With nearly 62 million dogs in households throughout the US, you can bet your pets are leaving their paw prints on the environment. By purchasing environmentally responsible products, utilizing environmentally safe household products, and by taking other sustainable measures, you can have a healthier and happier pet, and help the environment at the same time! Raise a green dog and cat! Read below for a few tips!

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2. Help Control the Pet Population

Whether you've rescued a dog or cat, the next best way to be a "green" pet owner is to spay or neuter your pet. You’ll be taking an active role in helping to control the pet population. Spaying/neutering your pets can also have environmental impacts. According to Animal World Network, seven puppies and kittens are born for every human, which means animal overpopulation is a more serious issue than human overpopulation. A neutered/spayed cat will also be less likely to suffer from ovarian or testicular cancer, which means there will be less resources spent on treatment

. 3. Find a Local Vet

Every time you drive your pet for a routine check-up, you’re emitting carbon dioxide into the air. A five minute drive creates far less damage than a 45 minute commute to the vet you started seeing when you lived five towns away. When you move over 10 miles, consider finding a veterinarian in your new community.

4. Investigate Healthy Food Alternatives

Buy pet foods that are all-natural or organic. While organic pet food may cost a little more money, it is made with renewable resources and no pesticides or environmentally unfriendly fertilizers. Any extra expenses on food could easily be offset by less medical expenses for your pet from a healthier diet.

5. Recycle Food Containers

We encourage pet owners to practice good recycling Whether it comes in cans, bottles or bags, chances are your pet’s food containers can be recycled. Take a little time to learn what facilities in your area recycle which products.

6. Make Poop Disposal Environmentally Friendly

All animals go to the bathroom, and disposing of animal waste is no fun no matter what kind of pet you own. Biodegradable bags are sold at most pet stores, and provide an alternative to using plastic bags that are nearly impossible to decompose. Flushing any remains down the toilet is a smart option as well because most traditional landfills don’t lend themselves to composting.

7. Buy Your Pet Sustainable Toys

These can range from eco-friendly beds to hemp collars to stuffed toys made from recycled soda bottles. Your pet may not realize that its playtime is saving the environment, but that won’t stop it from having fun with its toys.

8. Keep Your Pet Identified

Whether it’s printing up paper flyers to post information or driving around the neighborhood yelling your pet’s name, losing a pet is an environmentally unfriendly process. While tagging your pet can’t prevent it from getting lost, it will surely help with the retrieval.

9. Rein in your pets; protect native wildlife

Always keep your dog on a leash when outside, and confine your mangy feline indoors. Topped only perhaps by habitat destruction, cats are the biggest, baddest bird killers of all time. Unlike wild predators, house cats are always well fed, well rested, and in tip-top fighting shape. They’re also present in more concentrated and rapidly increasing number. That aside, two out of three vets, according to the Humane Society of America, recommend keeping cats indoors, because of the dangers of cars, predators, disease, and other hazards. The estimated average life span of a free-roaming cat is less than three years; an indoors-only cat gets to live an average of 15 to 18 years. If kitty needs to heed the call of the wild, an outdoor cat enclosure is a good compromise.

10. Use natural pet-care and cleaning products

Lather up your cats and dogs with natural pet-care products. And if your cat horks up a hairball, or Fifi doesn’t make it all the way to the bathroom, clean up the mess with cleaning products that are as gentle on the planet aw they are on your pets’ delicate senses.

11. Think Green

All those little steps you’re taking with your home and office like buying close to home and purchasing products that are sustainable and be applied to products for your pet. Little steps can make an even bigger impact on the environment. Think green. Future generations (and your pet!) will thank you.