Adamson Pets Gone Green

Live a More Eco-Conscious Life with Your Pets
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59378-855-1
Verlag: CompanionHouse Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 180 Seiten

In Pets Gone Green, New York Times best-selling author Eve Adamson explores how pet owners can have a positive effect on the environment and their pets' place within it. This engaging and enlightening book outlines strategies that pet owners can pursue to reduce the family's carbon foot- and pawprints, from using less toxic flea repellant to offering earth-friendly treats and toys to our much-loved pets. Adamson's goal in writing Pets Gone Green stemmed from her desire to find ways to save her dogs from the increasingly toxic environment around us. '...we are obligated to speak up for our furry companions, who are unable to think or act green on their own.' Pets Gone Green remains a timely exploration of many of the hot-button topics in our world today, from eating local and animal rescue to activism and recycling! The book offers practical advice for owners of all pets, from dogs and cats to birds, small mammals, and more. As pet rescue has increasingly become 'the thing to do,' the book begins with a chapter on 'Recycled Companions: The Ultimate Earth-Friendly Act,' in which the author discusses the many advantages of rescuing a pet from a shelter or rescue society. Pet food, another hot topic in the pet world, is the subject of 'Green Food,' which includes a brief history of commercial food and the pluses and minuses of using natural, homemade, raw, and vegetarian diets for pets. The chapter 'Altered States' is devoted to the importance and health benefits of spaying and neutering pets. Buying and eating local, diminishing consumerism, organic materials, holistic pet care, and recycling are all discussed in terms of improving humans' and pets' lives and reducing waste on a community, national, and global level. Printed with soy ink on recycled paper, Pets Gone Green presents the original artwork of New England painter and woodblock printmaker Willy Reddick. The book includes over 50 woodblock images of her beautiful peaceful animals, lending a down-home organic feel that is truly unique for a pet book. The ultimate message of the book is summarized in the final chapter 'Animal Wisdom,' in which Adamson focuses in on what our pets can teach us about the world around us through their natural instincts, simplicity, and view of the world. She concludes, '...animals are companions worthy of our respect, love, and care, and because they are so close to nature in ways we can only begin to comprehend, they are also the key to our salvation....Animals understand how to live lightly on the earth, and we can learn from them.' Resources of animal welfare websites and agencies, green organizations, holistic resources, green product manufacturers, and green websites and publications included. Fully indexed.

Eve Adamson (Iowa City, IA) is a freelance writer dedicated to the subjects of pet care, nutrition, health, and the environment. A multiple award-winning dog writer, Eve received the ASPCA Humane Issues award in 2006, the Hartz Doggy Glamour Award and the Hartz Joint Maintenance Senior Dog Award in 2005, and the Eukanuba Canine Health Award in 2004, plus five Dog Writer's Association of America Maxwell medallions. She is a contributing editor for Dog Fancy magazine and writes the Good Grooming column for AKC Family Dog magazine. Illustrator Willy Reddick (Belfast, ME) is a painter and woodcut specialist whose art has been exhibited in various museums in New England.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adamson, Eve

Leseproben

Introduction

As a freelance writer, a little more than half of my income is generated from writing about animals. I write mostly about dogs but also about cats, birds, fish, garden ponds, and the pet product market. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade, and I have seen many trends come and go. Right now, “green” is in, so naturally I’ve had a lot of assignments related to eco-friendly, environmentally conscious, and green living as it relates to animals. And I started to learn some things.

After Al Gore came out with his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, green became a buzzword in the industry. That movie isn’t about companion animals, but it is about the earth, and it made people think about the impact of their choices. Pet product manufacturers noticed a shift in buying patterns, as more customers requested information about the eco-friendliness of products.

Then we experienced a massive pet food recall in spring 2007, after scores of cat and dog foods manufactured in China were found to contain poisonous melamine, a chemical used to make plastics. Pets were dying from organ failure because of the adulterated foods we were feeding them. Pet owners all over the country felt guilty, angry, and grief stricken. Natural and organic pet food sales skyrocketed, and many small holistically oriented pet store owners couldn’t keep enough natural and organic foods on their shelves. Pet food companies’ phones were ringing off the hook with people demanding to know whether the companies’ foods were safe and where the ingredients for those products came from. Some people even switched to making their own pet food.

The pet food market hasn’t been the same since; even in a slower economy, retailers tell me the natural foods are still in great demand. Pets are part of the family, so people don’t skimp on what could affect their health. People will cut back in other areas rather than reduce the quality of the lives of their companion animals.

I wrote a lot about food in the months after the recall, and I’m still writing about it. But there are more issues than food to be concerned about. Several holistic veterinarians have informed me that dogs are getting cancers of all kinds at an unprecedented rate. Although some veterinarians claim that we are just seeing the diseases of aging that naturally occur because dogs are living longer, others vehemently disagree. They say that cancer should not be this common in dogs and that even young dogs are falling victim.

Some veterinarians who see a great deal of cancer in their practices believe there is a correlation between environment and this condition. Many holistically minded vets tell me they suspect that cancer is, at least in part, a result of ingesting the chemicals in commercially processed pet food and exposure to other sources of chemicals in our environments.

