The Hidden Dangers of Plastics in Your Pet's Products

Have you ever wondered if the everyday items your pet uses, like toys and food containers, could be harming their health?

In this eye-opening episode, we dive into the hidden dangers of plastics in pet products with Aidan Charron from EarthDay.org, who shares startling findings from the “Pets vs Plastics” report.

What You'll Learn:
- The Hidden Health Risks: Discover the shocking chemicals like phthalates and BPA found in common pet items and learn how they can contribute to serious health issues like developmental problems and increased cancer risk in pets.

- The Regulatory Gaps: Learn about the lack of regulation in the pet product industry, and why this means you need to be more vigilant about the products you choose for your pets.

- Practical Tips for Safer Choices: Get actionable advice on reducing plastic use, such as choosing ceramic or stainless steel bowls and understanding product labels to make healthier choices for your pets.

- Global Efforts and Implications: Explore the broader fight against plastic pollution, including how international agreements like the Global Plastics Treaty could impact the pet industry.

Plus, find out how your consumer choices can drive positive changes in the market and why understanding pet food labels is crucial for your pet's health. With insights from Aiden and resources like the "Pets vs Plastics" report and TruthAboutPetFood.org, this episode empowers you to make informed decisions that protect your pet's well-being.

Don’t miss this essential conversation that could change the way you shop for your pet forever. Read the "Pets vs Plastics" report on EarthDay.org to learn more.

Learn more about the dangers of plastics for your pets by reading Earthday.org's "Pets vs Plastics" report.

Also, be sure to check out TruthAboutPetFood.org, to learn more about what's in your pet's food.

 Big changes are coming soon to Starlight Pet Talk! 🚀 We’re excited to share that we're evolving to bring you even more engaging content and fresh perspectives. Stay tuned for new features and exciting updates that will enhance your listening experience. We can’t wait to reveal what’s next—keep an eye out for more details! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Pets Versus Plastics Report
• 11:39 Pet Plastics
• 22:37 Plastics Treaty and Pet Food Accountability
• 27:50 Plastic Impact on Pets' Health

Transcript

Amy Castro: 0:00

Have you ever wondered how plastic pollution might be affecting your pets? Well, you might be surprised to learn that it's not just an environmental issue. It's also a serious health concern for the companion animals that we love. In this episode, we're joined by Aiden Sharon from the Earth Day organization, who will shed light on pets versus plastics. Discover how everyday plastic products, from your pet's toys to their food containers, could be impacting their health and well-being. Aiden will explain how plastic pollution works, reveal some shocking findings and offer us some practical tips for reducing plastic use in pet care. If you care about your pets and want to understand how you can help them stay healthier and happier, stay tuned. You're listening to Starlight Pet Talk, a podcast for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets. Welcome to Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, amy Castro, and my special guest today is Aiden Sharon. Aidn is the Associate Director of Global Earth Day for earthdayorg.

Amy Castro: 1:08

Growing up on the coast of North Carolina, aidan always had a passion for a clean environment and engaging in outdoor activities like hiking, surfing and scuba diving. With his passion for nature. He earned a degree in biology, minoring in geographic information systems which I actually know what that is because I work with a lot of cities and counties in my work and he got his degree from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Before joining the Earth Day team. He worked in wetland reclamation, then taught middle school and high school science. In his free time, aiden enjoys biking and hiking around DC with his wife and their two dogs, buzz and Sally. So, A, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Aidan Charron: 1:47

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Amy Castro: 1:49

Yeah, I was really glad when you when it wasn't you, I think that initially reached out, but somebody had reached out and I was like this is great, like I didn't know that the pets versus plastics report existed and what it was all about. But I've always been pretty suspect about some of the things that go into our pet products for a lot of different reasons, just being in the pet industry. So I'm assuming most of the people that are listening today have no idea I mean, everybody knows what Earth Day is, but no idea about some of the other things that you do, like this Pets vs Plastics report, and also no idea that plastics are an issue for pets. So can you kind of just give us an overview of the report and then we'll dig into some of the nitty-gritty along the way.

Aidan Charron: 2:31

Yeah, sure thing. So we came out with the Pets vs Plastics report after having some success with our Babies vs Plastics report, equally as upsetting. But we realized not everybody has human children of their own, but the pet market and the amount of pet ownership has been on the rise steadily. I don't have any kids of my own, I have two dogs. So this is really hitting close to me of just trying to get the word out and trying to raise awareness about the dangers of plastic and its additive chemicals especially. There's a bunch of health effects associated with plastic that we can dive into. And then, just when it comes to the pet food industry and the pet toy industry and the pet clothes industry, there's just so little regulation and so little oversight of what goes into those products and that's potentially harmful to your pet and to you. So we wrote the report as a way to just get the word out there to a group of people that aren't normally thought of when you're thinking about the environment, and that's pet owners.

