. Dispoz-a-scoop, made by PetPro Products, advertised to be of 99 percent biodegradable materials. A cardboard scoop and a plastic bag allow you to scoop, seal, and toss this product, available through pet retailers.
Where to Shop Start your search for pet-friendly products in your local community. Not only do you interact with people who share your interests, but you also support and build your community. If the products you like are not available locally, shopping online is a way to locate many products without leaving home.
Online In the sections that follow I’ve listed e-tailers (online retailers) that: (1) specialize in green products for pets, (2) specialize in green products, including some pet products, and (3) specialize in pet products, including a few green products. As you find your favorites, please let us know at www.thiswildlife.com so that I can include your suggestions in newsletter updates.
E-tailers Specializing in Green Products for Pets These companies specialize in providing planet-friendly products for pets. Not all of their products meet the ideal criteria—for example, I’m not sure we need “music pets love,” or special pet-centric human clothing—but these are the companies that have been the first to respond to eco-conscious pet owners’ needs to find products that reflect their values.
Pet type
Cat, dog, Fish Cat, dog, bird Dog, cat
www.animalsensepet products.com
www.weissorganics.com
www.thewholisticpet.com
www.earthbath.com
Cat, dog
www.purrfectplay.com
Dog
Dog
www.globaldognatural petproducts.com
www.planetdog.com
Bird
www.yourparrotplace.com
88 x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Bags
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Toys
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Food
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Remedies
x
x
x
x
x
x
Grooming
x
x
x
x
x
x
Furniture
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Cat, dog, bird, pocket pets
Cat, dog
www.onlynaturalpet.com
Cleaners
1/15/09
www.forotherliving things.com
Cat, dog, bird
www.naturespet.com/ index.html
www.naturalpetmarket.com Cat, dog
URL
Green Pet Product E-tailers
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E-tailers Specializing in Green Products, Including Some Pet Products These companies originated with green products as a central focus, providing mostly products that have nothing to do with pets. Employees tend to understand eco-issues more thoroughly than pet concerns. These companies carry a few products that respond to the eco-conscious pet owner. Search sites using “pet” or refer to pet, household, or outdoor sections.
A Few Green E-tailers Carrying Pet Products URL
Pet Type
Cleaners Bags Toys Food Remedies Furniture
www.eco products .com
Dog
x
x
www.gaiam .com
Dog
x
x
www.store .greenfeet .com
Dog, cat
x
x
x
x
www.Debras Dogs list.com
x
x
x
x
www.eco mall.com
x
x
x
x
All
x
x x
x
E-tailers Specializing in Pet Products, Including Green Products These companies originated with pet products as a central focus. Most of these companies provide many products that do not meet planet-friendly criteria. These companies have begun to carry a few products that respond to the ecoconscious pet owner. Many offer a wide variety of excellent and good products that you’d purchase once, such as crates, but you’ll be on your own figuring out the planet-friendliness of the products.
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Selected Pet Product E-tailers Carrying Planet-Friendly Products URL
Pet Type
Cleaners Bags Toys Food Remedies Furniture
www.drs fostersmith .com
All
x
www.cherry brook.com
Dogs, cats
x
www.pets mart.com
All
x
www.petco .com
All
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Finding Local Suppliers of Green Pet Products The Organic Consumers Association (www.organicconsumers.org) provides a way for you to search for pet products or pet care and retrieve businesses in your local area that provide products created with the environment in mind. Another approach is to search for local pet stores and look for names that include words like “natural,” “eco-,” and “holistic.”
Where to Share, Reuse, and Recycle Because of today’s mobile lifestyle, you might not know your neighbors. No problem. Online communities have sprung to life, solving the problem of how to find someone who has a St. Bernard–sized crate in their garage they want to sell for $5, or a round fish tank they can’t wait to give away. Pooper scoopers, doghouses, crates, leashes, collars, baby gates, grooming tools, car accessories, litter boxes—any product you need for your pets might be available through a recycling network, a neighborhood resource sharing network, or an electronic yard sale. Based on the principles of using what we have and keeping nonbiodegradable items out of our landfills, these virtual gathering places serve an important function for our planet. New communities arise constantly; the following are representative of the types of resources you can find online.
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Freecycle The Freecycle Network is a nonprofit community made up of local groups that reuse through local gifting among their members. Members give and get items free, in an effort to keep unnecessary waste out of landfills. Join by selecting a local community at www.freecycle.org. Items you might find here include dog crates, bird cages, aquariums, and other equipment. In particular this is a good place to find a starter item to try until you’re sure what brand you want to purchase. You can also advertise items you have that you don’t need any longer.
Craigslist Twenty-five million people use Craigslist each month, searching local classifieds and forums for 450 cities worldwide. Items for sale and for free can be found here. Access the site at www.craigslist.org. You’re likely to find any item related to pets, including pets themselves, listed here. (By the way, we definitely do not recommend Craigslist as a source for obtaining pets.)
Isharestuff.org Isharestuff.org is a way for neighbors to list items to share among themselves. This is a framework for the exchanges. You set up the network of people yourself.
Neighborrow.com Neighborrow.com is a new online community that promotes borrowing of seldom-used items such as ladders or rototillers. Borrowing such items reduces excess, saves fuel in the form of shipping costs, and decreases the need for disposal. Besides cost-saving and less cluttered garages, benefits include building communities of neighbors through trust.
Throwplace.com Charities, businesses, or individuals registered with Throwplace.com can search for and request products they need.
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Home Modifications for Pets Configuring the household to be pet-friendly is one of the tricks to making life with pets more fun. As you and I get to know our pets’ requirements better, we may know more about how to modify our home for convenience. Here are a few suggestions for people with dogs and cats to consider. Keep in mind that each animal is an individual and suggestions may not work for you, perhaps for behavioral reasons. For example, a pet door would allow my dog to run in and out all day barking; but I fenced my backyard—a great improvement for both dog and person—and created a mudroom, which my dog dislikes but which keeps my housecleaning manageable here in the rainy Northwest.
Pet Doors Pet doors give your animals the freedom to come and go, to do their toileting outside and get some exercise or sunshine. Although pet doors can be a convenience, they come with built-in problems. These problems include allowing cats to roam freely out of doors, to bury their waste in the neighbor’s flower garden; allowing dogs free access to the yard, where their barking can disturb neighbors; and allowing wildlife, such as raccoons, to enter the home. In addition, pet doors allow heat to escape, creating a higher energy demand. You can avoid many of these problems with the right door system.
Thinking Green Consider using a keyed system—my personal preference. Keyed systems require a transmitter of some kind on your animal’s collar. When your pet approaches the door, the signal from the transmitter triggers the door to open. Keyed doors eliminate a majority of the problems associated with flap-style doors. Raccoons or stray dogs and cats can’t get into your home as easily, and energy loss is minimized. One caution: multiple-animal households face the problem of how to allow dogs out but keep cats in. The doors typically stay open long enough to allow a second closely following animal without a collar key transmitter to enter or exit. Less expensive doors feature a plastic flap as the barrier between the interior and exterior of your home. More sophisticated and costly panel systems use a variety of barriers, from plastic to glass, to seal the opening tightly to prevent energy loss.
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Definitely Not Green Flap-style doors don’t work as well as panel systems in preventing energy loss. Some animals don’t adjust well to the pet door. You’ll need to be patient if you have a timid dog or cat; it may take a while for him to get used to the door. There are no eco-friendly pet doors, so try to buy once rather than buying several times before you find one that works. Thorough research for this purchase, including trying your pet through a demonstration door, should help you make the right choice. If your local stores don’t have demonstration pet doors to try, use your local resources, including local animal trainers, to help you find doors to try and to teach your pets to use them.
Products to Consider High Tech Pet (www.hitecpet.com/powerpetdoors.html) offers a variety of pet doors. The most satisfactory are the keyed, but the online catalog gives a variety of styles to choose from, including the flap and patio door designs. Moore Pet Supplies (www.moorepet.com/Electronic-and-AutomaticPet-Doors-s/24.htm) offers a variety of pet door products, including those for garage doors. A strong product line is their controlled access or keyed doors.
Backyard Fencing The purpose of backyard fencing for animals is both containment and protection. Containment is the function of keeping your pets, most often dogs, on your property and out of neighbors’ yards and off roadways. Protection is the second half of the equation. Your dog needs protection from roaming dogs, wild animals, bored humans who might hurt your best friend, and animal control officers who might pick him up for roaming in violation of local animal control laws. The fence, in other words, is to keep critters out as well as to keep your pet in. Although electronic boundary fencing would seem to be the ecologically (and monetarily) thrifty solution, this type of fence is not effective for protection and only somewhat effective for containment. Not only can some pets cross the fence because their instinct to chase is stronger than the restraint of a humane level of shock, but predators can easily cross into the yard. (I was disappointed too. Get over it and move on.)
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Not often utilized but eminently sensible is fencing for cats. Most cat people are mystified that neighbors do not love their animals. A majority of cat-owning North Americans does not believe that cats should be contained on their property. However, many non–cat owners believe cats should be restricted to the owners’ property, not only for the health and safety of their pet, but also as a courtesy to everyone in the neighborhood, especially those who love to garden.
Thinking Green Fencing made from recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE), commonly known as number 2 plastic, is one solution that keeps such HDPE-made containers as milk, water, and bleach bottles out of landfills. For cat fencing, the product is typically an add-on to an existing fence. Small amounts of nonrecyclable plastic or metal mesh are required for these fences. The benefits for the environment outweigh the negatives. Recycled building products centers may also offer eco-friendly fencing.
Definitely Not Green Don’t buy more fencing than you need, and consider fence designs that require as little material as possible. Figure out just how much space you need to enclose. This approach makes sense from both a budgetary and a maintenance standpoint, since you will need to keep up the area inside the pet fence.
Products to Consider Dog fencing systems: www.itsrecycled.com www.trex.com Cat fencing systems: www.catfence.com www.catfencein.com/comments.php www.purrfectfence.com/info.asp www.just4cats.com
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Mudrooms Depending on your climate and lifestyle, having a mudroom as a transition zone for your kids and your pets can vary from “nice to have” to essential. A wellthought-out mudroom does an effective job of containing dirty outerwear for your family and your pets, and all your pet-related outdoor equipment. Confining the dirt, dampness, and clutter to the mudroom keeps the rest of your home cleaner and more organized. If you don’t have a mudroom but have an area you could transform into one, consider it. You’ll be amazed that you got along without one.
Thinking Green Mudrooms need washable walls (consider high-gloss paint), flooring (concrete, tile, vinyl), and furniture (such as a bench for taking off and putting on shoes). This is also a great place for a sink in which you can bathe your pet and rinse muddy boots before drying them. An area with a drying rack for hats, gloves, and raincoats and a special rack for shoes should be a part of your design. You can also use this room as a buffer between the indoor and outdoor environment. This “insulation” should help decrease your energy bills, especially if you use shades to keep the room cooler or warmer, depending on the weather. In very cold, wet climates, you’ll need some heat in the mudroom in order to dry the outerwear before wearing it again. Many families install the pet door in this room. Closing off this room allows pets to track the mud into a place where it causes fewer problems, or allows you to clean your pets’ paws and other muddy areas before allowing your best friend into the rest of your home. You’ll need a stock of towels and a place to put the dirty laundry from the wipe-downs.
Definitely Not Green Remember that grout requires scrubbing, so avoid light-colored grout that shows mud and dirt in favor of darker grout that doesn’t show it as well. Having a way to close off your mudroom is essential if it is to work properly to contain your pets before they have been cleaned and dried. If you have no door, consider one of the gate systems made for pets that can span a very large opening.
Products to Consider For this room, look for repurposed items. Shoe racks, for example, can be made from an old bookshelf, available in your attic or the basement of a friend.
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Instead of purchasing a new laundry sink, look at your recycled building materials center. To find one in your area, visit www.buildingreuse.org/directory. You’ll need doormats and boot trays and water-absorbing mats on which to towel your pet. Try recycled products from www.matsmatsmats.com/eco-friendly. You can locate wide-expanse gates in different materials from a variety of outlets by searching online.
Cars and Pets Would you let your child hang her head out the window? Or crawl around loose in the car? Amazing how many people allow their dogs to do just that. You might wonder how an unrestrained pet in the car represents an environmental problem, but accidents caused by distracted drivers require repairs that could include an enormous use of toxic chemicals.
Car Restraint Systems Restraint systems come in three types: First is the type that separates the cargo area of the station wagon or SUV from the backseats. Although these are sometimes made of netting, they are usually made of a thick wire and form a barrier, held in place by tension rods. Second is the crate, which can be placed in the cargo area, or belted into the backseat, similar to a child’s safety seat. One manufacturer makes a carrier that snaps into a belted base, in a pet version of the child safety seat. Third is a type of restraint system that belts the dog, sans crate, into the seat belt. It could work, if the dog doesn’t chew his way out. If you have a dog who tolerates this system, it will make your life simpler. No one is making an eco-conscious crate or restraint system today. So just keep in mind that the crate, or whichever system you use, is another of those purchases that consumes resources, so you should buy once rather than several times. If you take your cat to the vet once a year, belt the carrier into the backseat. The same procedure applies to your birds or your snake. If you take your cat to the beach every afternoon for a walk (don’t laugh, it happens), it’s best to have a carrier that easily snaps into a belted system. For those who have dogs that need a park run, and the park is accessible only by car, consider keeping a crate in the cargo area permanently. With planning, you can fit two narrow
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crates into the rear of some cars. Some crates have front- and side-door openings. Consider these for cars with smaller cargo areas. Ask your local pet store for help. And try the crates in your car before you buy.
Public Transportation and Pets In general, public transportation authorities in the United States and Canada are not enthusiastic about accepting pets on board. For example, Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses do not allow pets. I get that. Who wants to sit next to a cat if you’re allergic, or to a Shih Tzu who growls for two days as you cross the great American plains? But for those of us who keep our pets close, this situation encourages us to cling more tightly to our cars. Public transportation systems that do allow dogs seem to believe that small dogs are more acceptable to most other passengers. Perhaps they consider them lap luggage, whereas a large dog infringes on the space of other passengers. If you have ever sidled up to a Neapolitan Mastiff, the breed of Hagrid’s dog Fang in the Harry Potter movies, you can believe the dog would take up an entire row on a bus. Mastiffs are also known to snore loudly, wheeze, and drool. In other words, most passengers wouldn’t want to sit next to one. Nevertheless, some cities walk this line between the benefits of public transportation and the animosity of some passengers toward animals or animals toward other passengers.
Ticket, Please: Pets Ride Vienna Streetcars Cities in Europe, where cars are more inconvenient and expensive, have long faced the issue of pets on public transportation. Vienna, for example, has established a fare code for dogs. You can bring your small dog on board in a closed carrier to avoid buying a second ticket. Leashed, muzzled dogs require a child’s ticket purchase. The best deal: dogs travel free with passengers having an annual transportation pass. That’s green!
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Our friends at DogFriendly.com have gathered information on travel with pets worldwide. This helpful web site maintains up-to-date information. They’ve allowed us to include an abbreviated version of their information about public transportation in the United States and Canada, the details of which are too lengthy to be included here. For complete information, pay them a visit online at DogFriendly.com.
Pets and the Public When you take your pet into a public space, you need to be concerned about public safety and your pet’s safety. Once having thought these issues through, all that’s left is for you and your pet to have fun.
Public Safety Public safety means thinking about leashes and considering the possibility of muzzles. Accidents are in no way green. Think bent bicycles. Tripped runners. Anxious dogs. Injuries. Prevention is a green approach. Thinking ahead, establishing, and following routines that make sense for you and your pet are the ways forward. Safety routines are “green brainers.”
Leashes Leashes are required by local ordinances in most public places in North America. Parks, municipalities, and national parks, where dogs are allowed, require leashes. These ordinances were created in response to concerns for public safety. Off-leash dog areas have been created for the free-roaming interaction of dogs and their people. Well-meaning people carry leashes and plan to snap the leash on in case of trouble. Unfortunately, this puts the properly leashed dog at a disadvantage, in the behavioral language of dogs. The walker of the unleashed dog is allowing his dog to assume a dominant position, often provoking the leashed dog to appear or become aggressive. Be advised that keeping all dogs on leash is what promotes public safety. You’ll discover several leash options, including the standard six-foot leash. For walks in less trafficked areas, consider a flexi-leash, which can extend from ten to thirty feet. This allows a dog more exercise, going out and back on the leash, but also allows you to have 100 percent reliable recall over your dog. By the way, if you’ve never used a retractable leash, be aware that some areas restrict dogs to a six-foot leash. Do be careful to keep your dog on a short leash going around corners so that no accidents happen.
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Muzzles In Europe, use of muzzles is more common than in North America. To bring dogs onto public transportation in some countries requires the use of a muzzle for public safety. Crowding dogs or thoughtless well-wishers reaching for a dog can provoke the most even-tempered dog into protecting himself or his owner. The muzzle allows the dog to express himself without contacting the errant human hand. A second value of muzzles is in keeping your dog from pursuing wildlife that’s not quick enough to escape. A final value is in that habit dogs have of eating things they consider tasty, including a dropped hotdog, a piece of plastic, or the poop of other animals, including dogs. This last point is a health issue, as well as an aesthetic one. Take a look at the Italian basket muzzle or the wire muzzles at www.dog muzzle.com. If you have a dog who bites, consult a trainer, because this is a serious situation, not one for the pet owner to resolve alone.
Protecting Your Pet in Public Be aware that not everyone vaccinates their pets or treats their pets for parasites. What this means is that you want to be sure that your pets’ vaccinations are up to date. In a dog park or any outdoor area where dogs interact with each other, drink from common water supplies, and contact feces from other dogs and wild animals, the opportunity to contract diseases such as kennel cough, and viruses such as parvo or giardia, are high. Assume parasites such as worms, fleas, and ticks are part of everyday life in these settings the way that coughs, colds, and head lice are in elementary schools. Discuss appropriate preventive measures with your vet. Also remember that most dogs love to chase, or at least investigate, anything that moves. Garter snakes, bugs, and squirrels are examples. Dogs, however, cannot distinguish between the wildlife that will tolerate their curiosity and the wildlife that won’t. Bird rookeries, denning areas for mammals such as foxes, beaches where migrating shorebirds rest and refuel during migration—all are important to maintaining stable populations of those animals. The stress of being chased by unleashed dogs may drive a group of animals from their chosen place to one less safe. For the safety of your dog, be aware that venomous animals are afoot or aslither in our parks. Finally, remember that our rivers, streams, and reservoirs are a source of human drinking water. Although, yes, there are animals that defecate in these areas without cleaning up after themselves, the “load” of parasites in the water is altered when a trail is well-used by domestic animals of any kind. This is the
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reason that cleanup in the wild matters. Alternative to carting waste home from a three-day backpacking trip is to bury it at least 100 yards from the nearest water source. Burying waste when you walk your best dog friend on a public beach is not effective because the water will disturb your burial and leach the bacteria into the water. Pick up the waste and dispose of it in a trash container. Just as you are careful about where you drink when you’re out hiking, be aware that any water can also be a source of parasites for your pet. Giardia is a common contaminant. For more information, see chapter 5.
Green Exercise for Your Dog For people who choose to live in cities to contain our urban boundaries and preserve farmland and wild spaces, plenty of shared pet exercise space exists there as well as in more rural parks and recreation areas. Dog parks are covered here and again in more detail in chapter 8’s “Pets in Public Spaces.”
How to Use a Dog Park A true dog park is one that has an off-leash area and amenities for dogs. Dog parks have an etiquette all their own. In addition, introducing your dog to an off-leash park for the first time requires some thought. Several excellent references exist, well worth the time invested to read them. Try these, to start: Visiting the Dog Park: Having Fun, Staying Safe, by Cheryl Smith (Dogwise Publishing, 2007). Written for the dog owner who wants to hear the pros and cons of dog parks, how to make the most of the park, and what the dog owner needs to know about dog body language. For anyone who wants to understand dog parks, this is the place to start. (Available at www.dogwise.com.) Off-Leash Dog Play: A Complete Guide to Safety and Fun, by Robin K. Bennett and Susan Briggs (Dream Dog Productions, 2007). Written for professionals, but any dog owner can learn from this authoritative book. (Also available from www.dogwise.com.)
Finding Dog Parks To find a dog park in your area, try the following Internet sites: www.dogpark.com: Download a list of dog parks in the United States or Canada from this site. www.ecoanimal.com/dogfun: Click to a list of dog parks by state or province and city.
