If you really love your pets, being an Eco Friendly Pet Owner is one of the best gifts you can give them!
1. A pet is not a craze or fashion accessory
Children love pets, but unless you realize that raising pets is a responsibility which entails spending time as well as money, it’s better to give your kid a soft animal toy. Buying pets on impulse is not advisable, as shown by the numerous fad dogs that end up in shelters.
2. Select from a shelter
The sole aim of pet breeders is gain by raising large numbers of purebred animals. They have been accused of wrongdoings like overcrowding, improper supervision, poor living conditions and meals, inbreeding, overbreeding, and culling of unrequired animals. You need not buy pets from such people but can adopt one or two from so many puppies and kittens born every day in the US, amounting to nearly 70,000. Visit Petfinder.com to locate your favorite.
3. Sterilization of pets
The above said count of 70,000 works out to 15 puppies and 45 kittens for every human birth. So we should avoid more stray cats and dogs than those already there, by sterilizing the pets. The sterilization procedure of castrating/spaying dogs and cats prolongs their life, as the possibility of cancer in reproductive organs is ruled out, and the occurrence of prostate disorders is reduced.
We all love animals – here is a great article about the Endangered Loggerhead Turtle.
4. Keep your pets in
Your dog should be kept on leash when it’s out of the house, and your cat should be kept indoors. Next to devastation of habitat, felines are the major cause of bird mortality. You may dismiss the damage as minimal in the great ecosystem of the Earth, but keep in mind house cats have a biased advantage over their counterparts in the wild: these cats are always well fed and rested and virtually fighting fit.
Besides, as stated by the Humane Society of America, many veterinary doctors advise to keep cats indoors to avert dangers posed by automobiles, predators, diseases, etc. It has been estimated that a stray cat lives for nearly three years, whereas a house cat lives more than 15 years. If your cat wants to go out in the wild, an enclosed area set outside the house will serve the purpose.
5. Tag the dog
To save the troubles caused by losing your pet, you can put a tag. Check out the recyclable as well as recycled Aluminum ID tags and also the recycled silver WaggTaggs.
The Endangered Giant Panda is a beautiful animal which is close to extinction. We should be good to our animals while we have them!
6. Avoid junk food
Many pet foods available in the market contain reconstituted by-products from the beef and chicken processing plants. As a matter of fact, the animals from which many pet foods are made, are listed as “4-D”, i.e. Diseased/Disabled/Dying/Dead. When the can of meat you buy at the store is not certified by FDA as food-grade you can consider it unfit for human use but it is almost okay for your cat or dog.
As nutrition is the deciding factor in issues of health and disease resistance, certainly you will want your pet’s food to be of quality comparable to that of your own food.
Organic, natural pet foods are made from meats that are raised in a sustainable and humane manner without adding hormones or drugs, processed to the minimum and preserved with natural ingredients like vitamins C and E. Organic pet foods should conform to the stringent USDA standards which specify how the ingredients should be produced and processed, to qualify for certification. The use of hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, artificial ingredients and preservatives or genetically engineered materials is prohibited.