Education is the Key

Some of this new to you? The more we (and I do mean you and me) learn about the planet and its resources, the more we will be aware when government threatens it. It is our responsiblity to fight for nature, we are nature's voice, vote and hands.

Global warming, desertification, groundwater depletion, deforestation, and soil erosion have become everyday news. These problems result from our choices as consumers and the current production systems for satisfying our demand. In short, our everyday behavior drives the current depletion and degradation of our natural resources beyond nature's capacity to replenish them.

Livestock production is a significant contributor to all of these problems, and eating less meat is an easy way for individuals to affect a more sustainable use of the earth's resources.

In 2000 Americans consumed an average of 268 pounds of meat per person, 36 percent more than Western Europeans and more than 3 times the average worldwide. Meat consumption in the US included 97 pounds of beef and veal per capita, compared to 42 pounds in Western Europe and 21 pounds worldwide.

The United States has more livestock than people. While the 2000 Census counted 280 million people, the United States houses 100 million head of cattle, 60 million pigs, and 400 million chickens. Approximately 25 percent of the total land area in the US is used for pasture, and overgrazing by livestock causes soil compaction and erosion, decreased soil fertility, reduced water infiltration, and a loss in water storage capacity.

Industrial livestock production systems, which are common in the United States and other wealthy countries, generate enormous amounts of animal waste in small areas. The animal manure releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, including 16 percent of the world's methane emissions and 7 percent of nitrous oxide. Ammonia emissions from animal waste contribute to water contamination and acid rain.

Cattle and other livestock consume more than 70 percent of all the grain produced in the US, and half of the water consumed in the US is used to grow feed or provide drinking water to livestock. It takes hundreds of gallons of water to product a single pound of beef.

Livestock production to satisfy our demand for meat is environmentally destructive and represents an irrational and unsustainable use of the world's resources. Eating less meat, not only is a healthy choice, but it also is an easy way for individuals to help Mother Earth.

"The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and subdivision developments combined."
- PHILIP FRADKIN in Audubon, National Audubon Society, New York, New York

"It can happen that circumstances may shatter a culture's vision of its place in the scheme of things, may render its mythology meaningless, may strangle its song. When this happens (and it's happened many times), things fall apart in this culture. Order and purpose are replaced by chaos and bewilderment. People lose the will to live, become listless, become violent, become suicidal, and take to drink, drugs, and crime. The matrix that once held all in place is now shattered, and laws, customs, and institutions fall into disuse and disrespect, especially among the young, who see that even their elders can no longer make sense of them. If you'd like to study some peoples who have been destroyed in this way, there's no shortage of sites to visit in the United States, Africa, South America, New Guinea, Australia--wherever, in fact, aboriginal peoples have been crushed under the wheels of our cultural juggernaut.

Aren't "retired" greyhounds adopted? What happens to those who aren't adopted?

Greyhounds make wonderful companion animals and are loving and responsive to human contact. Unfortunately, thousands of "retired" greyhounds are not adopted each year. Many greyhound owners use adoption programs as dumping grounds when their dogs are no longer profitable. Although The Humane Society of the United States applauds the efforts of those volunteers who give their time and money to place unwanted greyhounds in loving homes, thousands of these dogs are still destroyed each year because there are not enough homes to accept them. In 2000, an estimated 19,000 greyhounds were killed.* This includes 7,600 greyhound puppies who were farm culls, and another 11,400 "retirees" who were not rescued. Other greyhounds are either sold to research labs, returned to breeding facilities to serve as breeding stock, or sent to foreign racetracks, sometimes in developing countries with appalling track conditions.

After Indonesians colonized Madagascar 1500 years ago all species of large animals became extinct, including the 12 largest species of lemurs, (including one of gorilla size), the pygmy hippopotamus, an aardvark, the giant flightless elephant birds (which were the largest birds that ever lived) and giant land tortoises. Europeans first visited Mauritius in the early 1500's and released pigs and monkeys on the island. In the next 300 years, 20 species of birds and eight species of reptiles were lost. These included the most famous example of human-caused extinction on islands -the disappearance, in the 1680's, of the Dodo a 50lb giant flightless pigeon.

A symposium of scientists predicted in 1995 that energy shortages, exhausted land, scarce water, and a doubling population will impose more of a plant-based diet onto America's dinner tables by 2050. They acknowledged that this diet, born of scarcity, would "actually be a healthier one." Surely the sooner we all learn to enjoy it the better!

You're never too young to start learning...
teach your children to be Green!