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Planet-Friendly Pet Equipment and the Future As applied to pets, green concerns are in their infancy. As a part of keeping you informed, www.thiswildlife.com offers a free newsletter to update with information on green companies and their products. Visit www.thiswildlife.com and follow the links to “Pets and the Planet” to subscribe. Take the following quiz to see where you stand with regard to green pet equipment and toys. Circle the answer that applies and add your points for your green equipment and toys score.
My Sustainability Score: Choosing Green Pet Equipment and Toys Category
Good
Better
Best
Have what I need for my pet type
Have some items
Have most items
Have all items
Reviewed toy and equipment purchase plan to see if I can share or reuse
I’ve listed what I need
I’ve looked on Freecycle for items
I found at least one thing from a neighbor or online recycle site
Have found green suppliers for toys and other pet needs
Have looked at suppliers in chapter
Have used Have found and chapter references visited suppliers to find local I like suppliers
Understand how to exercise my pet safely in public spaces
Read the chapter and intend to review
Use my leash to go to and from off-leash areas
Use a muzzle as well as a leash when I take my pet to a crowded and/or unclean area
For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 12–19 points: You have a good plan for learning more about your pet’s equipment and toys. 20–27 points: You understand the basics of green pet equipment and toys and now you’re just learning the details. 28 points: You win the Green Pet Award for doing your best for your pet and the planet when it comes to choosing green pet equipment and toys.
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My Sustainability Plan: Choosing Green Pet Equipment and Toys A list helps to translate thought and feelings into action. Here are some ideas to get you started in your home or in your community. Check the ones you want to act on. Get your family and friends involved. In my home: Have what I need for each pet. Find local suppliers that carry green products for needs as they arise. Make unused pet supplies available to others. Make sure I use leashes and consider use of a muzzle. In my community: Help keep local dog parks clean and accessible. Support local suppliers of green pet products. Provide green pet equipment ideas to friends and neighbors. In my personal beliefs: Is there a political action I want to take? Is there a conversation I want to have in the neighborhood?
Resources Business groups: Organic Trade Association: www.ota.com GreenerChoices: www.greenerchoices.org Organic Consumers Association: www.organicconsumers.org DogFriendly.com Additional reading: Robin K. Bennett and Susan Briggs. Off-Leash Dog Play: A Complete Guide to Safety and Fun. Woodbridge, VA: Dream Dog Productions, 2007. Cheryl S. Smith. Visiting the Dog Park: Having Fun, Staying Safe. Wenatchee, WA: Dogwise Publishing, 2007.
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Managing Pet Waste Responsibly They think they can make fuel from horse manure. Now, I don’t know if your car will be able to get thirty miles to the gallon, but it’s sure gonna put a stop to siphoning. —Billie Holiday (American jazz singer, 1915–1959)
Dealing with waste is the price we pay for having a pet we love. If you don’t want to deal with litter or waste, you need a plant. The widely quoted estimate of the number of people who pick up their dog waste in public is 40 percent, so the other 60 percent of us need behavior modification. When we confront waste that doesn’t belong to our pet, our reaction is usually disgust. What was your reaction the last time you stepped in pet poop wearing your brand-new shoes? Have you picked greens from your garden only to find that your row of arugula has been used as a cat toileting area? Pets leave their waste at playgrounds, backyards, along the roadside, everywhere in most cities and towns. Especially in our recreational areas, we see some of the solid waste. As offended as we get when we see pet waste, our animals are offended more by the waste we don’t see—the urine. Even when you can’t detect it, your dog or cat can. How many times has your dog stopped to sniff during your walk around the block? And, of course, this triggers the behavior of covering the other dog’s waste with his own urine, the ramifications of which are discussed in chapter 6 on household cleaning and pets. Pet waste is intrusive, never-ending, and a source of questions that most people don’t want to ask. The revulsion people have for pet waste is the factor behind an entire new industry. Every time I’m in the pet store, I see cat owners
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looking glassy-eyed at the litter choices. Friends with cats demonstrate their newest devices purchased in hopes of curing the litter-box problem. Snake waste products are in a class by themselves. This chapter takes an in-depth look how you can treat pet waste sustainably. We discuss: Other than the “ick” factor, what’s so bad about pet waste? Why pick up pet waste when wild animal and livestock waste goes directly into the environment? What is the most responsible way to deal with pet waste? How can a busy person keep the harmful effects of waste out of their house and yard, and off community sidewalks? In the process, we’ll look at what is in pet waste, what disposal methods are common, and the plusses and minuses of each. By the end of the chapter, you should understand how your choices about your pets’ waste affect the environment. The goal is that you know enough to make decisions consistent with your values.
Facts and Figures The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that dogs evacuate 0.75 pounds of feces per day, or 5.25 pounds per week. One dog creates approximately 273 pounds of feces per year. That’s the amount you’ll be picking up if you have one average-sized dog. The American Pet Products Association (APPA) tells us there are 74 million dogs in homes in the United States. Our inescapable conclusion is that our dogs produce 10 million tons of feces nationwide, each year. (Not surprisingly, cats would not give estimates to the EPA, so their contribution is left to the imagination.) A San Francisco study revealed that 4 percent of the city’s entire wastestream is pet waste. Similar studies demonstrated that Seattle homeowners throw out 7,600 tons of pet waste per year. Pets generate 10 million tons of waste annually in the United States. Ten million tons—that’s enough pet waste to cover 1,100 football fields, including the end zones, to a depth of 5 feet.
The Dangers of Pet Waste Animal wastes contain living things. To understand why companion animal waste creates a health problem, we need to examine these organisms. Organisms in waste are generally viruses, bacteria, or parasites.
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These organisms can cause disease in humans, animals, and plants. Whether the organism reaches another through the water or through ground contamination, the results are the same. Viruses such as the Norwalk virus, which has been in the news so often in recent years, cause gastroenteritis, with symptoms including diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps. According to the World Health Organization, these illnesses are second only to malaria as a source of lost work time. Roundworm, the most common hazard in dog manure, infects 90 percent of young puppies before being treated. These worms cause 30 percent of the eye disease in children; 30 percent of people tested in the last U.S. Public Health Service tests, conducted in 1978, tested positive for roundworm. Although worms may not sound dangerous, and bacteria can be cured with antibiotics, the fact is that people can contract diseases carried by their pets. Most people are not aware of this; a recent study conducted by Braun Research showed that 83 percent of dog owners are unaware that their pets’ waste can cause a parasite infection in people. The organisms of greatest health concern from companion wastes are cryptosporidium, Giardia lamblia, and the more aggressive forms of E. coli and salmonella. These illnesses can be more serious or fatal for people with weakened immune systems. Although livestock waste is a much larger issue, livestock typically are not located in the major metropolitan areas. Professionals tend stock confined to areas where the environmental problems are or can be contained. The composition of livestock waste is also less of a hazard than that of most companion animals because of their diet. Cows, horses, and chickens eat plant materials. Dogs and cats eat diets that include meat; meat diets produce wastes with different characteristics, including parasites and viruses. Finally, livestock waste, even on private property, falls under state and federal environment and agriculture regulations.
Bacteria from Pet Waste About two-thirds of any amount of fecal material is water. Indigestible food makes up most of the remainder. However, feces also contain the breakdown products of red blood cells, a small amount of fat, and a smaller amount of protein. Depending on the animal species, the indigestible food elements vary. With regard to environmental effects, the nitrogen in this waste is only part of the problem (we’ll get to that in a minute). Feces also contain a large amount
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of bacteria, shed from the intestine. The bacteria participate in normal digestive activity, but when released into the environment can create disease. Bacteria are single-celled organisms such as E. coli and shigella, which have featured prominently in the news. As an example of how contact between animal waste and food is a concern, remember the E. coli outbreaks related to spinach used by several chain restaurants and on strawberries from one large growing region? Farmers work hard to keep their crops free of these diseases.
Parasites and Viruses in Pet Waste Pet waste also can contain parasites and viruses. Internal parasites include various types of worms that develop in one body, and reproduce by shedding eggs that then enter a new organism. A parasite is an organism that lives at the expense of another. So small you need a microscope to see them, parasitic worms are transferred through larvae or eggs. People contact and accidentally ingest the larvae and eggs through contact with feces, soil, plants, or sand. In particular, children playing in areas where dogs or cats relieve themselves transfer eggs to hands and from hands to their mouths. The results of these parasites can be very harmful. People, especially children, contract roundworms and hookworms especially through contamination of public sandboxes, parks, and backyards. Habits that help prevent the spread of roundworms and hookworms include: Picking up and disposing of your pet’s waste Covering your kids’ sandbox to prevent your pets and neighbors’ cats from burying their waste in it Not allowing your children to play or walk barefoot in public areas that dogs frequent Teaching your children to wash their hands immediately after coming indoors and always again before eating
Water Contamination from Pet Waste North Americans generally think of undrinkable water as a problem in foreign countries that don’t practice the same level of water hygiene as we do. What
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many people don’t realize is that the increasing populations of pets accompanied by increased water runoff from the concrete of our towns and cities usually flow directly into nearby bodies of water. North Americans degrade the quality of our drinking water, not by design, but through lack of understanding. Water from rain and snow hits city streets and parking lots and travels to storm drains. In most cities, these storm drains empty into the nearest river or stream. Pet waste, as well as oil and other products spilled on roads and streets, enter the storm water system and flow directly into the municipally determined body of water. Companion animals, according to a watershed study by the city of Seattle, were responsible for up to 20 percent of bacteria found in municipal water samples. When waste enters public waterways, the waste decays, takes oxygen from the water, and releases ammonia. As anyone who has tried to manage an aquarium understands, life for aquatic plants and animals is all about balance. The proper amount of oxygen in the water, and the level of waste in the water, must be low enough to prevent a bloom of plants from the fertilizer applied. Perhaps you’ve gone to a lake where, during the summer, an extraordinary amount of algae makes the water green and cloudy. You’ve seen the results of too much nitrogen from wastes in the water. The problem with animal waste washing into our rivers isn’t simply an issue of too much nitrogen in the water causing green algae to foul our swimming conditions or cause sport fish die-offs, but the bacteria and parasites that infect people and wildlife. One of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States, giardia, is well known among campers. Most people believe raccoons spread giardia, but it is regularly present in and spread by dogs. Nitrates in drinking water create a health risk for infants less than 6 months old. Nitrates can rise quickly in water to above the safety level of ten parts per million because of rainfall or agricultural activity. I would not have picked pet waste as a major contributor to runoff and urban water pollution. Neither did municipal waste managers, until they saw the data. (Each organism has its unique variety of bacteria—a fecal footprint, so to speak. That’s how water-quality experts distinguish pet waste from livestock waste from human waste.) But if you consider the number of pets in the United States, consider the volume of waste each pet creates, and understand how our storm water flows, you begin to see how this problem is developing momentum. The EPA recommends that pet owners limit their contribution to drinking water contamination by cleaning up and properly disposing of pet waste.
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The Scoop on Babylon As a part of a program associated with the Clean Water Act, the town of Babylon, New York, made 500 free pooper-scoopers available to pet owners or people who adopted animals at the town shelter. The aim was to reduce non–point source pollution (the kind of pollution that occurs when storm runoff carries animal waste, oil, grease, and toxic chemicals into waterways—in Babylon’s case, the waterways leading to Great South Bay). Steve Bellone, the town supervisor, says that animal waste from the town’s 4,000 dogs and uncounted geese and ducks creates a threat to local water quality. It is a large factor in the runoff that closes beaches and hurts the fishing industry. Town regulations now require pet owners to pick up animal waste; violations carry a maximum fine of $250, ten days in jail, or both. In addition to being a source of free Baggies, this creative program is a way to encourage resident pet owners’ compliance on Long Island.
Practicing Responsible Pet Waste Management Many pets are fussy about their waste. Their natural inclination is to deposit their waste at a regular time and place, and cover or otherwise ritualize their elimination. When waste builds up in a litter box or a yard, the pet begins to look for unsoiled places to eliminate. This can mean indoors, or specific locations outdoors you’ve forbidden them, such as the garden. Improper elimination is the number one reason cats lose their homes. Such behavior damages the relationship between any pet and her family members. Companions who pick up waste regularly and sanitize areas frequently marked with urine find that cats, dogs, and many small mammals will deposit their waste in the same spot, day after day. This preferred place will be as far away from their food and other activity areas as the pet finds practical. This fastidious habit makes the job of cleaning far easier and your relationship with your pet much better.
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Principles of Disposing of Pet Waste Most of the time, pets deposit their waste somewhere in your home or yard. For birds, pocket pets, and exotics, their cage is the location. For dogs, there’s the waste they deposit in the yard or the waste they deposit during your walks. If you have a cat, waste disposal is easy if you keep it indoors—and easy in a different way if you allow it to roam (that is, easy for you, annoying and frustrating for your neighbors). If the EPA had its way, we would all flush pet waste down the toilet, allowing it to be treated by a sewage plant or septic system. A second way to handle pet waste is to seal it in a bag and put it into the garbage. Because garbage goes to a landfill, which, to operate legally, must be isolated from groundwater by an impermeable barrier, this method prevents pathogens from spreading. The principles of both methods are: (1) to render the material harmless by treatment to eliminate the pathogens, and (2) to isolate the untreated material from water and from other human contact. These principles make sense from a health perspective and can be implemented in several ways. You can simply flush waste down the toilet. You can throw the waste into the trash for municipal disposal. You can use your trowel to bury it in the yard. Let’s look at each of these options against the backdrop of our principles of: (1) rendering the material harmless by eliminating the pathogens, or (2) isolating the untreated material from water and from other human contact. Keep in mind that our problem elements are: (1) bacteria and parasites, (2) elements of nitrogen and phosphorous (fertilizer, essentially), and (3) aesthetic concerns such as appearance and odor.
Toilet Flushing dog waste would be an attractive choice if it were not for the aesthetics. Many people don’t want to share their toilet with others, even a beloved pet. In addition, this method requires handling waste more precisely than using a pooper-scooper or a shovel. Bringing waste indoors to flush violates most of what we know and feel about keeping our homes clean. The advantage of this method is that the waste travels through a system designed to eliminate the bacteria and parasites and redirect the nitrogen and phosphorus, often to a good cause. In addition, we pay our municipal authority to handle our waste. The service deals with waste disposal in a way that satisfies both the principles of eliminating the pathogens and isolating the untreated material from human contact.
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But would you really use this method? If you have a small dog, with neat, inoffensive poop and two toilets at home, perhaps. If you have an ancient Labrador with messy waste, and your family of five shares a bath and a half, I don’t think so.
Trash Adding pet waste to the trash is what many urban and suburban dwellers do. This removes the waste from the pet’s area, along with the bacteria and parasite eggs. The problems caused by these components are relocated from the pet owner to the municipal authority.
Biodegradable versus Compostable Plastic bags are a convenient way to handle waste. They prevent waste from touching your hands, contain the waste for transport, and are disposable. Of course, plastic bags seem the antithesis of concern for the earth. However, we can choose either to reuse bags that will go to a landfill anyway, or to purchase bags that are biodegradable or compostable. What’s the difference? Biodegradable means only that the plastic will break into pieces, a physical breakdown that sometimes leaves a toxic residue. Compostable means a complete chemical breakdown to natural elements; bags must meet the ASTM-6400-99 standard for manufacturers to claim their products are compostable. For those who can afford them, bags that break down to their chemical elements to be reused by natural processes are a terrific alternative. One popular brand, BioBags, was designed to decompose in forty days in a “regulated composting environment.” Made of a cornstarch polymer, these bags literally dissolve in the right conditions. A year of bags, assuming 600 bags at $69.50 and shipping (from Florida or Colorado) at $9.95, costs $79.45.
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Trash haulers are paid by homeowners and landfills are paid with our tax dollars to deal with our wastes. This method of disposing of waste satisfies our concern about isolating the untreated material, but does nothing to eliminate the pathogens from the environment. Would you really use this method? Most of us do if we walk our dogs. We dispose of the waste pickup bag in the nearest trash can. Those of us who pick up their yard once a week probably do too. We collect the waste in a bag, seal it, and toss it in the trash. The drawback, as with anything we seal in plastic, is that the waste never decomposes because it remains inside the plastic container that never decomposes.
Trowel Burying waste deals with the issue of isolating, and burying properly. Dig a hole at least 1 foot deep. Mix the waste into the soil. Cover the waste to a depth of at least 8 inches to prevent rats or pets from digging it up. Would you really use this method? This method does not eliminate the pathogens from the environment, and depends on the homeowner’s understanding of the issue of groundwater contamination. You must dig the hole far enough away from a water source to eliminate the possibility of runoff. Do you know where that spot is in your backyard?
Home Composting: A Better Option? Composting, you’d think, has to be a better answer, a planet lover’s dream come true. Breaking down pet waste, a natural product, through a natural process using heat and bacteria would seemingly equate to spinning straw into gold. The benefits would seem even better if we include the litter or substrate that pets use such as wood shavings or straw in the case of rodents or newspaper in the case of birds and reptiles. And composting makes use of the elements of nitrogen and phosphorous, eliminating the need to purchase fertilizers containing these elements—always a good outcome. Here’s the problem. The biologic portion of the waste, the one that required our principle “eliminate the pathogens,” cannot be satisfied through home composting. Eliminating pathogens requires the high, sustained heat of commercial-grade composting. Think of parasites as super seeds, living materials with coatings so tough and so resilient that long, sustained efforts to break them down are required. This is why plant pathogens and animal pathogens like bacteria and parasites’
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eggs persist despite medical science’s best efforts to eliminate them. Destroying them requires a physical assault on the materials, either from the inside of the organism or through the surface of an egg that is not yet taking in nutrients from the outside. Home composting isn’t up to this challenge. The composters used by municipalities to treat biosludge left over from the sewer system are engineered to create and maintain high temperatures for the necessary length of time. According to R. E. Hall, extension veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to sterilize pet manure and render it safe, you’d need to achieve a temperature of 165°F and sustain it for five days. Backyard compost heaps rarely reach this temperature, and the outer several inches never do. Although chemical sterilants such as methyl bromide could be used, Hall says, “The cost and bother is probably not worth the value of the manure . . . and the average homeowner is not equipped to handle chemical sterilants.”
What Makes Commercial Composting Okay? Commercial products, such as manure and soil conditioners made from biosolids from wastewater treatment, are safe because they undergo a regulated process (by the EPA’s 503 Biosolids Rule) in facilities designed to meet the requirements for eliminating parasites, bacteria, and viruses. These processes heat the unpurified material and maintain that temperature for a fixed amount of time. Certified equipment performs the sterilization process, incinerating the pathogens, rendering them harmless, and only the nutrients remain. One common process, pasteurization, requires treating at 70°C (158°F) for thirty minutes and composting at 55°C (131°F) for three days. The processing through composting also requires a particular pH range and drying the product to 50 percent dry solids. Less severe regimes result in less effective treatment. Meeting the EPA’s 503 Biosolids Rule is a task better left to professionals than to home composters.
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Hall’s conclusion is that the health hazards are greater than the potential benefit. He recommends disposing of pet waste by flushing, burying six inches or more deep in soil, or placing in tight plastic bags for garbage collection. Echoing Hall’s thoughts is the EPA. Although some groups recommend composting, the EPA recognizes that pet wastes carry diseases and should not be incorporated into compost piles. The EPA also makes the point that pets should be kept away from gardens, streams, ponds, and lakes. If this makes the EPA sound like an overprotective parent, remember the numbers from early in the chapter. What if everyone allowed his or her animal into the water upstream from your garden? But my dog is different, you say. I thought this myself. My dog has just had her annual exam, including a fecal analysis, the weather is warming, and I have a hot compost pile. But the fecal exam won’t find the roundworm that my dog picked up yesterday, inhaling in the long grass by the side of the road where someone left their unwormed dog’s feces. Sadly, home composting satisfies neither of our principles of isolation or destruction. The writer sighs with disappointment, as the reader must also. Just say no and move on.
New Developments in Pet Waste Disposal Three relatively new developments may give pet owners more options for disposing of their pet’s waste. One is the pet waste digester. The second is a pet waste removal service. The third, for those lucky enough to have a forwardlooking community, is curbside organic waste recycling.
Pet Waste Digesters You install a pet waste digester in your own backyard. Before burying the plastic box with a hole in the bottom, you dig a 6-foot hole, fill it with 3 feet of gravel, place your waste digester with its drainage hole on top, and then tamp the dirt back around the box to the level of the lid. As you scoop the poop from your yard, place it in the digester and close the lid. Periodically you add water, required to keep the digestion process active. Companies making in-ground pet waste digesters market their products as nontoxic and environmentally safe alternatives to other disposal methods. They allow pet owners to isolate pet wastes in a central place, removing the waste from the areas the pet is using and allowing the pet the ease of using a clean place for elimination. Digester powder, mostly bacteria, speeds the breakdown of feces. The digester works above 40°F, so the digester is not effective (in most areas) for wintertime use.
