diary, news and views, from a personal and veterinary point of view - alternative medicine, holistic, holistic vet, homeopathic vet, homeopathy, acupuncture, current affairs, family news
Christmas Greetings to all visitors and readers. I hope you have an enjoyable and healthy festive season and I wish you health, and fulfilment for 2009 and, most of all, happy and healthy animals!
Towards the end of this year, we have run into bandwidth problems, meaning that the blog has 'gone down' for the last few days of each month, owing to a high visitor rate. While I apologise to any who encountered a blank page at any time, I am heartened that we have significant visitor traffic. I have now upgraded the bandwidth to cope with the increased demand and I hope you will not 'draw a blank' again.
Our local garden centre has a Christmas toy department, in which these two products held pride of place, when I visited today. In my opinion, they are, at best, tasteless and are likely to encourage disrespect for animals, which is part of the desensitising process that can lead to real-life animal abuse . . .
. . . and even child cruelty or adult abuse - the link between animal abuse and violence within the family is well-established - ref.:
Even the language used on the packaging is graphic, violent and abusive.
"Grab and lift him by the neck while dancing - he will scream and cluck like mad, flapping his wings as he is gagging and choking!"
Of course, when a bird's neck is wrung, as will be the fate of a massive number of birds this Christmas, killed for those who eat meat, it will kick and scream and flap.
We have asked for these 'toys' to be taken off display. We shall see.
However, they are available worldwide, imported to the UK by:
PREMIER DECORATIONS LTD
Premier House
Braintree Road
Ruislip
Middlesex HA4 0EJ United Kingdom Telephone: 020-8624 5555
Fax: 020-8624 5678 E-mail: sales@premierdec.com
This company is a wholesaler, dealing only with retailers' orders of £2,000 or over.
The toys are also marketed as corporate stress-relieving gimmicks (executive toys), via many websites. Representative sites, picked at random off Google, are:
These are novelty 'toys', marketed at a time when novelties usually sell well. My belief is that these items should not be marketed at all, for all the reasons mentioned in my first paragraph. My young daughter was horrified when she saw them - I hope others will be too.
I encourage folk to ask retailers to remove them from display or to write to wholesalers and retailers. I shall e-mail Premier Decorations Ltd. I have notified PETA, VIVA and the NSPCC.
No-one likes a joke toy more than me (I'm a real sucker for them) but, when animal respect is at stake and a toy could lead to desensitisation of our children and to potential animal abuse, I have to lose my sense of humour.
Now, nearly nine years on, we have the answer to the wobbling of the Millennium Bridge!
We've had the wrong sort of leaves and the wrong kind of snow. Now we have the wrong sort of pedestrians, doing the wrong kind of walk!
" . . . . . But it was shut for safety reasons after only three days because of the persistent 'wobble'.
Engineers originally blamed the effect of hundreds of people stepping on to the bridge in unison for the problem.
But new research has shown that it was the combination of a large number of people and the random way in which they walked which kept the bridge moving with such large wobbles.
Dr John MacDonald, from Bristol University, who led the research, said that they had proved that the problem was caused by "the presence of lateral bridge motion without changing the pedestrian walking frequency and applying the same foot placement strategy to maintain balance".
Understand all that gobbledegook (thank heavens for academics) if you will but forgive me for asking - isn't a footbridge supposed to be walked on? What a good job we've now performed all that expensive research.
Is it me? Surely the bridge had to wobble in order to make people try to keep their balance in the first place?
The bridge (the first new crossing in Central London for more than a century) re-opened after the further expenditure of about £5,000,000. You'll see now why, when I wanted a footbridge in my garden, to span our new pond feature, I didn't consult this particular firm of bridge designers! What a good job that we once knew how to build bridges, over 100 years ago.
You may be comforted to learn that we managed with a few wooden rails and a few coach screws and nails.
The RSPCA has managed a 'sort of apology', to the Hindu community, over the killing of Gangotri (a Jersey x Belgian Blue cow) at Bhaktivedanta Manor and Temple. They are clearly trying to evade legal action, that has been in process, since that drastic event.
