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Insurance - Because Some Pet Toys Can Be Dangerous

Taking good care of your animal companion doesn't just involve taking the pet to the vet for regular check up or when there is an emergency. It also means more than just getting a cheap pet insurance for your furry friend. There is even cheap cat insurance, for those who prefer cats.

It also means keeping them happy and fit and a good way to do this is with pet toys and especially if they are interactive. If a pet gets bored, it can suffer from depression and this could be prevented by the use of toys. At the same time the owner and the pet can develop a bond while having fun. However, there may be a risk involved that a pet owner may want to know about; and that is lead.

Currently there are no standards for lead being used in pet toys so a few companies use the same standards set for children. This is because while some lead is healthy for the pet's health, too much can be fatal. So how much is too much?

There are some companies like "Pet Food Express" that have done their own independent studies into that question. There were some startling results. Using the child safety standards that were set by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, they were able to weed out some toys that were deemed unsafe for pets to play with.

One such company (Tulsaworld) hired the company Expertox, a lab from Texas, to run a few tests and the results were cause for worry. The lab had found "elevated levels of lead, chromium, and cadmium".

These were found in some Chinese made toys at Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, a concerned pet owner in Illinois had hired on her own lab tests to see what products were safe for her Shelties. The lab found that toys from Petco and PetSmart were deemed within acceptable limits set for children's toys; that limit is "600 parts per million."

But those are just a couple of tests that were performed. After these two tests were conducted, the results caught the attention of Dr. Mike Murphy of the University of Minnesota's Collage of Veterinary Medicine, who's Ph.D. is in Toxicology, stated that "latex paint can contain one-half to one percent of lead; 10,000 parts per million". The Texas lab says the pet toys from Wal-Mart reportedly tested at only one part per million.

This lead to Dr. Fred Oehme of Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, saying that "most animals require 30 ppm of their total daily diet to be lead before it becomes a problem." This is because lead builds up in the body.

Pet toy safety is a recognized health issue. Most of these pet toys are made in China where they tend to use dangerous heavy metals in their paints. At the time of writing, there isn't a standard level set for heavy metals in your pet's toys.

That leaves the pet owner having to guess what pet toys are safe. Some companies have gone to making their toys out of natural materials such as canvas, twine, and cardboard. These toys are not only safe for your beloved pet but for the environment as well.