If you drive a Prius, haven't brought home a plastic shopping bag this millennium and gave copies of "An Inconvenient Truth" to everyone you know last Christmas, isn't it time to get your four-legged friend on the eco-friendly bandwagon, too?
Candace Smith said she started sniffing around for more natural pet products for her dogs, Cain and Able, when she wondered which was worse for them: a flea bite or the chemicals used in many products to repel fleas.
Able, a yellow lab, and Cain, a black German shepherd and husky mix, soon inspired a business plan that took shape in Smith's Austin, Texas, garage.
CainAndAbleCollection.com carries products that are sold in 2,500 stores in the U.S. and are exported to 15 other countries. All of the products are first tested on humans.
Smith said she is usually the first to take a new shampoo to the shower and give it a try.
"You may notice if you bathe your dog in the same spot every time, your grass will start to die," Smith said. "We don't use harsh detergents, synthetic perfumes or artificial colors. That started out as what's best for the dog, but turned into what is better for the environment."
Products Run Gamut
At
WestPawDesign.com, dog owners can buy a Hurley chew toy, then return it once for a replacement.
"Don't throw a Hurley away, just simply mail it back to West Paw Design and they will recycle it back to be a new toy," the site says.
Among other holistic pet products,
RobbinsPetCare.com offers organic alpaca sweaters for dogs. Pet food with "human-quality ingredients" is sold at
ShirleysWellnessCafe.com.
WorldWise.com offers pet beds made mostly of recycled materials.
PoopBags Or Grocery Sacks?
The biodegradable dog waste bags created for
PoopBags.com were the founder's solution to a green conundrum he was having. The site's marketing director, Paige Penningroth, said her boss wanted his dog to reduce its carbon footprint.
"He wanted something that was certified biodegradable," Penningroth said.
Working with
BioBag, the PoopBags product was launched. PoopBags.com also offers biodegradable cat-litter liners.
"It's a corn-based bag that is certified to degrade in 10 to 40 days, depending on compost or landfill facility," Penningroth said.
It Ain't Cheap Bein' Green
Whether you're willing to plunk down the $18.45 for 100 PoopBags instead of reusing your plastic grocery bags -- another tool in the environmentalist's belt --may be a measure of exactly how much you're willing to pay to green Fido.
According to the
American Pet Products Manufacturers AssociationÂ’s 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey, there has been an increase in the "number of pet owners who consider specially formulated pet food worth the extra time and money. Pet owners who choose specially formulated or organic pet food say their pets enjoyed the subsequent benefits including prevention of obesity and other medical conditions."
At
OnlyNaturalPet.com, they're tracking consumer habits as they build a shopping site. It is geared toward people who take an interest in the lifestyle that surrounds buzz words such as all-natural, organic, hemp and cruelty-free.
Marketing director Julie W. Dye said the company's first consumers seemed to be more of an eco-niche when the site launched in 2004. She said she's seen the clientele shifting to a more mainstream audience as things like the pet-food recall scare and Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize win get publicity. She said customer service operators took a lot of calls about pet-food quality after the recall, then people stuck with the products.
"The thing about the natural industry is, you stay with it (unlike any other fad). It's hard to go back," Dye said.
Dye said there is sensitivity to the premium usually placed on eco-friendly products, but she's heard a lot of customers soon can't live without the quality they discovered.
Prices Falling
Overall, the prices for the specialty items are falling.
"Consumers are creating an economy, and suppliers and manufacturers are responding," Penningroth said.
Smith said she never thought she'd be on the same side as Wal-Mart in any fight, but the mega-retailer's interest in going green has forced manufacturers to lower prices and offer more options. That means the price of Smith's recycled-plastic shampoo bottles have dropped, and she can pass that savings on to her customers.
National retailer PetSmart has stocked more natural and so-called "green" items over the past few years. Spokeswoman Jennifer Ericsson said the stores haven't seen a marked growth in customer demand for the products, but they sell well enough to maintain a place in the stores.
"We'd like to think that what's on our shelves is representative of what their demands are, so you'll see there is a certain percentage of natural products," Ericsson said. "We do a lot of market research with customers and we do evaluate trends. We also have a consumer loyalty program called Pet Perks, so that allows us to take a look into what our customer are wanting and buying."
PetSmart plans special products and store placement for green products surrounding Earth Day 2008.
Is This Really Green?
So, how do you know if you're buying truly green products, or just dog chews that have been "greenwashed?" Ask a lot of questions.
"Always ask about the supply chain on green products," said Dan Illet, who leads the pack of bloggers at
GreenBang.com. "It's easy to get conned by the label, but when you look a little deeper, you can find the sourcing of materials is perhaps not as green as you'd think. Either that, or they are made in a sweatshop in a country without ethical working conditions. You should ask about the hazardous chemicals used to make a product, as well as in the packaging. What recycled materials are used in that? And how about transport? What's the carbon footprint? Is that offset? And how is that offset? Companies are starting to face all sorts of questions like this. As a consumer, it's your right to ask. You might find the salesman's face turns green when you do."
To that end, Dye said, OnlyNaturalPet.com lives the green lifestyle throughout its business practices.
"We run (on) 100 percent wind electricity, reuse all packaging from manufactures (and use) only corn-based biodegradable packing peanuts. We're working to become zero-waste with recycling (and) composting. Shrink wrap on our products (is) recycled and it gets made into lumber," Dye said.
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