Amy Castro: 3:28

Yeah, and it's interesting because I think we get this false sense of security, both for our own health and then also for the health of our pets, that there are these organizations, Like if somebody went out and said, well, who regulates pet food with the FDA? Well, goodness, that's who regulates our pet food. But I think what people don't often realize is that the regulations exist but it's often highly left to the manufacturers to make those come to fruition and you know, it doesn't always happen like we think it's going to happen. So when you were involved in the research, what were some of the most kind of alarming or scary things that came out just from the get-go as you started digging into this issue?

Aidan Charron: 4:08

As soon as we started diving into the research it was myself and a team at Earth Day just working on the report for, of course, to be here, but as we're diving into it, we realized there's just so little regulation out there and there's just so little rules when it comes to these manufacturing plants, and there's so little people paying attention to it, like you have the fda that's supposed to be the monitor of our pet food and our animal feed is how it's framed. And then, when you start looking into it, though, you realize, oh, they're not actually checking on these manufacturing processes, they're not actually holding these companies to account when it comes to these terrible things they're doing and, frankly, the rules they have set up were put together by a separate non-governmental organization that probably doesn't have our pets' health and our pets' well-being in mind, but rather the profits of those larger manufacturing companies.

Amy Castro: 4:56

Right. I mean, we've seen it across the board. We've seen some of the headlines that have come out, both again, for human products and for pet products. And in defense and I'm not defending the pet food organizations, I don't work with any direct pet food organizations, but you know it's a catch-22, right, we don't want to pay $100 for a bag of dog food a lot of people. And so how do we make it cheaper? Well, there's ways to make it cheaper, but is it worth that? Savings? You know it's not. And people, there are a lot of people out there that just don't want to know about it. It's like, oh, I know that name brand. This is a price I'm willing to pay. And I'm shocked at how many people haven't even begun to look at their pet food labels or let alone their own food labels. But you know, we've done some things about pet food ingredients. Just is the regular ingredients, not the other extraneous stuff that gets into our pet's food, and it's shocking how little people have done their homework on what they're letting their beloved pet ingest.

Aidan Charron: 5:52

And the scarier thing about the label too there's not really like mandates and rules when it comes to what they put on the label, so they could blatantly lie, like there's a company that's like we only have seven ingredients in our food. And then you start looking into it and it's like that seven ingredients slowly starts growing and growing into like hundreds of different ingredients that just aren't mentioned or they're like well, we only use it in 2% of the batch, so why does it matter? Why are these things popping up? And it's just an issue when it comes to the labeling. It's an issue just all the way at the top for the manufacturing.

Amy Castro: 6:24

Yeah, and it's. You know, it's kind of like those when you start digging into the. This is what's theoretically in it, like you said, but then these other things have made their way into it, like a certain percentage of this, that or the other thing would be acceptable, and it's just this broad category of things that, if you knew what it was, you would be shocked and appalled along the way.

Aidan Charron: 6:47

Yeah, part of that's the plastic bags and things that end up into the food for our pets. So in some countries, including the US at times, we dispose of huge amounts of bread products wrapped in plastic that's then shipped off to a pet food manufacturing plant where the bags of food still with the plastic wrapping and the bread is ground up and then sold dried and sold to us as pet food, so that pet food your pets are consuming still is containing the plastic. That way there's also when you're adding animal product to the pet food. They don't typically cut off the ear tags or get rid of any plastic that's used to mark the animal, that's used for slaughter and that's ending up directly into the pet's food as well.

Amy Castro: 7:23

Animal that's used for slaughter and that's ending up directly into the pet's food as well. Right, yeah, so it's not even just about understanding that, when they say pet byproducts, what that means, because that's a whole other ball of wax. But that's probably still better than getting a ear tag. And I know, coming from Texas, I see the cattle out here with their ear tags. And what people don't realize too is that, yes, on one level those are plastic markers, but some of them also have some really nasty, heavy-duty insecticide embedded in them that keeps mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, whatever it is they're trying to keep off the animal. Because we've had neighbors around here that will take those ear tags and put them, like, for example, under their gait controller or in their septic system controller to keep fire ants from going in there, and it's like, okay, I didn't know those things were, you know, embedded with chemicals in addition to just being made up of chemicals, because they're plastic.

Aidan Charron: 8:13

Yeah, and like why? Why would you think about that? Like why we think we have these regulatory bodies set up to, you know, control that, and we wouldn't expect them to allow that kind of thing. But it's just hard to manage and it's hard for most people to realize. They're not always going to be on top of every single person and it's kind of up to the consumer to kind of call these companies out as well.