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Reviews on these products are mixed. While the idea is intriguing to those of us who simply cannot bag waste for the landfill, the digesters do not work well for many people. Either pet owners fail to add sufficient water or digester powder, or the temperature does not rise sufficiently to break down the waste before it accumulates in the yard again. These products do work, but I never balanced the digester/water/waste proportion well enough to be satisfied with the results. Besides, I needed a different solution for much of the year because of temperature considerations.
Pet Waste Services Pet waste services have been growing in popularity since 1998, when the pioneers of the business, including trade group founder Deb Levy, began. These waste services have no magic bullet for disposing of pet waste. The waste goes to the landfill. The problem pet waste services solve is that of picking up the waste. “Consumers don’t want to clean up after their dogs, even in their own backyard,” said David Litwak, editor-in-chief of Pet Business magazine. The owners of the waste services echo this sentiment. Litwak profiled 1-800Doody-Calls in his magazine. Jacob D’Aniello, president, worked for five years to build his business to four hundred customers and five employees. Now he offers franchises in the pet waste business. In Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, pet-waste collection companies have created a cooperative, each with a territory to themselves. Names include In the Bag Pet Services, Dog-Gone Doo-Doo, and Yard Guard. Matt Osborn wrote a book on the subject: The Professional Pooper-Scooper: How to Start Your Own Low-Cost, High-Profit Dog Waste Removal Service. Osborn operated his business for ten years, and sold it for $219,000. Osborne says that his business thrived on what he calls the “repugnance factor.” The repugnance factor may be behind the growth of the estimated three hundred companies in the poop collectors’ business. There is now a trade organization called the Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists. Costs for these pet waste removal services range from small to large, depending on the type of service you require. An example is the Pet Butler Franchise Services Corporation, with seventeen franchises operating in fortythree territories. “Picking up after one dog once a week is $10.75,” founder Matt Boswell says. “One customer pays Pet Butler $685 a month to pick up after five dogs, apply odor eliminator spray, and sprinkle ‘Don’t-Go-There’ crystals three times a week.” (More about how these services operate in chapter 7, “Pets and Ecologically Sensitive Pet Services.”)
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Profile of a Dog Waste Removal Service Alan Pietrovito, a professional pooper-scooper, owns the Doody Calls franchise in Portland, Oregon. Passionate about protecting the environment, Alan believes that as a citizen of Portland he has a responsibility to show leadership, so he looks beyond his current business and has proposed a local methane digester for pet waste in Portland. He is folding his fledgling organization, Stumptown Dog and Watershed Group, into Portland’s new Pet Chamber of Commerce, a larger organization that can get more done. Pietrovito began work in this business as a seasonal supplement for his 1-800-Junk franchise. The junk business is heavy in the summer. The poop business is big in the winter. Pietrovito’s biggest concern is that people don’t seem to grasp how much of a health problem pet waste presents. He is also concerned that “we all live downstream.” Still working at 5:00 p.m. on a beautiful Friday evening, he says, “Duty calls.”
What’s best for the environment is commercial-grade composting of all pet waste. I’m hopeful this is right around the corner in my city. Curbside collection of compostables would make this possible. Next best is burial of waste, assuming you have small amounts, at a location that would not contaminate groundwater with runoff. If you have a small dog, flushing “tidy” waste is an excellent option. Next best is to bag it and put it in the trash. I hate to recommend this, but as you might imagine, health trumps landfill size in my book.
Curbside Organic Waste Recycling Another way to deal with the amount of pet waste across a city or region is to create something useful, like fertilizer and energy. Many cities are producing biogas from organic waste. San Francisco and Toronto are cities that use their recyclables instead of selling or providing them to other recyclers. Toronto uses organic material that
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families put out in “green carts” that contain bagged organic garbage, including pet wastes. Toronto’s city waste management takes organics to a plant that uses waste as the feedstock in a process that produces biogas and organic compost. Biogas includes methane, a fuel, and the organic compost can be used for any project requiring plant nutrients. The San Francisco project is specific to pet waste. Toronto’s project is for curbside recycling. The process is enclosed, and the facility is equipped with odor control and treatment technology to prevent odor escape. The plant processes 25,000 tons of organic waste per year. In 2005 these plants were the only facilities in North America processing separated municipal solid waste using anaerobic digestion technology.
Dealing with Cat Waste Cats, as enigmatic creatures who will not be dominated, naturally add complexities to any situation. Roaming cats deposit waste outside the owner’s property, in neighbors’ yards and gardens. Cats who toilet indoors, at least some of the time, bury their waste in the litter of their cat boxes. Like most mammals, cats prefer using a clean “bathroom.” At the same time, handling lots of urine and feces is not what the average person wants to do. Managing both the urine and the feces of indoor cats can strain relationships, as most feline behaviorists can tell you. Cats need clean litter boxes. If they don’t get them, they’ll begin to put their urine and feces elsewhere. Managing cat litter correctly is important. Cat litter is a source of the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis (toxoplasmosis Gondii or TG), particularly harmful to pregnant women (causing miscarriages and birth defects) and to people with immune-deficiency disorders (causing vision and coordination loss). In a study by the Central Animal Health Laboratory in Wisconsin, 45 percent of cats tested positive for this microbe. Cats spread the disease for seven to ten days after infection. Moreover, TG is resistant to sewage treatment, slipping through and causing 20 percent of sea lion deaths in California. Accordingly, California has made it illegal to dispose of cat feces through the sewer system. To me, managing cat litter correctly means “bag and trash,” unless your municipality collects compostables curbside, or your water supplier eliminates the microbe cats often shed. (I know of none that do.) Here’s more about why.
Kitty Litter Kitty litter was developed to make the handling of cat wastes as easy and as pleasant as possible. What began in the 1960s has become an enormous industry. In
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an effort to produce a better product that will earn your business, cat litter manufacturers have created variations to reduce odor, clump when wet for easy removal, prevent litter tracking, and detect urinary infections by turning an alternate color. (For information about sources of different types of litter, see chapter 4, “Green Pet Equipment and Toys.”) Because of advances in kitty litter, many cats keep their homes for years. Without kitty litter, the burden of cleaning the waste mounts, and the tension between cats and owners can become unbearable. The relationship breaks, and cats lose their homes.
What’s in That Litter? Selecting the type of litter that keeps your cat happy isn’t the only challenge you face. Kitty litter, like any manufactured product, affects our environment. Products require design, production, packaging, and shipment, all of which stress our environment. Kitty litter has generated lots of controversy about health and environmental problems, but then no product extraction or manufacture can be 100 percent safe for the workers or the consumer or harmless to the environment. Let’s look at the available styles of kitty litter products to develop some understanding of what’s in that box or bag on the supermarket or pet store shelf. Three broad categories of materials comprise kitty litter’s main components: clay, silica, and plants, each with unique characteristics.
Fuller’s Earth, the First Clay Litter Most clay used in cat litter is granulated Fuller’s earth. Mined, this natural product binds urine, which is how Fuller’s earth controls the odor. Pet owners must change the soiled litter frequently to prevent urine collecting in the box and creating the unpleasant smell of ammonia, a chief disadvantage. To make a better product using Fuller’s earth, manufacturers add other elements, such as baking soda to absorb more odor, antibacterial substances to kill the bacteria that create odors, or perfumes to mask odor.
Better Clay and Silicon Bentonite, a special clay mineral and the main component of clumping litter, contains stacks of silicon. Silicon increases the clay’s absorption power by trapping more urine and any ammonia produced by the exposure of the urine to air.
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Crystal litters include a silica gel bead that absorbs the urine. The engineering of the crystals allows water to evaporate, leaving the ammonia behind, bound to the bead. A small amount of silica gel beads controls odor longer than other types of litter in larger quantities.
Plant-Based Litters Plant-based litters are made from recycled paper, wood, corn, and green tea leaves. One litter product, Swheat Scoop, made from processed wheat litter, neutralizes odor with wheat enzymes. Wheat starches absorb the moisture and clump for scooping. The manufacturer claims that the litter is biodegradable and can be flushed down the toilet or used as mulch. Veterinarians disagree, as cat waste includes parasites and other disease-causing organisms such as TG that should not be introduced into the environment. In addition, flushing litter is a concern to the local water districts. Another product, Feline Pine, made of pine pellets heated and pressed to remove harmful wood oils, includes natural guar beans to improve clumping properties. Swheat Scoop founder Mike Hughes estimates that 160,000 tons of nonbiodegradable cat litter ends up in landfills each year. However, the biodegradability of plant-based litter does mean that the material will essentially dissolve into harmless elements in solid-waste landfills. Other plant-based litters include: Recycled newspaper that’s been compressed into pellets Ground corncobs Extruded straw pellets Pine sawdust from lumber waste Other products made from cellulose fiber
Health Concerns of Litter Many veterinarians and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) have concerns about the use of clumping cat litters and clay litters in general. When cats clean their paws after using the litter box, they ingest portions of the litter. Because these litters absorb water, cats, especially kittens, can ingest enough litter while grooming themselves to create an intestinal blockage. The ingested litter absorbs water and swells, creating a clump too large to pass through the cat’s digestive system.
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What Does “Biodegradable” Mean? Biodegradable products are those that can break down into components such as water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen, which nature can use to build other things. Many products are said to be biodegradable that are not, such as detergents and plastics, while things that are biodegradable, such as paper and soap, are not labeled biodegradable. Biodegradability also involves the time it takes the product to degrade. The European Union says a material is biodegradable if it will break down into mostly water, carbon dioxide, and organic matter within six months. A cardboard box will break down in two months. Many biodegradable products take longer. Biodegradable diapers
1 year
Plywood
1–3 years
Aluminum cans
200 years
Disposable diapers
450 years
The health effects of cat litter extend to human companions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), clay-based litters that contain silica dust release crystalline silica dust, a suspected carcinogen, also associated with bronchitis and tuberculosis, into the air. Not only does this product create some concerns for pet owners and their animals, but for workers extracting the clay from the mines. Biodegradable and dust-free litters aim to be products that contain nothing that can be inhaled, and contain no additives such as fragrances or dyes.
Self-Washing Litter Boxes The new self-washing litter boxes may change the way we look at litter. When silica gel pearls are washed, they can be used many weeks before needing to be changed. The shortcoming of these litter boxes, connected to your home’s
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wastewater system, is the lack of elimination of pathogens that may be in cat feces, specifically toxoplasmosis. When enterprising engineers find a way to eliminate toxoplasmosis (and other similar pathogens) from water systems, self-washing boxes may be worth the investment.
Cat Litter Choices Litter Type
Made of
Health Cautions
Performance
Fuller’s earth
Clay
Respiratory concerns for humans and cats
Dust, and cats track from tray; clay strip mined
Clumping litter
Clay and silica
Intestinal blockage for cats and respiratory concerns for humans and cats
Easy-to-scoop clay is strip mined
Silica gel pearls
Silica dioxide sand
None found
Can absorb forty times their weight in moisture, nontoxic and bacteria resistant. Litter doesn’t track
Wheat
100 percent wheat husks
None found
Organic waste product. Easy to scoop but clumps tend to fall apart when scooped. Good odor control
Corncobs
Waste from None found corn processing
Absorbent, good odor control, somewhat dusty
Kenaf
Plant related to cotton and hibiscus
None found
Absorbent, nonclumping, dust free
Pine and cedar sawdust
Kiln-dried scrap lumber
Irritant of resins in the pine wood, but not cedar
Odor elimination, very absorbent
Recycled paper
100 percent recycled paper
None found
Pelleted form of newspaper, mostly dust free
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Certifications and Standards When products include labels from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) and U.S. Composting Council (USCC), you can be confident that the products inside the package are biodegradable and/or compostable. BPI explains, “The point is to identify plastic and paper products, which disintegrate and biodegrade completely and safely when composted in a municipal or commercial facility, like Kraft paper, yard trimmings and food scraps.” Products bearing those labels are certified to meet American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifications standards. The ASTM makes the standards. BPI and USCC promise they have examined the products and the products meet these standards. Certifications mean that you can be sure that the product you purchased and paid more for will behave in the environment as advertised. In other words, the label has a specific meaning. This is in contrast to products that use descriptive words such as “natural” or “earth-friendly,” making no promise of performance. Any manufacturer may apply to have their products certified by BPI and USCC. A list of certified products appears on their web sites.
Exotic Pet and Fish Waste Reptiles, birds, and pocket pets all require bedding or a substrate. Melissa Kaplan, reptile expert, recommends linoleum as a reptile substrate because it’s easy to clean. For reptiles and birds, many experts, including Kaplan, recommend newsprint (black and white, not colored pages) or unprinted newsprint paper, or towels that you wash in a two-step process. Wash first with a laundry detergent that removes the organic matter. Wash a second time with bleach to disinfect, removing parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Most pocket pets, small mammals such as guinea pigs and mice, have a high need to burrow; burrowers usually prefer wood shavings.
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Bagging It Up In most developed countries, the sentiment is the same: “Please remove your dog waste.” When pet and people populations were smaller, pet owners left poop where their dogs deposited it. City dwellers evolved as signs urged, “Please curb your dog.” Curbing meant have your dog deposit waste to the street side of the curb for the street sweepers. Later, pooper-scoopers aided city dwellers in depositing poop in waste containers—at least the 40 percent of them who pick up after their pets. Now, in our mobile society, and given the fact that a pooperscooper is not a hot fashion accessory (and frankly, how do you clean that utensil to take it back into your apartment?), we’ve progressed to the poop mitt or bags on a leash, or a newspaper bag stuffed in our pockets. What should you use to pick up the poop, and once you have it, where do you deposit your bag? If you’re an eco-conscious person, these questions may haunt you as daily media reports push the maddening eco-metronome back and forth between paper and plastic. Bags come in everything from the free bags you get at the grocery store or with your newspaper to bags that are imported from Norway, but are 100 percent biodegradable and chemically degradable. Best ways to bag it: For dogs, bagging waste is good, biodegradable waste bags are better, compostable bags are next, and bagless flushing is best. For cats, the same order of preference applies, but skip the flushing. If your city recycles green waste, then that’s the place for your pet waste. Note: This is different from yard waste recycling. For organic waste recycling, your city will use a digester and a special pickup procedure. If you have questions, please call your local waste management company. If you’re not willing to pick up waste, pay people to do it. Find the service that covers your neighborhood from www.apaws.org.
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The best-practice principles are to select beddings with low or no health effects to the animals or people, and decent hygiene with respect to feces and urine absorption. Since bedding cannot be recycled, choose materials that are either post-consumer recycled or by-products. Avoid wood with oils, such as cedar, that may be toxic for your pet. Select low-dust materials for both pet and human health. Fish enthusiasts are familiar with the problems of waste. After all, fish swim in a dilute solution of waste at all times. The challenge for fish hobbyists is to keep the solution of waste very dilute. Physical barriers called filters strain waste from the water. Plants, if present, help take up nutrients from the waste, using nitrogen and carbon dioxide in the tank. Many aquarium keepers add animals such as snails that consume waste components to the tank. Many experts suggest changing 10 to 25 percent of your tank’s water each week. Pour used tank water down a sink or toilet, into the city’s waste system. Of course, dispose of plants, especially those known to be invasive, in your dry wastebins.
My Sustainability Score: Managing Pet Waste Responsibly Good
Better
Best
Pet waste pickup in public
I do unless I forget my bags.
I always do.
I got the dog park to install a bag dispenser and trash can or port-a-potty.
Waste disposal method
We pick up the yard once a month, litter box every week.
We pick up the yard weekly and scoop kitty box twice a week.
I pick up using compostable bags but dispose of in trash, until my city has curbside composting collection.
Evaluated kitty litter selection
It’s on my list I’ve moved to a of things to do. dust-free litter.
Roaming cat reform
I keep my cat indoors part of the time.
My pets agree that we handle waste well
Periodic cat No accidents and dog indoor indoors except toileting. when animals are ill.
I have moved to a natural products or a silica pearl litter.
I have made a I have found and commitment to visited suppliers I like. make new cats indoor-only cats. Waste pickup daily in yard and litter box.
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For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 15–24 points: You have a good foundation for learning more about pet waste disposal. 25–34 points: You understand the basics of pet waste disposal and now you’re just learning the details. 35 points: You win the Green Pet Award for doing your best for your pet and the planet when it comes to choosing green pet waste disposal.
My Sustainability Plan: Responsible Pet Waste Disposal A list helps to translate thought and feelings into action. Here are some ideas to get you started in your home or in your community. Check the ones you want to act on. Get your family and friends involved. In my home: Review potty arrangements for all pets. Do they meet my standards for cleanliness? Review waste disposal procedures. Do these meet the standards I feel are ethical? What one thing could I do to improve the sensibility of my pet waste disposal? In my community: If I use a dog park, do my park friends and I take care of our pet waste in a responsible manner? If I allow my cats to roam, would I consider bringing them indoors if I could get help doing this? In my personal beliefs: Is there a clean-water project going on in my city that I could learn more about? Is there a conversation I want to have in the neighborhood about the possibility of asking for curbside collection of waste for commercial composting?
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Resources Products Green Culture, Inc.: 877-204-7336, www.composters.com. Dog poop bags and other certified composting products. Biobags and other products carrying this certification: www.bpiworld.org/BPI-Public/Approved/1.html. American Pet Products Association: 203-532-0000, www.appma.org.
Pet Waste Service Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists: www.apaws.org. Information on local waste removal services.
Health Effects Information Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): www.cdc.gov. Information about health effects of manufactured products or processes.
Product Certifications Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI): www.bpiworld.org U.S. Composting Council (USCC): www.compostingcouncil.org American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM): www.astm.org
Water Quality and Waste Management Contact your own water-supply agency regarding treatment of water for toxoplasmosis. Contact your own waste-management company regarding the possibility of curbside collection of compostables. For more information on water quality, see “Ground Water and Drinking Water” on the EPA’s web site: www.epa.gov/safewater/ dwh/who.html.
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Bringing Cats Indoors American Bird Conservancy offers a fact sheet with suggestions about how to make the transition: www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/materials/outin.pdf. Humane Society of the United States offers help through their Safe Cat Campaign. A brochure explaining the whys and hows is available at www.files.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/Safe_Cats_brochure_general.pdf.
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Chapter 6
Pets and Household Health My father had always said there are four things a child needs: plenty of love, nourishing food, regular sleep, and lots of soap and water. —Ivy Baker Priest (1905–1975)
In this chapter we look at the many-sided interactions between you, your pet, your home environment, and the environment that your pets bring home. When you think about it, things that are not good for the environment typically are not good for you or your pet. All living organisms have similar requirements, such as the food, rest, and cleanliness that Ms. Priest’s practical father recalled. Many modern conveniences, especially for the household, such as paints, carpets, cleansers, and pesticides, evolved during a time when most of us didn’t understand that these new miracles could create health problems. We didn’t understand that we could take chemicals and fumes into our bodies through our skin, our breathing, or our drinking water, and not even know it. Most people today still don’t realize that we breathe in or drink most everything in our environment—both the natural and the human-made. In this chapter, we discuss: Why pets matter to your health How pets improve health How to eliminate pet-associated germs and parasites Environmental toxins that can harm you and your pet
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To close the chapter, we suggest the “good, better, best” practices for pets and household health, and help you develop a plan for acting on anything you think is important. Resources to help you put your plans into action are listed at chapter’s end.
Why Pets Matter to Your Health Pets can have both positive and negative effects on your health. Not only do we know about service animals’ ability to help people, but scientific studies prove pets provide measurable physical and emotional health benefits. On the potentially negative side, our mothers and grandmothers were right when they said pets bring disease into the home. This is especially true of free-roaming or exotic pets. If you’ve cleaned a home where pets live and cleaned one that’s pet-free, you know which is the fastest to accumulate dirt and grime. A pet family’s tendency may be to grab the cleaning products said to be the most effective at eliminating germs, grease, and odor. The problem is that many commercially available cleaning solutions hurt the environment and are not healthy either for the human or the pet members of the family. The cycle of pets, dirt, germs, and cleaning agents can be harmful. The best way to break the cycle is with knowledge.
Pets Can Improve Your Health . . . Most people have a sense that pets relax and entertain us, but many don’t realize that increasing scientific evidence indicates that pets provide important buffers to stress and related diseases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) acknowledges that pets can decrease elevated blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels, symptoms of diseases that affect the heart and circulatory system. The CDC notes that pets also decrease feelings of loneliness that affect many older people. Pets increase family opportunities for exercise and outdoor activities, and for socializing with other families that have pets. The American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the Delta Society agree. Additional studies show that petting dogs and cats has a positive effect on the immune system and that children with early exposure to pets may develop fewer immune-related allergies and asthma.
