I love my dog. Correction. I ADORE my dog. She’s a one-year old smelly, snorting, flat-faced pug named Pearl. Pearl is like my child. She goes everywhere with me, sleeps in my bed with me and eats my leftover food. She’s about as spoiled as spoiled gets.
So imagine my excitement when I learned there’s a way to spoil her even more, and a GREEN way at that! An article I found on prevention.com tells readers how to become a green pet owner.
When it comes to the little (or big) messes our pets make, former veterinary technician Rebecca Skioot says dealing with acts of nature naturally is the best way.
She recommends flushing pet waste down the toilet, not putting it in plastic bags and throwing it in the trash. Flushable Bags are a brand of pooper-scoopers that dissolve in water. If you don’t want to hold onto the bag until you can get to a toilet, Skioot recommends biodegradable bags like PoopBags, available at www.poopbags.com. There are also environmentally friendly cat litters and litter pan liners, like Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter or BioBag Cat Pan Liners.
Pet owners can also buy green toys and collars made of hemp, recycled plastic and other materials on sites like greatgreen-pet.com.
The site also has green cleaning products like Nature’s Miracle Stain and Odor Remover, which is an enzyme-based product that cleans up the mess without chemicals.
Also, buy organic pet foods that don’t use pesticides to grow the ingredients.
The most important way you can go green when it comes to your pets is to go “Bob Barker” and have them spayed or neutered. Skioot says overpopulation of dogs and cats causes tons of uncontrolled waste and can take its toll on wildlife. Spaying and neutering will reduce the number of unwanted pets and increase chances that strays will find homes.
While Pearl may be the most spoiled pet I know, she is not my family’s only animal. We also have a corgi named Mable, a jack russel terrier named Lady, a cat named Jellybean and two horses, Ella and Topper.
I’ll have to look into going green for my horses, but for now, my house pets are about to start seeing green.
- Lisa