There are many smells pet owners deal in their pets. There’s bad breath which might indicate a rotten tooth, upset stomach, or in some cases even be associated with pancreatitis. There are smells that come out of the backend, sometimes related to gas, recently emptied anal glands, or diarrhea. There are some not so great smells which occur between these ends and might be due to greasy skin, smelly ears, food allergy and/or skin infection, or even bladder infection or kidney disease.

When the smells come from an external source, it leads one to wonder how the source of the odor will impact pets’ health. Many odor producers are things pet owners don’t even think about; but dogs and cats tend to be more sensitive to things long before humans, making it important to think about these things.

Specifically, this post is written in reference to scented grocery bags. Without asking permission of grocery shoppers, in many retail locations, plastic grocery bags are now scented. Which means every food item placed into that scented bag is in contact with whatever chemical makes plastic possess an odor like fabric softener. Furthermore, the intent of scented grocery bags is unclear. Perhaps it is supposed to be pleasing. My pets, find the smell to be  intriguing . One of my cats, Fanta, tried to eat the bag giving whole new implications for scented bags and foreign bodies!

No animal or pet needs a foreign body stuck in it’s intestines simply because some manufacturer or marketer decided plastic grocery bags need to smell like air freshener.

But let’s return to the chemical, the one that causes plastic bags to smell like air freshener. Even if it isn’t ingested, the chemical can’t be safe for the long term good health of our pets. And if a cat finds the odor to be interesting enough to try to eat the bag, then other cats will at least find it interesting enough to sleep on the bag, if not eat it. Subsequently, that chemical will enter into the body once the cat grooms itself thereby cleaning the odor off its coat.

Is not completely clear where the idea to send to plastic came from. There are some people who find the smell of plastic to be acrid, even offensive. There are some people who find the stink of their trash to be offensive, therefore liking perfumed plastic trash bags to cover up the smell of the garbage. Whatever the reason, and commonsense suggests that a grocery retailer ask the clientele if air freshener scented plastic bags touching the groceries is acceptable. For the health of my pets, who are much more sensitive than humans, I prefer to avoid scented grocery bags touching the food I prepare for my pets.