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The Delta Society, a nonprofit human service organization, promotes human health and well-being through interaction with companion animals. The PetPartners program trains volunteers and their pets to visit hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and schools. Not only can you improve your own health by having a pet, but also you can help improve the health of others by sharing your pet through volunteer work. Companion animals affect the quality of life for children. Dr. Gail Melson, a professor in the Child Development and Family Studies program at Purdue University, articulates particularly well that pets help children develop a sense of basic trust. Studies of children age 5 and older suggest that many turn to pets for reassurance when feeling stressed. Companion animals can also help children develop a sense of independence through play and exploration. Other studies support Melson’s research, showing the positive influence of dogs on children whose parents are undergoing divorce. Dogs gave children comfort and unquestioning, loving attention. A child of divorce could tell their problems to their dog and express their anger. They also had a companion when they felt lonely or when their parents quarreled. With their joy and playfulness, dogs could distract the child from any problem they had. For older people, pets provide an important way of socializing, especially for those who have lost friends or family members. Pets also provide an important identity for people whose lives have revolved around their spouse or a profession. In addition, animals are motivating. Many medical professionals verify that people make an effort to recover faster because, as patients say, “my animals need me.”
. . . But They Can Also Spread Disease None of us likes to think about contracting diseases from our pets. In these days of antibacterial wipes and frequent veterinary visits, we’re surprised when problems occur. People who live on or visit relatives on a farm know a lot about animal-transmitted disease. Doctors call these diseases “zoonoses”—diseases that pass from animals to people. Every pet has the potential for transmitting different types of disease to their owners. The CDC slogan “Healthy Pets, Healthy People” makes a good summary of the best way to prevent the spread of disease in your home. If you maintain a healthy pet, the chances of contracting a disease from your pet are small. If you select a healthy pet, as determined by a veterinarian, and take
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your pet for annual examinations that include screening for common diseases, your chances of contracting a disease are even smaller. You decrease the chances further if you and your family wash your hands frequently, especially after handling your pets or cleaning up after them. Any pet, even a pet with a health certificate, should be examined by a veterinarian before you bring it home. This rule does not guarantee a disease-free home, but goes far to avert trouble. Some people are more at risk than others, including children under age 5, the very old, and people whose immune systems are weak, such as cancer patients, people with HIV/AIDS, and those who have received organ transplants. If household members fit these categories, think twice before adding a pet. If you decide you must, tell your veterinarian about these family members so that they can screen your pet for more potential troublemaking diseases. You might also discuss the addition of the pet with your human health-care provider. Properly screened, a pet may provide more benefits than risks. Bacteria, parasites, funguses, and viruses can spread from pet to pet and pet to person, as the table on the following pages shows.
The Disease–Household Connection Understanding something about the most common pet diseases can help you prevent their occurring in your home. Linda Bren, in the January-February 2004 issue of the FDA Consumer, outlined the basics of these diseases, to which we have added more information about pets and household ecology.
Worms Roundworms and hookworms infect people who touch their mouth or nose with unwashed hands after handling infected pets or soil, or who walk barefoot on soil containing worm eggs. (The bad news about worm eggs is that they are much too small to see without a microscope!) Five to twenty percent of U.S. children have been infected by roundworms at some time in their lives. Almost half of the pets in the southern part of the country and almost forty percent of pets nationwide excrete worm eggs with their stools. Infected animals release worm eggs into their home and yard. These eggs hatch or remain active and able to hatch for many years. More than ninety percent of all puppies and kittens are born with worms. This is why veterinarians prescribe deworming drugs in puppies and kittens from the age of 2 weeks. Also, as a part of your annual pet exam, your vet will test your adult dogs and cats for worms.
131
O
O = occasionally occurs; R = rarely occurs
Cat scratch disease
Bacteria
Bartonella henselae
Campylobacteriosis
Rodents
Mild infections around the injury, swelling of lymph nodes, especially around head and neck. Rare complications.
Diarrhea. Very rare complications include arthritis or other autoimmune diseases.
Reptiles Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
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Clean cat scratch wounds thoroughly. Keep cat nails trimmed short. Avoid rough play with cats that leads to scratches and bites. Wash bites and scratches with soap. Control fleas.
Hand washing after possible exposure to dog, cat, or farm animal feces. Ensure that persistent diarrhea in your pet is treated and the organism identified.
Exposures/ Prevention
10:37 PM
Bacteria
O
Campylobacter Infection
Birds
1/15/09
O
Cats Dogs
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
Diseases Associated with Pets
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Cryptosporidiosis
Parasite
Cryptosporidium
O
O
O
Birds
Rodents
Symptoms include watery diarrhea. Dangers include dehydration and additional infections of the digestive and respiratory tract.
Pneumonia-like symptoms and skin lesions. Dangers include central nervous system infection.
Reptiles Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
Hand washing. Oral transmission through anything in your mouth that has been in contact with the feces of an infected person or animal, usually through infected food or water.
Associated with wild bird droppings, the disease is spread through inhaling airborne fungi. Prevention by avoiding bird droppings that could be contaminated and hand washing.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Cryptococcosis
Fungus
Cats Dogs
1/15/09
Cryptococcus
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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O = occasionally occurs; R = rarely occurs
Dipylidium infection
Parasite
O
Birds
Rodents
Symptoms include what looks like rice in bowel movement; you might find them stuck to the skin around anus. You may see what look like small yellow grains around pet anus or on feces.
Symptoms are intestinal including diarrhea and cramps. Dangers include dehydration and loss of weight during disease course of 2–6 weeks.
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Carried by fleas. Dogs and cats swallow fleas while grooming. Kids may swallow fleas by accident. Prevention includes controlling fleas on pets, cleaning up after pets, disposing of feces, restricting access to areas of infected feces, and hand washing after playing with pets or outdoors. Easily treated.
Hand washing. You and your pet should avoid swallowing recreational water as in pools, lakes, or streams that can be contaminated or from feces of an infected person or animal.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Tapeworm
Giardia
O
Cats Dogs
1/15/09
Parasite
Giardiasis intestinalis
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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Chlamydia psittaci
Bacteria
Psittacosis
Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis
Virus
O
R
Rodents
Symptoms include fever, chills, dry cough; danger is developing pneumonia and other complications.
Symptoms similar to flu one to two weeks after exposure; dangers include inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord; injury to the fetus in pregnant women.
Symptoms include progressive itching and rash where skin touched soil.
Reptiles Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
Hand washing; refrain from breathing dust from dried bird feces; screen pet birds.
Hand washing, screen pet rodents, and prevent pet rodents from coming into contact with wild rodents.
Hand washing. Wear shoes. Avoid contact with feces-contaminated soil. Regular pickup of pet feces. Avoiding interaction of your pet with infected pets or feces in parks.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM)
Birds
1/15/09
Hookworm infection
Parasite
O
Hookworm
O
Cats Dogs
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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O = occasionally occurs; R = rarely occurs
Common skin fungi include jock itch, athlete’s foot, and yeast infections
Fungus
O
Rodents
Itchy, red, scaly patches that might blister; redder around the outside, giving appearance of a ring. Dangers include passing to another person, balding, infected nails.
Symptoms follow a bite and include fever and headache. Insomnia, confusion, difficulty swallowing occur next. Disease is fatal without treatment, which must begin immediately following a bite, before signs are evident.
Reptiles Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
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Hand washing; frequent washing of animal bedding. Keep skin dry and clean with shampoo regularly; avoid sharing clothing, hairbrushes, touching pets with bald spots.
Vaccine for pets; avoid contact with wild carnivores and bats. Transmitted through bite. Avoid contact with any wild or domestic animal acting strangely. If bitten, seek immediate medical attention.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Ringworm
Rabies rabies
Virus
R
Rabies
Birds
1/15/09
R
Cats Dogs
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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Toxocariasis
Parasite
O
O
Rodents
Reptiles
One of the most prevalent zoonoses, usually not serious. Fever, cough, or wheezing, abdominal pain, poor appetite, a rash that can look like hives. Dangers include eye disease causing loss of sight or swelling of body organs. Can be serious in young children.
Symptoms include fever, nausea, muscle pain, severe headache. Later, rash, abdominal and joint pain accompany diarrhea. Dangers include progression of the disease to a more serious state requiring hospitalization.
Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
Hand washing, especially among young children after playing outdoors in dirt that may be contaminated with dog or cat feces. Also, ensure your dog, cat, or other mammal pets are screened for worms. Keep cats indoors so they have no access to sandboxes or gardens for elimination.
Ticks carry the bacteria. Prevention includes examination for and removal of ticks, especially from April through September, especially in the South Atlantic region of the country. Consider flea and tick remedies for pets.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Toxocara or roundworm
Birds
1/15/09
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Bacteria
O
Rickettsia rickettsii O
Cats Dogs
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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O = occasionally occurs; R = rarely occurs
Toxoplasmosis
Parasite
O
O
O
O
Most infected people are unaware. Some have flulike symptoms. Women infected while pregnant can miscarry or fetus suffers birth defects. Severe cases can affect the immune compromised, such as infants, aged. Reduced vision, pain, eye redness.
Diarrhea; dehydration dangers, spread from intestines to bloodstream causing severe complications, especially in small children and elderly.
Rodents Reptiles Fish and Symptoms and Amphibians Dangers in Human Beings
Water or exposure to feces from diseased cat from litter box or garden soil. Wear gloves while gardening or changing litter. Wash hands, restrict movement of free-roaming cats. Pregnant women need to take precautions cleaning litter boxes.
Hand washing after handling reptiles or birds or their enclosure, even if animal is healthy. Reptiles are not appropriate pets for children under age 5. Food preparers must practice safe food preparation to avoid contaminating food.
Exposures/ Prevention
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Toxoplasma gondii
Salmonellosis
O
Birds
1/15/09
bacteria
O
Salmonella O
Cats Dogs
Disease Organism; Parasite, Bacteria, Virus, or Fungus; Disease
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Free-roaming cats and dogs, as well as owners failing to clean up after their pets in parks and other public spaces, transmit worms. Dogs or cats investigating stools of other animals or sniffing areas where other dogs or cats have been (and which ones don’t?) ingest eggs by mouth or nose, and go on to transmit them later. To protect children in your backyard, the CDC suggests covering sandboxes to prevent cats and dogs from depositing their feces in them. Parents who require children to wash their hands after playing outdoors can decrease the chance of their kids becoming infected.
Toxoplasmosis Sixty million people in the United States carry the toxoplasmosis parasite. This parasite is of special interest because it can cause miscarriages and birth defects. Humans contract this disease through contact with infected cat feces and by eating raw or undercooked meats. Food animals contract the disease from grazing in fields contaminated with cat feces. Cats get the parasite by eating rodents and birds. Free-roaming cats spread toxoplasmosis, as do people who flush cat feces into water systems that are not equipped to remove the parasite.
Salmonellosis Most people know that salmonella bacteria can thrive in undercooked meats or eggs. Did you know that pets, particularly reptiles and chicks and ducklings, pass the bacteria in their feces? According to veterinarians who specialize in reptiles, salmonella bacteria are normal in the feces and cage, skin, and any other surface reptiles touch. Instead of testing reptiles for salmonella, most vets recommend keeping reptiles confined from spaces where food is prepared or eaten, and advising vigorous hand washing after you touch any surface where your pet may have been. Each year, 70,000 people in the United States contract salmonella from contact with reptiles. As a result, the CDC recommends that reptiles are not appropriate pets for small children, and should not be present in a home with infants. Inappropriate selection of pets, insufficient husbandry, or lack of attention to disinfection after handling reptiles causes salmonellosis.
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Ringworm Despite the disease’s name, ringworm is not caused by a worm, but by a fungus. Affecting skin and scalp, ringworm can cause a loss of patches of fur or hair. Animal bedding of infected pets is a common source of ringworm. Regular washing of animal bedding should prevent the problem, which is more common in cats but does occur in dogs and other mammals. Once infected, the pet must be treated. Some cats are carriers of this fungus but do not show clinical signs.
Rabies Rabies is a virus that infects the brain in animals and people, and is transmitted through the saliva of a rabid animal, usually through a bite. Domestic animals account for less than 10 percent of cases reported. This disease is a reason to keep pets away from bats, raccoons, and skunks in particular. Your dogs and cats or other mammal pets should be vaccinated every three years, unless your state requires an annual vaccination. Since the 1940s, when vaccines and the concept of animal control were developed, the number of rabies cases in humans has declined. Thanks to a vaccine available to humans, no one vaccinated after a rabid bite in the United States has developed rabies. Even better, what used to be a painful vaccine given in the abdomen can now be given in the arm. However, it is important to emphasize that if bitten by an animal acting unusually, you may have animal control capture the animal for testing. Regardless, you should begin the rabies vaccine immediately. Once you show clinical signs of the disease, rabies is 100 percent fatal.
Rodent-Borne Diseases Owners of hamsters, mice, and rats will be concerned about the rodent-borne diseases lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) and rat-bite fever. LCM is a virus transmitted by inhaling airborne particles of rodent urine, feces, or saliva. Bites or scratches from rodents or ingesting food or water contaminated with rodent feces can cause rat-bite fever. Althouth it is rare to develop these diseases from pet rodents, you may want to limit exposure to droppings by wearing gloves when cleaning and disinfecting rodent habitats. Also, be sure your home is free of wild mice or rats.
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Tick- and Flea-Borne Diseases Pets don’t transmit Lyme disease, tapeworm, or Rocky Mountain spotted fever to people, but they can attract the ticks and fleas that do. Maintaining flea- and tick-free pets is the key to prevention. (Information on remedies appears on page 158–160.)
Bird-Borne Disease Psittacosis, also called parrot fever, comes from bacteria in bird droppings. The flulike symptoms can be treated with antibacterial drugs in birds and people. Make sure your bird is not allowed in the food preparation area, and use a dust mask and gloves if you allow feces to build up before cleaning your bird’s cage. The inhaled particles are the most common route of disease transmission.
Can West Nile or Avian Flu Affect My Pets? Reports of two diseases in particular create real fear and confusion for people— West Nile virus and avian (or bird) flu. Because of the concerns about them, I am including these diseases, even though their origin is not pets. Let’s look at each.
West Nile Virus Scientists have detected West Nile virus in dogs and cats, horses and llamas, and human beings, as well as in 48 species of mosquitoes, over 250 species of birds, and at least eighteen types of mammals. First reported in the Western Hemisphere in 1999, this mosquito-borne virus has been common in Africa, western Asia, and the Middle East. Today, West Nile virus occurs throughout the United States and Canada. A main way West Nile spreads is through mosquitoes biting infected wild birds. Once carriers, the mosquitoes transmit the disease through their subsequent bites. News reports usually show pictures of crows or of other dead birds, giving viewers the impression that the birds are the culprit in transmitting the disease. Although you would not want to handle birds that died from West Nile, the disease organism passes through mosquito bites. The disease does not travel from bird to pet or bird to human, except in rare instances involving tissue transplant, transfusion, or birth, and breast-feeding.
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Risk of Disease and Complications The disease can create serious consequences; however, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) says, “The risk of becoming ill from a single mosquito bite is extremely low. In areas where mosquitoes carry the virus, less than 1% of mosquitoes are actually infected. Even if mosquitoes are infected, less than 1% of people bitten and infected by those mosquitoes become severely ill.” The AVMA goes on to explain that most people infected with the virus are not aware that they have it. Those who become ill usually have mild symptoms including fever, headache, body aches, and, in some cases, skin rash and swollen lymph nodes. Elderly patients are at risk for more severe infections that can cause serious complications and even death for 3 to 15 percent of those with severe illness. Although dogs and cats can contract the disease, pet owners probably would not notice anything more than a normal viral infection’s signs—slight fever and lethargy. In horses, the death rate from West Nile is 30 percent. AVMA reports that horses who develop clinical West Nile virus infection may exhibit stumbling, weakness, muscle twitching, depression, or fearfulness. The number of cases of equine West Nile has decreased annually since 2002, and may be due to vaccination and/or increased development of naturally acquired immunity. Treatment for severe cases of West Nile in humans or other species, as for most viral diseases, consists of hospitalization, intravenous fluids, respiratory support, and anti-inflammatory therapy while the affected animal’s immune system responds.
Preventing West Nile Virus Public health officials consider limiting exposure to mosquitoes effective prevention for humans and species other than horses. A vaccine is available for horses, and veterinarians encourage its use. Creating mosquito barriers to your home and decreasing your exposure and your pets’ outdoor exposure to mosquitoes is the best way to protect your animals from this disease. This means: Check and repair window and door screens. Keep screens closed. Limit your exposure to mosquitoes, especially at dawn and dusk.
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Eliminate standing water. Mosquito larvae need four days to hatch, so check flowerpots, pet bowls, buckets, spa covers, and birdbaths. Be cautious about using mosquito fogs. These poisons and their residues affect not only your pets, but also children and adults. Horses, because of their constant exposure to mosquitoes, should be vaccinated, unless your veterinarian recommends otherwise. The vaccine is available through your local veterinarian. Keep in mind that a low percentage of mosquitoes carry West Nile virus, and only a low percentage of horses or other animals bitten will develop any sign of the virus. However, in a small number of cases, those carrying the disease are seriously affected.
Avian or Bird Flu Bird flu is a disease of birds that begins with wild birds and spreads to domestic poultry flocks. Like the flu that occurs around the world every winter and is commonly passed from one person to another, avian flu is also caused by a virus, which originated in birds. There are multiple strains or types of avian flu, and the virus sometimes crosses to humans who come into contact with infected birds. What might surprise you is that human flu kills more people (250,000 to 500,000) each year—mostly the otherwise ill and elderly—than the avian flu (160 deaths in 2006) that received so much coverage.
Why So Much Concern? Viruses are notorious for changing their form—they are the shape-shifters of disease organisms. This capability raises concern among scientists that a flu that can be so devastating to poultry flocks could mutate or change form to one that is equally devastating to human populations. This concern is especially high in Asia, where many poultry farms are small family operations and millions of people live in close proximity to their poultry. (Numerous infected poultry flocks have been destroyed in Asia.) The AVMA says that avian influenza can be of two types: a highly contagious (pathogenic) strain and a rarely contagious strain. The highly pathogenic bird flu is rarely found in wild waterfowl, but often found in chickens, turkeys, and ducks raised for human consumption. Transmitted through unclean caging or live bird markets common in Asia, the disease is also transmitted by blood and intestines, such as occurs during home slaughter and plucking of infected birds.
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Where Is the Virus? The rarely contagious bird influenza has little or no effect on poultry and other birds. The current highly pathogenic version that is of concern is the H5N1 strain, affecting wild birds as well as domestic poultry, pets, and farm animals in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. No cases of the H5N1 strain have been identified in the United States to date. In areas where a highly pathogenic strain of the avian influenza has been diagnosed or is suspected in wild birds or poultry flocks, cats should be kept indoors and dogs should be leashed when outdoors to prevent the eating of raw bird carcasses or contact with bird feces.
Avian Flu and Pets Cats are susceptible to bird flu, and research shows that the virus can be transmitted from cat to cat. Dogs also can be infected, but the probability of these infections is very low. If you keep birds, be sure to isolate them if the disease occurs locally. This is true of pet exotic birds as well as pet chickens. Your pet faces a greater risk of contracting a bacterial infection from a dead bird than of contracting avian flu from one. Never let your pet eat or investigate dead carcasses of any kind.
Avian Flu and Pets: Key Points The risk to dogs, cats, and other mammal pets is very low. The risk of your pet infecting you is even lower. Veterinarians urge pet owners to keep their perspective. Bird flu can infect humans, rodents, ferrets, pigs, cats, and dogs. Pet owners living within 3 kilometers (about 2.8 miles) of an outbreak should keep their cats indoors and walk dogs on leashes. Keep your pet from feeding on wild birds.