Amy Castro: 8:35

Right. So I know, when I think about Earth Day, I wouldn't think about pets in plastic or babies in plastic. I think about what's the impact on the earth. So I guess that's the question I want to ask is what is the impact? I mean, we're going to get into the impact on our pets in great detail, but on a broader sense, how does this impact our environment?

Aidan Charron: 8:55

Yeah, so we are an environmental organization, but I think one of the key things we've tried and we think we've been pretty successful over the past year is recognizing that human health is a part of environmental health. So the thing we've been pushing for and the thing that my boss, kathleen Rogers, has been like, we really need to like not get into people's brains, like if it's bad for the environment, it's probably bad for you as well. Plastic is no exception and might be the worst thing out there. Just because plastic, when it breaks down, doesn't truly break down. It's made of. Up to 16,000 different chemicals go into the production of plastic. That's 16,000 different ways you can put it together, that's 16. I guess that ends up being trillions upon trillions of different combos you can have that just make it so dangerous.

Aidan Charron: 9:41

And when plastic breaks down, it doesn't start breaking down into those base materials. Like you know, wood over a while is going to break down to cellulose. It's going to break down to the sugars. It's going to break down and decompose. Plastic, on the other hand, just gets smaller and smaller and smaller and still holds that structure, still carries those chemicals and can then act as vectors for disease as well. So it goes from being this macroplastic we think of this pencil, for example as a macroplastic. It's gonna break down into a microplastic, it's gonna break down further into a nanoplastic, and the nanoplastic's what's really interesting and what's really dangerous, because that's what's ending up into our bloodstreams.

Aidan Charron: 10:19

But on the environmental field, it also means it can just be thrown up into the air, float around and get anywhere, including into our waterways. We're finding it at the bottom of Marianas Trench. We're finding it at the top of Mount Everest. People may be like well, we have people exploring Mount Everest all the time. That's not that surprising. But it's also being found in these remote areas that haven't been touched by humans for 300 years. Now, placid's only been around for like 80 years. So that doesn't really make sense unless it's able to just be thrown up in the air and just get anywhere super easily.

Amy Castro: 10:54

Well, and you think about migration and the oceans and things like that as well and leaching into soil. When I was in the Air Force I took a really interesting and it was literally about specific to jet fuel and how that can cause underground water contamination. And you know, I was a public affairs officer, I had nothing to do with anything environmental, but we were having an environmental issue, which is why we were doing this course. But it was so fascinating and horrifying to realize how chemicals and other dangerous things get into our soil, get into the underground water tables, how it spreads out and then the impact on people's drinking water or your kids playing in the backyard digging in the dirt or you're working in your garden and just the long-term effects of those is pretty horrifying.

Aidan Charron: 11:39

Yeah, and then you also have plastic, and what a lot of people don't realize too is plastic is oil, it's fossil fuels. It's made up of petroleum. Petroleum, notably and considerably, is very flammable, so we have to pump it full of these additive chemicals. I mentioned 16 000 before. We've tested nowhere near the 16 000 amount. We've tested like 4200 of them, I believe. All 4,200 were found to be toxic for human and organism health, so that tells you anything about the stuff we're just pumping into it. Furthermore, it just leads to all these different diseases and things, but it also. Plasma production accounts for currently only 3.4% of greenhouse gas emissions, which may sound like a small number, but as we start pivoting away from you away from petroleum and fossil fuels as our main energy source when it comes to the planet.

Aidan Charron: 12:30

We're starting to move towards renewable energy and those kinds of things. We're going to start to see the petroleum industry and the fossil fuel industry start trying to push towards plastic as their saving grace. They don't want to give up the huge profit margins. They want to see a shift and that shift will be plastic. So 3.4% is going to at least triple by 2060 if we don't start curbing the problem. And that's just the greenhouse gas emissions. That doesn't include the millions of tons that are pumped into the ocean every year.

Amy Castro: 12:59

Right, yeah, for a lot of people it's like oh, I'm not. Like when you said 2060, am I still going to be alive then? Yeah, but your kids and your grandkids and their pets are going to be around. So let's go ahead and kind of transition and start talking about the pets specifically, because I think the average consumer is at least moderately aware of plastics and their own health, but probably don't think about it with their pets. And then the pet products and that was something that was interesting when I read the report is that it's the plastic in the food, because that's the first thing that I thought about oh, it's getting into our food. But I literally, after reading the report, went through all of our pet toys, because we get a lot of pet toys, not only ones that we have purchased ourselves at the animal rescue, but things that have been donated, and you just look at them in a different way when you realize the impact.

