10/29/2008
10/21/2008
10/13/2008
toxoplasmosis, sea otters, and toilet training this cat
i have recently acquired a cat-i kind of had to do it. she was a stray-hungry, sweet, and oh so pathetic. i named her cleo and soon she will have a bitchin gold collar and a proper scratching post. i'm glad i was able to give her a home and she and bella dog get along fine. bella watches her nightly freak outs with an equally amused and unimpressed attitude. they are both adjusting well i suppose and the only real issue is that bella like most dogs, loves to eat cat shit. she lurks around the corner waiting for cleo to take a dump-hilarious and disgusting. i've created a barrier but the whole cat box thing has always bothered me so i thought i would train cleo to go to the bathroom in the toilet. how great would that be? i wouldn't have to buy litter, i wouldn't have to smell or clean up piss and shit clumps, and i wouldn't have to strategically place the box out of bella's reach plus it's the best thing ever to see a cat take a pee in the toilet. however, in my research i found that flushing cat poop down the toilet is a serious threat to sea otters. WHAT?!
you've probably heard of toxoplasmosis as it relates to pregnant women. the parasite can cause serious birth defects and is transmitted by eating meat that hasn't been cooked all the way, drinking contaminated water, or having contact with cat feces. cats become hosts to the parasite after eating other infected animals like mice, rats, and birds and after ingestion the oocysts or eggs of the parasite are passed in the feces. aside from being harmful to fetuses, toxoplasmosis is not a threat to humans. it is however, a reason for concern among scientists studying the cause of death in coastal sea otters. not to bore you with too much information, the basic point of concern is that a large percentage of sea otters (as well as other marine mammals such as dolphins and whales) are dying of toxoplasmosis and there is a direct link to contaminated cat feces.
so basically, flushing cat poop down the toilet living so close to the ocean is not cool. here's why according to Report on Toxoplasma Gondii: Its Sources and Impacts on Sea Otters, and What Municipalities Can Do to Help Reduce or
Eliminate These Impacts: Oocysts may survive up to 18 months in soil under favorable conditions, and wastewater treatment practices are not designed to destroy the highly resistant oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii. Cat owners should be urged to bag and dispose of cat feces and cat litter in approved sanitary landfills where runoff is controlled, rather than flushing it down the toilet.
Crap!
you've probably heard of toxoplasmosis as it relates to pregnant women. the parasite can cause serious birth defects and is transmitted by eating meat that hasn't been cooked all the way, drinking contaminated water, or having contact with cat feces. cats become hosts to the parasite after eating other infected animals like mice, rats, and birds and after ingestion the oocysts or eggs of the parasite are passed in the feces. aside from being harmful to fetuses, toxoplasmosis is not a threat to humans. it is however, a reason for concern among scientists studying the cause of death in coastal sea otters. not to bore you with too much information, the basic point of concern is that a large percentage of sea otters (as well as other marine mammals such as dolphins and whales) are dying of toxoplasmosis and there is a direct link to contaminated cat feces.
so basically, flushing cat poop down the toilet living so close to the ocean is not cool. here's why according to Report on Toxoplasma Gondii: Its Sources and Impacts on Sea Otters, and What Municipalities Can Do to Help Reduce or
Eliminate These Impacts: Oocysts may survive up to 18 months in soil under favorable conditions, and wastewater treatment practices are not designed to destroy the highly resistant oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii. Cat owners should be urged to bag and dispose of cat feces and cat litter in approved sanitary landfills where runoff is controlled, rather than flushing it down the toilet.
Crap!
10/12/2008
10/06/2008
our present day mass extinction event-holocene vs. history
1 in 4 mammals will go extinct in our lifetime. does this seem like an absurdly high number or is it relative to what we know about the history of mass extinction events?
65 million years ago during the cretaceous-tertiary extinction event 75% of earths flora and fauna went extinct, including the dinosaurs (which ironically enough in this particular post, made room for mammals to dominate).
251 million years ago the "great dying" or permian-triassic extinction event occured where 96% of all marine life and 70% of life on land (plants, insects, and vertabrates) went extinct. the great dying was huge!
We are presently living within the era of the holocene extinction event, which biologists are deeming the most accelerated mass extinction event in history. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will be extinct in the next 100 years.
that reality is a harsh one to accept and conjures up a lot of emotion. who doesn't cringe at the notion of gorillas and orangutans being extinct?! maybe you don't. is that a bad thing? maybe not.
most people are empathetic-we experience the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of those around us which in turn influence our actions. during catastrophic events like 9-11 or hurricane katrina thousands of people not even in new york or new orleans felt the sadness, the anger, and despair of those in the midst of it all. so in a world where half of the species we have grown up to know or at least be aware of dissapear (a world that would also nonetheless be struggling with a myriad of other harsh changes related to global warming, over population, etc.) is it a disadvantage to be empathetic?
65 million years ago during the cretaceous-tertiary extinction event 75% of earths flora and fauna went extinct, including the dinosaurs (which ironically enough in this particular post, made room for mammals to dominate).
251 million years ago the "great dying" or permian-triassic extinction event occured where 96% of all marine life and 70% of life on land (plants, insects, and vertabrates) went extinct. the great dying was huge!
We are presently living within the era of the holocene extinction event, which biologists are deeming the most accelerated mass extinction event in history. It is estimated that half of the species alive today will be extinct in the next 100 years.
that reality is a harsh one to accept and conjures up a lot of emotion. who doesn't cringe at the notion of gorillas and orangutans being extinct?! maybe you don't. is that a bad thing? maybe not.
most people are empathetic-we experience the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of those around us which in turn influence our actions. during catastrophic events like 9-11 or hurricane katrina thousands of people not even in new york or new orleans felt the sadness, the anger, and despair of those in the midst of it all. so in a world where half of the species we have grown up to know or at least be aware of dissapear (a world that would also nonetheless be struggling with a myriad of other harsh changes related to global warming, over population, etc.) is it a disadvantage to be empathetic?
Posted by
shilo
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