Some tips to help the environment whilst still loving your dog!
A fascinating and informative guide was produced for Buriton’s B-earth Day Village Show this year – and a copy is attached to this web-page.
It points out that here are over 13 million dogs in the UK, living in 36% of our households. They give us a lot of happiness but we give them a lot of ‘things’ many of which are made of plastic or come in plastic packaging.
From feeding them, entertaining them and cleaning up after them – pets can end up bringing us mountains of unwanted plastic waste. Lots of this doesn't get recycled and can hang around in the environment, posing threats to wildlife.
We feed many of our pets lots of meat based products and processed foods, which are often transported from afar, increasing the pet’s carbon footprint without them knowing it.
And in trying to keep our pets healthy, we apply tick and flea treatments to them which can contain insecticides that are banned in farming and which can wipe out millions of pollinators.
Some of the tick and flea treatments contain insecticides banned in farming, but they still find their way into our pet products. We then release our lovely cats and hounds into the countryside armed with a fatal weapon to wipe out bees, bugs and vital aquatic life.
The special leaflet guide encourages pet owners to:
- avoid plastic food pouches and try a greener diet
- buy eco-friendly pet toys
- don’t let your pet upset local wildlife – or crops
- beware of tick and flea treatments that can last up to 90 days and be harmful to pollinators
- make your pet’s bedding from second hand materials rather than anything involving plastics.
- always pick up poops and take it home or put it in appropriate bin whilst out: very little effort with a massive positive benefit.
The full leaflet is available below:
