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Green Pets

Ah, the pitter patter of four-legged feet as they whip through your living room at overclocked speeds or uproot your prize gladiolas with manic fervor. But Snookiepuss and Mrs. Fluffypants are practically family, right? So why should they settle for anything less than top drawer when their health and wellbeing are at stake? Throw the planet a bone while you’re at it; we’ve got the goods on how to reduce your pets’ carbon paw prints—without making your wallet roll over and play dead.

1. Adopt from a shelter

Pet breeders have only one goal in mind—to raise large quantities of purebred animals for profit. They’ve also been pilloried for misdeeds such as overbreeding, inbreeding, poor veterinary oversight, lousy food and living conditions, overcrowding, and culling of unwanted animals. Why buy when you can adopt one of the 70,000 puppies and kittens born every day? Love knows no pedigree. Check out Petfinder.com to find your perfect match.

2. Spay or neuter your pet

Did we mention 70,000 puppies and kittens are born every day? That’s 15 puppies and 45 kittens for every hairless biped that slides out of a birth canal. And “multiplying like bunnies” isn’t just any old trope. 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. Rein in your pets; protect native wildlife

Always keep your dog on a leash when outside, and confine your mangy feline indoors. Topped only perhaps by habitat destruction, cats are the biggest, baddest bird killers of all time. Even wind turbines have got nothing on them. While you may poo-poo high cat-related bird-mortality rates as collateral damage in the great Circle of Life, domestic cats do have an unfair advantage. Unlike wild predators, house cats are always well fed, well rested, and in tip-top fighting shape. They’re also present in more concentrated (and rapidly increasing) numbers than say, the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike.

That aside, two out of three vets recommend keeping cats indoors, because of the dangers of cars, predators, disease, and other hazards. The estimated average life span of a free-roaming cat is less than three years; an indoors-only cat gets to live an average of 15 to 18 years. If kitty needs to heed the call of the wild, an outdoor cat enclosure is a good compromise.

4. Swap out the junk food

Most conventional pet-food brands you find at the supermarket consist of reconstituted animal by-products, otherwise known as low-grade wastes from the beef and poultry industries—you know, inedibles you wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot fork. In fact, the animals used to make many pet foods are classified as “4-D,” which is really a polite way of saying “Dead, Dying, Diseased, or Down (Disabled)” when they line up at the slaughterhouse. Unless that can of Chicken ‘N Liver Delite explicitly states that it contains FDA-certified, food-grade meat, you should know that its contents are considered unfit for human consumption—but apparently good enough for your cat or pooch.

Now, 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.

Natural and organic pet foods use meats that are raised in sustainable, humane ways without added drugs or hormones, minimally processed, and preserved with natural substances, such as vitamins C and E.

5. 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 (bad for the cat). 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 to18 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.

6. Give them sustainable goods

Your furry friends can get in on some saving-the-planet goodness, too—and have plenty of fun—with toys made from recycled materials or sustainable fibers (sans herbicides or pesticides) such as hemp. A hemp collar (with matching leash) is a rocking accessory for a tree-hugging mutt. These days, you can even get pet beds made with organic cotton or even recycled PET bottles.

7. Use natural pet-care and cleaning products

You don’t use toxic-chemical-laced shampoos and beauty products, so lather up your cats and dogs (or ferrets, rabbits, or hamsters—we don’t judge) with natural pet-care products, as well. And if your cat horks up a hairball, or Fifi doesn’t make it all the way to the bathroom, clean up the mess with cleaning products that are as gentle on the planet as they are on your critters’ delicate senses.

8. Pets, not fads

Sure, everyone’s ovaries ping when they see a five-year-old moppet cradle a tiny chick or a bunny during Easter, but nature dictates that baby bunnies grow up into rabbits, and little chicks into full-size chickens. Unless everyone involved understands that a pet is a long-term commitment that involves demands on both their time and money, you’re better off giving the kid a stuffed animal. Impulse buying (say, rushing out an grabbing the next available Dalmatian puppy after watching 101 Dalmatians) isn’t a good idea, either, as the large numbers of fad dogs that pass through shelters (often to their death) can attest. Repeat after us—especially you, Paris Hilton: Pets are not fads or fashion accessories.

9. Melt the ice, nicely

Use a child- and pet-safe deicer such as Safe Paw’s environmentally friendly Ice Melter. Rock salt and salt-based ice-melting products, which kids and animals might accidentally ingest, can cause health problems, while contaminating wells and drinking supplies.

10. Tag your pet

It might be a stretch to call inserting an electronic ID chip into your pet an eco-friendly move, but losing your buddy causes extreme emotional distress that turns you into nobody’s friend. Then there’s the paper waste from printing out Missing posters, the fuel cost of driving around your neighborhood trying to find them, the phone bill as you bawl your eyes out to everyone you know … well, you get the idea. Ask your vet for more info. For hanging tags, check out these recyclable (and recycled) aluminum ID tags and these WaggTaggs made from recycled silver.

Comments (6) 05.03.2007. 00:57

Guide to growing your own fruit and veg

This guide was written by Claire from our discussion forum. Thanks Claire

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is easier than it sounds, and has many environmental benefits, as well as potentially saving you money!

fruit and veg You can grow food with a minimal amount of pesticides and fertilisers, and cut down dramatically on the emissions associated with transporting food (sometimes around the world) as well. Plus, food you grow yourself can be eaten really fresh and the taste difference is unbelievable.

