Just adding my 2 cents, gained form 30 years of working in the ceramics field:

Lead is perfectly safe in glazes if the pottery has been properly fired. It is physically impossible for it to "come out" into your food. Unfortunately, some cheap imports aren't properly fired, hence the persistent rumor. For at least the past twenty years, all lead has been "encapsulated" in commercial glazes used for food items, human or canine. The industry also used to use uranium, which is no longer legal.

Regarding overseas pottery: The USA is the baby in the industry. Ceramic ware has been commercially produced for centuries upon centuries in European, Asian and Middle-eastern countries.

And yes, gloves & respirators are standard when mixing leaded glazes.
Moral: buy a decent ceramic bowl. I've used them with pets for years and no one has dropped dead yet or shown any signs of heavy metal poisoning.