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What about Vaccines and Other Protections? Research is under way to find a vaccine for avian flu. Vaccines, when they have been proven to be reliable and safe, are recommended for diseases that don’t respond well to medical attention, are life threatening, or have serious consequences. Hand washing and avoiding contact with infected animals is the route to preventing infection. The avian flu virus is very sensitive to detergents that destroy the fatty outer layer of virus that helps the virus penetrate cells and reproduce. To keep from spreading the disease, use soap and water to wash clothes and shoes worn while tending animals, as well as cages where infected poultry are kept. Never eat, or feed to other animals, poultry that has died. Where outbreaks are present, poultry, as well as eggs, must be properly cooked, which kills not only the virus but also other disease bacteria such as salmonella. Properly preparing what you eat, which means cooking all poultry to an internal temperature of 165°F, destroys avian influenza and other disease agents. With regard to wild birds, scientists do not know the whole story. Villagers in Azerbaijan reported contracting the disease after plucking feathers from dead swans, but there have been no other confirmed cases of transmission from wild birds to humans. The World Health Organization does not recommend focusing efforts on wild birds as a source of transmission. Even if migratory birds contracted the disease, the more reasonable solution is keeping domestic poultry from contact with wild birds. In humans, avian influenza symptoms range from typical flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat, and muscle aches, to eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory diseases, and other severe and life-threatening complications. The symptoms depend on which strain caused the infection.
Keeping Your Pet-Filled Home Healthy Pets are wonderful companions, and keeping your home clean is key to living a long and happy life together. The most important ways to prevent disease are practicing good hygiene, including regular hand washing; keeping your home clean; maintaining separation of pets from food-preparation areas; keeping pet areas clean; eliminating household toxins; controlling fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and flies; and taking your pet in for annual veterinary exams to discover and treat problems early.
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Hand Washing: The Ultimate in Prevention Hand washing is a simple habit, but do we wash our hands in an effective way? The Mayo Clinic and the Centers for Disease Control give directions and pointers. The technique with soap and water: Wet your hands with warm water and apply liquid soap or use a clean bar of soap. Move your hands away from the water and rub your hands for 12 to 20 seconds. (Tell your children to wash as long as it takes to sing the ABCs.) Scrub the entire surface of your hand, preferably with a nail brush, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between fingers, and under fingernails. Rinse well. Dry your hands with a clean towel or air dryer. Use a towel to turn off the faucet. Liquid soaps help dispense a dose of soap adequate to clean dirt from your hands. Liquid soaps can also be more sanitary. Both liquid and bar soaps are designed to clean the skin by removing dirt and oil. Use of soap in a proper hand-washing procedure is all that’s needed; antibacterial soaps, according to the CDC and the American Medical Association, do not prevent more disease than regular soaps properly used. Antibacterial compounds need to remain on hands for about two minutes, or these products have no effect on bacteria. Antibacterial soaps do not affect viruses. Much worse is the fact that our excessive use of antibacterial products is contributing to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Use antibacterial sanitizers only when hand-washing facilities are not available. Not all sanitizers contain alcohol. The CDC recommends choosing products that are composed of at least 60 percent alcohol. The technique with sanitizer: Use one or two squirts or pumps. Rub hands together, including front and back, between fingers, and around and under nails until hands are dry. Remember: sanitizers are not designed to remove dirt and grime. Only soap will dissolve oil and dirt that are then carried away by clean running water.
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Keeping a Clean Home Along with the love you get from your pets, you also get a lot of dirt and detritus. The need to clean is multiplied in proportion to the number and types of pets you have and the activities you enjoy together. Greasy nose prints perpetually mark my windows and doors; muddy paw prints trace the path from my kitchen, down the stairs, through the office, to the back door, and into the yard. My floors, especially around the birds’ aviary, cause me to want to scream. I have dog pans and bird bowls from twice-a-day feedings that need to be cleaned. And laundry. My dog has two beds. If she swims in the river, the bedding needs a bath after she gets one. At my house, the stairwell stays dirty; not just the steps, but also the sheetrock is smeared with oil and dirt where my dog steadies herself on her rush down the uncarpeted stairs. The car is clean one day and a mess the next. I feel as though I clean all day every day. And when I clean, I want results, fast.
The Sierra Club and Clorox: Are You Kidding? No, I’m not. Although like you, I’m skeptical. So many companies are jumping on the green bandwagon. What seems to be true is that Clorox as a company, like WalMart, is making some surprising moves that appear to be sincere efforts to improve their environmental policies. Creating products that are good for the environment should be good for business, but it involves commitment, persistence, and bravery to make changes. On Earth Day 2008, Clorox launched their first new product line in twenty years, Green Works, purported to be 99 percent natural, biodegradable, packaged in recyclable bottles, and not tested on animals. In exchange for use of the Sierra Club logo on the Green Works products, Clorox is providing undisclosed financial support to the Sierra Club’s conservation efforts, including the protection of America’s clean air, clean water, wildlife, and many special wild places.
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I’ve used the ingredients I’m suggesting to you, along with the new Clorox line endorsed by the Sierra Club.
Cleaning Products Many household cleaning products, including synthetic waxes, polishes, toilet cleaners, and spray products, bear warning labels: “poison,” “dangerous,” or “caution.” “Poison” means that amounts up to 1 teaspoon can be lethal. Products labeled “dangerous” can be fatal in amounts from 1 ounce. “Caution” means that amounts from 1 ounce to 1 pint can be lethal. Many cleaning products contain acetone, camphor, and benzaldehyde. What’s also true is that many toxic ingredients are not listed on the containers. So how does a normal person figure out what kind of cleaning products to use?
According to Joel Makower, a leading blogger on green business, Clorox developed Green Works to answer needs from people who worried about the health effects of traditional cleaners but wanted cleaners that worked. Green Works is a green cleaner that’s as effective as traditional cleaners but priced lower than other green cleaners. It can enjoy wide distribution through WalMart and other stores that typically carry Clorox brands. Because Clorox has distribution networks and large-scale production operating already, they’re able to produce a product less expensively than other makers can. (I’m in the process of trying these products to see how I like them.) I called Orli Cotel, spokesperson from the Sierra Club, for the “why” of this relationship. Cotel explained that the Sierra Club vetted the partnership and products through the Toxics, Energy, and Environmental Quality committees of the club, as well as the club’s environmental quality director, and others. What they found was that the plant-based ingredients were better for the health of the user and for the environment than those of traditional cleaners. Cotel says, “The environmentally sensitive products that are out there, we love. What attracted the Sierra Club was the ability of Clorox to put Green Works products into the hands of as many American families as possible at a price they can afford.”
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Some brands of cleaners are known to avoid the most toxic chemicals in their products. Seventh Generation is one of those brands. Others include Bioshield, Earth Friendly, Ecover, Naturally Yours, and Simple Green, and the new Green Works line from Clorox. What you want in cleaning products are basic, natural ingredients. Most manufacturers don’t disclose the entire list of their ingredients on the label; these cleaners typically contain components that are not environment-friendly, but do a great job cleaning. Many green web sites, magazines, and our grandmothers suggest simple cleaning solutions, such as the ones included in the following table, which might require a little more elbow grease but are definitely more eco-friendly. Homemade cleaners can work well and are included in the following table. Although not all of these ingredients are safe in any amount, they do not contain the organic solvents that are of most concern. In other words, there may not be a perfect cleaner. But you can avoid the worst ingredients.
Simple Cleaning Ingredients Ingredient
What It Does
Comments
Baking soda
Removes stains, absorbs odors, is a nonabrasive scrubber. Use to neutralize smells in laundry, air, or carpet.
Neutralizes acid-based odors because it is slightly alkaline.
White vinegar or lemon juice
Kills germs, deodorizes, eats tarnish, removes dirt from wood surfaces, cuts grease.
Acid, neutralizes alkaline scale from hard water.
Castile soap
Soap cuts grease.
Made from fats and lye.
Washing soda
Removes grease and grime from most surfaces. Note: discolors aluminum and fiberglass; removes wax from floors.
Use with gloves. Sodium carbonate available as “Washing Soda” from Arm & Hammer. Does not give off harmful fumes like organic solvents do.
Water
Solvent
Borax
Softens laundry, removes stains, removes odors. Can be used as a cleaner, to remove urine odors, and as a scouring powder and a roach killer.
Note: Do not blend baking soda with hydrogen peroxide.
Sodium borate, a naturally occurring mineral. Produced by mining. Available as Borax, a “laundry booster.”
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Ingredient
What It Does
Comments
Hydrogen peroxide
Removes stains, sterilizes, provides mild bleaching.
As with any ingredient used in a dilute solution, the ingredient is toxic at full strength.
Tea tree oil, grapefruit seed extract, lavender oil
Deodorizes, disinfects.
Use one teaspoon of essential oil to 2 cups water in spray bottle. Fully concentrated forms are toxic, especially for small animals, birds, and cats.
Vegetable oil
Polishes
Cleaning Methods In addition to assembling a group of cleaners that work well and are easy on the environment, think about different cleaning methods to remove dirt, grime, and odors from our homes.
Airing Research from the EPA shows that air inside your home is likely to contain two to five times more pollutants than the air outside. Open your windows on the next nice day to circulate your pollutants.
Deodorizing Baking soda works well on carpets. Sprinkle, let stand overnight, then vacuum. Consider an essential oil on a light bulb, or twelve drops in a cup of water placed on a radiator or warm stove.
Dusting Dusting is an effective way to clean so long as you don’t send the particles back into the air. To prevent this, use a damp or a static-charged cloth. Using a feather duster or dry cloth sends the dust particles back into the air. Dust particles consist not only of dirt but also synthetic chemicals, insect parts, the detritus of dust mites, animal dander, and other allergens.
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Homemade Green Cleaning Solutions Furniture polish: Combine 1 teaspoon of lemon juice in 2 cups of vegetable oil. Rub a small amount into the grain of the wood. Buff. Mold and mildew remover: Combine 2 tablespoons of tea tree oil in 2 cups water. Spray and let sit for 30 minutes. Wipe clean. Oven cleaner: Annie Bond from Green Living suggests this oven-cleaning method: Cover the bottom of your oven with 1/4 inch of baking soda. Spritz water on the baking soda until the baking soda is thoroughly damp but not flooded. Repeat before bed. When you wake up in the morning, the baking soda can be scooped out of the oven with a sponge, bringing all the grime with it. Rinse the white residue and your oven is clean. Window cleaner: Combine 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent, and 2 cups of water in a spray bottle. Shake to blend. Wipe windows dry with newspaper.
Scrubbing Leslie Garrett, author of The Virtuous Consumer, suggests that equal parts of white vinegar and water makes the simplest all-purpose cleaner for disinfecting and deodorizing.
Stain Removal Got pets? You have stains. Removal of stains requires immediate action. Once you’ve donned your rubber gloves and removed the offending matter, bagged it, and carried it to the trash, blot with a small amount of soap and cool water until you’ve removed a majority of the remaining material. Then treat the stain. Many people recommend soda water on diarrhea and vomit stains. Out Spot!, a product from Castor and Pollux (www.castorpolluxpet.com), is among several very good and relatively safe stain removers. Another possibility is PureAyre (www.pureayre.com).
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Steaming Relatively new, and fairly energy intensive, steam cleaning is an excellent way to clean stubborn dirt and grime from all types of surfaces including tile, many types of flooring, countertops, and (to rave review) birdcages. The great news is that no cleaners need be involved—simply steam and wipe. To sterilize, by the way, you will need to use disinfectants. Steaming for the short period of time involved does not eliminate all the potentially harmful microbes. Nevertheless, this is an excellent cleaning method. Look for brands at www.greenerchoices.org.
Vacuuming and Sweeping Remove the major detritus by sweeping, if you’ve got hard-surface floors. Where you have carpets, vacuum with a machine that includes a HEPA filter. Check out www.greenerchoices.org to find one with low emissions.
Preventing Infections The milder disinfectants mentioned on pages 148–149 can do the job for most cleaning problems involving feces, vomit, urine, saliva, and so on. To clean anything (except food) you suspect is contaminated with infectious agents, clean with soap and water, dry, and then spray on a solution of bleach and water. For general disinfection, use one tablespoon of bleach in one quart of water. This is the method I would use for any surface contaminated by reptiles, birds, or any domestic pet feces that I suspect contain infectious agents. This is the choice also of most wildlife hospitals, without the greater resources of veterinary hospitals. One note of caution is to remove the majority of the “organic matter” (translation: feces, urine, saliva, and the like) with soap and water before you use a disinfectant. Otherwise, the disinfectant does not work. When contamination is certain, use a much stronger solution of two tablespoons of bleach in one cup of water. Leave the solution in place for fifteen minutes, and then rinse and wipe dry. Remember that bleach and water solutions lose their effectiveness over time, so mix a new solution each day. Whenever you use bleach, use gloves to prevent skin irritation.
Controlling Pests Roaches, ants, beetles, mice, and their little friends are not welcome in most homes. That’s the way it should be. The issue is how to get rid of them once they move in.
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Pest control companies that practice “integrated pest management” will tell you that exclusion is the first step. Exclusion means to use physical control methods to present barriers to entry to your home. This means fix your screens, put door sweeps on the bottom of your doors, use wire and metal to seal any holes to the outside, and then use caulking. Rodents can squeeze through a hole about the diameter of a ballpoint pen. (Amazing, isn’t it!) If you decide that you need professional help, consider hiring an exterminator who practices integrated pest management. These are people who take the first step with physical methods. If you don’t have a sealed home, they seal it first. Then they use traps. As a last resort, they use chemicals. Although you can’t be absolutely sure of a company’s standards, because no independent agency certifies pest management companies, you can try talking to the company first. What you want to know is that they use other methods before applying chemicals whenever possible. For some types of pests, such as carpenter beetles or ants, chemicals may be the only way forward. If this is the case, ask your pest controller about the use of bait stations to reduce the amount of chemical used, and whether residue remains after treatment. In addition, you must ensure that these chemicals designed to kill living things are not accessible by your pets. Pest control without chemicals is tough. However, the key is to minimize and use them only when you must.
Removing Household Toxins When it comes to household toxins, remember that pets have no more discernment than a curious baby, and are at least as vulnerable. The oil you’re saving to take to the hazardous waste station, or the paint you’re waiting to recycle, could pose hazards for pets and for the environment. Keep these items behind closed cupboard doors, and sealed inside leak-proof containers. Pets lick their feet as a natural part of grooming. Certainly when any substance adheres to their paws, skin, or feathers, pets attempt to remove the substance by grooming. Whether that substance is olive oil (nontoxic) or oil droplets from the garage (toxic), the pet can’t tell that one is not harmful and the other is going to cause illness. A recent study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization monitoring human health and the environment, found that companion cats and dogs are polluted with even higher levels of many of the same synthetic industrial chemicals that researchers find in people. They found 2.4 times higher-than-human levels of stain- and grease-proof coatings in dogs, 23
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times more fire retardants in cats, and more than 5 times the amounts of mercury compared to average levels in people. What this study indicates is that in addition to accidental poisonings with household toxins, pets, with their compressed life spans (developing and aging seven or more times faster than children) develop health problems more rapidly. Pets, like infants and toddlers, have limited diets and play close to the floor, licking the ground as well as their digits, increasing their exposure to chemicals and increasing their health risks. We choose what substances we bring into our homes and yards. Let’s reduce the potential harm to ourselves and our pets by choosing wisely.
Dangers in the Yard and Garden Part of considering pets and the planet is rethinking the way we do things in our yards and gardens, or on our patios if we’re city dwellers.
Pesticides and Fertilizers Most of us have become accustomed to the idea that we have to use chemicals to take care of our yards. Even landscaping services that advertise themselves as green usually rely on some amount of fertilizers and pesticides. When pets roam our backyards, not only is there the possibility that they will get into the storage closet with all our insecticides, pesticides, and fertilizers, but they walk on the grass, across the uncovered and newly fertilized soil. In addition, they will dig and dine on everything in the yard. That is what dogs and cats do. (Remember the paw licking?) A study of Scottish Terriers and herbicides conducted by Purdue University veterinarians found that 50 percent of terriers in the study whose families used lawn care herbicides (chemicals that eliminate plants such as clover or dandelions) developed bladder cancer. Of cancer-free dogs, more than 80 percent played on untreated lawns. Some folks don’t accept the idea that we must use fertilizers and pesticides to keep up our lawns. Listening to them can help us reevaluate our options. A good source of information on pesticide alternatives is the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides at www.pesticide.org. In their “Home and Garden Program” section, they provide easy-to-understand and effective alternatives to spraying for various pests. Bait that poisons snails, ants, or rats will poison your pet. Look for alternatives. Snail baits that are less dangerous for pets include Sluggo, Safer, and Es-car-go, which contain iron phosphate, which is thought to be safe.
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Alternatives include a barrier of copper tape around the plants that attract snails. (Snails won’t cross this.) Beer in a saucer attracts the slugs and they drown. If you prefer to dehydrate your slugs, try diatomaceous earth (the crushed skeletal remains of one-celled marine organisms called diatoms). What may work best is to consider planting something other than your current snailattractors. Learning more about which plants attract which pests can help you avoid some of your need to use pesticides and baits. You can find safe substitutes for pesticides at es.epa.gov/techinfo/facts/ safefs.html.
Toxic Plants Plants contribute to our enjoyment of our home; they also contribute to our environment by removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. So it’s disappointing to learn that some can harm our pets. To keep your pet safe, select nontoxic plants for your home and accessible areas outside your home. Although older pets may leave plants alone for the most part, all puppies and kittens, and certainly exotic pets, explore everything in their surroundings. As a part of this exploration, they mouth or chew everything. In addition, pets of any age may chew anything in their environment—wood for the fireplace, plastic plants, or your prized orchids—when left alone or confined for too long. In addition, The Merck Veterinary Manual reminds readers that pets will inspect any new plant you bring into the house. Holiday plants such as poinsettias and Easter lilies are toxic to animals, and any new plant is at risk for a severe chewing. Take appropriate action either by placing the indoor plant out of reach or fencing off the outdoor plant. Little research has been done on houseplant toxicity, according to Merck, so be cautious. The ASPCA Poison Control Center keeps a list of plants known to be safe around pets. In addition, you can find a list of the hundred or so most frequently encountered plants known to be harmful at www.aspca.org. If you have a question about a particular plant, you may ask at
[email protected].
The ASPCA’s List of Seventeen Common Poisonous Plants Dr. Steven Hansen, veterinary toxicologist and ASPCA senior vice president, lists these examples of the most common potentially dangerous plants: Lilies: Members of the Lilium spp. are considered to be highly toxic to cats. While the poisonous component has not yet been identified, it is clear that ingestion of even very small amounts of the plant could result in severe kidney damage.
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Marijuana: Ingestion of Cannabis sativa by companion animals can result in depression of the central nervous system and incoordination, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, increased heart rate, and even seizures and coma. Sago Palm: All parts of Cycas Revoluta are poisonous, but the seeds or “nuts” contain the largest amount of toxin. The ingestion of just one or two seeds can result in very serious effects, which include vomiting, diarrhea, depression, seizures, and liver failure. Tulip/Narcissus bulbs: The bulb portions of Tulipa/Narcissus spp. contain toxins that can cause intense gastrointestinal irritation, drooling, loss of appetite, depression of the central nervous system, convulsions, and cardiac abnormalities. Azalea/Rhododendron: Members of the Rhododenron spp. contain substances known as grayantoxins, which can produce vomiting, drooling, diarrhea, weakness, and depression of the central nervous system in animals. Severe azalea poisoning could ultimately lead to coma and death from cardiovascular collapse. Oleander: All parts of Nerium oleander are considered to be toxic, as they contain cardiac glycosides that have the potential to cause serious effects, including gastrointestinal tract irritation, abnormal heart function, hypothermia, and even death. Castor Bean: The poisonous principle in Ricinus communis is ricin, a highly toxic protein that can produce severe abdominal pain, drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst, weakness, and loss of appetite. Severe cases of poisoning can result in dehydration, muscle twitching, tremors, seizures, coma, and death. Cyclamen: Cyclamen species contain cyclamine, but the highest concentration of this toxic component is typically located in the root portion of the plant. If consumed, Cyclamen can produce significant gastrointestinal irritation, including intense vomiting. Fatalities have also been reported in some cases. Kalanchoe: This plant contains components that can produce gastrointestinal irritation, as well as those that are toxic to the heart, and can seriously affect cardiac rhythm and rate. Yew: Taxus spp. contains a toxic component known as taxine, which causes central nervous system effects such as trembling, incoordination, and difficulty breathing. It can also cause significant gastrointestinal irritation and cardiac failure, which can result in death.