Aidan Charron: 13:49

So you know what are some of the common culprits or the common ways that our pets are being affected by plastic in their day-to-day lives. Yeah, so one thing or a couple of chemicals that people might be more familiar with when it comes to plastic is something called phthalates and bpa, or bisphenols, I guess, is the better term. But bpa is going to be the most common one. Notably, you'll see it on water bottles and say bpa free. Great, we got rid of bpa. The other issue with plastic and all those chemicals is you can just kind of switch the formula, make it into something else that's no longer regulated, done, done. They restart over.

Aidan Charron: 14:24

When those chemicals phthalates and bisephanol A or BPA are leaching into our pet's gums, they tend to break down and when they get consumed in there it will go through the stomach and will go through the large intestine and from there those chemicals leach out. And those chemicals are what gives the plastic its certain flexibility, its certain rigidity, whatever it is. When those chemicals leach out it can cause that toy that was once flexible, once should have passed through. It just makes it a solid mass. So that's getting stuck into the intestines of our pets. That has to be removed surgically.

Aidan Charron: 14:58

We're also seeing leakages between these chemicals chemicals, they're called endocrine disrupting chemicals, and the vast majority of the ones introduced to plastic, are causing dementia-like and alzheimer's-like symptoms associated with rats, and if it's going to be happening in your rats, it's likely to be happening in your dogs. That's not to include just the general choking hazard that plastic plays when they're consuming it, because it just breaks off. It's formed sharp edges as well. A stick can form a sharp edge, but it's more likely to break down and become better chewing and just break down further once it gets into the stomach. Plastic just doesn't do that. It becomes that solid block.

Amy Castro: 15:36

Right, and so it's not just about the consumption, the swallowing of something that's made out of plastic, but it's literally getting into their bodies, through their gums and into their bloodstreams and things like that. So you've got you know. It's basically hitting our animals in multiple different directions. So we're talking about, obviously we've got the issue we need to be concerned about what's in our pet's food, but then packaging toys is there anything else? Are water bowls? Things like that, are all of those things, things we need to be looking at and saying what is this thing made out of, instead of making assumptions.

Aidan Charron: 16:11

Yeah, I mean, if it's plastic, it's probably going to be dangerous. These chemicals are also associated with embryo development in dogs. You have potentially infertility. We're seeing the same thing in humans. Unfortunately, liver and kidney damage is also associated with some of these 16,000 different chemicals. We're also seeing cancer on the rise in dogs, with 50% of dogs over 10 being afflicted, and these are rates that have been growing and growing with the same time as plastic, which doesn't necessarily mean they're related, but we're seeing more and more connections between the two with more and more science that's coming out and people are really starting to pay attention to that linkage.

Aidan Charron: 16:50

When it comes to plastic bottle or plastic bowls, I should say in this case, just try to move away from them. Make the switch over to ceramic, make the switch over to stainless steel. They are truly inert compared to plastic that we thought was inert. Stainless steel they are truly inert compared to plastic that we thought was inert. That means it's just not going to flake off. You're not going to be ingesting as much of those plastic bits that are causing these issues later down the road.

Amy Castro: 17:14

Yeah, I've started looking at everything differently and we've got a whole cabinet of various types and sizes and whatever of pet bowls in our animal rescue cabinet, let alone my own personal cabinet, and I actually came across a couple of plastic bowls that I got rid of but that, you know, somebody had obviously chewed on those, so they were chewing on it like a toy, so they were getting it there, and then I'm sure, every time they're licking it, you know they're being exposed to chemicals.

Amy Castro: 17:40

But if people need a little extra motivation, even beyond the ingestion of chemicals, is if you're still using plastic bowls. Every scratch, every microscopic scratch, is a potential place for bacteria, you know, and other nasty things to hide, especially because more than likely you're hand washing those things as opposed to putting your dog bowls plastic dog bowls in the dishwasher, and so there's a whole host of other problems with those plastic bowls. So, definitely, you know, stainless is the way to go. It may not be as cute, although you can get some super cute ceramic ones, but yeah, that's, I mean, that's at least a great place that pet parents can start is by their, you know, the thing that your dog is going to be eating and drinking out of, or your cat or whatever other pet, every single day exposure.

Aidan Charron: 18:27

It's also a pretty easy transition when it comes to those things. A stainless steel bowl is going to be about the same price as a plastic bowl, thankfully, and that stainless steel bowl is going to last a lot longer. Your pet's less likely to chew on it and chew it up. I've worked at a vet clinic all through high school and volunteered at SPCA and things, so I've seen dogs chew up stainless steel bowls, but much less common than the plastic ones, and I'm sure you've seen the same thing.

