Going Green Memphis 3-14-10

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2 GOING GREEN | S u n d ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er ci a l a pp ea l.com

Pets and the planet

Things Memphis pet owners aredoing to help their animals leavea smaller carbon paw print

Small changes

Simple things you cando for your pet to make

Mother Nature smile

Ec o - a c c es s o r i es

From hemp beds tosqueaky toys, here are

green choices for pets

The greenest dog or cat

Spaying or neutering your pet canbe the greenest thing you will do

Turn your furryfriend into yarn

Should cats bevegetarians?

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!Going Green is a special online publication ofThe Commercial Appeal. We welcome your commentsand suggestions. Follow Going Green on Twitter at

w w w .t w i t t e r .co m /G o G r e e n M e m p h i s.Ed i t o r : Roland Klose, 529-2776,goi n gg r e e n@co m m e rci a la pp ea l .com

What’s in this issue ...

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http://www.twitter.com/GoGreenMemphis

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http://www.twitter.com/GoGreenMemphis



The Commercial Appeal S u n d ay , March 14 , 2010 | GOING GREEN 3

The Green Page

Ev e n t s

The Sierra Club Chickasaw Groupleads a green building tour at Big River

Engineering and Manufacturing, 85 N.Fourth St., 4-6 p.m. March 18. Formore information, e-mails t ev e n s o n d h e i m @ y a h o o .co m.

Wolf River Conservancy’s DaleSanders leads members on a canoetrip on the upper Wolf on April 3. For

more information, e-mail Sanders [email protected]. To join the group, call(901) 452-6500.

Project Green Fork’s Spring

Supper will be at 6 p.m. May 23 atSekisui Midtown. The $75 fundraiserfeatures sushi rolls inspired by ProjectGreen Fork restaurants. For moreinformation, go top r o j e c t g r e e n fo r k .o r g .

Own a green pet?If you’re raising a healthy green pet — we’re nottalking iguanas or frogs — you could win up to $1,000in free pet supplies. PETCO and Greenwala, the greensocial network, teamed up to sponsor a nationwidecontest to promote healthy lifestyles for animals.

“The campaign’s goal is to highlight that by living ahealthier life for yourself and your pet by eating right,exercising and having fun, you actually are living agreener life and minimizing your impact on theplanet,” said Rajeev Kapur, chief wala of Greenwala.

To enter the contest, go to the contest page ofGreenwala.com, submita photo of you and yourpet and describe whatyou and your pet aredoing to live a healthier,greener lifestyle. Thefirst-place winner will be

selected from the top 10vote-getters by PETCOand receive a $1,000gift card. The most viralentry and most creativephoto and story will alsowin $500 PETCO cards.Deadline is April 22.

GroupsCoalition for

Livable

C o m m u n i t i es : Theo r ga n i z a t i o nadvocates healthy,vibrant ande co n o m i ca ll ysustainableco m m u n i t ies .livablememphis.org or(901) 725-8390.

Friends for Our

Riverfront: Formed in2003, the groupad v o cat esimprovement of thepublic space along theMississippi, as well as

a clean and vibrantharbor. f r i e n d s fo r o u rriverfront.org or (901)4 9 6 - 073 6

To submit items for The Green Page, e- mail k l o s e@ co m m e rc i a l appeal .com .



http://projectgreenfork.org/

http://greenwala.com/





http://projectgreenfork.org/


http://greenwala.com/





4 GOING GREEN | S u nd ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

Pe t sPlanetand the

Stacey Greenberg / Special to Going Green

WALKING THE AISLES of a pet store is much

like walking the aisles of a grocery store.

“All natural,” “c h e m i c a l - f re e , ” “o rga n i c ” and

“free range” labels litter the product descriptions.

It only makes sense that our environmentalconsciousness include the care and safety of our

pets.

Here are seven steps that people can take to

be more responsible, earth-friendly pet owners

and thereby reduce their carbon paw print.

Seven

steps to

reduce

your pet’s

carbon paw print




1. Adopt a petLocal shelters and rescue

organizations have dozens of dogs justwaiting to be loved by you.

When Barbara Standing, director of development at Mid-South Spay &

Neuter Services, got married, she and herhusband decided to adopt additional petsthat were strays or from a rescue grouprather than have children of their own.

“We felt adopting what was alreadyhere was the best use of available petresources and the right thing to do,”Standing said.

2. Spay or neuter your petSt anding’s four cats and two dogs areall spayed or neutered to eliminate thepossibility of additional unwanted petsbeing born.