Mind you, these are not proven links. However, because pets spend a lot of time on our carpets and furniture, they come into much closer contact with any residue from the cleaning chemicals we use, not to mention pesticides and other pollutants that we track in from the outside world on our shoes.

In sensitive pets, this chemical exposure might have serious health consequences. Although many dogs and cats do not get cancer, many do have serious skin rashes, itching, hot spots, and allergies. Could these be the result of a toxic environment: a polluted planet and a chemically laced home? When I wrote an article recently about grooming products, I learned how many harsh chemicals they can contain. Are we poisoning our animals every time that we give them baths?

And what about human beings? Are processed food and environmental toxins affecting us and our children as well? As a mother, this notion strikes me to the heart, especially when it seems that greater numbers of people are getting cancer at younger ages. If our cavalier attitude toward the earth has resulted in a situation that has put us all—our families, including our animal companions, as well as the animals out there in the natural world—in danger, if we are poisoning ourselves with the products we use in our homes and on our own bodies, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, then shouldn’t we be doing something about it? My job, after all, is to protect the children and animals in my own home, a microcosm of our planet. It’s all enough to give us nurturing types a severe panic attack.

But this book isn’t about panicking. It’s about finding a way to improve our current situation by living greener. I believe the way to do this, and to live more simply, is closer than you might think. I believe that it is sitting beside you, gazing at you with adoring eyes.

Animals don’t experience the world in the same way people do. They smell more of it, hear more of it, and feel more of it, from whiskers to tail. Even domesticated animals understand better than we do how to move through the world and read the natural signs, and they certainly don’t treat the world the way we do. Any trash thrown into landfills on behalf of animals is certainly our doing, not theirs.

If you live with and care about an animal, you are in direct contact with the natural world in a way that other people, inside their climate-controlled houses and cars, may never experience. You have a little piece of nature, right there in your own home, right there in your lap. You see echoes of the wolf or the tiger as well as a mirror into your own soul. Our companion animals help us see how all of life is bound together. We share an ecosystem, breathing the same air, drinking the same water, eating the same food. We share many of the same daily experiences, and we may even share some far-distant relatives.

Even domesticated animals understand better than we do how to move through the world and read the natural signs, and they certainly don’t treat it the way we do.

If you want to get spiritual about it, you could say we share the same energy, flowing in and out and around all of us. No doubt, we are all tied together, you, your animals, me, my animals, and the earth itself. Although some people take their pets for granted, others see life with a companion animal as a privilege and an inroad to understanding the world in all its variety and mystery. Animals have lessons to teach us about how to live more lightly on the earth. Their needs are usually simple—and maybe ours are, too. Maybe we just complicate things with our overevolved brains. What if the animals have the right idea, and we are the ones going in the wrong direction? If you really do care about the earth and preserving the natural world that supports you and your animals, the real question becomes: What are you going to do about it?

I’ve read a lot of books about how to go green, raise your eco-consciousness, and reduce your carbon footprint, and after a while, they all start to sound the same. They start with all the statistics that prove the world has a problem, then they launch into lists about how the average Joe or Jane can make a difference: turn off the water when you brush your teeth, switch out your lightbulbs to more energy-efficient types, and recycle your trash.

This book is different. I’m going to assume that you believe something needs to be done to stop our cavalier treatment of our home planet and that you are already doing some basic things to reduce your carbon footprint, such as recycling, trying to drive less, trying to use less. If you are eating organic food, adjusting your thermostat, recycling your trash, and taking your canvas bag to the grocery store, then you are already making a difference. Every little thing you do to make less of a harmful impact on the planet is a good thing.

But in this book, I would like to challenge you to start thinking beyond the box that I will label “humanness.” When we live with, love, and respect our companion animals, we have an amazing opportunity to start looking beyond our own narrow needs into another, broader, bigger universe that honors all life. What would happen if we tweaked our lives to be a little more in tune with the animals that share them? This book is about how to do that, because changing your mind is the first step toward changing the world. When you change the way in which you think, then your actions change naturally, and that’s how you can finally stick to an earth-friendlier existence.

This book is about how to live green with your animals, for your animals, and by taking a cue from your animals.

Animals know some things we’ve forgotten, and remembering them can change our lives, and the planet, for the better. In this book, I’ll make some suggestions and offer guidance based on what I’ve learned about companion animals over the twelve-plus years I’ve been writing about them, but then I hope you and your animals will forge your own kinder, gentler, and more earth-respectful path.

As I encourage you to tap into your animal companion’s natural wisdom, I also want to encourage you to start looking beyond the surface level of what you do, so that you begin to see how it all works together, how we are all connected. When you start thinking more holistically—recognizing how every part influences the whole—then the differences you make as you change your habits will start to have real power. That’s when you can take the next step—acting on your beliefs. If you take nothing else away from this book, I hope you will take this: if you figure out what you believe, find out whether it is true, and then do what you think is right, you can...