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Amaryllis: Common garden plants popular around Easter, Amaryllis species contain toxins that can cause vomiting, depression, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypersalivation, anorexia, and tremors. Autumn Crocus: Ingestion of Colchicum autumnale by pets can result in oral irritation, bloody vomiting, diarrhea, shock, multi-organ damage, and bone marrow suppression. Chrysanthemum: These popular blooms are part of the Compositae family, which contain pyrethrins that may produce gastrointestinal upset, including drooling, vomiting, and diarrhea, if eaten. In certain cases depression and loss of coordination may also develop if enough of any part of the plant is consumed. English Ivy: Also called branching ivy, glacier ivy, needlepoint ivy, sweetheart ivy, and California ivy, Hedera helix contains triterpenoid saponins that, should pets ingest, can result in vomiting, abdominal pain, hypersalivation, and diarrhea. Peace Lily (aka Mauna Loa Peace Lily): Spathiphyllum contains calcium oxalate crystals that can cause oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting, difficulty in swallowing, and intense burning and irritation of the mouth, lips, and tongue in pets who ingest. Pothos: Pothos (both Scindapsus and Epipremnum) belongs to the Araceae family. If chewed or ingested, this popular household plant can cause significant mechanical irritation and swelling of the oral tissues and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Schefflera: Schefflera and Brassaia actinophylla contain calcium oxalate crystals that can cause oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting, difficulty in swallowing, and intense burning and irritation of the mouth, lips, and tongue in pets who ingest.
Native Plants, Not Lawns When it comes to keeping your yard free of chemicals, consider removing your lawn, so to speak. Landscaped lawns require pesticides and fertilizers, watering systems, and grooming with gasoline-powered equipment such as mowers and leaf blowers. In addition, they drain to local rivers and streams. Because native plants are adapted to grow well where you live, they tend not to require these chemicals or significant pesticides. Planting natives ensures that not only will your choices grow better in your local conditions, but
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that they will grow less expensively, because they don’t need extra water, pesticides, and fertilizer. The National Wildlife Federation in the United States and the Canadian Wildlife Federation provide native plant lists and suggestions for landscaping that require little in the way of additional resources. Also, you can consult the native plant society for your state by searching on “native plant” and your state name.
If You Insist on Maintaining a Lawn If you insist on maintaining a lawn, please give serious consideration to maintaining a less than perfect lawn. The perfect lawn was invented to sell chemicals such as fertilizers and herbicides. Although most of us don’t love dandelions, we could make do with clover, a brown spot here or there, and digging the dandelions out with an asparagus fork, rather than spraying them (and our pets, ourselves, and our neighbors) to death. If you can accept the moderately attractive lawn, the benefits will be great for your pocketbook and your eco-conscience.
Dangers inside the Home Dangers to our pets inside the home come in many forms.
Cleaning Chemicals When it comes to cleaning, less may be more. Many of us may have unrealistic standards when it comes to keeping our homes clean. Blue water in our toilets and weekly floor waxing may be too much of a good thing. Cleaning the toilet weekly with a cleaner that does the job but does not overdo it, and a daily sweeping and weekly mopping of the floors, should be enough. Milder cleaners (such as soap and water) will get 90 percent of the job done. Add 10 percent scrubbing effort, and your home can definitely stay clean. (Part of the allure of the stronger chemicals is that less scrubbing is required.) When it comes to the chemicals, try to stick to a few basics, such as the ones suggested on pages 148–149. Oven cleaner, or the self-cleaning cycle of your oven (with its super-heating energy-gulping and fumes) may not be needed. First, try some baking soda and hard work. Use any chemical that you spray on to preserve finishes, like Scotchguard, sparingly. These products contain components that, while having useful
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properties, should be used outdoors. The organic chemicals that provide the protection are especially easy to ingest when sprayed into the atmosphere of your home. In addition, rubbing or licking the surface, as a pet is likely to do, means the organic chemicals will be ingested by mouth and through the skin.
Indoor Plants If you love houseplants, check the lists from the ASPCA Poison Control Center. (See “Toxic Plants,” earlier in the chapter.) If they say a plant is safe, believe them. Otherwise, presume a plant to be suspect, especially if you have kitties or birds who cannot leave plants alone. It is just not worth the risk.
Chemical Fumes Many materials in the home release particles into the air. This release is known as offgas. Many materials made for homes offgas formaldehyde and similar chemicals at room temperature. These chemicals, a source of indoor air pollution, can irritate your eyes, cause headaches, and produce more long-lasting effects within your body. Given that pets are smaller, the effect is proportionately larger. Examples of these chemicals, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are paint, glue, cleansers, moth repellants, air fresheners, and dry-cleaned clothes. When acquiring new furnishings, avoid products with VOCs, including vinyl flooring, some paints, particle board, and polyurethane coatings. Of special concern because of their immediate deadly effects on birds are self-cleaning ovens and nonstick coatings. Although we don’t think of pots and pans as producing fumes, they do when we leave a pot on the stove until the chemical coatings break down from the excessive heat. Under those circumstances, pans with nonstick coatings produce fumes that are toxic to birds. The effects are immediate and deadly. Although the cookware makers may believe their products are safe, the experience of bird owners is that burned nonstick cookware kills birds who inhale the fumes.
Preventing Flea and Tick Problems Fleas and ticks are a concern to the sustainable homeowner, not only because they are a danger to your pet, but because the products used to control them can be harmful as well. In addition, the information on these products can be confusing.
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You can take several measures to control flea and tick infestations. What you have to decide is whether you’re willing to use the nonchemical approach. You should make this decision after discussing the issue with your veterinarian. Combing for fleas with a special flea comb and inspecting your pet for ticks every day or two does remove the pests from your animals. In addition, wash your pet’s bedding frequently. Vigorous, frequent vacuuming prevents flea colonies from establishing themselves in your home. You must also dispose of the vacuum bags after you use them. Keep your grass cut short. A less desirable approach from an environmental standpoint is the flea and tick preventative. These products work either by poisoning the pests or by disrupting their reproductive cycles. Unfortunately, some studies show that these chemicals affect not only the intended target, but also other living organisms, such as your pet. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released a report titled “Poisons on Pets: Health Hazards from Flea and Tick Products.” The report explains that the most harmful flea and tick control ingredients are organophosphate insecticides and carbamates. These ingredients can be a problem for the nervous systems of both children and pets. Cats are particularly vulnerable. To be safe, avoid products that list the following substances as an ingredient: Chloropyrifos Dichlorvos Phosmet Naled Tetrachlorovinphos Diazinon Malathion Carbaryl Propoxur Better products that can help prevent flea and tick infestations are available now. The first type includes insect-growth regulators that don’t kill the current group of fleas, but do prevent the next generation. These products include those made with lufenuron, methoprene, and pyriproxyfen, such as Program, Sentinel, Precor, Nylar, and Ecokyl. A second type of product is an insecticide designed to have fewer toxic effects on mammal nervous systems. These include imidacloprid, fipronil, and selamectin in products such as Advantage, Frontline, Top Spot, and Revolution.
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Applying Flea and Tick Products to Pets Follow these steps to apply flea and tick products to your pet: Carefully read and follow the product label. Choose the correct product for the specific pet and particular pest. Some products approved for dogs are not appropriate for cats, ferrets, rabbits, or pocket pets. Observe age and size restrictions as well as time between applications. If you’re unsure, call your veterinarian before applying. Consult a veterinarian before using on old, ill, pregnant, or nursing pets, or pets with allergies. Before applying, read the entire label. Never separate the label from the product container. If signs of sensitivity occur, bathe your pet with mild soap, rinse with large amounts of water, and call your veterinarian immediately.
Fact sheets on the active ingredients in the new as well as the older products are available from the National Pesticide Information Center and from the EPA web site at www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/fela-tick.htm. The weakest aspect of the new products is that they rub off onto people that your pet contacts. In addition, some of these substances are toxic to wildlife. Methoprene (marketed under the name Precor) seems less a problem because it is an insect growth regulator rather than a nerve toxin like fipronil (Frontline) and imidacloprid (Advantage). However, any of these products is much better than the old, more hazardous chemicals listed on the previous page, and are preferable to allowing fleas and ticks (and the diseases and problems they cause) into your home. Last, remember, whatever your veterinarian says goes. If you have questions about the toxicity of these products, be sure to discuss them with your vet.
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All this information may seem a bit overwhelming. If you remember these three things, you’ll be taking care of 95 percent of household health problems: (1) Consider your household as a place that’s best served with frequent cleaning using soap and water; (2) For pet-related diseases, an annual exam with your veterinarian and frequent grooming for fleas and ticks gets the job done; (3) For your yard, less is more. Use native plants that require little maintenance and no chemicals.
My Sustainability Score: Pets and Household Health Good
Better
Best
My pet improves my health.
We walk together My pet and I each day. walk together each day and we play a sport.
In addition to walking together each day and playing a sport, we volunteer, helping other people feel better.
Prevent pet disease.
I wash my hands after playing with my pet.
I keep the pet areas clean and control fleas and ticks by combing.
I also vaccinate as needed and have an annual vet exam for each pet.
Safe cleaning products.
I read the labels.
I use green cleaning products.
I also disinfect surfaces where my pet hangs out, and disinfect food and water dishes frequently.
Safe yard and garden.
I use an eco-lawn service.
I removed my lawn, planted natives, and threw out my yard chemicals.
I also did a rigorous inventory to ensure all plants were nontoxic to pets.
Safe indoor areas.
I switched to cleaning the toilet instead of using those chemicals that make the water blue.
I wash my pets’ bedding and vacuum thoroughly every week.
I tossed the Teflon, and pay attention to VOC content when buying new furnishings.
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For each “good” answer, give yourself 3 points. For each “better,” count 5 points. For “best” answers, give yourself 7 points. Score card: 15–24 points: You have a good basis for improving your pet and household health. 25–34 points: You understand the basics of pets and household health and now you’re just learning the details. 35 points: You win the Green Pet Award for doing your best for your pet and the planet when it comes to household health and pets.
My Sustainabililty Plan: Pets and Household Health A list helps to translate thought and feelings into action. Here are some ideas to get you started in your home or in your community. Check the ones you want to act on. Get your family and friends involved. In my home: Post the ASPCA Poison Control number on the emergency phone list. Review my cleaning products to ensure they meet the standards I feel are ethical. Review my yard plant inventory, landscaping, and maintenance plan for improvement. In my community: Canvas neighbors for suggestions about eco-pest control and land care companies. Discuss local sources of good cleaning products with friends. In my personal beliefs: Could I volunteer with my pet to help others? Could I make room in my budget for annual pet exams, or could I change my method of flea and tick control to combing to help defray the expenses?
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Resources Accidental Poisoning ASPCA Poison Control Center: www.aspca.org, (888) 426-4435
West Nile Virus U.S. Centers for Disease Control: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/ westnile/brochure.htm American Veterinary Medical Association: www.avma.org. Domestic animals and West Nile virus.
Cleaning Products Method Home: www.methodhome.com Seventh Generation: www.seventhgeneration.com Ecover: www.ecover.com Mrs. Meyers: www.mrsmeyers.com Bioshield: www.bioshieldpaint.com Earth Friendly: www.ecos.com Naturally Yours: www.naturallyyoursclean.com Simple Green: www.simplegreen.com Clorox Green Works: www.GreenWorksCleaners.com
Native Plants National Wildlife Federation: www.enature.com/home Wild About Gardening (Canadian Wildlife Federation): www.wildaboutgardening.org
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Organic Land Care Organic Land Care: www.organiclandcare.net Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides: www.pesticide.org
Pest Control Pesticide alternatives: es.epa.gov Mosquito control: www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/mosquitoes Safety Source for Pest Management: www.beyondpesticides.org/ safetysource/index.htm
Health Effects Information Health effects of chemicals: www.cdc.gov Environmental Working Group: www.ewg.org
Health Effects of Pets Delta Society: www.deltasociety.org Centers for Disease Control: www.cdc.gov/healthypets/ health_benefits.htm Gail F. Melson. Why the Wild Things Are: Animals in the Lives of Children. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005.
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Chapter 7
Pets and Ecologically Sensitive Pet Services The concept is interesting . . . but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible. —A Yale University management professor’s comments on student Fred Smith’s paper proposing the Federal Express Corporation
In the same way that the concept of overnight delivery was new in 1971, so are ecologically sensitive pet services in 2009. In this chapter we look at how providers of pet services are beginning to take advantage of the choices available to them and how your communities and pets may benefit from them. Because of the pace of life in this new millennium, our disposable income, and the regard we have for our pets as family members, perhaps it isn’t surprising that the growth in pet services—such as day-care centers—mirrors services for our children. In an article for Small Business Trends, Laura Bennett suggests that the $3 billion American expenditure for pet services in 2008 includes “visits to the spa, exercise regimes, and hotel-quality accommodations for day care [that] are becoming more commonplace in urban areas.” Bennett also sees “groomers, doggie day cares, pet hotels, pet insurance companies, lawyers providing pet trusts, and funeral homes providing [more] services for pets.” Because the growth of pet services, you do have a choice, and you can select your service providers based on their steps toward ecologically sensitive service delivery.
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You might well ask how one can deliver pet services in a manner sensitive to the planet. We’ll discuss this first, and then look at the following types of services: Pet sitters Veterinarians Groomers Pet overnight and day-care facilities Pet trainers Pet waste services Pet taxis To close the chapter, we discuss the good, better, best practices of pet services and help you develop a plan for acting on what you’ve learned. Finally, resources you can use to help put your plans into action are listed at the chapter end.
Why Pets Services Matter Pet services matter because of the number of businesses and the number of pets they influence. Most pets visit veterinarians. Pet sitters and boarding facilities are vital to most families with pets. Pet services also enable ownership by those who might not otherwise be able to have pets—the working and the aged. Pet service providers are major fixtures in the lives of pets and their companions. According to the American Pet Products Association, one-third of dog owners and one in ten cat owners use pet services other than veterinary and grooming services. The most common service that dog owners use is boarding. Next most common is home-based pet sitting; the majority of these service receivers are cats. Providers such as veterinarians, groomers, and day-care services receive more information about pets and pet-related products and services, and know which providers are professionals and which are less than professional. Often they are leaders in implementing newer, greener foods, medicines, and equipment. Most people who offer these services are kind and gentle toward animals and prefer to offer the most earth-friendly services possible. However, some providers are more eco-aware than others. In a way, we pet owners could look at our service providers as pet-friendly mentors or models. Because we need and value service providers, selecting the best models and the best caretakers for our pets means finding practitioners of services that reflect our own values about pets and the planet.
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Many pet owners are on the lookout for those businesses that distinguish themselves by offering green services or conducting their businesses in an ecofriendly way. Although many companies claim to be green, you want to look for businesses that explain how their services have a softer impact on the planet. Despite our emphasis on the eco-friendly approach, the priority for any pet service is that you feel comfortable with the quality of care they render to your pet. Even if you aren’t a seasoned pet owner, go with your gut. If you’re not sure the person is competent to provide quality care, keep looking. There’s a reason we have instincts; listen to yours. Because the concept of a green service business really is new, many businesses have thought about reducing, reusing, and recycling, but few have done enough to truthfully claim they are green. Here is where you can really make a difference, by asking questions and encouraging practices that make service providers more conscious of their environment and sensitive to customers who place high values on the quality of our ecosystems.
Services Used over a Six-month Period Service
Dog Owners
Cat Owners
Kennel/boarding/pet hotel
42%
15%
Pet sitting at home
41%
79%
Day care for pet
3%
—
Behavior therapist
—
—
Pet taxi or transport
—
—
Other service
31%
7%
Reprinted with permission of the American Pet Products Association (APPA)
Health-Care Services: Veterinarian and Groomer Dog Owners
Cat Owners
Bird Owners
Rabies vaccines
68%
46%
—
Routine physical
63%
45%
—
Other vaccine
66%
47%
14%
Flea and tick related
39%
12%
—
Only when sick
25%
19%
14%
Boarding
7%
4%
3%
Food
10%
12%
18%
continues
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Pets and the Planet
Dog Owners
Cat Owners
Bird Owners
Dental care
14%
9%
—
Groomer
75%
—
17%
Homeopathic remedies
6%
4%
—
Special diets
6%
10%
1%
Health Insurance
3%
. Schulte, Emmett, and R. E. Hall. “Yard and Garden Brief.” Feb. 1999. University of Minnesota Extension. 20 Jan. 2007 . “The Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle.” Fishlore.com. 2007. 20 July 2008 . “Total Cat Litter.” Product Alert 25 Oct. 1999. “Try a Safer Cat Litter.” Natural Health Mar. 2003: 24. Wohleber, C. “Cat Litter.” Pediatrics 118 (2006): 447. Yarnell, Amanda. “Kitty Litter.” Chemical and Engineering News 24 Apr. 2004: 26.
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Chapter 6. Pets and Household Health “About Rabies.” CDC. 5 July 2005. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 . Bond, Annie B. “5 Basics for Non-Toxic Cleaning.” Care 2. 9 Jan. 1999. 28 Apr. 2008 . ———. “The Wonders of Washing Soda.” Care 2. 19 Dec. 1999. 29 Apr. 2008 . Boutin, Chad. “Research Finds Lawn Chemicals Raise Cancer Risk in Scottish Terriers.” Purdue University. 19 Apr. 2004. 30 Apr. 2008 . Bren, Linda. “Keeping Pets (and People) Healthy.” FDA Consumer Jan.–Feb. 2004. “Campylobacter.” CDC. 21 May 2008. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . “Cancer Risk in Scottish Terriers.” Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides 30 Apr. 2008 . “Cat Scratch Disease.” CDC. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . “CDC Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Signs and Symptoms.” CDC. 20 May 2005. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 . Charnetski, C. J., S. Riggers, and F. X. Breennan. “Effect of Petting a Dog on Immune System Function.” Psychol Rep. 3 (2004): 1087–1091. “Clorox Chairman and CEO Don Knauss Rings the Opening Bell with Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.” Sierra Club 21 Apr. 2008. 21 Apr. 2008 . Cox, Caroline. “Ugh! Slugs! Pesticide-Free Solutions to Slug Problems.” Journal of Pesticide Reform 24 (2004): 8–9. ———. “Insecticide Factsheet: Fipronil.” Journal of Pesticide Reform 25 (2005): 10–15. ———. “Insecticide Factsheet: Imidacloprid.” Journal of Pesticide Reform 21 (2001): 15–20.
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McNicholas, June, and Glyn M. Collis. “Pets and the Health of Older People.” Presented at the 10th International Conference on Human-Animal Interactions, People and Animals. Glasgow, Scotland. 6–9 Oct. 2004. July 2008 . “Medical Encyclopedia: Ringworm.” Medline Plus. 1 May 2007. U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. 11 June 2008 . Melson, Gail F. “The Role of Companion Animals in Human Development.” Presented at the 7th International Conference on HumanAnimal Interactions, Animals, Health and Quality of Life. Geneva, Switzerland. 6–9 Sept. 1995. 28 Mar. 2008 . National Pesticide Information Center. “National Pesticide Telecommunications Network: Fipronil Fact Sheet.” Dec. 1997. 26 Mar. 2008 . “News and Events: Vaccination of Horses Recommended to Protect Against West Nile Virus.” State of Oregon Department of Agriculture. 25 Apr. 2007. 28 Mar. 2008 . “News Release: Polluted Pets.” Environmental Working Group. 17 Apr. 2008. 28 Apr. 2008 . “Organic Land Care Program: About Us.” Organiclandcare.net. 18 Dec. 2007. 30 Apr. 2008 . “Pest Control Business Turns Greener: Going Green.” MSNBC 22 Apr. 2008. 30 Apr. 2008 . “Pocket Pets.” CDC. 27 May 2005. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . Protecting Oregon’s Poultry and Birds. Salem: Oregon Department of Agriculture, 2006. “Psittacosis.” CDC. 13 Oct. 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . “Q Fever Caused by Coxiella Burnetii.” CDC. 13 Feb. 2003. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . “Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Questions and Answers.” CDC. 20 May 2005. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 .
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Ridgley, Heidi. “Reducing Your Pet’s Ecological Paw Print.” National Wildlife Oct.–Nov. 2004. “Salmonella from Pocket Pets.” CDC. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 21 July 2008 . “Salmonellosis.” CDC. 21 May 2008. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 . “SARS: General SARS Information.” Clorox Professional Services 28 Apr. 2008 . “Selecting an Appropriate Sanitizer.” National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Early Child Care and Education. Canadian Paediatric Society. July 2008 . “Taking Care of Fleas and Ticks on Your Pet.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 24 July 2007. 26 Mar. 2008 . Thomas, Patricia. “What’s in This Stuff?” Ecologist Nov. 2006: 63. Thompson, Sarah. “Spring into Healthier Cleaning.” WildOats.com. Mar.–Apr. 2007: 41–42. “Toxocariasis Fact Sheet.” CDC. 5 Nov. 2007. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 . “Toxoplasmosis: Fact Sheet.” CDC. 16 Jan. 2008. U.S. Centers for Disease Control. 11 June 2008 . Trapasso, Clare. “Pest Busters Employ Green Means.” Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) 27 Apr. 2008. 30 Apr. 2008 . Trask, Crissy. It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2006. Upton, V. “Dogs: A Potential Public Health Role to Improve Health and Well-Being.” SCAS Journal 17 (2005): 2–5. “What You Should Know about Flea and Tick Products.” Humane Society of the United States. 10 July 2006. 26 Mar. 2008 . “Zoonoses: Introduction.” Merck Veterinary Manual 28 Mar. 2008 .