“Large numbers of unwanted petsroaming the streets contribute tounhealthy animal waste that can enterour water supply as well as createdisease,” Standing said.

“Also 14,000 unwanted pets wereeuthanized and disposed of last year atMemphis Animal Services, which is oneof the saddest wastes there is.”

3. Keep pets containedKeeping pets contained can help ensure

their survival as well as that of otherspecies. For example, free-roaming cats

kill hundreds of millions of birds, smallmammals, reptiles and amphibians eachyear. Cat predation is an added stress towildlife populations already struggling tosurvive habitat loss, pollution, pesticidesand other human impacts.

Free-roaming cats are exposed to injury,disease, parasites, getting hit by cars, orbecoming lost, stolen or poisoned.

4. Properly dispose of pet waste

Properly disposing of pet wasteprotects our air and water quality. Eco -friendly, biodegradable doggie bags areavailable for purchase at most petstores. Better yet, some pets’ feces canbe composted for use in flower — notvegetable — gardens. The WasteReduction and Management Institutesays that cat litter disposed of inlandfills exceeds 2 million tons annually.

You can toilet train your cat (no,really, you can!) or you can be veryparticular about what cat litter you

purchase. Today’s options include littersmade from pine, recycled newspapers,corn and wheat.

Standing uses World’s Best Cat Litterwhich isn’t mined, drilled or artificiallyproduced. “It’s milled from renewablewhole-kernel corn and is 100 percentbiodegradable with no addedchemicals,” she said.

5. Buy all-natural food or make your ownPet stores feature a wide variety of

all-natural pet foods made of human-grade ingredients. (Yes, that means youcould eat it, too.) Charlie Bell, managerof Hollywood Feed on Union, especiallylikes the Eagle and Wellness brands,which feature fruits, vegetables and

multiple protein sources. Bell says,“Natural pet foods are almost always theright way to go because they have muchhigher absorption rates.” He alsoadvocates doing some research andmaking your own pet food at home.

Raw diets are also catching on forpets. According to Jane Anderson’spopular Web site, Rawlearning.com, a

http://rawlearning.com/





6 GOING GREEN | Su n d ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

By Emilie Le Beau

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

PETS AREN’T

POLLUTERS. Most keep the

same toys for years andgladly eat table scraps. They

are quite content to skip bath

time and conserve water.

Caring for pets can impact theenvironment. Many animal careproducts are made with toxic orunsustainable materials.

Picking eco-friendly productscan help pets avoid polluting.

Safe squeaky toy Dogs can shake, chew and

cuddle an organic squeaky toy. The LollyLamb is a10-inch toy

made fromo rga n i ccotton andcomes withfo u rsqueakers. Itis madewithoutchemicals

raw diet provides a range of benefits thatcommercial dog diets can never hope toeven closely match. Benefits include nodoggy odor, naturally clean teeth, fewerstools, decreased vet bills, lower food costand better development of the dog’s jaw,

neck and shoulder muscles.

6. Buy eco-friendly, smartly packaged products

We ’ve covered all-natural food, nontoxiclitter and biodegradable doggie bags. Therealso are naturally shed antlers for chewing, aswell as toys, accessories and beds made fromrecycled products. You can also buy herbal

supplements and natural body care productsfor your pets. And let’s not forget packaging.Standing feeds her pets “Pet Promise,” whichuses recycled aluminum cans. Bell says that acouple of his customers really like re-using large, plastic cat litter buckets. “Turns out thatthey’re perfect for hauling compost,” he said.

Smaller plastic No. 2 cat food containersare good for stuffing plastic bags and plasticwrap into for proper curbside recycling.

7. Watch those chemicalsChemicals both inside and outside of your

home can be harmful to pets. Herbicidesbeing used on Standing’s lawn led to one of her cats developing a cancerous tumor on hispaw, which eventually had to be amputated.

“There was no information put out by thelandscape company warning the residents of

the danger during the first 24 to 48 hourswhen it is the most toxic,” she said.Pet owner David Mealer said safety and

eco-friendliness go hand in hand. He uses onlynatural fertilizers in the flower beds where hisdogs dig and no chemical weed sprays or bug sprays on the lawn or in the garden.

“Everything is either pet-safe or done byhand, like pulling the weeds,” he says.

The best choice:eco-friendly pet

toys, accessories




and is nontoxic. $19.99,store locator available atS implyFido.com.