It is alleged that the cow was under proper veterinary care and that she was recovering. The vets working with the RSPCA killed the cow without having discussed the case with the attending vets.
Young elephant at Whipsnade, displaying stereotypic behaviour
We suddenly, today, have media coverage of an issue that is of central importance to the welfare of zoo animals (NOT just elephants!).
Caged Tiger at Whipsnade - well you can't have them running around, can you?
Of course, wild conditions cannot be replicated in zoos and animals will know (and feel/suffer) the difference, especially those species that range over vast areas.
Nonetheless, while wild places exist for animals to live and breed successfully, it's never too late to try to do something about it. Think very carefully how you stand on this issue, before funding zoos with your hard-earned cash.
So, the BBC will not be televising Crufts next year. This is a result of the failure of the BBC and the Kennel Club to agree on certain issues. Oh well.
As I said in an earlier blog on this 'crisis', gunboat diplomacy is not the way forward.
Why the BBC became suddenly so vehement, when the issues raised have been there for all to see, for so many years, I cannot imagine. Why did the BBC not complain about these issues before? Having not done so, why not adopt a more progressive method of policy influence, that would bring better results? Rome was not built in a day.
As Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) said, so pithily - 'War does not determine who is right, only who is left'.
Now it has been announced that cattle in Northern Ireland (and possibly in Ireland, too) have been fed feed from the contaminated mix. We are assured all is well for beef supplies. Dairy products are not mentioned, so I hope that milk and milk products (butter, cheese, milk, processed foods) are not contaminated. When nothing is said, however, it leaves the imagination to run riot.
If the mix really was of bakery waste and confectionery waste, might it mean that cattle (strictly herbivores) have been fed animal fats and possibly gelatine, from the recycled human food waste? Yuk! I thought that practice was finished, with the BSE disaster.
Gelatin comes from horses, cattle and pigs, by rendering of skin, connective tissue and bone. It is used in the food industry (~70,000 tonnes per annum in Europe), as an emulsifier, texturiser and gelling agent and in the pharmaceutical industry (~20,000 tonnes per annum in Europe). It is also used in cosmetics and for micro-encapsulation of synthetic vitamins. You may also be surprised to discover that it is in MMR and Influenza vaccines. It is a component of some plasma expanders, given to patients to raise blood volume in medical treatment.
What this means to the consumer is that 'ordinary' foods, such as bakery products, low-fat spreads, desserts, jams, conserves, confectionery (e.g. sweets and bars) etc. may well contain gelatin, with obvious implications for vegetarians and vegans, religious communities and potentially for health. Sometimes, because of this subtle and occult manufacturing process, staff in a restaurant, for instance, won't even know whether it is in certain meals or menu items. Vaccination and some medical treatments can have similar implications.
The current Irish embarrassment, over the pig food contamination with dioxin/PCBs, may have health implications for consumers of manufactured foods, bakery products, confectionery, ice creams and artificial vitamins, along with recipients of vaccination, plasma expanders and some other medical treatments. With such high usage of gelatin, in various industries, the 'risk list' doesn't stop there. It is not necessary to eat pork, bacon, ham or sausages, to end up with products of pig carcases in your mouth.
Of course, when we learn that the Irish contamination happened in a plant processing bakery waste and confectionery waste for pig food, we realise that pigs are being fed pig gelatin, via this circuitous route. Gelatin probably also ends up in many proprietary animal feeds, in manufactured vitamin supplements, including horse, sheep, cattle and pig foods but it is nearly impossible to find out for certain. For strictly herbivorous species, such as horses, sheep and cattle, this is clearly very unwise and unattractive. For pigs also, cannibalism is not only unattractive, it is potentially unhealthy. After the BSE fiasco, one might have hoped that forced cannibalism in food animals would have ceased.
Manufacturing and labelling are still far from open transparency and clarity. As is so often the case in life, despite the so-called 'nanny state', buyer beware - caveat emptor!
