iPhone Apps

Technology is on our side when it comes to going cruelty-free!  If you own an iPhone, there are a few apps you should know about that will make a cruelty-free lifestyle even easier.  If you don’t have one yourself, make sure your roommate, significant other, or someone you might call a frequent “shopping buddy” uploads these onto his/her iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

• Be Nice To Bunnies
  I first wrote about this iPhone app last July in my Pocket Guides blog post.  This searchable database lets you make on-the-spot decisions about potential purchases.  You can look up everything from cosmetics to cleaning products.  Search by brand name, manufacturer, or product category.  It also has up-to-date “Do Test” and “Don’t Test” lists from PETA regarding company animal-testing policies.  FREE!
• Pet Safe
  I LOVE this app, released just last month by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).   If you’re thinking about getting some new plants for your home or garden (or are moving into a new space that comes with a yard of plants already there) and you have companion animals, you’ll want to know what’s safe and what’s not safe to have around.  Descriptions with photos will help you identify all those flowers and shrubs. The information also includes the specific animals the plants are toxic to — dogs, cats, horses — and symptoms associated with ingestion.  In addition, the app gives information to help you if your animal has ingested something toxic, and it  features one-touch dialing to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.   At $2.99, this is an inexpensive purchase that you can feel especially good about making: 35% of sales goes to the ASPCA.
• Pet Finder
  Don’t Shop — ADOPT!  Petfinder.com has an iPhone app that lets you search more than 290,000 adoptable animals (dogs, cats, and others)  from over 13,000 shelters and rescue groups.  You can bookmark your favorites, share on Facebook and Twitter, and read some great adoption stories they call “happy tails.”  There are so many animals out there who need loving homes.  Using Pet Finder is a way to help them… and at the same time bring the puppy-mill market to a screeching halt   FREE!

Just For Fun:
iBird Yard is an interactive guide about birds most commonly found in the backyards of North America. Here in Tucson, this city girl still marvels at the hummingbirds who show up sometimes when I’m practicing yoga in my yard.  If bird-watching interests you, or you have kids and want to do something fun together that also will cultivate in them a respect for animal life, this just might be the app for you.  It makes identifying birds easy and fun, and offers up myriad details about each species.  $4.99

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