Pet Shops: No Bargain for Animals
Pet shops use the natural appeal of puppies, kittens, and other animals to sell them at an inflated price, often several hundred dollars for "purebred" animals. The vast majority of dogs sold in pet shops, between 350,000 and 500,000 a year, are raised in "puppy mills," breeding kennels located mostly in the Midwest that are notorious for their cramped, crude, and filthy conditions and their continuous breeding of unhealthy and hard-to-socialize animals.(1) Other common problems in the pet shop industry include selling sick and injured animals to the public, failing to provide proper veterinary care, unsanitary conditions, and inhumane methods of killing sick and unwanted animals. You can help bring about changes in local pet stores, if you know what conditions to look for and what steps to take.

What to Look For
Healthy young animals are usually energetic and shiny-coated. Look for signs of ill health, such as listlessness, diarrhea, emaciation, dull coats, runny eyes, and dry noses. Sick animals should never be housed with healthy ones.

Check the general sanitation conditions; notice signs of cockroach infestation, rodent droppings on the floor, and rusty or dirty cages. Also look for algae or scum in water bottles, empty water containers, or animals having difficulty drinking from them.

Dogs must have water (it can be in a bottle), and there must be some sort of solid flooring (if a tray is used, it must be flat on the floor). There should be no more than one large dog in a single cage. Look for signs of distemper and parvovirus: runny stool and clogged, dry noses.

Cats should have an elevated surface (above the litter area) to rest upon. Water must be in a clean water dish rather than in a bottle. Also, watch for signs of upper respiratory disease (eyes covered with inner membrane, runny eyes and nose, and sneezing).

Rabbits should have a water bottle, not a dish. They should not be listless. If an animal is sick, you may notice other animals in the cage walking over him/her. Watch for runny noses and excessive sneezing.

Birds must have a properly sized perch (birds' feet should go three quarters of the way around the perch). Check for others beating up on one -- especially common in zebra finches (you may see feathers missing from head, back, etc.). A bird should not be resting on the bottom of the cage (a sign of illness or of having been thrown off the perch by others). Cages should not be overcrowded (use your judgment).

Check fish tanks for overcrowding. Generally, an inch-long tropical fish requires a minimum of 12 square inches of water surface to breathe comfortably; a two-inch fish needs at least 24 square inches of surface area, and so on. Look for dead fishes in aquariums.

What You Can Do
Find out who in your town, county, or state enforces the anti-cruelty codes. Report abuses to them. Often, these people work for local humane societies or animal shelters. Once you have located the proper law enforcement officials, provide them with a concise, factual, written statement of what you have observed, giving dates and approximate times. If you can, take photographs and date them. Try to get short, written statements from witnesses. Statements should be notarized. Ask sympathetic veterinarians to visit the pet store and write an "expert statement" as to the conditions and health of the animals.

If you have been sold a sick or injured animal, go to your local courthouse and fill out a small claims form (no attorney needed). When you file the form (approximately $6), you will be given a court date. At the hearing, present all your veterinary and related bills. (Be sure to get a statement from your vet.) Though it's difficult to put a monetary value on your animal's health or life, this simple action can bother a pet store owner enough to prevent him or her from being irresponsible and inhumane in the future. Also, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. If the store is in a shopping mall, complain to the mall manager (and ask all of your friends and neighbors to do the same). Ask the mall management not to renew the store's lease.

Find out if a division of your county or state health department licenses pet shops and, if so, request that they conduct an inspection. Even if the health department does not specifically license pet shops, it should still inspect for dirty conditions that may pose a health risk to the public. If the pet store sells wild or exotic animals, it is required to be registered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and violations should be reported to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) office in your state (usually in your state capital). To locate your state office, look in the federal government section of the phone book under U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Educate the public: Write letters to the editor, distribute leaflets outside the store, organize a demonstration, etc. Department stores that have a pet department may be especially susceptible to a boycott, since the revenue from the pet department may not constitute a large portion of overall profit. Wal-Mart, America's largest retailer, agreed to stop selling hamsters, gerbils, or birds in its "pet" supply departments after being alerted to injuries and illness suffered by animals sold as "merchandise."

If all else fails, contact local television and radio stations and newspapers and try to interest reporters in the story. A news story may force officials to act or scare the person causing the abuse into stopping.

Above all, don't patronize pet stores. You can purchase supplies for companion animals from "pet" supply stores or catalogs which carry full product lines but don't treat living beings as merchandise.

An ecological catastrophe, comparable or even worse than what is happening in tropical rain forests, has long been underway on many islands. The extinction of bird species as well as the less well-documented extinctions of other vertebrates, land snails, insects and plants that must have also occurred, has been described as one of the swiftest and most profound biological catastrophes in the history of the earth.

A prime example is Easter Island, the world's most isolated inhabited island, in the South Pacific 2400 miles from Chile, with an area of only 64 square miles. The soil is sandy and parched grass is the only vegetation except for a few shrubs and two species of trees. There are almost no land animals larger than insects.