Green Options

Julie Thomas had been working for LaSalle Bank for ten years when she got her final assignment. She was transferred to Chicago to sell the bank-essentially, to sell herself out of a job.

In that situation, most people of Thomas’ ilk would have begun the search for another corporate career. But with new-found freedom and a little extra cash, Thomas took a different route. She decided to follow her idiosyncratic dream– to start an eco-friendly doggy daycare. Earth Pups was born.

Within a matter of months, activists have succeeded in changing a store from a puppy mill vendor to an animal rescue venture.

A pet store in the small town of Elyria, Ohio was the target of intense protests by animal rights activists for months before deciding to close down. Now, a new owner is opening a pet store in the same location that will only have rescued cats and dogs available for adoption.

How could we not want the safest, healthiest litter for this little lady?

Our hunt for an alternative cat litter began when our vet said that clay litter was a respiratory irritant. The more we researched cat litter, the more we learned that clay wasn’t just bad for our sweet kitties, it was bad for the planet. Clay, which makes up about 90% of the cat litters on the market, does not biodegrade. On top of that, much of the clay used in cat litter comes from strip mining. Yikes! Luckily there are all sorts of good options out there!

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is celebrating their annual Justice For Animals Week by asking people to partake in a new, specific action for animals every day this week.

For the first day, they’re asking people to help spread the word by telling friends on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere to visit their site to partake in the next six actions. But most importantly, the organization says they hope to add 10,000 signatures to the Animal Bill of Rights during this week alone.

City officials in Houston, Texas have fired a veterinarian who has acted as a whistle-blower against botched and cruel operations on pets in the past.

But Kathy Barton, a health department spokesperson, said Gil Costas has been fired because he failed to file registration to handle controlled substances and drugs with the Department of Public Safety for his secondary, part-time job at the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care.

He held the certification for his primary job, which in the past has been sufficient — leading Costas to accuse the department of firing him because of his loud mouth.

One of the best parts of this job is that we get to test and review a lot of products. Jenifer usually does all the kid stuff, but we both have fuzzy family members, and honestly, a lot of the toys offered by West Paw Design are kid-safe grade too!

West Paw Deisgn, is creating durable products for pets from environmentally sustainable manufacturing materials and processes.

I’ve gotten cool pet products before, but as soon as I opened these, I saw that one was for Woody (the golden retriever boy), and one was for Spooky (cool black cat). It took them all of 30 seconds to get into action . . .

I’m sure there is catnip in this one!

Conservationists have brought in two Maremmas sheepdogs to watch over a small colony of fairy penguins on Australia’s Middle Island. The effort has been so successful that Middle Island is recommending sheepdogs be used to protect other endangered species across the globe.

“We are now starting to see some great results,” said Middle Island Maremma Project manager Ian Fitzgibbons. “We have had our best penguin count since we began in 2006 with over 80 birds counted in one night and I think we have about 26 chicks on the island too.”

There are few places in the world that have not been touched in some way by the faltering global economy. A tragic side effect of this phenomenon is the increase in abandoned pets and the resulting stress it continues to place on the shelters trying to care for them.

As someone who lives in a home filled with animals it’s hard to imagine any circumstance in which I would give them up: their care is my top priority. Perhaps if circumstances became so dire that I could not afford to feed them or provide them with adequate medical care, I could see how one might have to come to such a heartbreaking decision.

Feral cat populations are increasing dramatically worldwide as climate change causes warm breeding seasons to stretch into winter months.

Australia, the world’s Petri dish for the impacts of global warming, is reporting a rapid increase; in Melbourne alone the count of stray cats has increased to over 500,000, and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is becoming concerned. “Warmer weather is improving breeding conditions, extending breeding seasons and reducing the natural attrition rate, resulting in thousands more kittens being born into lives of disease, neglect and starvation,” said spokesperson Andrew Foran.

Shelters across the United States have found a similar problem. For example, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society took in 672 kittens in February 2007, but in February this year the facility received 1,008. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency backs up these numbers on their website, saying that small mammals are breeding earlier due to warmer temperatures.

When it comes to pollution, Lima has it all. The air is contaminated, the water, the sky, the streets. Pollution is everywhere.

I was quite surprised to read earlier today, that among all of the possibilities, a neighborhood in Lima has taken a stand on the issue of noisy, barking, scurrying, dogs. Who would have thought that noise pollution caused by dogs would get a group of Lima citizens up in arms?

Without a doubt, the level of noise pollution in Lima is tremendously high. When combining the cacaphony of sounds that arise from traffic, parties, animals, and so on, you will be hard pressed to find Lima residents who at some point have not been annoyed by the constant tapping of their ear drums. For this reason, I think there is merit in passing a law that attempts to limit noise pollution in Lima. Whether or not targeting the population of dogs as a method to control noise is the right way to do it– I’m not sure.

Several days ago, I read a story about how Peru’s butterfly exports had increased 43% from January-April of this year. These are the butterflies that are pinned into glass frames for sale as gifts and souvenirs. I wondered if all of these butterflies included those that are exported illegally and those that are endangered. Questions of this kind were on my mind as just several days earlier my family had passed by a street vendor who sold animals illegally.

One of the animals was a baby monkey, caged and frightened. We live in the highlands region of Peru, so the monkey was far from its former home in the rainforest. My wife, who in the past worked as a biologist throughout Peru, told me that she thought this was an endangered monkey. As we walked home, I wished I had brought my camera. This I thought, is a story that needs to be pursued.