Amy Castro: 18:52

Exactly, yeah, exactly. So what would be some? I mean, we talked about stainless, we talked about ceramic, but what about when it comes to like pet toys and other products? Like, let's just say, I got a new puppy for argument's sake and I was going to go out and buy their whole kitten caboodle. What are some materials I should be looking for? And then we'll talk about pet food ingredients, because that's a whole other thing.

Aidan Charron: 19:15

Yeah, when it comes to pet toys and things, make the switch to natural like, make the switch to natural fibers, make the switch to those.

Aidan Charron: 19:22

You know they sound gross, like the beef trapezius, I think, is what they sell at the store, those bully stits and things. Rawhide is typically not advised for pets, so just consult your vet before switching to rawhides. They tend to become a choking hazard, similar to a lot of plastic toys. But also one easy thing we've done in my household and we thought it was really funny, because we've spent hundreds of dollars over the course of the five years we've had Buzz on dog toys and then we realized his favorite toy is an old 100% cotton T-shirt that I've just had laying around, that I tore up tied into knots and that's his favorite toy now, tied into knots and that's his favorite toy now. So we're able to kind of start getting rid of the plastic toys and start replacing them with those 100% cotton toys, with it just being a T-shirt tied into balls. Also, look for all-natural rubber toys. There are some out there. They can last longer than the plastic ones and they don't typically carry as many of those additive chemicals.

Amy Castro: 20:47

Yeah, it's amazing how creative people can get with making dog and cat toys. I know that we've had a lot of things show up here at the rescue. You know, a cat toy made out of a wine cork or whatever it might be. So, yeah, I mean, how cheap and easy is that to take an old t-shirt, cut it into strips, braid it, put some knots in it. Now you've got a tug toy that I mean, with all things you're going to want to keep an eye on it, that they're not, you know, chewing off big chunks.

Amy Castro: 21:11

But you know, not only if you save yourself some money, but you save yourself, you saved your pet some exposure to chemicals just by doing something, something super simple. And there's lots of other like I know that the report mentioned things like toys made out of hemp and other other natural products. So just look at there's so many out there. Just look at there's so many out there. Just look at what the thing is made out of and you know that's a great place to start up of plastic and those are made up of synthetic fibers that come from plastic.

Aidan Charron: 21:52

They may have a flashier name, um, they may sound like they're not as cheap, but they're plastic. They've just been advertised really well as this new great material that comes from the ground and I guess technically it does. If you count, you know, extraction of petroleum and then all these additive chemicals, and then down the road it becomes this fiber.

Amy Castro: 22:10

But just look for those natural ones, those hemp's, those wools, those cottons yeah, now what's being done about this, I guess, or what could be done about this, potentially, if we don't have, you know, the proper oversight? I know we have afco. That, you know, is a voluntary organization that provides input on on pet but doesn't really have any enforcement control. How does this get fixed?

Aidan Charron: 22:36

Well. So if you blow it up to the largest scale possible, we have something called the Global Plastics Treaty that we're trying to get signed and we're trying to make sure that it's the most comprehensive treaty. A great comparison to draw is the Paris Climate Accords. That's the first thing people come to when they think international treaty on something, and on the environment at least. But what we really want to model after is something that's like the Montreal Protocol. We always hear about the hole in the ozone layer. Now we don't talk about it as much because we enacted these policies that have allowed it to start healing, and that's through the Montreal Protocols. But the Paris Climate Agreement it was voluntary measures and that kind of means countries can drop out whenever Coming back.

Aidan Charron: 23:18

We have the Global Plastics Treaty. We're going into our fifth session of negotiations, where countries are coming together to mark out what they want to see, and we want to make sure it's a legally binding treaty that kind of controls the production of plastic. So that's, from the top, like we want to cut production of plastic through this international treaty that has punishment in it, like you know, countries that they disobey or they don't want to follow this rule. There's something to hold them accountable. When we come back down to the pet food level, there is AFCO, but in July of this year it was actually announced that AFCO is no longer going to be that advisory body to the FDA. So as of October 1st, I believe, is when AFCO is stepping down, fda is on the lookout for somebody new to enforce it.

Aidan Charron: 24:02

We have a letter writing campaign currently on our website to kind of call for the FDA to actually do some enforcement and maybe hand it off to a different regulatory body that can actually handle it and actually pay attention. And then it's just kind of staying on top of those manufacturers of just like we don't want to see this plastic crap in our food anymore. We want to see what's actually going into the food so we can kind of monitor it better. And just means more accountability from them, whether that's coming from the government or the consumer, just to be like, look, this company is willing to tell us what's in their food. We're going to make the switch. That way FDA can do the same thing. If they're not going to tell us what's in the food, they cannot sell it to the people. That's just a couple of things we can do and then it's just staying on top of them, just keep calling them out, just keep up the force on both the FDA the government, government and these manufacturing processes, yeah, and what?

