EcoWatch | May 19, 2014 8:38 am | Comments
"On Friday, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released its latest update on the number of pet illnesses associated with imported pet treats from China. The exact cause of the illnesses is still not known.
Photo credit: Shutterstock“This ongoing health threat to American pets illustrates how trade policy is trumping regulations to protect our health.” Photo credit: Shutterstock
“Since FDA’s last update on October 22, 2013, we have received approximately 1,800 additional case reports,” said the FDA’s report. “As of May 1, 2014, we have received in total more than 4,800 complaints of illness in pets that ate chicken, duck or sweet potato jerky treats, nearly all of which are imported from China. The reports involve more than 5,600 dogs, 24 cats, three people and include more than 1,000 canine deaths.”"
http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/19/dogs-sic ... ats-china/
Ask Umbra: Are dogs born to poop wild?
By Ask Umbra
no pooping in forestsShutterstock / Mslavick
"Send your question to Umbra!
Q. I have recently been blessed with the addition of a four-legged friend to my household of one. We frequently take advantage of a local wooded trail to get a little exercise. The Admiral also takes the opportunity to do his business in the open air and far from manicured yards or sidewalks. My question is: Do I need to carry “it” out or can I safely leave his call of nature in nature to feed the Earth and help sequester carbon just like his cousins the large herbivores we call cows do?
Bob T.
Gainesville, Fla.
A. Dearest Bob,
Congrats on the new addition! On the pro side, you now have a trusted bud to fetch your slippers and alert you to threats posed by passing squirrels. Of course, you’ve already discovered the not-so-pro side of dog ownership: poop duty. We discussed how to best dispose of your pooch’s unmentionables here, but you add an interesting twist: What if The Admiral (great name, by the way) does his business not in the ‘burbs but in the woods?
Can you leave those droppings out in nature? Short answer: Yes — but only if you bury them. Time to trade those doggie-doo baggies for a nice, stout trowel.
Why? For one, aesthetics: What if every dog walker treated the trail like a personal poop highway? I’d wager most doggie deposits happen on or near the path rather than far into the wilderness, so it wouldn’t take long for a truly gross scenario to build up. Then there’s the health aspect: Canine excreta is full of pathogens that pose a risk to other humans and wildlife if left out in the open. One might argue that wild animals treat the great outdoors as their bathroom, so what’s the harm if dogs do, too? Man’s best friends exist at a much, much higher population density than wildlife, that’s why."
http://grist.org/living/ask-umbra-are-d ... aign=daily
Statistics: Posted by Johhny Electriglide — Mon May 19, 2014 2:48 pm
]]>
Desperate overpopulation threatens all edible life. It has depleted soil 75% and aquifers the same. Huge swathes of dead soil, ecosystems destroyed by human over-harvesting. Over-harvested and polluted/poisoned oceans, too, due to be totally depleted by 2035-50. AGW is killing more than realized and moving eco-systems north or up to impossible living for many species right now. Climate fluctuation is burning and flooding eco-systems now, and for more than a decade.
The big picture is overpopulation, and now even bigger is the threat of mass extinction from Thermal Maximum Fast Event (in geological terms).
AF, my primary concern has always been for the children of the future. However, all the species necessary for our survival in this interconnected biosphere, are important, too. Then there are those we don't really need but are beautiful creations of God's processes, also. So many we don't see or know about, like the nematodes, fungi, and worms in healthy soil. Beneficial bacteria and other organisms, all needed.
Asian meat animals like cat, rat, and dog, are disgusting traditions of an over-crowded long term overpopulated, collapsing area of overloaded Eco-systems. They eat bugs, scorpions, snakes, everything edible, legal or not.
I would never eat our sweet playful Shepard/Eskimo girl. I don't like dog or cat over-population (also human caused), destroying natural Eco-systems with predation on the native birds and small mammals. Balance.
Humans have unbalanced numerous aspects of all our collective eco-systems, the biosphere. They were supposed to keep everything in balance but through stupidity, over-breeding, and greed, have destroyed much of their own and other species needed habitats. Out of balance tragedy.........
Statistics: Posted by Johhny Electriglide — Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:17 pm
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>