Green Daily

(Photo by Nature\'s Inventory)

It makes sense that so many dogs, cats, birds, and ferrets find fireworks utterly terrifying and unbearable -- they are loud, unpredictable, and jarring -- and a delightfully patriotic celebration of our country's deeply martial history, don't get me started wrong.

Obviously you can't stop your local municipality from setting off a 20 minute light and explosion show set to bombastic classical music. But you can help your pet be safe, and hopefully shorten the length of time Felix, Fido and Lance the Lizard hide in the closet, under the bed and behind a rock, respectively.

The LA Times had a great article with suggestions for doing your animal friend a 4th of July solid, including:

• Leave your pet at home -- no pet wants to see fireworks up close
  
• Make sure all pets have a collar and ID tag (that's smart all the time)
• Ask your vet for advice on keeping your pet calm -- music, low lights, a comfortable bed, could all make a difference.
  

I would add, if you're going to be talking to Dr. Feelgood Veterinarian, consider requesting a prescription for doggie Ativan. Or, if you're more into holistic, herbal remedies, there is this Doggie Calm Wellness oil, which is basically lavender and patchouli. It's organic!

And of course, catnip won't calm your cat down, but he might thank you just the same. Everyone -- even pets -- enjoy a little herbal indulgence on a holiday weekend!

Here at GreenDaily, we sure love animals. It makes sense -- caring for the environment and caring about animals seems to go hand in hand. Erm, paw.

Anyway, when we're not getting the scoop on the latest, greatest green news for you, we're reading up on animal news, and we have a new favorite place to get it -- our new sister site, Paw Nation!

Paw Nation just launched, and already it's full of great photos and information. You'll find tips on training, the scoop on the newest pet products, as well as photos of ridiculously cute (and occasionally crazy-looking) animals. Trust us -- if you're looking for an excuse to put off finishing your work (and you're already up to date with us here at GreenDaily), you won't be disappointed in Paw Nation!

(And hey! If you have pets, make sure you enter our Terracycle Green Pet Products Giveaway!)

We all try to keep our environmental footprint light, and ideally our pets would benefit from that, too. But sometimes accidents happen, and that's when you need the products -- and occasionally a hazmat suit -- to clean them up.

Terracycle, the company that practically invented zero footprint, has partnered up with PETCO to create a new line of natural and nontoxic pet products. Even better, this is the world's first line of pet products packaged in repurposed plastic bottles.

Now you can have a fresh and clean home, a healthy and happy pet, and be environmentally responsible!

To help green one lucky "pet parent", we're giving away a "basket" of the Terracycle pet line, including:

• Yard Odor Remover
• Stain & Odor Remover
• Trash Can Protector Spray
• Skunk Odor Remover -- the pet equivalent of a fire extinguisher – hopefully you never have to use it!
• Bird Feeder
  

Could you use these great -- and earth-friendly -- pet products? Then enter now!

Animal shelters across the country are seeing an increase in abandoned pets, largely due to people realizing that they can no longer afford to feed and care for them.

I'm dearly in love with my cats, and I can't imagine what it would take for me to part with them, or how I'd ever get over it.

To make matters worse, shelters are also seeing a drop in funding, and many have been forced to close down. If you've been thinking about adding a new furry member to your family, now is the best time to visit your local animal shelter.

If you don't have room for an adoption, there are plenty of things you can do to help the shelters out.

1. Call the shelter and ask about donating bags of food. Some shelters prefer specific brands.
2. Volunteer to walk some of the dogs or hug the kitties. It keeps them healthy and happy, so that they are good candidates for adoption.
3. Do you knit or crochet? You can make beds, blankies, and toys to donate.
4. Old pillows, towels, blankets and coats make excellent animal shelter donations.
5. Ask about sponsoring an animal for a necessary medical treatment, neutering/spaying, or cost of room and board. Sometimes you can even pay for their adoption for someone else.

You know that joke about dressing up your dog being punishment for the dog? Well, the RSPCA isn't laughing. In fact, they announced that they will prosecute people who "over-dress" their dogs!

While the RSPCA acknowledges the utility of coats in wet weather, they say that tight, restricting or overly embellished clothes can actually harm animals.

This is terrible news for the over-the-top pet costume industry. There are dozens of stores that sell canine hats, dresses, and shoes, not to mention entire outfits from designers like Vivienne Westwood and Paris Hilton.

The RSPCA is mainly concerned that increasing numbers of people are getting "handbag dogs" as a fashion statement, perhaps inspired by Paris Hilton and her chihuahua Tinkerbell. People who pick a dog as an accessory tend to underestimate the amount of attention a dog requires, and those pets are more likely to be neglected.

For now, costumes aren't illegal, although there are plenty out there that are ill-considered. But if you're planning on taking Mr. Barkerston with you on your next trip to the U.K., you may want to leave his tux at home.

Spoil your pooch this holiday with green gifts that show your love.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has compiled a lengthy list of common flea and tick remedies with information on the chemicals contained in them. Each product is given a yellow, orange or red paw depending on the danger it might pose to pets and humans.

I have been a pet owner in the past and this is honestly something that had never crossed my mind. if my pet has fleas, I have to get rid of them somehow or the entire household will be infected and the animal will be miserable. But, some of the common flea and tick remedies are listed as containing nerve toxins and other scary stuff.

The list is alphabetical. Yellow paws are given for products that are a safer chemical, orange paw rankings should be used sparingly and avoided if pregnant or around young children and products receiving a red paw should be avoided at all costs for the safety and health of both you and your pet.

There are even many natural essential oils listed (some receiving yellow paws). Then entire Green Paws web site has a wealth of information for pet owners about being more green and for being aware of the chemicals found in many pet products.