Amy Castro: 24:59

what about as pet parents? I mean, what could? Because you know I'm kind of of the belief and we've it's come up on the show before is that, uh, like we did an episode, uh, with a bunny rescue? And you know, if you don't want bunnies to be used for food or you want to at least limit it, like if, if there, you know, there's a, there's that fine balance where you know a dog could die because that's the only meat that it can eat, and dogs eat meat, they're not vegetarians and et cetera, et cetera.

Amy Castro: 25:20

Okay, so let's say you're going to limit it, but everybody's dog doesn't need to eat a companion animal, like a bunny kind of thing, and so you know. The way that we show our displeasure at that is look at the ingredients on your pet food, your pet treats, and if it has rabbit and you don't want rabbits to be killed for pet food unnecessarily, don't buy rabbit based pet food. So I mean, it seems pretty simple, but I mean how important it is that we vote with our dollars and our purchases for what we want or don't want in our pets products.

Aidan Charron: 25:56

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of where a lot of us feel like we have the most powers when it comes to those buying and selling. And it truly is. If we start telling companies we're no longer going to buy that product because of what's in it, they're going to have to either adjust or they'll go out of business. It's a simple process and it's a slow one, so that's why it kind of takes a couple of different areas and hit it from. So you have to hit it from the FDA, just call for them to have more regulations on it, and then also tell the companies you don't want to see that crap in your food anymore, or you don't want to see that rabbit in their food anymore, by just not buying it, and eventually the market will have to shift. There's no way to stop the billion or so pet owners that are in the world now. If they refuse to buy this product, that product will no longer be sold over time. It won't be instant, though.

Amy Castro: 26:39

No, I mean, yeah, it's obviously it's going to take time and it's going to take effort. But again, going back to the issue of looking at those labels and really understanding what you're seeing, some of it's obvious, like if there's rabbit, that should be relatively obvious. But when it comes to plastics, when it comes to other ingredients that are not healthy for pets, I mean I have literally pulled a label off of a pet food container and sat down and you know, gone on the internet and looked up. You know any term that I didn't already know and I consider myself a relatively savvy person. Looked up, you know any term that I didn't already know and I consider myself a relatively savvy person.

Amy Castro: 27:12

But usually after about the first. It depends on the quality of your pet food. But you know, for your average commercial dry dog food, let's just say for argument's sake, you probably recognize about the first four or five items if you're lucky and the rest of it is, you know. Unless you're a chemist or something like that, you're not going to know what that is. So look it up and you're probably going to be shocked that you know 70% of what's in that label is not what your pet probably should be eating, you know, and do you want your pet ingesting that?

Amy Castro: 27:44

You know what is it really, and I think that's a huge starting point for pet parents. You had even mentioned pet clothing, and is that really just more of like? Is it a leeching issue, like my dog's coat is made out of plastic or, you know, like little rain jacket, let's say, is made out of plastic and so it could leach into his skin while he's wearing it. Or is it more of the longer term environmental impact? It's like, okay, it's just one more thing made out of plastic we don't need in our world.

Aidan Charron: 28:10

I guess both. So when it comes to these synthetic fibers that I mentioned, I mentioned it in terms of you know, the polyesters and those things and a lot of pet clothes are going to be cheaper, just inherently. But when it comes to those fibers and those synthetic fibers, they tend to flake off a lot easier than natural fibers, and the danger with those is they're more easily inhalable. So when your pet's wearing this you know, I think my shirt probably has some plastic in it too. That's just an old t-shirt. These fibers flake off super easily. Like if I had a microscope, I could see them plastic in it too. That's just an old t-shirt.

Aidan Charron: 28:44

These fibers flake off super easily. Like if I had a microscope, I could see them floating in the air. It's the same thing with our pets' clothes as well. So you want to make the switch for your pets' clothes, if they wear them, to those natural fibers. Once again, we have wool sweaters for my dogs. It's like I went online with a wool sweater, made sure it was 100% wool and that's what we dressed them in in the winter. They look adorable.

Amy Castro: 29:06

but we also made sure that it was I was going to say they look snappy when they're going down the sidewalk.

Aidan Charron: 29:11

Yes, we all have matching wool sweaters. We are extremely cute in the winter.

Amy Castro: 29:16

You are that family oh.

