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Pets

Pets

Enjoying time outdoors with your pet should be a fun and carefree experience. But did you know that common pesticides used in lawn and garden care contain chemicals hazardous not only to your pets health?! Empower yourself and your neighbors - implement toxic-free alternatives that can be applied right away, on your own, at no extra cost. Kick the chemical habit and go PRFCT!

Exposure

  • Rolling in treated areas of your lawn and garden
  • Licking and cleaning fur that is covered with chemicals
  • Eating grass and other plants that have been sprayed
  • Sensitive underbelly exposed to chemical-treated grass 
  • Sensitive paw pads exposed to chemicals while walking, scratching, and digging
  • Secondary poisoning and/or drift from neighboring yards or ingesting rodents poisoned with rodenticides   
  • Brought indoors from your pet's coat, lingering in higher concentrations where there is less sunlight and water to break down the pesticide 

Harmful Effects

  • Higher risk of canine malignant lymphoma
  • Reproductive problems
  • Liver and kidney damage
  • Skin irritation
  • Birth defects
  • Central nervous system damage
  • Bladder cancer

Toxic-free alternatives you can implement right away, on your own, with no extra cost!

  • Understand lawn care more clearly with PRFCT Lawn Care Basics
  • Always aim for using organic pesticides and insecticides 
  • Using fleabane herbs as a natural flee repellent for dogs*
  • Using organic, biological, and cultural pest control* 

What should I do if my pet has been poisoned?

  • Contact your vet immediately or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center 
  • Try to determine how and where your pet encountered the poison
  • Minimize risk and ongoing poisoning by removing chemicals and wiping paws and fur
  • Some symptoms of poisoning in pets: fever, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, muscle tremors, hypersalivation 

Sources and Additional Reading

Pittman, Arianna. (2017). Help Keep Your Pets Safe by Avoiding These Potential Toxins in Your Yard.

Insecticide Poisoning in Dogs.

Good, Kate. (2014). How Pesticides are Harming Animals.

ASPCA, Top Pet Toxins of 2015.

Scientific American, Pesticides That Kill Pests - Not Pets. 

Kawczynska, Claudia. (2013). Invisible Perils in Parks.

Dogs on Grass.

Kawczynska, Claudia. Dog-friendly Yard Work. 

Cats and Poisons.

Flanigan, Amanda, Which Pest Control for a Yard is Safe for Dogs?

DesCamp, Meg, What Happens When Dogs Rub on Pesticide Treated Grass?