by Carol Frischmann
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Published February 2009 (Paperback) by Wiley
More Info: Pets and the Planet
Carol Frischmann has owned dozens of pets — from chameleons to a bossy parrot that disciplines her Doberman. She’s a pet expert. She tells me in her soft North Carolina lilt the number one pet problem. It’s abandonment. Heartbreaking!
We’re doing an interview about her new book Pets and the Planet: A Practical Guide to Sustainable Pet Care, as part of her media training, and it’s hard for me to get past that fact about abandonment. I can’t imagine abandoning Jet or Jasmine, my two black cats, one adopted from a shelter, the other adopted so he wouldn’t have to go to a shelter. Realters are finding dead pets left behind near foreclosed homes. The owners couldn’t care for the pets any more than they could keep the homes. If you haven’t hit that horrific economic crisis, and are just trying to cope with a naughty animal, Carol advocates hiring trainers and pet sitters to get past the rough points.
Part of being green is buying pets food and cages and toys that are environmentally conscious. I’ve got economically conscious in mind when I buy cat food. Carol gently corrects me, saying it might be less expensive to buy organic — more of it is real food, so pets eat less, and it goes farther.
As for the poo? That, actually, is what sparked Carol to write the book. She wanted to know the best way of disposing of it — keeping our planet in mind. For little pets, flush it. For big pets, trash it.