Aidan Charron: 29:18

I am that family, much to my father's chagrin. Yes, we show up wearing matching sweaters at Christmas, and they got us matching sweaters one year and they thought we weren't going to wear them and we immediately all put them on.

Amy Castro: 29:32

We actually like them.

Aidan Charron: 29:33

We actually like them. We're going to wear them all the time, but yeah, it's just, the flaking of the fibers is really easily.

Amy Castro: 29:39

You know, at first you're thinking there's no fibers flaking off. What do you think's in your lint trap when you put stuff in the dryer?

Aidan Charron: 29:45

Yeah.

Amy Castro: 29:47

I mean, yes, there's a certain percentage of pet hair, but all of that stuff is material that has flaked off of your clothes and I know when I I mean I could run two loads of laundry and that thing, you know, got a one inch by five inch by eight inch bed of lint, and so, yeah, god knows what's in that.

Aidan Charron: 30:05

put that under a microscope yeah, and it's the same thing with, like you know and this is no fault to miss people like it's, the carpets we have in the in our houses are typically to be made of plastic fibers. Now, and it's the same thing. Those are flaking off as well. Same thing with, you know, synthetic fiber blankets. So it's just like in your house. Try to make those incremental switches. If it's starting with your pet's clothing, start with your pet's clothing. If it's the bowls, make the bowls, the switch first. But it's going to take a little bit of time to get away from plastic entirely. And you know I'm was director of end plastic initiatives at earthdayorgorg have been working on this issue for two years and I still have plastic in my house just because it's so unavoidable and so hard to avoid. But you know it's just making little changes over time.

Amy Castro: 30:50

Yeah, so other than the, I mean obviously I want everybody and we'll put the link to the Pets vs Plastics report, because it's just a lot of information consolidated in a relatively small space. And then they what was it like? Two or three pages of citations at the end. So obviously somebody's done all this homework for you already. Start there. But where else can people get accurate information about pets and plastic?

Aidan Charron: 31:15

Yeah, I mean, if you just go to our website, earthdayorg, we have plenty. We have the report and then we have, you know, smaller articles that are about the report. That kind of just give you the like. This is how you should avoid it. This is what you should be doing, instead of you having to trudge through the. I think it's 30-ish pages or something of the actual 38 pages of the actual report. If you want just a smaller like you got 10 minutes to read it we have a quick article about ways to step away from plastic in your pet's life All over our website as well as we're all over you know, the normal socials and things.

Aidan Charron: 31:47

And then Truth About Pet Foods is a partner we've worked with in the past. They have a lot of good information about pet foods. I talked to her. We talked for a while and she was just like opening my eyes to the other side of the issue outside of plastic, you know it being just so little regulation and she's been fighting about it for years now when it comes to the pet food industry. So there's just a couple places to find it and just read the report. You know 38 pages. If you got a weekend, sit down, read it. It can be a little bit of a bummer at times, but you know there are things to do. At the end there are ways to make adjustments. And then also just go to our letter writing campaign on the website as well and write to the FDA, write to Congress, to say we want to see more from you. We want to see you fighting for our little furry friends, like we're tired of having to do it all on our own.

Amy Castro: 32:37

Yeah and yeah. And if people out there have not heard about truthaboutpetfoodorg, that is a source for me for sure to go because you can really get some specific, concrete information, because I'm constantly rethinking or questioning what I'm giving my pets and then it's like, okay, I got to go out and look at what's the latest list, what's the brand I should be looking at, what's the ingredients I should be looking at. So that's definitely a great source of information and I don't want to end the show on a bummer, but I do want to address the issue. You know, are there specific, like personal anecdotes or stories that you would want to share, kind of talking about the theoretical or it's not theoretical, it's fact, but we're not talking about a specific pet that has been impacted? Are there stories included in the report or in your research that you've seen the impact on particular pets of this problem with plastics?

Aidan Charron: 33:31

Yeah, I think the most startling one and the one when it comes to maybe not a specific pet, though is that dementia linked to rats, like if, if we're, if we're seeing this ingestion of placid leading to alzheimer and dementia like symptoms in rats. That's an issue not just for our pets. Like you know our pets, that that's terrible and that's really sad if they come across this disease and they contract this disease and they start behaving differently. But that also means that it's likely gonna, you know, become an issue for you and your family as well you and your human family as well. Pets are sentinels for humans. Our animals are sentinels for us. If it's affecting them and their shorter lifespan, maybe we should pay a little bit more attention and realize, if it's affecting them and the 15 years they get to live on this planet, what's going to happen to me in the 85 that I hopefully get on this planet?