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Chapter 7. Pets and Ecologically Sensitive Pet Services Abrams, Rhonda. “Strategies: Add Green to Your Business Bottom Line.” USA Today 25 Apr. 2008. 28 May 2008 . “At Work: Oregon Environmental Council.” OEC Online. 28 Apr. 2008 . Bennett, Laura. “Pet Industry Trends for 2008.” Smallbiztrends.com. 12 Dec. 2007. 9 Sept. 2008 . Chance, Terry. Telephone interview. 29 May 2008. Mitchell, Lauri. E-mail interview. 1 May 2008. “Northwest Earth Institute Eco-Tips.” Northwest Earth Institute. 21 July 2008 . Singleton, Nicole. Telephone interview. 28 May 2008. Stewart, Brandi. “Investing in a Green Work Environment.” Fortune Small Business. 5 May 2008. 28 May 2008 . Vissner, Matha. “Four Ways to Go Green.” Fortune Small Business. 26 Mar. 2007. 28 May 2008 .
Chapter 8. Pets and Community Ecology American Veterinary Medical Association Task Force on Canine Aggression and Human-Canine Interactions. “A Community Approach to Dog Bite Prevention.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 2001. 13 May 2008 . Avrasin, M. “Dog Fight.” Parks and Recreation January 2008. “Benefits of Spay/Neuter for Cats and Dogs.” Spay/USA 15 May 2008 . Benn, Evan S. “House OK’s Table for 2 and Doggy, Too.” Miami Herald 4 May 2006. Boks, Ed. “The Dirty Little Secret in Your Community.” Newsweek 27 June 2005: 15.
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Crane, John R. “Loose Dogs a Howling Nuisance.” Danville Register and Bee (VA) 6 Feb. 2008. “Did You Know?” Parks and Recreation July 2007. “Dog and Cat Population Control.” American Veterinary Medical Association. June 2005. 13 May 2008 . “Early-Age (Prepubertal) Spay/Neuter of Dogs and Cats.” American Veterinary Medical Association May 2004. 13 May 2008 . Fayhee, M. John. “Pet Peeves.” Backpacker Apr. 2000: 74–80. “FDA Food Code.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration Apr. 2004. 21 July 2008 . “Final Care of Your Pet’s Body.” Animal Hubbub 12 May 2008 . Finan, Eileen, and Michaele Ballard. “Dust to Dust.” People 25 June 2007: 68–71. Fong, Petti. “B.C. Pet Project: Dog-Poop Fuel.” Toronto Star (Canada) 12 Apr. 2007: A03. Hoskins, Johnny D. “New Strategies, Technologies Are Helping in the Overpopulation War.” DVM: The Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine (2005): 12s. “HSUS Pet Overpopulation Estimates.” Humane Society of the United States. 12 Oct. 2006. 13 May 2008 . Huss, Rebecca J. “No Pets Allowed: Housing Issues and Companion Animals.” Animal Law 11: 69–129. Johnson, Chip. “Letting Owners ‘Park’ Dogs.” San Francisco Chronicle 24 Aug. 2007: B1. Kain, Tara, and Len Kain. “Doggie Dining: Making Sense of the Confusion.” DogFriendly.com’s Newsletter. July 2006. 16 May 2008 . “Large-Scale Dog Waste Composting.” BioCycle Jan. 2008: 10. Leschin-Hoar, C. “Showing Their Teeth.” Parks and Recreation July 2007: 44. Lyall, Sara. “Cemetery Journal: Pet Burials Rivaling Some for People.” New York Times 1 July 1991: 3.
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Mcbrayer, S. “It Happens But You Still Have to Pick It Up.” News Herald (NC) 4 Feb. 2008. Moran, P. “Dog Parks: Where Dogs Can Be Dogs.” Dog World Nov. 2002: 120. “Natural Burial: The Ultimate in Recycling.” Natural Life Magazine Mar.–Apr. 2008: 13. Novy, L. “Why Can’t We Spay/Neuter Our Way Out?” DVM: Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine Jan. 2007: 27. O’Connor, Debra. “Chill, Neighbor: If the Folks Next Door Are Getting on Your Nerves with Their Loud Parties, Barking Dog and Unmowed Lawn, Here are Effective Approaches to Resolving Conflicts.” Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) 5 June 2007. Reisner, Ilana R., Frances S. Shofer, and Michael L. Nance. “Behavioral Assessment of Child-Directed Canine Aggression.” Injury Prevention 13 (2007): 348–351. “Review: Visiting the Dog Park: Having Fun, Staying Safe.” Dog World Sept. 2007: 114. Safety around Dogs: The AKC’s Safety Education Program for Children. Raleigh, N.C.: American Kennel Club. Sander, Jean E., Martin C. Warbington, and Lee M. Myers. “Selected Methods of Animal Carcass Disposal.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 220 (2002): 1003–1005. “San Francisco Sees Pet Waste as Energy Source.” Narr. Linda Wertheimer. Weekend Edition Saturday. Natl. Public Radio. 18 Mar. 2006 <www .npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyID=5288013>. Sawicki, Stephen. “Turning Back the Tide.” Animals July–August 1998: 12. Schildkraut, Deborah. “A Resting Place.” Petroglyphs. 12 May 2008 . Schultz, Paul, Anita Fischer, William Craig, and Kathleen Kinney. “Would You Support a MandatorySpay/Neuter Law in Our State?” DVM: Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine April 2007: 46. Senator, Jennifer. “Best Dog Parks: Editors’ Picks.” Atlanta June 2007. Sharp, Deborah. “How to Avoid Future Friction.” USA Today 10 Dec. 2004: 3A. Spadafori, Gina. “Running Free.” Saturday Evening Post Nov. 2007: 72. Spilner, M. “How to Dodge Daunting Dogs.” Prevention June 1994: 122.
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Stowe, Johnny P., Jr., Elise Vernon Schmidt, and Deborah Green. “Toxic Burials: The Final Insult.” Conservation Biology 15 (2001): 1817–1819. “Summary Report: Mandatory Spay/Neuter Laws.” American Veterinary Medical Association Feb. 2008. 13 May 2008 .Tam, Katherine. “Backers of Park for Dogs Have Plenty of Proposals.” Olympian (Olympia, WA) 24 Mar. 2006. “Tennessee Expects Spay/Neuter Legislation.” DVM: Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine Jan. 2008: 35. Treadway, Chris. “Pay Area Parks Are Top Dog.” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) 25 Aug. 2006. Tsouderos, Trina. “City Puts Dog Dishes on Table.” Chicago Tribune 17 Aug. 2006. Wenstrup, John, and Alexis Dowidchuk. “Pet Overpopulation: Data and Measurement Issues in Shelters.” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 2 (1999): 303–319. “Why You Should Spay or Neuter Your Pet.” Humane Society of the United States 29 Feb. 2008. 13 May 2008 . Wood, Lisa J., Billie Giles-Courti, Max K. Bulsara, and Darcy A. Bosch. “More Than a Furry Companion: The Ripple Effect of Companion Animals on Neighborhood Interactions and Sense of Community.” Society and Animals Mar. 2007: 43–56. Zawistowski, Stephen, Julie Morris, M. D. Salman, and Rebecca RuchGallie. “Population Dynamics, Overpopulation, and the Welfare of Companion Animals: New Insights on Old and New Data.” Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 1 (1998): 193–206.
Chapter 9. Twenty-First-Century Issues for Pets and Sustainability Allen, Carrie. “Street Dogs and Sacred Cows.” AnimalSheltering.org. 15 July 2008 . Brower, Michael, and Warren Leon. The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.
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Brown, Brenda H., Herbert C. Richards, and Carol A. Wilson. “Pet Bonding and Pet Bereavement among Adolescents.” Journal of Counseling and Development 74 (1996): 505–509. “Ecological Footprint Quiz.” Redefining Progress. Earth Day Network and WWF. 20 Jan. 2008 . Fiala, Jennifer. “CVMA Covets Heightened Legal Status for Pets.” DVM: Newsmagazine of Veterinary Medicine 35 (2004): 36–39. “Food: With Eco-Labels a Rose Isn’t Always a Rose.” Plenty 18 Jan. 2008. 1 Jan. 2008 . Gilquin, Gaetanelle, and George M. Jacobs. “Elephants Who Marry Mice Are Very Unusual: The Use of the Relative Pronoun Who with Nonhuman Animals.” Society and Animals 14 (2006). “Global Pet Expo to Unleash Hundreds of New Pet Products.” Business Wire 15 Feb. 2006. Kendall, Holli A., Linda M. Lobao, and Jeff S. Sharp. “Public Concern with Animal Well-Being: Place, Social Structural Location, and Individual Experience.” Rural Sociology Sept. 2006. Linn, Allison. “Carbon Offset Market Raises Questions: Going Green.” MSNBC. 22 May 2007. 22 May 2007 . Makower, Joel. “Two Steps Forward: Clorox Aims to Show That ‘Green Works.’” JoelMakower.com 21 Apr. 2008. 21 Apr. 2008 . ———. “Two Steps Forward: The Six Sins of Greenwashing.” JoelMakower.com. 18 Nov. 2007. 26 Nov. 2007 . McArdle, Megan. “The 111⁄2 Biggest Ideas of the Year.” Atlantic July–Aug. 2008. McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.” McDonough.com. 2006. 22 Jan. 2008 . ———. “From Inspiration to Innovation: Nike.” McDonough.com. 2006. 1 Jan. 2008 . McNeely, Jeffrey A. “An Introduction to Human Dimensions of Invasive Alien Species.” The Great Reshuffling: Human Dimensions of Invasive Alien Species. Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK: IUCN, 2001.
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Index
A AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association), 177–178 Aardbarks, 53 aggression, pet, 202–203 airing, 149 ALF (Animal Liberation Front), 235, 236 algae, 107 Allen, Carrie (Animal Sheltering), 227 allergies, 39–40 Alley Cat Allies, 35, 36, 236 amaryllis, toxicity of, 156 American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), 177–178 American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), 56, 67, 68–69 American Association of Veterinary Nutritionists, 63 American Bird Conservancy, 35, 36 American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, 181 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 63 American Kennel Club (AKC), 44, 202 American Pet Products Association (APPA) Habitattitude, 34 National Pet Owners Survey, 3, 21, 22, 42, 50, 104 pet-related product sales, 75 pet remains disposal, 217 pet services use, 166 veterinary services use, 177
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 121 American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) cat litter, 118 feral cats, 35 list of poisonous plants, 154–156 Poison Control Center, 154, 158 puppy mills, 44 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 141, 197–198, 201–202 amphibians, 33, 78–79 ANCA (Australian National Conservation Association), 229 animal control agencies, 194–195 Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 236 animal hoarders, 201 animal law, 244 Animal Liberation (Singer), 233, 234 Animal Liberation Front (ALF), 235, 236 Animal Protection Institute, 28 animal rights, 233–237 Animals, Men, and Morals (Godlovitch and Harris), 234 Animal Sheltering (Allen), 227 animal testing, 12 animal welfare, 230, 232 antibacterial compounds, 145 APPA. See American Pet Products Association aquariums, wastes in, 123 ASPCA. See American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Association of Pet Dog Trainers, 181
289
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Page 290
Index
Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists (APAWS), 114, 183 Association of Zoos and Aquariums, 57 ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), 121 attacks, by pet reptiles, 28 attitudes about animals animal rights, 233–237 animal welfare, 232 feral cats, 228–229 national differences in, 230–232 what humans seek from animals, 226–228 Australian National Conservation Association (ANCA), 229 autumn crocus, toxicity of, 156 avian flu, 142–144 AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association), 141, 197–198, 201–202 azalea/rhododendron, toxicity of, 155
B backyard fencing, 93–94 bacteria, from pet waste, 105–106 bags biodegradable, 16, 110 plastic, 110 for waste disposal, 87, 110, 122 baits, poison, 153–154 baking soda, 148, 149 basilisk lizard, 31 bathing products, 82–83 BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, 9 bedding, for exotic pets, 121, 123 beds, 84–85 behaviorist, animal, 180–182 Bennett, Robin K. (Off-Leash Dog Play: A Complete Guide to Safety and Fun), 100 bentonite, 117 biodegradable, definition of, 110, 119 biodegradable products bags, 16, 110 time to breakdown, 119 use by groomers, 178–179 Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), 121 biogas, 115–116 Biosolids Rule, EPA’s 503, 112 bioswale, 172
bird-borne disease, 140 bird flu, 142–144 birds bathing, 83 breeders, 45 cryptococcosis, 132 diet, 63 feral populations, 204–206 health-care services, 167–168 invasive species, 32 life span and daily care, 37 number of pets in U.S., 4 nutrition, 57 pet care costs, 38 play outside of cage, 84 popularity as pet, 22 predation by feral animals, 33, 35 psittacosis (parrot fever), 134, 140 supply list, 79 talking, 22 toxicity of chemical fumes, 158 West Nile virus infection, 140 bites, animal, 202 Black Spiny-Tailed Iguana, 32 bleach, 151 boarding facilities, 179–180, 186 bowls, food and water, 80 BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute), 121 Braungart, Michael (Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things), 239 breed clubs, 41, 215 breeders, 43–45 breeding bans, 198 Briggs, Susan (Off-Leash Dog Play: A Complete Guide to Safety and Fun), 100 Brown Tree Snake, 32, 33 brushes, 82, 83 building materials, 170–171 burial, 219. See also remains, pet Burmese pythons, 31
C cages, crates, and barriers, 81–82 calcium, 61, 255 campylobacteriosis, 131 carbohydrates, 253
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Index carbon label, 54 carbon offset, 245 car restraint systems, 96–97 carrying capacity, 240 castor bean, toxicity of, 155 Castor & Pollux Pet Works (retailer), 55, 150 catch basins, 171 CatGenie, 86 cats avian influenza, 143 breeders, 45 calories required to feed, 51 diet, 60–63, 65 diseases associated with, 130–139 domestication, 21 fencing for, 94 feral, 33–36, 204, 228–229 health-care services, 167–168 life span and daily care, 37 meeting needs of, 23 NRC’s mineral intake recommendations for, 256 NRC’s nutritional requirements for, 56, 253 NRC’s vitamin requirements for, 254–255 number of pets in U.S., 4 pet care costs, 38 popularity as pet, 21, 22 reason for surrender to shelters, 29 reproduction rates, 30 spaying and neutering, 30 supply list, 78 taurine requirement, 61 toxoplasmosis, 137, 138 vegetarian diet, 39 waste, 116–120, 207–208 worms, 130, 138 cat scratch disease, 131 cemetery, pet, 218 Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 119, 128, 129, 138, 145 certification Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), 121 decoding labels, 11–16 description, 12
291
Integrity Certified International Organic Certification, 70 International Certification Services Organic Certification, 70 International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), 12, 70 organic, 69–70 U.S. Composting Council (USCC), 121 Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers, 181–182 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists, 181 chemical sterilants, 112 children age-appropriate pet choice, 40 benefits of pet ownership to, 128–129 canine aggression and, 202, 203 green initiatives and, 10 learning about themselves through animals, 50 pets and children’s health, 243–244 roundworm infection, 130 volunteering, 41 choosing the right pet acting on choices, 47 age appropriateness, 40 consequences of poor decisions, 28–31 exotic pets, 24–28 health concerns, 39–40 housing covenants and, 40 meeting needs of pet, 22–23 outside environment, 40 personal environmental ethic and, 36–40 popularity of pet types, 21, 22 resources, 48 sources of pets, 42–46 sustainability score (quiz), 46–47 why pet choice matters, 21–24 chrysanthemum, toxicity of, 156 CITIES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), 26 clay litter, 117 cleaning chemicals, 157–158 cleaning ingredients, 148–149 cleaning methods, 149–151 cleaning products, 147–148, 150 Clean Water Act, 108
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Index
Clorox, 146–147 collars, 81, 82 combs, 82, 83 community ecology creation of community by pets, 212–215 dog parks, 212–215 future issues, 220 laws and ordinances, 23, 194–195 neighborhood ecosystem, 192–193 noise from pets, 206–207 pet aggression, 202–203 pet population control/regulation, 195–201 pet remains, 216–220 pet waste, 207–208 public spaces, 208–211 resources, 222–224 roaming pets, 203–206 sustainability plan, 222 sustainability score (quiz), 221 compostable, definition of, 110 composting, 111–113, 213–214 confinement systems, 81 Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices (Union of Concerned Scientists), 50, 51, 225 Consumer’s Union, 77 contraceptives, 199 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITIES), 26 Co-op America’s Green Business Network, 12 Coqui Frog, 33 coral, 27 corn, plastic production and, 16 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (McDonough and Braungart), 239 Craigslist, 91 crates, 96–97 cremation, 220 cryptococcosis, 132 Cryptosporidium, 105, 132 Cybercanine (grooming product retailer), 83 cyclamen, toxicity of, 155
D Delta Society, 129 deodorizing, 149 diet. See also pet food blended approaches to, 68 convenience, 58–60 cost, 58–60, 243 factors in selection, 58–59 homemade, 60–61 ingredients, 58–60, 71–72 natural, 66, 67 nutritional requirements, 56, 252–256 organic, 65–66 raw, 64–65 selection process, 59–60 vegetarian, 62–63 digester, pet waste, 113–114 dingo, 229 disease. See also specific diseases pet-associated, 129–140 preventing infections, 151 disease prevention cleaning the home, 146–152 flea and tick prevention, 158–160 hand washing, 145 toxin removal, 152–158 disinfectants, 151 Dogaware.com, 65 dogfighting, 195 dogfriendly.com, 98, 211 dog park, 100, 212–215 dogs aggression, 202–203 avian influenza, 143 barking, 23, 206 breeders, 43–45 calories required to feed, 51 chasing wildlife, 99, 209 diet, 60–68 diseases associated with, 130–139 domestication, 21 fencing for, 93, 94 health-care services, 167–168 life span and daily care, 37 meeting needs of, 23 NRC’s mineral intake recommendations for, 255–256
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Index NRC’s nutritional requirements for, 56, 253 NRC’s vitamin requirements for, 254 number of pets in U.S., 4 pet care costs, 38 popularity as pet, 21, 22 in public spaces, 208–211 reason for surrender to shelters, 29 reproduction rates, 30 spaying and neutering, 30 supply list, 76–77 vegetarian diet, 39 waste management, 122, 207 worms, 130, 138 dog walkers, 209 domestication of dogs and cats, 21 doors, pet, 92–93 DoSomething.org, 41 Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats (Pitcairn), 61 Dream Pet (Sega Toys), 231 dusting, 149
E Earthbath (grooming product retailer), 83 Eastern Gray Squirrel, 32 Ecological Footprint Quiz, 246 EcoLogo label, 11 ecology, 192. See also community ecology economic forces as motivators, 240–242 ecosystem, degradation by unleashed pets, 24 ecotourism, 25 electric fencing, 93 embalming, 217 Energy Star label, 11, 13, 16 English ivy, toxicity of, 156 Environmental Defense Fund, 242 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Biosolids Rule, 112 dog fecal output, 104 drinking water contamination, 107 indoor air, 149 pesticides, 160 remains disposal, 217 waste disposal, 109, 112–113 Environmental Working Group, 152, 243
293
Epicurean Simplicity (Mills), 246 equipment beds, 84–85 bird supply list, 79 car restraint systems, 96–97 cat supply list, 78 confinement systems, 81 dog supply list, 76–77 fencing, 93–94 fish supply list, 78 food and water bowls, 80 green purchasing, 77 grooming, 82–83 leashes, 98 litter, 85–87 muzzles, 99 pet doors, 92–93 reptile and amphibian supply list, 78–79 resources, 102 sharing, reusing, and recycling, 90–91 shopping for, 87–91 small mammal supply list, 79 sustainability plan, 102 sustainability score (quiz), 101 toys, 84–85 Escherichia coli, 105, 106 e-tailers, 87–90 euthanasia, 29, 30, 35 exotic pets/animals. See also specific pet types bedding, 121, 123 depletion of natural populations, 24 description, 24 diet, 60 global trade in reptiles, 26–28 illegal, 25 invasive species, 31–33 nutritional requirements, 56–58 owner and public safety, 25, 27–28 expectations, of pet by owner, 22–23
F family members, pets as, 49–50 farmer’s market, 58 fats, 252, 253 FDA (Food and Drug Administration), 63, 210 feces. See waste
