Safe Paws for Pets Everywhere
Have you heard about our Safe Paws initiative and April’s Safe Paws Challenge?
The Espoma Company is equipping pet owners with tips to keep pets safe outdoors by avoiding the dangers of common lawn hazards.
During the month of April, we used our Facebook page to raise awareness and made a $700 donation to the National Canine Cancer Foundation.
In addition to providing healthy and safe lawn care tips on Facebook and Twitter, we brought our Safe Paws campaign to three garden centers in the Mid-Atlantic.
Primex Garden Center, Homestead Gardens and Bucks Country Gardens welcomed us with open paws for our Safe Paws launch. Our events included on-site adoptions, local vet Q&A’s, a Safe Paws photo booth, treats and more from local pet vendors.
What great events! We had perfect weather and great turnouts. Most importantly, we heard from every pet parent that a healthy lifestyle for their pets in their #1 priority.
We listened to pet parents tell their tales and we heard their concerns. Some of you never considered the damage harsh chemicals could be doing to your animals! But many of you told us stories about your sick pets, and how you’ve stopped using chemicals on your lawn to protect them.
Lawn chemicals are potentially harmful to both cats and dogs that run and play in yards, neighborhoods and parks, and may be a contributing factor in the increase of cancer in pets. According to the National Canine Cancer Foundation, an alarming one out of every three dogs is diagnosed with cancer.
With knowledge, there is power. So we’re working to make sure every home is aware of the benefits of an organic lawn.
Our new Safe Paws guide, which we unveiled at the events, showed guests that
It’s surprisingly easy to do our job when surrounded by puppies!
Five tips for keeping paws safe:
- Inspect your yard for hazards. Dogs and cats are curious. Keep dangerous chemicals such as fertilizers, insecticides, paint and gasoline out of reach.
- Switch to an organic lawn food. Harmful lawn chemicals can easily be ingested or tracked into homes, keep them off of lawns to begin with. Espoma’s annual feeding program features products that provide 2.5x more slow release nitrogen than the leading conventional program. And you don’t have to worry about your kids or pets rolling around in chemicals on the lawn.
- Encourage pets to stay away from certain areas in the yard by creating borders using soft materials like cedar mulch.
- Provide shade and shelter for pets while they’re hanging out on the lawn. Consider adding a dog house and provide plenty of water.
- Fleas and ticks hide in longer grass. Mow your lawn to the proper height to keep fleas and ticks at bay.
Share a photo of your favorite pet on our Facebook page! And let us know where you’d like us to have Safe Paws events next year!