Amy Castro: 34:24

Yeah, and anybody that has dealt with dementia in their pets and you know it's interesting that you know years ago let's say 20 years ago probably even a shorter timeframe than that, but let's just say 20 for argument's sake nobody was talking about dementia in senior pets. And it's like, on one hand, yes, we've created things that help our pets live longer, and at the same time it seems like more and more you're seeing things in the news or studies or what to do about, you know, when your dog is sundowning. I mean, there's just like that term didn't exist for pets years ago. And so why is this suddenly? Why is this suddenly an issue? And it's like, okay, now we can see a source for this, for this possibility.

Amy Castro: 35:06

You know, if you figured, like you said, 15 years on the planet, but at 15 years I've been eating plastic along the way then you know there might be a way that we could prevent that, because any pet parent who's gone through that or is going through that with their senior pets, it's terrible. It's misery for the pet, I'm sure, but it's misery for everybody in the household to see the pet decline like that. So if there's something that I could do about it with my pets. I would certainly want to take that action.

Aidan Charron: 35:34

Yeah, I mean the goal in my household is to make sure they live the best life they possibly can, whatever that means and like. For us. That's moving away from Placid, that's giving them as much love as we can while they're still here and just paying as much attention to them as humanly possible, which I think my wife and I do a pretty good job of them. Watching her currently cuddle the dog on the couch. So at least one of the dogs the other ones hiding away, but she, she lets her alone time a little bit more.

Amy Castro: 36:04

Right, so are there any other? So you had mentioned the high level kind of international work that you're doing. Are there any other things on the horizon for earthdayorg in relation to this issue with pets, any other initiatives that you're working on?

Aidan Charron: 36:16

Yeah, we have a letter writing campaign to the FDA directly calling for them to start paying more attention. That's on our website as well, just kind of calling for them to have a regulatory body that's actually set up to regulate. And then also we're paying attention to the different legislation that's coming out. Not that people don't want to get political and things, but there is some legislation, something called the PER Act, that kind of makes it seem like this is a great idea. We have this pet thing. It's labeled the per act.

Aidan Charron: 36:44

It sounds great, but once you start digging into it you realize it's just to benefit the pet food industry and kind of weed back on the you know, the oversight body we currently have and made sure that they could just kind of run off and do whatever they want. And in my perspective, it's the job of the government to protect its people at least that's the thought here in terms of who we vote for and things and it protects people and protect their pets. And if we enact these things that just allow manufacturing companies to do whatever they want, that's the opposite. That's benefiting a small group of people, you know, and then affecting the rest of us on this country. So that's another thing we're paying attention to.

Aidan Charron: 37:26

So we're going to go out and we're going to talk to our legislators and our representatives to make sure that they're doing what's right for us and what's right for our pets. And then we're just calling out the FDA as well, and then we'll be negotiating that treaty, which hopefully by the end of this year we'll have it signed and it'll be comprehensive and exactly what we want. And if it's not comprehensive and what we want, we're going to keep pushing them to negotiate further. So it could lead into 2025, 2026, but we're in it for the long run. So we're looking forward to it.

Amy Castro: 37:56

Well, I know I definitely appreciate your work on all of our behalf as pet lovers and pet parents, on all of our behalf as pet lovers and pet parents. And you know, for pet parents that are listening, you have a tremendous amount of control over what comes through your front door into your home, what goes into your pet's mouth, what goes on their body, what goes in their body in other ways, and so you know we can do our part by taking that control, and that will then have that ripple effect of basically voting with our dollars, or lack thereof, for organizations that aren't providing safe alternatives for our pets. And that's something that you can start doing immediately, starting today. Do, like I did, go out and look at your pet toys, get rid of the ones that aren't safe, especially the older, like the older, the plastic product probably the worst that it is, because the whole BPA thing was never even considered back then kind of thing. So you know it's, it's something that we, that we do have control over, and you know we can at least impact our own pets. And then we've got Earth Day, looking out for the, the bigger picture along the way. So we really again, really appreciate that.

Amy Castro: 39:08

Well, aiden, thank you so much for being on the show today. I'm so glad that Earth Day reached out because it wasn't on my radar from the standpoint of let's do an episode on this, but once I dug into that report it's like we have to do an episode on this, just to at least encourage people to start looking at this issue and taking control of what they can control. So thanks so much for being here and giving us your time and information today.

Aidan Charron: 39:29

Thank you so much for having me Really appreciate it and really appreciate the work you do as well.

Amy Castro: 39:33

Awesome. Well, make sure you give your pets a big hug from us at Starlight Pet Talk, and for those of you listening, we will see you next week. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk, and, for those of you listening, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple, or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show. That would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk, and if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.