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Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 14 fencing, 93–94 feral animals birds, 204–206 cats, 33–36, 204, 228–229 fertilizers, 153–154, 156–157 fiber, 253 filters, 123 fish disposal of unwanted, 34 ecologically sensitive capture practices, 27 life span and daily care, 37 MAC certification, 27 number of pets in U.S., 4 pet care costs, 38 popularity as pet, 21, 22 supply list, 78 waste management, 123 flea-borne diseases, 140 flea comb, 82 fleas, prevention, 158–160 Florida, invasive species in, 24, 31–32 food. See also nutrition; pet food distance traveled by, 53–54 factors in diet selection, 58–59 organic, 65–66, 70 resources required to produce, 51–52 Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 63, 210 food bowls, 80 food production, environmental effects of, 50, 51–54 fostering, 41 Freecycle Network, 91 freshwater fish. See fish FTC (Federal Trade Commission), 14 Fuller’s earth, 117 fumes, chemical, 158 fungal infections, 132, 135, 139 fungus, 139 furniture, pet, 84–85 furniture polish, 150
G Garrett, Leslie (The Virtuous Consumer), 54, 150 genetic engineering, 16, 243 Giardia, 100, 105, 107, 133, 209
gifts, giving pets as, 215–216 Global Organic Alliance (GOA) Certified Organic Program, 70 Global Strategy Groups, 10 Godlovitch, Stanley and Rosalind (Animals, Men, and Morals), 234 green, meaning of term, 7 Green Business Network, 12 GreenerChoices.org, 77 green marketing, 7–16 green purchasing, 77 greenwashing, 13–16 Green Works, 146–147 groomers, 178–179, 186 grooming products, 82–83 Guam, invasive species in, 33 Guide for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (FTC), 14 guinea pigs, pet care costs, 38
H habitattitude, 34 hair, grooming products, 82–83 hand washing, 145 Harris, John (Animals, Men, and Morals), 234 Hawaii, invasive species in, 33 HDPE (high-density polyethylene), 94 health concerns of pet ownership, 39–40 diseases associated with pets, 129–140 flea and tick prevention, 158–160 health-care expenses, 168 health-care services used, 167–168 improvement from pets, 128–129 resources, 163–164 sustainability plan, 162 sustainability score (quiz), 161–162 why pets matter to your health, 128–130 heartwater disease, 28 heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, 169 Help in Suffering, 227 hemp collars and leashes, 82 herbicides, 153, 157 high-density polyethylene (HDPE), 94 High Tech Pet (pet door retailer), 93 hoarding, pet, 23
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Index home cleaning, 146–152 removing household toxins, 152–158 home life, pets and, 39–40 homemade diet, 60–61 home modifications for pets backyard fencing, 93–95 mudrooms, 95–96 pet doors, 92–93 homeowners associations, 195 Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative (Strombeck), 61 hookworms, 106, 130, 134 horses life span and daily care, 37 number of pets in U.S., 4 popularity as pet, 22 West Nile virus infection, 141 households, pet ownership in U.S., 3, 21, 22 housing covenants, 40 Humane Society International Asia, 26 Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) animals in shelters, 43 feral cats and, 35 formation of, 235 legislative fund, 237 reptile ban, 26 wild animals as pets, 25
I immune system, effect of pets on, 128 In Defense of Animals (IDA), 233 India, animals in, 227 infections, preventing, 151 influenza, avian, 142–144 insect breeders, 45 insect-growth regulators, 159 insecticide, 159–160 integrated pest management, 152 Integrity Certified International Organic Certification, 70 International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, 182 International Certification Services Organic Certification, 70
295
International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), 12, 70 invasive species, 31–33 ISEAL (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling), 70 Isharestuff.org, 91
K kalanchoe, toxicity of, 155 Katz, Jon (The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family), 220 kennels, 179–180, 186 kids. See children KidsCare Clubs, 41, 42 kitty litter. See litter Kong (toy manufacturer), 85
L labels American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), 56, 67, 68–69 American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 121 Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), 121 for carbon footprints, 54 decoding, 12–16 EcoLogo, 11 Energy Star, 11, 13, 16 FTC requirements, 14 Green Business Network, 12 ingredients list, 71–72 International Federation of Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), 12, 70 interpreting, 69 keywords, 68–69 meaningless, 11 No Animal Testing, 12 organic certification, 69–70 Organic Trade Association Member, 12 pet food, 68–72 understanding, 72 U.S. Composting Council (USCC), 121 landscaping, 171–172 lawns, 156–157
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laws and ordinances. See also regulations effect of consumer attitudes, 244 enforcement, 194–195 limiting pets, 200–201 spay/neuter, 29, 198, 199–200 LCM (lymphocytic choriomeningitis), 134, 139 leashes, 81, 82, 98 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, 169, 170, 172 legislation, sterilization and breeding bans, 198 licensing of pets, 23, 194 LifeGems, 218 lilies, toxicity of, 154 litter green alternatives, 85–87 health concerns, 118–119 plant-based, 118 types, 116–118, 120 litter box, self-washing, 85, 86, 119–120 livestock waste, 105 locavore, 7–8, 53 The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA (Phelps), 234, 236 lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM), 134, 139
M mad cow disease, 70 marijuana, toxicity of, 155 Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), 27 marketing green, 7–16 greenwashing, 13–16 labels, 11–16 socially conscious consumer, 9–10 terminology, 8 McDonough, William (Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things), 239 meat, cost of production, 52 medications, unused, 83 melamine, 63 Mills, Stephanie (Epicurean Simplicity), 246 minerals, 255–256
mold and mildew removal, 150 monkeys, 25 Monk (Quaker) parakeet, 32, 204–206 Moore Pet Supplies (pet door retailer), 93 mosquitoes, West Nile virus transmission, 140–142 mudrooms, 95–96 muzzles, 99
N National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors, 182 National Center for Animal Law, 244 National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy, 28 National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species, 32 National Pesticide Information Center, 160 National Resource Council (NRC) mineral intake recommendations, 255–256 nutritional requirements, 51, 56, 253 vitamin requirements, 254–255 National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 159 native plants, 156–157 natural foods, 66, 67 natural populations, depletion by collectors, 24 Nature Conservancy, 245 NAVS (North American Vegetarian Society), 234–235 needs, hierarchy of, 193 Neighborrow.com, 91 neutering, 29–30 The New Work of Dogs: Tending to Life, Love, and Family (Katz), 220 Nike, sustainability and, 239–240 Nile Monitor Lizards, 31 nitrates, 107 nitrogen, from wastes, 105, 107, 123 No Animal Testing label, 12 noise from pets, 23, 206–207 no-kill shelters, 30, 200, 235 North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS), 234–235
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Index Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, 153 Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI), 172–173 Norwalk virus, 105 NRC. See National Resource Council NRDC (National Resources Defense Council), 159 nutrition carbohydrates, 253 exotic pets, 56–58 fats, 252, 253 minerals, 255–256 National Research Council requirements, 56, 253–256 proteins, 252, 253 vitamins, 253–255 NWEI (Northwest Earth Institute), 172–173
O offgas, 158 Off-Leash Dog Play: A Complete Guide to Safety and Fun (Bennett and Briggs), 100 OGS (Organic Guarantee System), 12 oleander, toxicity of, 155 online communities, 90–91 online retailers, 87–90 Oregon Environmental Council, 171 organic, meaning of term, 7 organic certification, 69–70 Organic Consumers Association, 53, 90 organic food certification, 69–70 ingredients, 70 methods of production, 52 pet food, 53, 55, 65–66 store-bought, 65–66 Organic Guarantee System (OGS), 12 Organic Trade Association (OTA), 12 organic waste, curbside recycling, 115–116 Osborn, Matt (The Professional PooperScooper: How to Start Your Own Low-Cost, High-Profit Dog Waste Removal Service), 114 oven cleaner, 150, 157
297
overpopulation, pet, 30–31, 44, 195–201 ownership choosing right pet, 21–48 community concerns, 23 ecosystem effects, 24 meeting needs of pet, 22–23 sources of pets, 42–46 of wild animals, 25
P Packaged Facts, 9, 243 packaging green terminology, 8 labels, 11–16 pet food, 54–55 parasites, 106, 130, 132–134, 136–138 parking areas, reducing runoff from, 171 parking tickets, dog, 210 parks, dogs in, 209, 211 parrot fever (psittacosis), 134, 140 parrots, 33, 180, 204–206 pasteurization, 112 peace lily, toxicity of, 156 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 12, 233–236 pest control, 151–152 pesticides, 153–154, 156–157 pet care costs, 38 Pet Care Services Association (PCSA), 179–180 pet doors, 92–93 Petfinder.com, 36, 43 pet food calories required to feed pets, 51 consumer decisions, 243 convenience, 58–60 cost, 58–60, 243 diet selection, 58–60 distance traveled by food, 53–54 homemade, 60–61 inexpensive, 67–68 information resources, 74 ingredients, 58–60, 71–72 labels, 54, 68–72 manufacturers, 66 natural (store-bought), 66, 67 nutrition, 56–58
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pet food (cont.) organic (store-bought), 53, 55, 65–66 packaging, 54–55 quality variation, 67 raw diets, 64–65 recalls, 8–9, 62–63, 243 resources required to produce, 51–53 sustainability plan for, 73–74 sustainability score (quiz), 73 vegetarian diets, 39, 62–63 why green pet food matters, 49–51 pet hoarding, 23 PetHobbyist.com, 54 PetPartners program, 129 petroleum, in plastics, 16 pet service business. See also specific services building materials, 170–171 eco-friendly, 168–174 frequency of use, 167 green questions to ask, 174 heating and cooling, 169 LEED standards, 169, 170, 172 office functions, 172–174 parking areas and landscaping, 171–172 pet services, ecologically sensitive boarding, 179–180, 186 business elements, 168 frequency of use, 167 groomers, 178–179, 186 health-care expenses, 168 health-care services, 167–168 pet sitters, 175–176, 186 pet taxis, 184–185, 187 resources, 189–190 selecting, 186–187 sustainability plan, 188–189 sustainability score (quiz), 187–188 trainers, 180–182, 187 veterinarians, 177–178, 186 waste removal, 182–184, 187 why they matter, 166–167 pet sitters, 175–176, 186 Pet Sitters International (PSI), 175–176 pet stores, 9, 45, 46 pet waste digester, 113–114 pet waste services, 114–115 Phelps, Norm (The Longest Struggle: Animal
Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA), 234, 236 phosphorus, 61, 255 Pitcairn, Richard (Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats), 61 plants disposal of unwanted aquatic, 34 invasive, 52 lawns, 156–157 native, 156–157 toxic, 154–156, 158 plastic bags, 110 plastics, 15–16, 54, 94, 171 play groups, dog, 215 Points of Light Foundation, 41 pooper-scooper, 108, 122, 183–184 population control achieving sustainable population, 30–31 animal shelters and, 195–197 overpopulation estimates, 197 spay/neuter programs, 196–201 pothos, toxicity of, 156 products. See also equipment green marketing, 7–16 greenwashing, 13–16 labels, 11–16, 54, 68–72 where to shop, 87–91 The Professional Pooper-Scooper: How to Start Your Own Low-Cost, High-Profit Dog Waste Removal Service (Osborn), 114 protecting your pet in public, 99–100 protein, 252, 253 PSI (Pet Sitters International), 175–176 psittacosis (parrot fever), 134, 140 public safety, pets and, 98–99 public spaces, pets in dog parks, 212–215 parks, 211 sidewalks, 209–211 trails, 208–209 public transportation, pets and, 97–98 puppy mills, 44 purchases conscious consumer, 9–10 green purchasing, 77
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Index locavore, 7–8, 53 purchasing decisions, 6–7 PureAyre (retailer), 150
R rabbits, pet care costs of, 38 rabies, 135, 139 rat-bite fever, 139 raw diet, 64–65 recalls, pet food, 8–9, 62–63, 243 recycling office materials, 173 online communities, 90–91 organic waste, 115–116 pet products, 90–91 plastics, 54, 94, 171 unused medications, 83 Red-Eared Slider Turtle, 33 regulations. See also laws and ordinances community, 23 licensing of pets, 23, 194 noise, 23 permits for reptiles, 28 pet remains, 219 pet wastes, 108 releasing unwanted pets, impact of, 31–36 remains, pet attitudes about, 216–217 cemetery, 218 cremation, 220 green burial, 219 regulations, 219 statistics, 217–218 reproduction rates, pet, 30 reptiles bedding, 121 breeders, 45 dangers to owners and public, 27–28 invasive species, 31–33 life span and daily care, 37 mortality rates, 26–27 number of pets in U.S., 4 permits for, 28 popularity as pet, 22 salmonellosis, 137, 138 supply list, 78–79 trade in, 26–28 water containers, 83
299
rescue organizations, as sources of pets, 43 restaurants, dogs and, 210–211 restraint systems, 96–97 retailers, online, 87–90 ringworm, 135, 139 roaming pets, 203–204 robotic pets, 231, 232 Rocky Mountain spotted fever, 136 rodent-borne diseases, 139 rodents, 23, 84, 134, 139 roundworms, 105, 106, 130, 136 runoff, reducing, 171–172
S safety chemical fumes, 156 cleaning chemicals, 157–158 dangers from exotic pets, 27–28 dangers of pet waste, 104–108 dog parks and, 213 flea and tick products, 159 household toxins, 152–158 leashes, 98 muzzles, 99 pesticides and fertilizers, 153–154, 156–157 protecting your pet in public, 99–100 toxic plants, 154–156, 158 sago palm, toxicity of, 155 saliva, allergens in, 39 Salmonella, 28, 64, 105, 137, 138 saltwater fish. See fish sanitizers, antibacterial, 145 schefflera, toxicity of, 156 schools, green initiatives in, 10 scrubbing, 150 shampoos, 82–83, 179 sharing a pet, 41 pet products, 90–91 shelters impact of sheltered animals, 29 no-kill, 30, 200, 235 pet overpopulation and, 195–197 reasons for pet surrender to, 28–29 as sources of pets, 43 volunteering, 41 Shepard, Paul (Where the Wild Things Aren’t), 226
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Shigella, 106 sidewalk, dogs on, 208–211 Sierra Club, 146–147 silicon, in cat litter, 117–118 Simply Fido (toy manufacturer), 85 Singer, Peter (Animal Liberation), 233, 234 small mammals breeders, 45 life span and daily care, 37 number of pets in U.S., 4 pet care costs, 38 popularity as pet, 22 supply list, 79 Smith, Cheryl (Visiting the Dog Park: Having Fun, Staying Safe), 100, 213 snail bait, 153–154 snakes exercise on pegged board, 84 invasive species, 32, 33 permits for venomous, 28 soaps, 82–83, 145 socially conscious consumer, 9–10 social networks, 215 Society of Veterinary Behavior Technicians, 182 soil, 52 solar panels, 169 sources of pets breeders, 43–45 neighbors, 45 pet stores, large, 45 pet stores, specialty, 46 shelters and rescue organizations, 43 spay/neuter programs, 29–30, 196–201, 204 stain removal, 150 steaming, 151 sterilants, chemical, 112 sterilization. See spay/neuter programs Strombeck, Donald (Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative), 61 supply list bird, 79 cat, 78 dog, 76–77 fish, 78 reptile and amphibian, 78–79 small mammal, 79
sustainability description of concept, 5–6 growing into, 20 purchase decisions, 6–7 sustainability plan acting on pet choices, 47 acting on pets and community ecology, 222 choosing green pet equipment and toys, 102 choosing green pet food, 73–74 ecologically sensitive pet services, 188–189 pets and household health, 162 responsible pet waste disposal, 124 twenty-first-century issues for pets and sustainability, 247 sustainability score (quiz) choosing green pet equipment and toys, 101 choosing green pet food, 73 choosing pets, 46–47 ecologically sensitive pet services, 187–188 managing pet waste responsibly, 123–124 pets and community ecology, 221 pets and household health, 161–162 starting point, 17–20 twenty-first-century issues for pets and sustainability, 247
T tapeworm, 133 taurine, 61 taxis, pet, 184–185, 187 TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, 11 Tesco (supermarket chain), 54 tethering dogs, 210 Throwplace.com, 91 tick-borne diseases, 140 tick prevention, 158–160 tigers, 25 topsoil, erosion of, 52 toxins chemical fumes, 156 cleaning chemicals, 157–158
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Index dangers to pets, 152–153 flea and tick products, 159 pesticides and fertilizers, 153–154, 156–157 plants, 154–156, 158 in toys, 84 toxoplasmosis, 86, 116, 137, 138 toys, 84–85 trails, pets on, 208–209 trainers, 180–182, 187 trap, neuter, return (TNR) program, 35 trash, pet waste disposal in, 110–111 tulip/narcissus bulbs, toxicity of, 155 turtles, 33 twenty-first-century issues animal law, 244 attitudes about animals, 226–237 carbon offset, 245 children’s health, 243–244 consumer decisions, 243 economic forces as motivators, 240–242 resources, 248–251 solving sustainability problems, 239–240 sustainability plan, 248 sustainability score (quiz), 247 vegetarianism, 237–238
U Union of Concerned Scientists, 50, 51, 225–226, 238 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 44, 69–70 unwanted pets, release of, 31–36 urine, allergens in, 39 U.S. Composting Council (USCC), 121
V vaccination, rabies, 139 vacuuming and sweeping, 151 vegetarianism, 39, 62–63, 237–238 veterinarians as ecologically sensitive pet service, 177–178, 186 spay/neuter services, 197–198, 199–200 The Virtuous Consumer (Garrett), 54, 150 viruses, in pet waste, 105, 106
301
Visiting the Dog Park: Having Fun, Staying Safe (Smith), 100, 213 vitamins, 253–255 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 158 volunteering, 41–42
W waste amount produced, 104 bacteria from, 105–106 cat, 116–120, 207–208 cleanup in the wild, 99–100 community ecology and, 207–208 dangers of, 104–108 exotic pets, 121, 123 intrusive nature of, 103 litter, 85–87 livestock, 105 parasites and viruses, 106 resources, 125–126 sustainability plan, 124 sustainability score (quiz), 123–124 waste bags, 87 water contamination from, 106–108 waste bags, 87, 110, 122 waste disposal bagging, 87, 110, 122 burial, 111 composting, 111–113, 213–214 curbside organic waste recycling, 115–116 principles of disposal, 109–111 removal services, 114–115 responsible, 108–116 sustainability plan, 124 sustainability score (quiz), 123–124 in toilet, 109–110 in trash, 110–111 veterinary clinic, 178 waste removal providers, 182–184, 187 water bowls, 80 water contamination, from pet waste, 106–108 West Nile virus, 140–142 West Paw Design (bed manufacturer), 84 Where the Wild Things Aren’t (Shepard), 226 Whole Dog Journal, 61, 71
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wildlife. See also exotic pets/animals chasing by dogs, 99, 209 ecotourism and, 25 private ownership of wild animals, 25 traders, 25, 231 window cleaner, 150 World Conservation Monitoring Center, 27 World Conservation Union, 32 World Health Organization, 105, 144 World Wildlife Federation, 27 World Wildlife Fund, 26 worms, 105, 106, 130, 138
Y yard and garden, toxins in, 153–157 yew, toxicity of, 155 Youth Venture-Lorax Challenge, 10
Z zoonoses, 129
$16.99 USA/$19.99 CAN
Make the pet-planet connection
This book gives you all the information you need to understand sustainability as a pet owner and arms you with the know-how to make the best choices for your pet and the environment. You’ll get a list of the best available options for:
Thoroughly researched and packed with realistic guidelines for putting ideas into practice, Pets and the Planet is a virtual road map for sustainable pet parenthood.
Carol Frischmann is the author of two books and many articles about animals and nature. As a zoo educator, wildlife rehabilitator, and science teacher, she has been lecturing to the public about pets and wildlife for more than twenty years.
Cover Design: Suzanne Sunwoo Cover Photographs: © Jupiter Images
howellbookhouse.com
A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care
Choosing pet food (and decoding labels) Purchasing green pet equipment and toys Disposing of pet waste responsibly Pets and household health And more
Pets and the Planet
You care about your pet. You care about the environment. You want to make informed decisions when it comes to involving your furry or feathered family members in your mission to live more lightly on the planet. But how do you know if you’re providing for your pet in a way that will leave the Earth as resource-rich as it was before you acquired your dog, cat, or bird?
Frischmann
PETS/General
Pets and the Planet A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care
Carol Frischmann