Hemp collarPets can prance

around theneighborhood wearing acollar made from hemp,a natural material. TheEarth Dog solidadjustable hemp collarsare made with 100percent hemp andfeature quick-releasehardware. The collars

are available in sixcolors and soften overtime. The collars aremachine washable andavailable in sizes smallto large. Pricing starts at$17 at EarthDog.com.

Hemp bed

Give animals a soft,natural spot to snooze. The rectangular bed —hemp stripe from HarryBarker has a removableand washable fabriccover made from hemp.

The cover is mildew-resistant, antibacterial,

antifungal and grownwithout pesticides. It isdyed with azo-free dyeswhich are nonchemicaland earth-friendly. Thestuffing is hypoallergenic

and made of recycledpost-consumer plasticb o tt l e s .

Available in threesizes and five colors.Pricing starts at $120 atHarryB arker.com.

Eco-friendly cat toy Harassing fish is a

favorite pastime formany kitties. Give catsan environmentallyfriendly fish toy. TheFish for Cat is madewith 85 percent re-engineered recycled

fibers. It is filled with

USDA-certified organiccatnip. The fish are 6inches long and havesewn-in jingling bells.Made in the U.S., $8,available in assortedcolors atWe s t Paw D e s i g n . c o m .

Natural scratchingspotScratching is super

important for some cats.Give kitty a stylish andnatural spot to workthose nails. The Itch is ascratching pad thatmounts to the wall. It is

about 9 by 9 inches andis made with sustainablebamboo wood. Catnipcan be placed behind orrubbed onto the inserts.Carpet pad isreplaceable, made in theU.S. $50 atS quareCatHabitat .com.

http://simplyfido.com/


http://earthdog.com/

http://harrybarker.com/


http://westpawdesign.com/

http://squarecathabitat.com/



http://westpawdesign.com/


http://earthdog.com/




8 GOING GREEN | S u n day, March 14 , 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

By Morieka Johnson

Mother Nature Network

Most pets spend their days focused

on three main events — food time,poop time and playtime. If only lifecould be so easy for their owners. For-tunately, there are easy options that willhelp reduce their mark on Mother Na-ture. Make just one of these changes,and your pet’s paw print will be a bits m a l l e r.

Get the good stuff: Invest in a high-quality pet food that lists a protein suchas beef, lamb, chicken or fish as the firstingredient rather than a byproduct or

beef meal. This one change can make amajor impact on your pet’s health whilereducing the amount of poop left toscoop.

Keep it simple: Avoid p a c ka ge d ,heavily processed treats designed to re-semble human junk food. Trust me,your dog can live without corn-based

Small changes make difference

Paul Tople/Akron Beacon Journal

One way to green your pets is to ditch the plastic. Stainless steel or ceramicfood and water bowls remove the risk of exposing your pet to bisphenol A or

BPAs. They also last a lot longer.




Just one thingTake an opportunity to give wild animals a helping hand. Pull out that old fur co at

Grandma gave you years ago, and donate it to the Humane Society of the U.S. They’llrecycle the coat into warm bedding for orphaned baby animals. Bonus: You’ll get a receiptfor the value of the coat for tax-deduction purposes. Go to hsus.org for more information.

“t re at s ” shaped like mini porterhouses t e a ks .

Re c y c l e : Those cans and plastic foodbags don’t need to wind up in a landfill.Start by shopping for products withminimal packaging, and then recycle

whenever possible.Go green: Most pets enjoy the ad-

dition of fruits and veggies in their foodbowl. I’ve had success with arugula,roasted sweet potatoes and baked car-rots mixed in with my dog’s food. Beprepared for a little trial and error —Lulu detests bananas while a friend’sdog loves them — and consult your

veterinarian before making majorchanges to your pet’s diet.Ditch the plastic: Stainless steel or

ceramic food and water bowls removethe risk of exposing your pet to bisphe-nol A. They also last a lot longer.

Get the “green” poop bags : Elim-inate plastic grocery bags and shop forcorn-based, biodegradable poop bags. Apack of 100 bags from Poopbags.com

costs around $20.Dump the clump: Under the best of

circumstances, cats can be somewhatresistant to change. So start slowly byadding shredded newspaper or woodchips to the kitty litter mix in place of clay-based clumping stuff that winds upfestering in a landfill.

Embrace hemp: Who knew that

hemp could produce durable, eco-friend-ly pet products? Scope out your petstore and you will probably find ropetoys and stuffed animals from brandslike Earthdog and Simply Fido that willappeal to the toughest chewers.

