Eco-friendly pooch products giveaway!

I recently received an email about Opie & Dixie's new line of organic, sustainable pet care products and, even though I currently don't have any fuzzy critters in the house, I thought they would make for a great giveaway for those of you who do. All of their products incorporate herbs, oils, and essential nutrients designed with the help of veterinarians.

Debbie Guardian, the owner of this line of pet products, wanted to create products that do not contain any ingredient that she wouldn't use herself. All the products are organic, eco-friendly and sustainable, from the ingredients to the non-BPA packaging to product labels that are printed on recycled paper and made with a 100% wind-powered manufacturing process. In addition, a percentage of all retail sales go to a local dog rescue organization.

This giveaway includes:

• Organic Ear Wash made with spring water, peppermint, and eucalyptus
• Oatmeal Almond Shampoo for silky coats and skin health
• Botanical Créme Rinse and Conditioner for hydrating skin and coat

If you would like to pamper your pooch, all you need to do to enter this giveaway is leave your name in the comments of this post and tell me about your furry best friend!

You have until midnight, Friday, August 20th, PST to enter. Winner will be chosen randomly.

Homemade dog treats

I've discussed in the past how there are pets in your commercial pet food. In other words, dead animals (cats and dogs alike) get recycled into that kibble. Here's a little clip from my previous post:

Most commercial pet food ingredients all start at the rendering plant, where carcasses of various dead animals are rendered into a by-product that is used primarily for animal and pet feed. What goes into this mix? Well, downed farm animals, dead laboratory animals, what's left over after slaughter of meat and hide animals (such as heads, hoofs, bowels, diseased parts, tumors, bones, contaminated meat and the like), road kill, euthanized or dead companion animals (aka pets), restaurant grease and garbage, and pastries and meat past their pull date from grocery stores.

So, even though I don't currently have any pets, I'm always on the lookout for good homemade pet food recipes. Well, I ran across one yesterday that I think y'all might be interested in. It's a post written by one of the moms at my kid's school and she runs the 4H Club there. The other day the 4H group made homemade dog treats to sell at the annual craft fair to make money for the club.

If you are interested in the recipe, as well as cute pictures of kids making pet treats for their 4H Club, go check out the post! I can't attest to how tasty they are, but the recipe certainly sounds good! The nice thing about these dog treats is that they freeze really well, so you can make a bunch and store them for special occasions like doggie birthdays, holidays and anniversaries.

Have you tried making your own pet food or snacks or do you try to buy more natural pet food products?

Photo courtesy of Skruben

Environmental impact of outdoor cats

Since we were discussing pet poop yesterday, I thought I'd follow it up with another pet oriented post today.

Because there is quite a distinct impact of free-roaming cats by way of them urinating and defecating in neighbor's yards, vegetable gardens, and planter boxes, this begs the question: what is the solution to kitty poop terrorism?

This is a different issue than with dogs, for the most part, because in most urban and suburban areas, off leash dogs aren't running through your backyard, pooping in your vegetable gardens. And, in most heavily populated areas, there are poop scooping laws to protect you from having to contend with big steamy piles. This is not the case with cats.

On one hand, the cat litter from America's 90 million pet cats results in around 2 million tons of cat litter being sent to landfills each year. So, is it better to let them poop outside? No, not really. Cat poop can be a danger to other animals in that they carry diseases that impact other wildlife, other cats and can spread disease to native cat populations.

Cats can carry all sorts of human transmittable diseases too such as rabies, round worm, hook worm, and ring worm. As was discussed in the comments of yesterday's post, cat poop can cause additional issues since they can carry toxoplasma gondii (about 50% of them do), which can cause illness in immune compromised humans and pregnant women. The end result of roaming cats is that their feces and urine can contaminate soil and water, endangering fish, wildlife and people.

Cats also have a big impact on wildlife as a predator (although I'm certainly not complaining about their effectiveness against our local mouse population). Outdoor cats kill a staggering number of lizards, songbirds and small mammals every year.

In urban areas, dogs aren't allowed to roam free, why should cats? Twenty years ago, dogs were allowed to wander off leash throughout most urban and suburban neighborhoods. That has certainly changed and now there are laws enforcing responsible dog ownership.

What are your thoughts? Should there be a ban on outdoor cats?

Related posts:
Pet poop disposal
Down the rabbit hole
Save a horse, eat a cowboy