Strawberry Earth Good Stuff About The Environment

Four footed fashion victims

Winter is in full swing here in the Big Apple and when it comes to fashion, form follows function.  Stylish New Yorkers have turned to sweaters, vests and boots to keep warm while looking hot. And I’m just talking about dogs here. Sustainable pet couture fashion is all the rage for New York’s pet owning elite.

A friend of mine, let’s call him Tom, worked on the hit TV show Gossip Girl filmed here in NYC.  His main job was to take care of Blake Lively’s dog, ‘Princess’.  He was literally on poop patrol for most of late summer.  Thank God for the economic downturn because if he hadn’t lost his illustrious position before the weather turned cold, he’d have been stuffing her lil’ mutt into dog sweaters. Recycled cashmere dog sweaters by Deborah Lindquist at $99 a pop to be exact).

As it turns out, the creepy cute world of dog accessories isn’t just an LA thing anymore.  Case in point: New York doggies with shoes.

Walking around the city’s more affluent neighbourhoods like Park Slope, Brooklyn or the Upper East Side in Manhattan, I’d say that more than two thirds of all dogs wear shoes. When I ask the dog owners and professional dog walkers, “Why?!” they tell me that the dogs grip the sidewalk better, stay warm and protect their paws from the salt used to melt sidewalk snow. This explanation is in line with what various doggie shoe manufacturers say, for example:

REI Adventure Dog Boots claim they “protect dogs’ paws from ice, hot sand, rocks, thorns, broken glass or other rough terrain”. This begs the question, are you walking your dog in hell? At least the soles of these dog shoes are made from ‘Reprotek’ recycled tyre rubber.

DogBooties.com, a Minnesota based dog mushing outfitter, anticipates consumers’ style concerns for their pets saying, “When it is 50 below (fahrenheit), do you really think man’s best friend cares if his boots are pretty?” In answer to this hypothetical question, I would have to say no, man’s best friend doesn’t care what his/her boots look like.  I would also add that that very few dogs are mushing in 50 below weather here in NYC.

I asked a local veterinarian Dr Glass whether boots are necessary for city dogs.  He said the claims that dogs need booties to keep their paws warm and provide traction, are both false.  As for booties to protect paws from snow-melting salt, he confirmed that the tender areas between the pads on the dogs’ paws can become red, inflamed and painful during the winter as a result of the salt. That said, he admitted that his dogs don’t wear booties.

So, it looks like there are some practical advantages to dogs of accessorizing. But in my view, if our canine friends could verbalize their displeasure with being accessories and accessorized (even in sustainable gear), they most certainly would.

Posted in: Columns, New York
By Margaret Teich, 15-02-2009