Petside.com offers a roundup of the Top10 Green Pet Toys for cats and dogs.

Shop with purpose: Pet toys don’tundergo rigorous testing, so those su-per-cheap squeaky toys overflowing inthe dollar bin come with a wealth of unknown risks. But “g re e n ” pet lovershave created a demand for productsmade from renewable resources and re-

cycled products. Companies like PlanetDog responded with an “Orbee -Tuff”line of balls and chew toys made withnontoxic material. West Paw is anotherpopular brand of cat and dog productsmade with recycled plastic bottles. Thecompany also supports national animalshelters, so purchasing their products islike making a deposit into the karmabank for you and your lucky dog or cat.

Get crafty: You can make your owncatnip, but remember that finicky felinesmay require patience and creativity. If you are a cat lover, you already knowthat .

Your pets may never realize the im-pact these changes are making, butMother Nature will smile like aCheshire cat.

http://poopbags.com/


http://petside.com/

http://petside.com/




10 GOING GREEN | S u n d ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er cia l a pp ea l.co m

By Vanessa Vadim


Pets have a huge im-pact on the environment.

They consume vast re-sources and contribute toa variety of pollutioncrises.

America’s pets tearopen $5 billion worth of presents at Christmas, ac-

cording to science writerStan Cox. And that’s justat the holidays. Accord-ing to Bloomberg Busi-nessWeek, “Americansnow spend $41 billion ayear on their pets —more than the gross do-mestic product of all but64 countries in thewo rl d . ”

T h at ’s $41 billion formeat, plastics, drugs,chemicals, fossil fuels ...you get the point.

H e re ’s what can you doto help reduce your pet’scarbon paw print:

The most obvious way

is to spay or neuter.Heartbreaking datashows that about half of all dogs and cats born inthe U.S. will be eutha-nized. The ASPCA has adatabase of low-costspay/neuter sources thatis searchable by ZIP

code: a s p c a . o rg / p e t-c a re /s p ay n e u t e r / .

Keep your cat indoors.Cats are predators. Ac-

cording to the U.S. Fish& Wildlife Service, mil-lions of birds are killedannually by domestic

cats. Putting a bell on ac at ’s collar helps, but itdoesn’t solve the prob-lem.

Compost or bury petw a s t e. American dogsand cats create 10 milliontons of waste a year.Most of it ends up in

plastic bags in landfills orcontaminates waterways.

Search for “compost petwa s t e ” to uncover anabundance of guides fordealing with pet poop. Tobe safe, don’t use animal-waste compost on edibleplants.

Change the type of lit-ter you use. Get this: 85percent of the 2.5 million

tons of clay mined in theU.S. is used for kitty lit-ter. That clay is strip-mined, meaning layers of earth are literallystripped off to get to aseam of clay. Clay-basedcat litter contains crys-talline silica, a knowncarcinogen. If the label onyour kitty litter lists sodi-um bentonite, “n at u ra lc l ay, ” or if there are nodetails, you probablyneed to look for a newproduct .

As an alternative, userecycled or biodegradablelitter. Better yet, train

your cat to use the toilet.Granted, it takes awhile,but once your cat gets thehang of it, you’ll neverhave to buy, clean orthrow out litter again.

Select food carefully.Inexpensive pet food ismade of the most

Greenest dog, cat is spayed or neutered

Yes t e r d ay ’s News catlitter is one solution forthose who seek acleaner, nontoxicalternative to clay boxfillers. It utilizesrecycled newspaper tocreate the pellets.




By Matt Hickman


When you can buy dog bibs and wine goblets foryour schnauzer, it’s clear that things are awfullyweird in the world of pet accessories. There is acompany, however, that’s taken things to a newlevel of strange.

Pet Chic Yarn (petyarnchic.com) will spinyarn out of the dog or cathair you collect fromaround the house.

For $50, the North Car-olina company will pro-vide you with a special pethair collection handbook,gathering instructions andshipping labels. You get tocollect the fur balls.

And the companydoesn’t discriminate —they accept not only long-haired cat fur and fur fromthe fluffy undercoat of dogsbut they’ll work with hairfrom other house pets like

bunnies. Once you’ve gathered an acceptable amountof hair, send it in and the company’s skilled spinnerswill transform it into a luxurious, angora-like fiber.Once you receive the yarn, make whatever you like.

