“I recently bought the Beco ball on a rope for my Schnoodle, and he loves it. It feels really well made, and will definitely last him a long time, Thanks Ethical Pets!” – Patrick
Following the Northern Vegan Festival, those who took their pets an ethical present home from our stall got the chance to enter our photo competition on Twitter. Here are our wonderful winners!
Bryn, our new rescue dog, is starting to settle in well. He likes the cats (okay a bit to much) and he gets on really well with my Mum and Dad’s dogs. He even likes to play Beco-tug with the incorrigible Thea!
He likes sleeping on fluffy warm rugs and being tucked in nice and cosy with blankets. Despite all the progress, he remains a troubled dog and recovery is going to be a long road for him. Here is a little bit of info about the things which are working so far…
Joey and I are always looking for ways to be greener, but our pets can be really naughty when it comes to the environment.Sasha and Shep, the rescue dogs, were forever destroying their toys – to be fair to them, it’s not willful destruction… but the cats, well, ripping their little toy mice to bits is their absolute favorite thing! Before we set up Ethical Pets, we didn’t really know how to address these problems, we seemed to be endlessly throwing broken toys away and buying more, and the local pet shops sadly weren’t much help with our sustainability quest.
However, now we run Ethical Pets things are much simpler! In this article, we will take you on a whistle-stop tour of some of our recycled, up-cycled and recyclable pet favorites.
Toys
Pretty much all of the Ethical Pets toys are up-cycled, recycled or recyclable – and our pets just love them! The dogs, for example, love their super tough Zogoflex Toys, and we love them too, because we know that if they ever manage to wreck them, we can recycle it with ease (and get a free replacement!).
Also, the cats adore their little woolly mice, and we love them too, because they are up-cycled from reclaimed yarn (and with a charity donation to boot). Much greener than the average cat toy!
Bowls, litter trays and food scoops.
Even things as basic as pet bowls can be totally eco-friendly – when we needed to get some new ones (because our old ones were too small) we bought some of the Ethical Pets Beco-Bowls, which are made from waste rice husks and sustainably grown bamboo. Up-cycling waste plant-matter like rice husks means the bowl is not only green to start off with (because its not made of plastic) but it will biodegrade in the garden when it’s old and ganky. Perfect 🙂 BecoThings make cat bowls, small-to-large bowls and large slow feed bowls, litter trays and scoops and food scoops too. Each time one of our long-serving (but not very green) plastic items needs replacing, we replace it with a BecoThing!
Beds
Our personal favorite recycled product range are the lovely soft beds: made from 100% recycled plastic (used plastic bottles) these beds are super soft as well as super eco 🙂 There are beds just the right size for cats, rabbits and smaller dogs, right up to the large and squishy giant mattress. Also, our eco Vet Bed is great for the car or for older dogs who need something warm and accessible.
Packaging
There are other things to consider too, for example, pet product packaging. The products we sell all come from companies with an eco mindset, so packaging is usually minimal and eco-friendly. As for our own packaging, you can see a full summary here, however, in short, its mostly re-used and/or recycled cardboard with a little degradable plastic and a little bubble wrap. As eco as we can for now (and always getting better!)
Summary
All in all, there are lots of recycled, up-cycled and recyclable products for your pets. Job well done eh?!
Having rescued two dogs from Bleakholt Animal Sancturary recently, we are having a ton of fun spoiling them! Here is when they got their first Zogoflex Huck toy – the toughest ball in town (and we all love to have a ball!) I recon a being a doggy in a petshop must be prettey awesome!!
Zogoflex is an amazingly tough material used to make dog toys: it’s non-toxic, buoyant, dishwasher safe and recyclable. The toys themselves are also well designed; for example, the Zisc Frisbee is a little softer than average and so kinder to those fragile bottom teeth, or the Twiz can be thrown, tugged, twisted AND filled with treats (Perfect for Yarrah Duos); enrichment all round!
From left for right: Zisk, Hurley, Twiz and Huck (Hucks are available in two sizes).
So, how tough is tough?
Tough enough for a one-time replacement guarantee! Tough enough that less than 1% get returned them for replacement! Of course, they are not totally indestructible; there really is no such thing as an indestructible dog toy – extreme chewers, for example Staffies, will get through any toy eventually. However, it will take time take a long time to destroy a Zogoflex toy – and then, the old one will be recycled and a new one sent out! These toys are certainly the way to go for destructive dogs, and are also ideal for sanctuaries, breeders and kennels, because even with several dogs chewing and tugging on them every day, they still last for months. Here is an example of the Zisk at work: Zisk is designed to be the toughest “interactive” toy – it’s great for tugging and pulling (but it’s not as strong as Huck and Hurley).
Are Zogoflex toys made ethically?
Yes, the toys are all made “in-house” by West Paw Design in Bozeman, Montana – as is the Zogoflex material itself. It’s fab to find a supply chain so transparent: you know who makes them and where, and under which employments laws. It’s really great! West Paw take great care to be eco too; for example, when their workshop needed expanding, they re-used all of the original outside walls – an unusual building method which saved 175 Tons of concrete form being dumped in landfill. The manufacturing process is also very efficient, producing very little waste. Great! Oh and we forgot to mention: all of the packaging is printed on 100% recycled paper with soya based inks.
But they are imported from America?
Yes – Companies like West Paw and products like Zogoflex are sadly hard to come by. However, the import process is pretty good – they are shipped by boat from America to Rotterdam, then they are moved from Rotterdam to our wholesaler by road – then by courier to us (plus they always arrive in a recycled box!) Of course, we would love to stock a British made equivalent! Let us know if you see any likely candidates!