Questions for the environmental pet owner

1. Do you use biodegradable poop bags for your dog? ‘Normal’ carrier bag can take over 100 years to fully breakdown.

2. Do you pick up your dog’s faeces? Apart from the obvious fact that dog faeces look disgusting they can harbour disease & worms. There is more. They can contaminate grazing areas for other animals & damage the natural environment.

3. Do you use biodegradable cat litter? Cat litter is available in materials such as wood, paper & corn all of which break down.

4. Do you reuse your Burns bags? Even though Burns bags are biodegradable these can be often used again, perhaps for garden rubbish.

GO GREEN!

? Switch off lights when you leave a room.

? Turn the tap off when brushing your teeth.

? Take showers instead of baths.

? Recycle your paper, cardboard, plastic, tins & glass.

? Compost your kitchen & garden waste.

? Use energy saving light bulbs. There is more. The Energy Saving Trust state that these last 12 x longer than normal bulbs & can save you ?7 a year on your annual electricity bill.

? Reuse or recycle your carrier bags.

? Don’t leave your TV & other appliances on standby. According to www.lookingafterthepennies.com ‘if virtually everyone in the UK turned off their TV overnight it would save more than ?66 million worth of in electricity each year, which would floodlight 250,000 Premiership football matches’

? Unplug mobile phone chargers when not in use. According to one web site 95% of the energy used by the UK’s mobile phone chargers is wasted energy? Only five percent is actually used to charge phones, the rest is used when the charger is plugged into the wall but not switched off at the socket. That’s over 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions that could be avoided if we all just unplugged our chargers after use ? the equivalent of almost 500 football pitches’ worth of forest every year.

? Insulate your house.

? Walk or cycle to school, college or work

? Eat locally grown produce.

? Only boil the amount of water you actually need.

? Only use washing machines & dishwashers when you have a full load.

? Try & use washing machines & dishwashers on economy setting.

? Turn your thermostat down by 1?C. The Energy Saving Trust state that this can cut your heating bills by up to ten per cent & save you around ?30 per year.

These are just a few ideas; there’re many more things you can try. However, if we all start to make a small effort it will make a difference.

John Burns is a qualified veterinarian who for the past fourteen years has also been producing a natural, holistic & complete food for dogs & cats, Burns Real Food – free of artificial colours, flavourings & preservatives.

As a practising Veterinary Surgeon, John became increasingly concerned about the quality of pet foods on the market, & how nutrition was playing a part in the poor health of the pets that he was seeing in his surgery.

Burns Pet Nutrition are known for being an ethical company with excellent customer service & nutrition support which can be accessed via their website http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk