Cancer, brain damage in marine animals due to pollutants

Parasites from cat faeces are causing deadly brain damage in sea otters and sea lions are suffering from cancer as a result of toxic chemicals - a result of the garbage humans dump into water.

These animals live near coastlines, spending a majority of their lives in the same waters people swim and surf in. Their daily cuisines consist of the same foods we serve up in fine seafood restaurants.

The difference is that the animals deal with the ocean conditions, good or bad, full time, while people can pick and choose when to go into the water and what to eat, says US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spokesperson Paul Sandifer.

Another marine animal, the manatee, is dying in large numbers in Florida due to toxic algae blooms or red tide algae, science portal LiveScience reported.

Marine animals, particularly mammals, play an important role as sentinel species. When one of these species gets sick or dies from something in the water, it is often a warning to humans of disease to come.

"Some of what we throw or flow into the water will return to bite us in the gluteus maximus (posterior). You can bet on it," said Sandifer at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

A deadly parasite, which reproduces in cats, is the third most common cause of death due to food-borne disease in the US. It is also killing California sea otters at a rapid rate.

Toxoplasma gondii, which causes the disease toxoplasmosis in humans, has been found in 52 percent of dead otters and 37 percent of the living.

In otters, the parasite causes tremors, in-coordination, and seizures. It is the primary cause of death in some coastal otter populations.

The major culprit is freshwater runoff, which washes faeces from backyards and streets into streams, rivers, and ultimately the ocean.

The red tide algae blooms that turn waters off Florida's coast rust-coloured are becoming more frequent. Karenia brevis algae, responsible for red tide, produce toxins called brevetoxins, which can kill fish, sea turtles, birds, and marine mammals such as manatees.

In 2005, 151 manatees died from exposure to brevetoxin. Post-mortem examinations revealed that the stuff was affecting their lungs.

For California sea lions, a combination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and herpes virus similar to the one that infects humans has led to an increase in cancer.

Over the past 15 years, 17 percent of dead and stranded sea lions have been diagnosed with urogenital cancer, striking females in the cervix and males in the penis and prostate.

The cancer spreads to other organ systems in sea lions the same as in humans. Eventually it erodes the spinal cord, paralysing them and causing them to wash up on the shore or strand in the open water, said Frances Gulland of the Marine Mammal Center.

NWF Report Indicates that Global Warming Will Damage Arkansas Wildlife

FRED LOWE - fredlowe@baxterbulletin.com

The National Wildlife Federation recently sent out a report predicting the effects of global warming, and how the forecasted warmer temperatures are projected to alter Arkansas wildlife and its habitats.

Lisa Madry, a regional representative for the NWF, was particularly concerned by the potential decrease in the migration of waterfowl to the state.

The NWF report predicts extreme drought in the Prairie Porthole Region — an area where ducks breed in North and South Dakota and southern Canada. If that's the case, Madry said we "could see declines of as much as 70 percent of the duck population in the central and Mississippi flyways."

"So that's something that we are really interested in following — and are very concerned about how that would impact Arkansas," she said. "The models aren't clear if Arkansas would be a little more wet or dry, but in that (Porthole) region it's pretty clear there's going to be more drought, and that could have a huge impact on Arkansas."

Humans Need to Solve Feral Cat Issue

As a species, cats are a fiercely independent creature. Unlike dogs, most cats in the wild live most of their lives alone. Felis domesticus (domestic cats) are somewhat more social than many wild cats. People who own cats, however, know that the independent streak is still present in most of them.

Feral cats are well established in America. The term "feral" refers to a domesticated animal that has reverted to a "wild" state. Examples of some of the feral animals in the United States include dogs, cats, horses and pigs. These animals have relearned the skills necessary to survive in the wild. Like any wild animal, they must contend with disease, predators and the constant search for food. Feral cats are able to live in both urban and rural settings and because of their prolific nature, their population is quite numerous.

Part of the problem contributing to the feral cat population is irresponsible pet owners. I have been told many times by pet owners they want their pet to experience having a litter. People also tell me they want their children to share the experience. There is no valid reason for pet owners to allow nonpurebred cats to breed.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, 2.7 million dogs and cats were euthanized at animal shelters in 1997. Given these statistics, how can anyone justify allowing their pets to reproduce? More kittens inevitably lead to more feral cats and/or fewer adoptions of kittens from local animal shelters and rescue groups.
Many private organizations and government agencies are working to help control feral cat populations. Since many feral cats are not suitable as pets, most people advocate a catch and release strategy.

After being spayed or neutered, the feral cats are released back into the area where they were trapped. The released cats will naturally defend their territory from other cats that might move in and begin breeding. In this way, the feral cats themselves help control the population.

Humans domesticated cats and have continually allowed them to become feral. They are here because of us and therefore it is our responsibility to care for them and manage their population as best as we are able. Please help by having your feline pets spayed or neutered. If you have feral cats in your area, contact your local humane society, animal shelter or Fix Our Ferals (www.fixourferals.org) for information regarding spay and neuter programs.

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Gary Richter is a doctor of veterinary medicine. To reach Richter at the Montclair Veterinary Clinic & Hospital, visit www.MontclairVetHospital.com

Chinese give cat food a whole new meaning

From Jane Macartney in Beijing, The Times Online

EVERY day thousands of cats are transported to Guangdong province in southern China. They are destined not to become the pampered pets of the country’s new rich, but to be served up at the dinner table.

The trade is one that merchants seem eager to keep out of the public eye in a country where pet shops have sprung up to meet a growing demand as incomes rise.

While no laws exist to regulate the business, at the Baishazhou market in Wuhan, central China, two cat traders were startled this week when a local reporter paused to take photographs.

They had collected about 1,000 cats, taken to the city by rural cat-catchers. The animals were crowded into large wire cages. All were alive, but most were silent, apparently too exhausted and traumatised to do more than mew faintly. The traders loaded about fifteen cages into a van for the cats’ final journey to Guangdong.

Chinese have for centuries eaten a startling range of animals. Southern Chinese particularly relish the taste of wild animals, believing them to be rich in nutrition.

Wild civet, banned since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) scare, is believed to boost the immune system. Snakes are reputed to increase a man’s virility, and the smooth-skinned salamander is believed to clear acne.

The owner said: “The cats are domestic cats and are clean and cheap. In winter we have more customers than in summer. Only local people eat cat, not people from other provinces.”

The Guangzhou City Food and health quarantine office said that there were no regulations regarding cat meat.

Scotland's Minister Backs Dog Tail Docking Ban

Environment Minister Ross Finnie has defended plans to outlaw the docking of dogs tails in Scotland.

Mr Finnie was speaking as MSPs debated the general principles of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill.

At the same time countryside campaigners - accompanied by several working dogs - gathered outside Holyrood to protest against the total ban.

They argued that working dogs should be exempt - as ministers had originally planned - because they can injure their tails working in thick undergrowth.

And this, they say, causes more pain and suffering to the animals than docking.

But Mr Finnie explained: "The docking of dogs tails is a controversial practice, currently permissible in law when undertaken by a veterinary surgeon.

"We proposed initially to exempt working dogs from this ban. However, we have been persuaded by the evidence provided that this exemption is not necessary and I intend to prohibit the tail docking of all dogs."

And he told MSPs that the British Veterinary Association were wholeheartedly behind such a move.

Town in Norwich Fights to Save Wildlife Haven

LISA HORTON, Norwich Evening News, United Kingdom

Families living near an area thriving with wildlife and age-old trees today hoped city planners would make an 11th-hour decision to save the haven on their doorstep.

The area of wilderness is due to be levelled and landscaped as part of a property development.

But campaigners say the plans will destroy an area of natural beauty which is home to oak, ash, gorse and horse chestnut trees and wildlife including birds and foxes.

The half-acre of land in question is next to The Loke footpath between Dereham Road and Ranworth Road. While lumberjacks have already started chopping down trees, people living nearby are making a last-ditch attempt to save the land before it is lost forever. However, developers and the city council say the area will be vastly improved.

The site is set to be levelled and replanted with flowerbeds and new trees by developers Bovis Homes, but it is feared the land will lose its charm and character.

Volker Grube, 45, a builder who has lived in nearby Tolhouse Road for 10 years, said: “It has taken these trees about 35 years to reach the stage they are at now and it will take a long time to grow new trees. I think they are worried they will block the sunlight for the new homes. Once it is landscaped there will be no variety, no natural character.”

Developer Bovis was unavailable for comment today.

A spokeswoman for Norwich City Council said: “It was agreed as part of the planning permission that the area in question would be redeveloped as an informal public open space and to make this space accessible.

“The original area was overgrown, inaccessible and littered with rubbish.

“The developers have submitted proposals for improving this public open space and city council landscape architects and tree officers will be considering these details over the coming weeks.”

Are you battling to save a wildlife haven which is under threat? Telephone Evening News reporter Lisa Horton on (01603) 765704 or email lisa.horton@archant.co.uk

Alabama bill to prohibit hunting of caged animals

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The House gave final passage Tuesday to legislation that prohibits the hunting of animals who are caged or don't have a fair chance to avoid being killed.

"The animal has to have an opportunity to escape," said the House sponsor, Rep. Blaine Galliher, R-Gadsden. "You can't tie an animal up to a tree and shoot it."
Galliher said the bill would also prohibit someone from buying a lion from a circus and then hunting the lion. The bill allows people to continue to hunt birds, such as quail, that have been raised in pens.

The bill also allows people who raise wild game to import deer and other animals into Alabama as long as they are indigenous to the state. Galliher said he believes that provision could open up new opportunities for people who want to raise wild game.

The bill now goes to Gov. Bob Riley for his signature.

Nova Scotia will maintain protection for wildlife areas, game sanctuaries

Nova Scotia is going to maintain protection for 26 wildlife areas and game sanctuaries, and will set up nine protected coastal areas.

The provincial minister of natural resources released a review on the sanctuaries on Wednesday, saying the public is indicating it wants to keep development out of the areas.

Richard Hurlburt also says there is broad public support for the creation of nine new wildlife management areas, and regulations will be developed and approved to establish them.

Hurlburt says the province will also review "improved habitat protection for current sanctuaries."

However, the minister has stopped short of meeting environmentalists' requests that clear cutting be banned on the outskirts of the protected areas.

Environmentalists have also called for prohibitions on intensive logging and mining in the sanctuaries.

Activists protest legalization of dog meat

MANILA, Philippines (UPI) -- Animal rights activists are challenging a law that would legalize the consumption of dog meat among indigenous people in the northern Philippines.

The governor of Benguet province has received at least 75 protest letters from the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria and elsewhere, asking that he refrain from endorsing a resolution that would make dog meat legal, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

A 10-member provincial board last November approved a resolution exempting the indigenous people of the Cordillera Mountains from national laws prohibiting the sale and consumption of dog meat.

The resolution allows 'the butchering of animals, dogs included, as part of their rituals and practices,' and states that commercialization is inevitable to protect this right.

The board objected to police raids of markets and restaurants run by indigenous people, citing their right to the 'ritual' use of dogs.

In a letter to the provincial governor, Anneleise Smillie, education director of Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation, wrote that citing tradition was 'an extremely poor argument for maintaining a merciless practice that should be relegated to the history books.'

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

Staying ‘True Blue' to the animals--Rescue organization inundated with requests to take in pets after TV publicity

By ARTHUR HAHN/Managing Editor, http://www.brenhambanner.com

An animal rescue organization that promises not to euthanize any animals it takes in received new stables and dog kennels, courtesy of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

But it also got something else - a flood of requests from people wanting it to accept their dogs, cats and even horses.

Melanie DeAeth, founder of True Blue Animal Rescue, and her family received a sparkling new home courtesy of the popular “Extreme Makeover” TV program.

In less than a week, a new stable and dog kennels were also built. The show, which aired Jan. 29, played up the DeAeths' efforts to help animals.

But now the cameras are gone, and True Blue volunteers are redoubling their efforts to find homes for dozens of animals.

Diana Bender, a volunteer who serves as True Blue's vice president for public relations, said all the hoopla has been “a blessing and a curse.”

“People think we have this whole big, elaborate facility,” Bender said. “We get calls from everywhere. We get calls and e-mails from Canada now, from all over the (United) States.

“They're telling us congratulations and ‘will you take my pet please.'

“And we get calls every single day from people who have found a momma dog and six to eight puppies.”

True Blue currently has about 40 dogs and 20 horses, including several pregnant mares.

“Our biggest problem now is trying to find homes for the animals,” said Bender. “When we committed to ‘no kill,' we knew we'd have this problem.”

True Blue has a Web site - t-bar.org - that has photos and descriptions of the animals under its care.

No dog or cat is adopted out unless it has been spayed or neutered; True Blue foots the bill for that and also for medical care for the animals.

For example, most of the dogs brought in have heartworms, which are expensive to treat, said Bender.

“Realistically, there are not enough homes for the animals, sad as it is,” she said. “We try to do what we can in Washington and surrounding counties.”

Some of the dogs at True Blue have been there months, awaiting adoption.

The organization prints flyers with pictures and descriptions of dogs.

Like Mary: “Found at Christmas time, Mary gets along with cats, dogs (even little ones), kids and people! A beautiful border collie-mix, she'd love to add some fun to your family!”

“What we need more than anything is to get these animals out before the public,” said Bender.

Protecting the polar bear

The need for a review of the Arctic animal's status is forcing the White House to examine the very climate change factors it has downplayed and even denied

National Geographic (Feb 18, 2006) The Bush administration has kicked off a process to determine whether polar bears should be added to the United States endangered species list because their habitat is melting.

The action is "a significant acknowledgement of what global warming is doing to the Arctic ice," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, Calif.

In December the conservation group, along with Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defence Council, sued the U.S. government to protect the world's polar bears from extinction.

The conservationists say Earth's steadily rising temperature is causing the polar bear's habitat to melt. Many scientists say the warming is due, in part, to human activities such as driving cars and burning coal, which release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

If the bears are given federal protection, they would be the first U.S. mammals officially deemed to be in danger of extinction because of global warming, the conservation groups said.

Rosa Meehan, the chief of marine-mammal protection at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska, said the conservation groups presented sufficient information to merit a close look at the status of polar bears.

"It doesn't mean that we are going to list them or that we're not," she said. "We know things are changing. We know a lot more about polar bears than we did a few years ago. We need to review their status."

The Fish and Wildlife Service will spend the next 12 months examining scientific evidence about the changing Arctic environment and how it is affecting polar bears.

Polar bears, which live only in the Arctic and can grow to about 2.5 metres (eight feet) tall, depend on sea ice for survival. They hunt their primary prey, the ringed seal, from the ice. They also travel, mate and sometimes give birth on the ice, but the ice is melting. Scientists with the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colo., reported that in September 2005 the sea ice had shrunk to its lowest level on record.

If the melting trend continues, the Arctic could see ice-free summers by 2040, according to a Canadian climate model. Other models suggest open Arctic waters by the end of the century. Bears in some areas spend the summer months on land. They fast until the ice forms in the fall, when they can use it as a vast platform for hunting.

Studies of polar bear populations around the western coast of Hudson Bay show that this wait, and the bears' period of fasting, has increased by three weeks since the 1970s. The population there is noticeably skinnier now, scientists say, and has declined by 15 per cent in the last decade.

In northern Alaska, the U.S. Minerals Management Service has concluded some polar bears are drowning as they try to swim increasingly long distances between the ice and land. The federal agency documented four drowned bears that had tried to swim a record 260-kilometre gap in September 2004. The worldwide polar bear population is estimated at 20,000 to 25,000. "We are not going to lose the polar bears," said Terry Root, an ecologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. "We will always have individuals around in zoos and places like that, but we are going to lose the natural behaviour of polar bears.

"We are so strongly affecting their habitat, their way of life, that they are going to have to basically become very similar to raccoons (which rely heavily on humans for survival), in the sense they are not going to be able to feed the way they have fed before, on seals and off the ice."

Today encounters between humans and polar bears are increasing on land, because the bears are stranded by the retreating ice, explained Meehan, the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

To combat the problem, the Fish and Wildlife Service is working with oil and gas companies and villagers to develop "strategies for people to be safe in bear country," Meehan said.

Environmental groups often criticize the Bush administration for ignoring scientific evidence of global climate change.

Siegel, the Centre for Biological Diversity attorney, said the decision to conduct a status review of polar bears forces the Bush administration to examine the very science on climate change it has "questioned, denied, and downplayed."

If the polar bears are given protection, federal agencies will be required to consider how their decisions affect polar bears. For example, the listing of polar bears could affect a coal plant seeking federal permission to emit heat trapping gases or an automaker seeking to sell a gas-guzzling car.

Tigers and Leopards are Beautiful Animals - Will Tigers be Extinct Soon?

Statesman News Service, GUWAHATI, Feb. 17. —– The appeal made by some leading Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday calling on India, China and Nepal to gear up efforts to nab smuggling networks involved in the international illegal trade of tiger and leopard skins has raised hopes for conservation activists here.

Dr Bibhab Talukdar, secretary general of Aaranyak, a society for biodiversity conservation, working in North-east India to reduce wildlife trade in Eastern Himalaya and South and South-east Asia, hoped that the call given by the MEPs would help enhance protection for tigers in South Asia. He said that illegal killing of tiger was a smooth and silent process and in most cases nothing could be detected as in reality nothing remained to be discovered once a tiger was killed. From skins to bones of the animal, everything is sold in the international market. More stringent monitoring of tiger poaching in North East India is needed. The recent recovery of tiger skins and bones in Dhekiajuli and Dhemaji in northern Assam bordering Arunachal Pradesh was a reminder about thriving tiger poaching in the area.
In a written declaration, put down in the European Parliament, the MEPs expressed concern over the role of organised criminal networks engaged in trafficking tiger and leopard skins from India into China via Nepal, and have called on EU members to offer assistance to these countries to facilitate improved enforcement. The MEPs are of the opinion that the only way to stop criminal gangs killing tigers and leopards is by a joint, concerted government action by China, Nepal and India.

Investigators from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) recently uncovered the huge market for skins in China and Tibet, an important reason for continued poaching. Costumes decorated with great swathes of tiger and leopard skin are worn at festivals across the Tibetan Plateau region. EIA and WPSI witnessed hundreds of people at these festivals wearing costumes decorated with Tiger skins. They also brought back startling images of tiger and leopard skins being openly sold in shops and markets in Tibet and surrounding Chinese Provinces.

Mrs Belinda Wright, WPSI Executive Director, stated: ‘We are delighted that this written declaration has been put forward in the European Parliament. It sends out a clear message to China, India and Nepal that the EU is concerned about the trade in tiger and leopard skins. Illegal trade is currently the biggest threat to the survival of India’s wild tigers and if no action is taken, it will mark the end of the species.”

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Comment from Sherry: How can the rest of us help to save the tigers? Has anyone seen products made from tiger and leopard skins being sold in the USA?

Humane Society dog a hero after saving near-frozen cat

By: Matt Goerzen, http://www.brandonsun.com

Not all heroic souls fight fires or arrest crooks. Some don’t even wear pants.

Cleo, the furry black and white canine who greets visitors at the Brandon Humane Society, is being hailed as a hero after finding a freezing cat that was dumped at the shelter’s doorstep.

One of the shelter’s new volunteers was out walking Cleo Wednesday afternoon when the dog started barking and ran up to a little lump curled up by a fence.

“She went right up to it,” said shelter manager Tracy Munn. There’s no way (the volunteer) would have seen the cat.”


When it was found, the black and brown tabby had a frozen back leg and parts of its ears were freezing off.

“You could see the blood at the edge of both of them, poor little thing. It wouldn’t have lasted out in the cold. It was already curling itself up.

“He was crying, so we wrapped him in a blanket and waited for animal control to come.”

The cat was rushed to the Brandon Veterinary Clinic, and will be staying there for the next few days for treatment.

Munn said a lot of people drop off animals at the shelter in the middle of the cold weather, expecting the shelter to take care of them.

Some of them simply dump the animals off in a box on the doorstep — something that makes Munn absolutely furious, especially when the weather is below zero.

“People are idiots,” Munn said. “It’s very common to see frostbitten animals. It bothered me horribly when I saw the cat.”

With 270 animals on a waiting list to get into the shelter, dropping animals off on the doorstep won’t help an animal jump the queue.

Luckily for the nearly frozen feline, the new volunteer, who was in tears after the incident, is interested in adopting the animal when it leaves the vet.

Cleo, who received a nice piece of salmon for her heroics, has become a permanent fixture of the shelter.

The Border Collie-Blue Healer cross has lived in the shelter for seven years, and Munn says Cleo considers it her job to protect all the animals in it — even the cats.

“This is her shelter. She knows we’re full. But she doesn’t care. She still wants to save another.

“I love that dog.”

Humans making wildlife sick

Whether it's monkeys and AIDS or mosquitoes and the West Nile Virus, we're used to thinking of wildlife as reservoirs for emerging infectious human diseases. But a Canadian mathematical biologist says that it's time that we turned the tables – as often as not, it's humans that are making the wildlife sick, often to our own detriment.

It's a 180-degree turn in perspective that Dr. Mark Lewis says is critical to our understanding of emerging infectious diseases of both wildlife and humans. And, he says, in the case of at least one ocean-based disease outbreak, biology and math are proving to be powerful allies in helping stem the growing tide of an ocean plague.

"With emerging infectious diseases of wildlife today there's almost always some human component," say Dr. Lewis, an NSERC-funded mathematical ecologist in the mathematics and statistics department at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Dr. Lewis' lab group has used mathematical mapping tools, often in collaboration with other research groups, to document the spread of pests from the West Nile Virus to the Mountain Pine Beetle in Pacific Northwest forests.

Last year, in a landmark paper, he helped document how commercial salmon farms off Canada's British Columbia coast are a breeding ground for sea lice, a parasite that then infects young wild Pacific salmon. The research was the first to document the parasitic impact of commercial salmon farms on wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Lewis and University of Alberta doctoral student Marty Krkosek, who led the sea lice research, are co-presenting their latest sea lice and salmon findings as part of a symposium called The Rising Tide of Ocean Plagues, February 17 at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis.

Dr. Lewis is a leader in applying mathematical tools to modelling environmental interactions, from carnivore territoriality to risk analysis related to biological invaders, such as the zebra mussel in the Great Lakes.

When it comes to emerging infectious diseases of wildlife, Dr. Lewis says that public perception and policy needs to move beyond seeing "special cases" to seeing the constant role that people play.

"The way that people often think about emerging infectious diseases is that there are just a lot of special cases. That this happened here and that happened there, without any commonalties," notes Dr. Lewis. "But there's a growing sense that emerging infectious diseases are really important as a group. So we need the quantitative tools and mathematical theory to be able to study them, including being predictive and diagnostic."

In the case of sea lice, Krkosek, Dr. Lewis and biologist Dr. John Volpe at the University of Victoria, Canada used an innovative live-sampling technique to document the transfer and spreading impact of parasite transmission from a fish farm to wild salmon. "There's a long and beautiful history of mathematical models for parasite transmission that goes back to the 1970s," Dr. Lewis says. "But the thing that was really unusual here was the spatial structure."

The researchers analyzed the sea lice infection rates of more than 12,000 juvenile wild chum and pink salmon as they headed out to sea from their natal rivers. The infection rates were measured in intervals before and for 60 kilometres after they passed a commercial salmon farm.
"Our research shows that the impact of a single salmon farm is far reaching," says Krkosek. "Sea lice production from the farm we studied was 30,000 times higher than natural. These lice then spread out around the farm. Infection of wild juvenile salmon was 73 times higher than ambient levels near the farm and exceeded ambient levels for 30 kilometres of the wild migration route."
The researchers are now extending their work to assess how this increased parasite load affects the health of the young fish. There's already initial evidence that this human-induced parasite boost kills many fish. Dr. Rick Routledge from Simon Fraser University and his collaborators recently showed that infection rates similar to those documented by Dr. Lewis will kill juvenile pink and chum salmon.

But, says Dr. Lewis, there's evidence that some British Columbian salmon farmers aren't waiting for the final wildlife forensics report to take action. They're taking the researchers' sea lice numbers to heart and moving their salmon farms. In an unprecedented agreement, Marine Harvest Canada, a major fish farming company, has agreed to move adult salmon from its farm at Glacier Bay in British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago to another site further away from a major migration route of emerging wild juvenile salmon.

Says Dr. Lewis: "Ours is basic research, but the mathematical biology clearly gives key results about the contentious issue of fish farm impact on sea lice and wild salmon."

