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Top Green Pet Tips
1. Adopt from a shelter
Pet breeders have only one goal in mind-to raise large quantities of
purebred animals for profit. Why buy when you can adopt one of the
thousands of puppies and kittens born every day in the United States?
Love knows no pedigree.
2. Spay or neuter your pet
70,000 puppies and kittens are born every day in the United States.
We don't need any more homeless animals than we already have. As a
bonus, spaying and neutering helps dogs and cats live longer healthier
lives by eliminating the possibility of uterine, ovarian, and testicular
cancer, and decreasing the incidence of prostate disease.
3. Swap out the junk food
Most conventional pet-food brands you find at the supermarket consist
of reconstituted animal by-products. Unless that can of Chicken Delite
states that it contains FDA-certified, food grade meat, you should know
its contents are considered unfit for human consumption- but
apparently good enough for your cat or dog. Since nutrition is one of
the key determinants of health and resistance to disease, ideally you'll
want your pet's chow to be comparable in quality with what we would
eat.
4. Clean up their poop
Scoop up your doggie doo in biodegradable poop bags so your buddy's
No. 2 isn't immortalized in a plastic bag, while deep-sixed in a landfill
somewhere for hundreds of years. Cat owners should avoid clumping
clay litter at all costs. Not only is clay strip-mined (bad for the planet),
but the clay sediment is also permeated with carcinogenic silica dust
that can coat little kitty lungs. Plus, the sodium bentonite that acts as
the clumping agent can poison your cat through chronic ingestion
through their fastidious need to groom. Because sodium bentonite acts
like expanding cement-it's also used as a grouting, sealing, and plugging
material-it can swell up to 15 to 18 times their dry size and clog up your
cat's insides. Eco-friendly cat litters avoid these problems; a happy
cat is a cat that doesn't claw your face off.
5. Get ticks off
While you don't want to douse your pet in toxins, it is also important to
keep the bugs in check. Pets can carry ticks, and ticks can carry Lyme
Disease. Seek sound advice on keeping ticks off your pets.
6. Get Crafty
Your cat will love you forever if you grow your own organic catnip or
cat grass. Scrap yarn and fabric you might otherwise toss can also
easily be transformed into pet toys with some basic crafty know-how.
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