free trade is neither

I wanted to buy a pretty simple product - a portable, collapsible water bowl to take out on my dog hikes. You know, they are made of fabric with a waterproof lining, and are made by companies with cute names like Ruff Wear and Outward Hound. They are really useful. Those of you without pets - well, I don't think anyone reading my blog is petless - but even those of you with animal companions may not be as endlessly fixated on how vast a business the 'pet industry' is, as I am.

Americans spend over 30 billion dollars a year on their pets - that includes the big ticket items like vet care, grooming, boarding, training. But there is a rapidly growing market for 'designer' products - including organic and 'raw' foods, personalized leashes, $100 collars, hemp clothing, bejewelled name tags and associated services like dog walking, doggy day care and 'in home' visits for the pets of busy professionals who wanna make sure Max and Sophie don't become raging freaks being left home alone all day.

I watch all of this with a sort of wistful 'what if'. What if I had seen this fad coming a decade ago? What if I really could get my vision of a gallery of amazing - and it goes without saying, high quality - animal art off my imaginary back burner and out onto main street, what if I had thought of designing a collapsible water bowl, you know....

So I go to buy one of these things and they are reasonably cheap so I end up buying two of them. I'm particulary incensed by the one I bought at trendy REI, a store populated by global warming fixated, environment protection obsessed, adoring Berkeleyites who think that when they put on a pair of hiking boots they just saved the planet. Groovy pricey REI. This bowl is made by a company, Bison Designs, whose website homepage features a staff photo with everyone in front of a massive American flag and all are wearing a white T shirt sporting a Stars and Stripes. But the products of course are....errr....well....made in ....China. And I aint talking Chinatown in Atlanta, Georgia. The other bowl from Outward Hound, a company based in Orange County, California is also made in China. I'm not a protectionist. I believe in FAIR TRADE.

Didn't a container ship carrying goods manufactured in China destined for the shelves of environmentally fascistic Berkeley just dump a vast amount of oil in San Francisco Bay, despoiling our coastline and killing thousands of birds and marine mammals? What the freak is wrong with this picture? One helluva lot.

It starts with us. If anyone can point me in the direction of a collapsible water bowl made in America, by a company employing union labor and providing a living for working people right here, I'll buy it. No, I'll buy two of them. Meanwhile, I'm taking at least one of these bowls back to the store for a refund which I'm going to donate to an organisation which is trying to prevent the growing trade in animal parts from China, including bear paws which are becoming a delicacy in soup.

Comments

[Gillian]

Didn't ya read the label *before* you bought it? Could have saved some of that gas you burned up driving back to the store to return it . . .
As for the gallery, is it going to sell those new water bowls when you find 'em?

[jill]

Haven't returned it yet. I'll ride my bike.

[Deb in Minnesota]

If I ever come across one I'll let you know. Hmmm, I wonder who made kitty's water bowl?

[Jan F]

Try NARIAN'S Outdoor Sewing & Fabric
1275 San Pablo Ave. @ Gilman, Berkeley
(Northeast of REI)
If they have none they will probably make
them.

[jill]

Well, if some whippet loving person were to start making them we could probably all earn enough to buy a better brand of dog food, one without melamine from China in it. Hint hint, Jan.