THE GREEN ISSUE

Photo by Jeffrey Stockbridge

Kitty Litter

How to get your pets in on the green action.

by Tara Nurin

Congratulations if you’ve surveyed your life for signs of eco-awareness and you feel satisfied with your achievements: Locally grown yak meat in your fridge. Organic tomatoes sprouting on your roof. A hydrogen-operated scooter in your parking space.

But have you brought your pets to the same level? If not, you may want to catch up with your neighbors, who are shelling out major bucks all over the Delaware Valley for $100 all-natural dog food, $60 canine sweaters hand-knit by fairly paid Incan seamstresses and $30 for edible cat litter.

With pet food trends trailing human food trends by an estimated five to seven years, the eco-craze has finally arrived at Fido’s bowl, not to mention his toy bin, sleeping area and clothes closet.

Doggie Style

Frightened by the growing incidence of dog cancer, owner Leehe Fai Goldfarb decided it was time to start paying attention to how her dogs’ food and skin sprays were made. What she found freaked her out. “It was all sorts of chemicals. I couldn’t pronounce any of the ingredients,” she says.

So she started stocking her pantry and her stores with lotions made from tea tree oil and foods cooked with free-range chickens and vegetables grown in soil fertilized with fish carcasses. Some of the brands she sells grow their own organic vegetables or list contact information for the farmers who supply the ingredients.

She also sells the frozen raw organic meat and veggies she feeds her own pups, and says the smell from her table overstuffed with organic bakery dog treats—full of peanut butter, molasses, cinnamon and yogurt—makes her mouth water.

Bonejour

“There’s a lot of waste in the world, especially with pets,” laments Leslie Crane, owner of Old City’s Bonejour. “The dogs can only play with the toy for so long before they destroy them, and most of them get thrown out.”

Her solution? Stock plastic and rubber chew toys designed by Planet Dog. The company uses post-consumer recycled materials to manufacture its toys, and it incorporates almost all of its scrap material into other pet products. Customers can also mail back their pets’ used toys so Planet Dog employees can clean them, chop them up and put them back into the production line to make more toys for more dogs.

Bonejour offers the opportunity for your dog to pay it forward while you save 10 cents per shopping bag when you bring in your own cloth bag or buy one from Bonejour.

Rittenhouse Square Pet Supplies

Since opening 10 years ago, owner Lisa Iacovelli has gradually devoted an increasing quantity of floor space to holistic pet products, and now she estimates half of the items she stocks are eco-friendly.

She sells four kinds of biodegradable cat litter: World’s Best Cat Litter, edible and made from corn; Swheat Scoop wheat litter; Feline Pine, comprised of pine pellets; and Yesterday’s News, made of recycled newspaper.

Iacovelli, like many earth-conscious pet store owners, sells biodegradable poo bags for cleaning up dog messes, and sells South American Chilly Dog sweaters sewn from all-natural wool by Incans who are paid a fair wage.

“They’re reeeealllllly nice,” Iacovelli says of the sweaters, which sell for $29 to $50.

Cutter’s Mill

Calling itself “the Whole Foods of the pet industry,” this suburban chain of high-end pet stores stocks more than 85 brands of dog food—including one all-natural organic brand that will run you more than $100 for an 11-pound bag.

They also sell hemp collars and toys; plush playthings dyed with organic berries; $300 soft organic cotton bedding; and a West Paw line of pet beds manufactured from recycled plastic bottles.

“What’s fun is that every bed has a tag on it that tells you how many soda bottles were used to make the bed. Those are very popular,” says Susan Parker, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Parker adds that finding these items in her warehouse-size stores equipped with coffee bars is fun too.

“People come in here and they’re like, ‘Wow!’” she says. “Very often they’ll spend two hours browsing.”

The Chic Petique

When Chic Petique owner Lindsay Condefer opened her first store in 2001, she says, “there was nowhere in Philadelphia to buy natural pet products.” So she compensated by launching two Chic Petique pet boutiques, Philly’s only all-natural pet supply stores. Focusing on keeping pets healthy “from the inside out,” Chic Petique carries almost the entire Natur Vet line of alternative holistic medicines, supplements, skin products and flea repellents.

“We have all-natural house cleaners because say, if you’re mopping your floor and your pet steps on it, he’ll lick his paws and ingest whatever cleaning product you were using,” Condefer says.

She says her clients’ pets can live longer, healthier lives by avoiding pesticides and chemicals.

Tara Nurin last wrote about community development in Southwest Philadelphia.