If you want to know even more, check of Gina Solomon's blog post. She's a Senior Scientist for the NRDC and has two dogs of her own.

PETA is so good at getting attractive celebrities to participate in their campaigns, I guess because they do good work when they're not busy being nutjobs and throwing blood on Anna Wintour. For example their Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign to spay or neuter pets -- that's a great cause.

Their newest spokesperson is the lovely and talented Dancing With The Stars judge, Carrie Ann Inaba. Carrie Ann has three rescue cats, including Shadow, the gorgeous black longhair she poses with in the PETA ad.

In addition to the ad, Carrie Ann did a terrific video which you can watch here on The PETA Files. She talks about the responsibilities of pet ownership, and why it's so important to keep unwanted pets from being born.

Carrie Ann joins some past PETA ABC lovelies, including the very sexy Dita Von Teese in a similar pose. Even though I'm a huge Dita fan, I think Carrie Ann's ad might be better. What do you think?

"Basically it's like Planet of the Cats. There must've been 500 of them -- all living in harmony."

For anyone who lives with the constant nuisance of stray cats (and the deposits they leave around your flower beds), but doesn't have the stomach for feline euthanasia, this is your patron saint. Lynea Lattanzio lives on six acres about four hours north of Los Angeles, and uses her land to run a no cage, no kill cat sanctuary.

The hundreds of cats she's saved from animal shelters have free range of the property and the house -- there's 10 feeding stations set up around the grounds, and dog/cat doors at the front and back of the five-bedroom abode so anyone on four legs can come and go as they please.

Since 1992, when Lattanzio opened her shelter, she estimates caring for over 16,000 cats.

Is it a little...odd? Sure. But just be thankful that they're not using your yard as a litter box (and that none of that feces is running off into the sewers system and infiltrating the water supply -- yum).

[via Neatorama]

Remember when Alicia Silverstone posed naked to encourage vegetarianism? That was awesome. Whether you're an animal-rights activist, believe that meat-free lifestyles combat global warming, or just enjoy attractive women in the nude, there was something to be excited about.

Now the veggie-loving celeb is extending her eating habits to the animals she cares about -- namely her dogs. To any pet owner who's watched their pooch salivate at the scent of bacon, this may seem counter-intuitive. (After all, dogs are supposed to eat meat, right?) But apparently this alternative diet doesn't harm Fido in the slightest -- and, in fact, it has some surprising benefits. Alicia recently told TV host Graham Norton that: "All four of my dogs are vegan, they don't fart anymore!"

I'll be honest, while the environmental benefits of a vegetarian existence are certainly appealing, neither I nor my pet have gone meat-free. However, if it will stop her from eeking out asphyxiating broccoli farts of death, then maybe it's worth a closer look.

Which celebs got naked for the planet?

Ditch the clay cat litter and find something greener!

I usually purchase cat food in a huge bag but during a recent trip to a certain box store, they must have been closing out of their one pound boxes and as it was the brand that I was seeking as well as 75% off, I bought 18 boxes, each weighing 1.2 pounds. The food has been relocated to a bin but I'm wondering what I should do with all of the packaging. Here are five things I've come up with. Most of these tips could also be applied to cereal boxes.

1. Give 'em to the kids. I barely had these boxes emptied before my daughter was using them to hide her keepsakes in. They can also be stacked quite nicely
2. Compost. I am certain that I will be shredding a few of these for my sexy, new compost pile.
3. Storage. Because anything stored in these boxes will come out smelling like cat food, select your items wisely.
   
4. Cobble. [Yes, its a word, I checked.] Here's some instructions on how to make shoes out of boxes.
   
5. Build. Cover boxes with leftover wallpaper, contact paper or paint. Next, cut holes in the sides to resemble high-rise buildings to create your own town.

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

...And to round out this week's theme, I present to you: Flushadoos, a great product with a hilariously disgusting name.

So, instead of picking up your dog's presents with plastic bags, check these out: the bags are made from a disintegrating water-soluble material, so they're safe to flush. Being able to flush dog waste is important, because it can carry E. coli, salmonella, tuberculosis and bellyworm into our bodies of water by rain. According to the EPA, fecal coliform contamination from pet waste makes up about 90% of all bacterial watershed pollution in urban areas.

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

Environmentally-friendly solutions for maintaining the outside of your home, for both winter and summer, are very important for your health, the earth's health, and your pet's health.

If you think about it, pets are at quite a high risk when it comes to all of the things we apply to the grounds outside our homes, whether it be de-icers in the winter, or the slew of chemicals that are applied to lawns every year to keep them looking green. Pets are low to the ground, don't wear shoes (usually), and have a tendency to lick their paws. It's a perfect way to pick up any chemicals that are around, ingest them, and drag them into your home

So what can you do? Make some small changes! In the summer, look into organic lawn care, minimizing or eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides.

For the winter, check out Rigel's post about safe de-icers, which include using such things as vinegar, warm water and prevention methods to safely keep your car and driveway free of ice.

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

Holistic veterinary medicine considers all aspects of an animal's life, and utilizes a combination of conventional and alternative (or complementary) treatments, according to the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association. In addition to the standard physical exam, a holistic vet will ask about all of an animal's behaviors and medical history including information about the animal's diet and emotional stressors. According to the Association, holistic medicine will allow you to set up a lifestyle for the animal that is most appropriate, and such holistic thinking is "centered on love, empathy and respect."

Treatments may include nutritional therapy, supplementary vitamins and minerals, acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic treatments and herbal medicine. Treatment is not limited to alternative treatments though, and may involve surgery and drug therapy from "conventional western technology."

To learn more, see the AHVMA's website here.