What to grow?

Lots of crops are easy to grow for beginners. It makes sense to choose the ones that you eat a lot of; that are particularly bad for the environment when bought in the shops; and that are more expensive to buy.

Strawberries are often a good bet financially and can be grown in the soil, in pots or even in hanging baskets. You’ll need to protect them from the birds though.

Tomatoes likewise – a pot of indoor tomatoes will grow happily on a windowsill. Keep moist but don’t water too much, that way you won’t get quite such large tomatoes, but they’ll taste better. Varieties are quite important for taste, too. Don’t buy moneyspinner whatever you do – that’s the one that makes the tasteless red blobs you buy in the shops. I’ve not had huge amounts of success with outdoor tomatoes but it does depend on soil, position (they like lots of sunshine), TLC and remembering to feed them now and then!

You can buy packets of mixed salad leaf seeds, or all sorts of single leaves such as rocket. I’ve had success with mixed italian leaves and rocket, grown in soil and in pots. You can grow these as “cut and come again” crops – i.e. cut some leaves and, provided you don’t cut the plant off shorter than about 5cm, it will grow back and provide you with more leaves in a few weeks. Fresh leaves taste better and you’ll save money – also bought salads are often washed using dilute chlorine or similar which you may prefer to avoid.

Similarly spinach is quite easy to grow for salads or to eat as a vegetable. I’d recommend this to avoid having bags of reasonably expensive leaves going mushy in the fridge.

I had a great crop of sweetcorn grown in soil. It’s a greedy feeder so manure the soil well, and cover with black plastic to warm it for a few days before planting. The soil does need to be warm for the seeds to grow well. Once planted, keep moist, stand well back and wait for delicious cobs of corn to appear. Make sure you eat them as soon as possible after picking. Delicious!

Runner beans are worth growing simply because they taste so much better fresh. Again, manure the soil well before sowing. If you grow them in pots, keep them well fed and watered and don’t put too many in the pot.

Comments (3) 29.10.2006. 13:18

Guide to composting at home

Composting is the entirely natural process by which nature returns nutrients back to the soil. Organisms such as bacteria, insects, worms and fungi break down the material into a crumbly soil-like material called compost. By composting at home, you can harness this process, reducing waste and producing an excellent soil improver.

Why should I compost at home?

Up to 40% of household waste is kitchen and garden waste, ideal for composting. Making your own compost reduces the need to buy soil improvers and mulches. Applying homemade compost to your soil improves its quality and helps it to conserve moisture. Composting at home also reduces waste and so helps the environment.

Siting your compost bin.

It should be placed directly on to the soil or grass. You will notice that the bin does not have a base, this is to enable the worms to get in and to let moisture drain harmlessly away. It does not need to be placed in a sunny spot, it is more important to place it where you can get to it easily.

Maintaining your compost bin.

Air is very important to the composting process, particularly in summer when the composting organisms are at their most active. Air can be introduced quite simply by agitating (not turning!) the bin contents every few weeks to provide air channels. Moisture is added every time you add fresh grass or kitchen waste. The mixture should always look wet, if you think it is drying out, you can always water your bin to return it to its ‘wet’ state.

Once your bin is sited, you are ready to start adding materials. The majority of your kitchen and garden waste can be composted, but there are a few which you should exclude.

What can I put in my compost bin?

Fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags, grass clippings, egg shells, dead plants, hedge trimmings, woody prunings, rabbit and guinea pig bedding, leaves, newspaper and cardboard.

What shouldn't go in my compost bin?

Cooked food, meat, fish, bones, dairy products, dog & cat faeces, diseased plants, glossy or coloured paper/card.

Composting Tips

Composting works best with a good mix of dry, tough materials with wet, sappy materials. Throughout the summer months, the majority of your composting material will be sappy garden waste and moist kitchen waste. This material needs to be joined by drier types such as newspaper or hedge clippings.

If, for example, you intend to compost your grass clippings, tear a newspaper into strips and add a layer before putting your grass into the bin. As a guide, adding one newspaper to every 4 boxes of clippings will prevent the mixture the becoming slimy.

FAQ – Frequently asked questions

How long does it take?

Composting basically happens during the summer months when nature is at its most active. As a guide, it is best to use your bin a year before harvesting your compost. The compost you harvest will generally be the remains of the material you added during the first six months or so. Any materials that are still recognisable can be put back into the bin to continue composting.

Do I need chemical accelerators?

No. Composting is an entirely natural process performed by living things. Provided you keep on feeding them they will happily chomp away without the need for other additives.

Will it smell?

Composting should produce only a rich earthy smell. If a sharp ammonia smell is produced it is usually due to too much grass and not enough paper. Add some shredded paper and mix in to get it smelling sweet again.

My bin attracts lots of small flies.

These are Fruit flies (NOT Whitefly) and are harmless. To discourage them, add a layer of soil to cover the bin contents. When the material is covered they will disappear in a day or so. There is no need to add soil every time you add material, just do it when the Fruit flies appear.

Comments (14) 24.10.2006. 06:38