Can Pets, Like Kids, Turn Adults into Greenies?

October 12th, 2011

I’m not a pet owner (much to my sons’ dismay).  So I’ll admit that I was stumped when Lisa of Condo Blues proposed hosting this month’s Green Moms Carnival on Green Pets.

Green pets? Sure, I’ve seen aisles of organic dog food, which made me grumpily think about how American dogs are treated better than millions of humans around the world.

But that was before I learned from Treehugger that “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.”


Miss Lucy's Dog Treats at Rehoboth's Greyhounds Reach the Beach

This weekend, while I was mulling over my post for this month’s Carnival, I stopped by Rehoboth’s Greyhounds Reach the Beach pet fair to check out what was going on in the world of “green pets.” While there, I picked up some home made dog treats as holiday presents for my brother and brother-in-law. (They aren’t much for gifts, and I’m sure they’d rather have treats for their dogs than for themselves!)

I couldn’t help but notice that there were many “natural” vendors at the fair, like those selling these soy candles.

River Road Soy Candles at Greyhounds Reach the Beach

Then it hit me. Could pets, like babies, become a starting point on the journey to sustainability? Much has been written and entire movements have been formed around the concept of Moms Going Green, or Kids Greening Their Parents. But what about pets?

Can we influence other consumption patterns by opting for simple, natural treats or doggie gifts instead of something made of plastic?

RecycledStockMattedPrintsGreyhoundsReachtheBeach

Maybe that’s what those soy candles and recycled stock dog prints were doing at the pet fair! :)

Let’s hope that after buying a sustainable dog treat, more owners think about treating themselves as well as ….Fido.

Head on over to Condo Blues today, where Lisa has a slew of interesting posts from the @GreenMoms about both Greening Your Pets and National Adopt A Shelter Dog Month. In fact, that pet fair I visited? Turns out it’s held every year as part of Greyhounds Reach the Beach to encourage people to adopt greyhounds. See you next year?

— Lynn