ABSTRACT: While many pet owners love to pamper their pets by buying pet toys, they may be endangering their pet due to toxic substances in the toys.
CONTENT: Many people might remember that during 2008, there were massive recalls of brand name toys for children, many under the Mattel label, a major United States based toy company, but where most were actually manufactured in China. Not only were major brand named toys but any children's toy made in China, and the reason? Very high levels of lead paint were found in these toys.
People might also recollect the major pet food recalls than began during the year 2007, in which it was discovered that the wheat gluten supplied and exported out of China was contaminated, and the wheat gluten was one of the prime ingredients in many pet foods, both for dogs and cats, and most manufactured under the Menu company. There is no estimate as to how many pets were unfortunately affected by this contaminated food, some think in the thousands, where many pets died as a result.
Now comes another danger to our pets, and that is toxic pet toys, yet unfortunately in this case, and I don't have clue as to why not, but no major recalls have been issued yet or made for pet toys, and also, even with this knowledge, standards have not been set for testing the safety of pet toys in general. As you can guess, it was discovered that many pet toys, whether major known brands, or the cheap inexpensive ones sold in dollar stores are made in China, and yes contain very high levels lead paint and other toxic materials.
The average pet owner may be wary of giving their beloved pet a toy that might be easily breakable, such as a plastic toy since one good bite down on that toy may cause it to break and pieces of the plastic could be accidently swallowed by the pet causing the pet to choke to death. Nor would the average pet owner give a toy that might have one of those small jingle type bells for the very same reason that the pet could swallow it and choke. I'm always a stickler for cutting off those bells and simply tossing it in the garbage. Yet, while many pet owners are cautious about these such toys, none think of the potential hazard they may be posing when giving their pets a painted pet toy.
What's really alarming though is that the suspicion that the majority of pet toys may be toxic is not exactly a new one, as I discovered when I came across an article dated October 4, 2007 from the Consumers Affairs.com Website where not only high levels of lead were found, but cadmium and other toxic materials. Since this knowledge was known, and written up on the ConsumerAffairs Website more than a year ago, why hasn't the public been made aware of this danger sooner?
The danger lies, as you can guess, is that while pets are playing with these toys, they often have them in their mouths where they are being exposed to perhaps not only lead paint, but a whole host of other known toxic materials and substances. One alarming fact is that the so-called safety standards set up for pet toys are similar to the standards and guidelines for children. And while, yes, many pet owners view their pets like children, they aren't. Their biological system is completely different and more sensitive than that of a child and therefore, what might not completely pose a threat to a child, will to a pet. Also, until just very recently, pet toys weren't even being tested at all for their safety factors. This could pose a hazard therefore to very young children, since the amount of toxic materials in pet toys may in fact be significantly higher than potential toxic hazards in children's toys, The danger lies then when a very young child is innocently playing with the family pet while that pet is playing with the toy, and that child may grab for the toy and put it in their own mouth.
Pet toys that are obviously painted, and have the potential of lead paint being used are not the only pet toys that could be downright dangerous to a pets health. This is especially true when it comes to those familiar rawhide chew toys for dogs. The danger with these toys is that rawhide is treated with the cancer causing agent, formaldehyde. What really surprised me however, was that in a recent testing by ExperTox Inc. Analytical Laboratory of those familiar cloth-type catnip toys for cats, the test results showed very high levels of the carcinogen chromium.(1)
While all pet toys have the potential of being harmful, the worse, according to the ExperTox Inc. Analytical Laboratory were those that were sold in Walmart, under their label and clearly shows that they are made in China. (2) However, until better standards are set for the safety of pet toys, I would be suspicious of any pet toy or pet product made in China, including painted ceramic bowls which also showed having extreme levels of lead paint toxicity.
So what is a pet owner to do? We love our pets, we want to pamper them a bit and think we're doing them a favor by buying those pet toys. Well one idea could be to make your own pet toys. I've done this for my cats, making my own catnip toys for them. I simply cut two small pieces of cotton fabric, such as from a tee-shirt, sew it up a bit, leaving a bit of an opening, then stuff it with catnip, then sew the remainder up. Believe me your cat isn't going to be fussy or notice that their "toy" isn't shaped into a cute mouse shape.
Also, should you still insist on buying your pet any product, not just toys, on the bottom of the Green Living Journal Website are links to pet friendly websites that sell safe, non-toxic toys of which I also provide the links to.
Articles about toxic pet toys
ConsumersAffairs.com Article #1
ConsumersAffairs.com Article #2 (1) (2)
Safe Pet Product Websites Including Toys
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