Both Dr. Lewis' and Marty Krkosek's research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Learn more about Dr. Lewis' research at http://www.math.ualberta.ca/~mlewis/index.htm

Deputies discover 63 pets in trailer

SHARPES, FLORIDA - An anonymous call led deputies and animal control officials to a trash-infested trailer, where they found 63 assorted animals, nine of them dead.

There were animal feces on the floor. Roaches were everywhere.

"We found dogs, cats, hamsters, turtles, ferrets, lizards and guinea pigs," Cpl. Gene Hope said. "If you could hold your breath, you could be inside there for 30 seconds."

The owner, Wade R. Fuller, 75, was admitted to Cape Canaveral Hospital last week, and no one had fed the animals since, law enforcement officials said.

"The animals had been dead for a while," said Bob Brown, outreach officer for Brevard County Animal Services and Enforcement. "The rest looked pretty dehydrated and malnourished." Charges are pending as the investigation continues.

Some of the rescued dogs -- a Rottweiler, a beagle and two Labrador mixes -- were transferred to the North Animal Care and Adoption Center in Titusville.

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Contact Basu at 360-1018 or kbasu@flatoday.net

Green cover disappearing in quake areas

By Irfan Ghauri

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: People in AJK are cutting down trees for wood to rebuild houses, Daily Times has learnt. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has warned that deforestation poses immediate and long-term threats to the environment.

In the immediate aftermath of the quake the IUCN had warned that if alternative energy sources and construction methods were not introduced, people would resort to cutting trees to rebuild houses and cook food.

“Timber stored in the affected areas is being transported at an alarming rate for sale in markets in the lowlands,” said a report recently issued by the IUCN.

The most dangerous landslides were reported in Allai Valley, Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Bagh, which also destroyed forest cover, the IUCN report said. Solid and liquid waste from the quake camps is also harmful to forests and wildlife, the report said.

Conservationists demanded that the government make plans to save the remaining forest cover and wildlife along with the reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes. The regulatory capacity of the AJK government’s Forest Department has been badly compromised due to loss of human resources, office buildings and vehicles. More than 75 percent of the department’s staff was affected by the quake.

PETA advises people not to make fashion statement at animals cost

Mumbai February 15, 2006

People for Ethical Treatment to Animals (PETA), an international voluntary organisation which advocates veganism, has urged buyers not to shop for clothes containing animal ingredients.

Highlighting some disturbing facts about the fashion industry here yesterday, Peta (India) chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney said, "Cows raised for leather suffer many forms of cruelty, lambs raised for their wool in Australia suffer through painful mutilations and 6,600 silkworms are boiled alive to make every kilo of silk." "Ask your loved ones not to exchange gifts that contain animal ingredients such as wool, leather or silk," she appealed.

Ms Sawhney said the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has termed leather a "co-product" of the meat industry and therefore, is valued more as an export.

A PETA investigator said, "At the municipal abattoirs in Bangalore and Kolkata, workers including small children, violently pushed and dragged the animals to the slaughter floor, where they were made to lie in pools of blood, and guts removed from their dead brethren." Many highly toxic chemicals are used on leather to stop its decomposition, which has a detrimental effect on the people's health working in or living near leather tanneries, exposing them to numerous diseases such as prolapse of the uterus, cancer, nervous disorders, asthma and premature death including stillbirth, he added.

Do your pets eat beaks? Feathers? Entrails? You Might Be Surprised.

BY CONNIE BLOOM
Knight Ridder Newspapers

We know you love your dogs and cats and chances are you're plunking down a pretty penny for popular brands of pet food. You'd probably never dream the bag may contain beaks, feathers, heads and entrails.

The mental images are terrible. At best, the majority of low-end and premium commercial pet foods are wanting in the basic nutrients to sustain health, say experts. At worst, they include garbage and are a source of death and disease.

Pet food quality has been in the news of late. The FDA is investigating the deaths of more than 100 dogs attributed to aflatoxin-tainted food manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods in its Gaston, S.C., facility. The substance causes lethal liver disease in animals and had exceeded the maximum allowable levels. The poisoning was accidental but speaks to the issue.

"Half of all dogs over 10 years old are expected to get some form of cancer," writes Tracie Hotcher, author of "The Dog Bible, Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know" (Gotham Books, $20). "My personal inclination is to think that the danger to our dogs resides inside the bags of dog food: They are full of mysterious and possibly dangerous ingredients, often the bottom of the barrel from processing the discards of a food industry that is filled with carcinogens and chemicals."

Take, for example, the common ingredients listed as byproducts. "Byproducts are anything under the sun - wood shavings.

"It's pretty gross and disgusting," said Lin Croskey, co-owner of In Good Health, a natural foods pet supply. "Byproducts can be beaks, feet and heads. ... Chemical preservatives have been proven to cause cancer in animals and people as well."

Ingredients in low-end and even premium pet food typically include meat and poultry byproducts, powdered cellulose, preservatives, fillers, crude protein, sweeteners, flavor enhancers and artificial color. These ingredients are regulated by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which requires "that pet foods, like human foods, be pure and wholesome, safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled," according to the Food and Drug Administration at (www.fda.gov/cvm/petfoods.htm). The devil is in the details.

better way to go is to purchase all natural, human-grade food with no byproducts, no chemical preservatives and no fillers, the same things you should be eating, said Croskey. If you don't immediately recognize the ingredients on the label, bid it adieu.

"It's the same as the basic human principle, you are what you eat," said Rodger Robertson, a sales consultant for RJ Matthews, the parent company of PBS Animal Health in Massillon. "You can have the word `natural' in the name, but not have one natural product in there."

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine "explains" the regulations behind pet food labels in six agonizing pages on the Internet at www.fda.gov/cvm/petlabel.htm. While the ingredients are listed on the bag or box in order of predominance by weight, a number of complex rules govern their descriptors. In something labeled "Beef Dinner for Dogs," for example, the beef should comprise an alarming 25 percent of the dry or canned product, not counting the water used in processing, but manufacturers use terms such as platter, entree, nuggets and formula to get around it.

"Chicken meal" is better than "poultry meal." "`Poultry' is anything with feathers," said Robertson.

The lights went on for Ann Burlson when she was reading a cat food label. Burlson, assistant store manager of PBS Animal Health, said, "I look at ingredients all the time on any of the products we sell. We are in constant training and pride ourselves on our knowledgeable staff. ... I went through the cereal boxes one day and here I'm feeding my kids junk. I'm concerned about pets and I found only five cereals that did not use BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) as a preservative. That was it."

Long-term use of BHA and BHT have been associated with cancer in humans. She tossed out the offenders.

People look for good deals in pet food, said Robertson, but should reconsider. "Byproducts are inclusive and may include entrails. Cheaper foods do not use locked-in formulas. They have a minimum and maximum to work with. The better dog foods are uniform, the formula the same from bag to bag. ... Protein sources described as `meat' or `bone meal' could be roadkill."

California has a law forbidding the use of dead, dying, diseased and disabled (sick) animals in feed, but no such laws govern other states, he said.

Veterinarian Nan Decker of Northfield, Ill., steers her clients away from mainstream fare. "I prefer more holistic diets than are found at supermarkets. ... If a label says "meat" or "chicken byproducts," that's usually not a good sign. You don't really know it's quality protein."

She also shuns corn, wheat and gluten-containing grain, dairy and soy - foods most likely to set off allergic reactions with continued use. Unusual combinations in dog food such as duck, trout, sweet potatoes and salmon are healthful alternatives designed to vary the diet and alleviate symptoms.

"If your pets are scratching, it could be something they're eating," said Burlson. "We don't get fresh veggies anymore - everything sits. It's the same with dog food. ... People are saying better food has made a difference in their animals. People think of their animals as their children. I have one cat (Lucky), and I feed him the best."

Consider: If you wouldn't put it on your plate, don't buy it - and take a second look at what you're eating. The shortest list of ingredients is the best list.

Here are some things to avoid from "The Dog Bible:"

• Meat or poultry byproducts - indicate lower food quality.


• Fats or proteins from unknown sources. "Animal fat" could mean old restaurant grease.


• Dedicated fiber sources - results of the food manufacturing process.


• Crude protein - beaks, hooves, tendons, etc., can't be processed by the body.


• Powdered cellulose - essentially sawdust.


• Artificial colors - chemicals with long-term health consequences.


• Sugar and sweeteners - aggravate health problems.


• Food fragments - what's left after the nutrition is removed.


• Flavor and texture enhancers - good food doesn't need them.