It's not new news (this issue has been recognised for a long time) but nonetheless needs trumpeting. If we wish to go on enjoying this planet of ours, it's really well past the time that we should take proper stock. Here's just one aspect of the damaging effects of our ridiculous, commercially-biased society:
"Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.
Many have been identified as 'endocrine disrupters' – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides."
Research demonstrates beyond doubt that the male gender is under threat in many species.
"Research at the University of Florida earlier this year found that 40 per cent of the male cane toads – a species so indestructible that it has become a plague in Australia – had become hermaphrodites in a heavily farmed part of the state, with another 20 per cent undergoing lesser feminisation. A similar link between farming and sex changes in northern leopard frogs has been revealed by Canadian research, adding to suspicions that pesticides may be to blame."
"Gywnne Lyons, a former Government advisor on chemical pollution and author of the report, said: "Urgent action is needed to control gender bending chemicals and more resources are needed for monitoring wildlife. If wildlife populations crash, it will be too late. Unless enough males contribute to the next generation there is a real threat to animal populations in the long term," she added.
The paper lists the affected species and include, flounder in UK estuaries, cod in the North Sea, cane toads in Florida, peregrine falcons in Spain, and turtles from the Great Lakes in North America.
Some male roaches have changed sex completely after exposure to oestrogen from the Contraceptive pill pouring out of sewage works."
We could either look at this as a great way for the world to be rid of us, the dreaded human species, or we could start changing the way we live, the way we buy, the way we eat and the way we vote.
This is a theme on which I have written before. Industrial scale animal feed manufacture, factory farming methods and human food manufacture, processing and distribution will result in calamities on a massive scale. Trade and transport shift foodstuffs thousands of miles almost instantly.
It has happened again, this time to the Irish pig industry.
"European supermarkets have been ordered to clear their shelves of Irish bacon, ham and sausages.
It happened after authorities discovered that Irish pork products had been tainted with a potentially cancer-causing chemical."
"Ireland's Food Safety Authority said the dioxin made its way into the food chain after pig feed from a producer was tainted with industrial oil.
While only 10 per cent of the country's pig meat was affected, that was processed and mixed in with other meat, resulting in widespread contamination."
"Health officials across the continent are warning their consumers not to eat Irish pork after the discovery that dioxins had been in some of the pigs' feed for months."
"The Food Safety Authority and the Department of Agriculture and Food during routine surveillance identified a pig with residue of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in excess of the permissible levels. The sample was taken on November 19th and the result was reported on November 28th. This triggered an investigation on the farm at which the pig had originated. Initially, it was thought something untoward must have occurred on this farm."
It would appear that testing methodology has allowed this to go unnoticed for more than two months and that action has taken more than a week, which means that many who consume pig products will already have taken on board some of the toxin. The 'recall' cannot recall what has already been eaten and readers may be surprised to know just how widely pig products are used in the food processing industry. Recalling bacon, ham and sausages may well be insufficient to prevent human contamination. Many manufactured food products may be tainted and may not be recalled.
"Irish pig meat and pig fat is exported to the EU and farther afield. One food processor in Belgium, which provides pig fat to the manufacturing industry, noticed an increase in PCBs in composite samples containing pig fat from several member states since September, and was trying to identify from which country the contaminated fat was coming."
With modern transport and industrial methods, the pigs' food chain can become rapidly and widely infiltrated by contamination and, likewise, so can ours. Furthermore, this case illustrates how slowly the problem can be identified and tracked. Local food, small scale and organic farming point the way to go. The supermarket culture is as dangerous as it is seductive.
Congratulations to Michael Clancy in Ireland and Hazel Cooper in England, on their successful VetMFHom examinations. It is no mean undertaking and is a very rigorous examination. I wish them well in their careers and their personal development.
This sitting ends a very busy year for the Faculty of Homeopathy's post-graduate veterinary homeopathy examination, which has been held in South Africa, Australia and the UK.