And if you aren’t a skilled knitter, one of thetalented members of the Critter Knitter Guild(critterknitterguild.com) — an organization of knit-ters who specialize in working with pet yarn —may be able to whip up the creation of your liking.

unimaginable byprod-ucts. Fancier brands robfood from the mouths of millions of humans.Packaging alone de-mands a great deal of en-

ergy to produce, andthen recycle. Buy naturaldry dog and cat foodwhen it is on sale, butconsider feeding pets ap-propriate leftovers,which cuts down onwaste, groceries andcosts.

Use simple, naturalcleaning products. Teatree and other essentialoils work against fleasand ticks; use vinegar orsalt and baking soda forstains. You can find anabundance of natural,cheap and safe recipesfor cleaning, pest control

and pet shampoos on theWeb and at the library.

Do n ’t pamper pets.Waste, pollution, chemi-cals, energy dependence,hunger and poverty areall products of keeping domestic pets. A cat ordog doesn’t care how

much is spent on itschew toy. Paper bags,boxes, old socks, corks,cockroaches and old ten-nis balls all make perfectpet toys.

Vanessa Vadim blog s at mnn .com/lifestyle/askvanessa .

New uses for hair

of the dog — or cat

Dog and cat fur canbe hand-spun intobeautiful yarns. Sothe next time yougroom your pet thinkabout saving the fur.

http://petyarnchic.com/


http://critterknitterguild.com/


http://mnn.com/lifestyle/askvanessa








12 GOING GREEN | Sun d ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er c ia l app ea l.co m

EARTH TALK

Can cats bevegetar ians?

Dear Earth Talk: Do cats have to be

ca r n i v o re s ?

Unlike dogs and other omnivores,

cats are true carnivores: They meettheir nutritional needs by consuming other animals and have a higher proteinrequirement than many other mammals.Cats get certain key nutrients frommeat — including taurine, arachidonicacid, vitamin A and vitamin B12 — t h atcan’t be sufficiently obtained from plant-based foods. Without a steady supply of these nutrients, cats can suffer from

liver and heart problems, not to men-tion skin irritation and hearing loss.

As such, a cat’s ideal diet is made upmainly of protein and fats derived fromsmall prey such as rodents, birds, andsmall reptiles and amphibians. Somecats munch on grass or other plants, butmost biologists agree that suchroughage serves only as a digestive aid

and provides limited if any nutritionalva l u e .Of course, providing your domestic

cat with a steady stream of its preferredprey is hardly convenient or humane —and cats can wreak havoc on localwildlife populations if left to forage ontheir own. So we fill them up on dry“kibble,” which combines animal prod-

ucts with vegetable-based starches, andmeat-based canned “we t ” foods, many

containing parts of animals cats wouldlikely never encounter, much less huntand kill, in a purely natural situation.Most cats adapt to such diets, but it isfar from ideal nutritionally.

Veterinarian Marla McGeorge, a catspecialist at Best Friends VeterinaryMedical Center in Portland, Ore., ar-gues that the problem with forcing your

cat to be vegetarian or vegan is thatsuch diets fail to provide the aminoacids needed for proper feline healthand are too high in carbohydrates thatfelines have not evolved to process. Asto those powder-based supplements in-tended to bridge the nutritional gap,McGeorge says that such formulationsmay not be as easily absorbed by cats’

The debate continues about whethercats can thrive on a vegetarian diet.Some veterinarians say definitely no,based on knowledge of felinephysiology. Some cat owners saypassionately yes, based on experience.



The Commercial Appeal S u nd ay , March 14 , 2010 | GOING GREEN 13

bodies as the real thing.Some would vehemently disagree.

Evolution Diet (petfoodshop.com),makers of completely vegetarianfoods for cats, dogs and ferrets, saysthat its meatless offerings, on themarket for 15 years, are healthy andnutritious, and, if anything, have ex-tended the lives of many cats anddogs, even reversed chronic healthp ro b l e m s .

Claiming that most mainstreampet foods contain artery-clogging an-imal fat, diseased tissue, steroidgrowth hormones and antibiotics no

less harmful to pets than to humans,its Web site posts testimonials fromloyal customers who claim happyand long-lasting pets who look for-ward to their meals.

And Harbingers of a New Age(vegepet.com), which makes “Ve g -e c at ” kibble and supplements thatprovide cats with nutrients other-wise only found in meat, says thatits products allow owners to “p re -pare food in your own kitchen,choosing recipes that fit yourl i f e s t yl e . ”

The vegetarian pet debate is acontentious one among vegetarianpet owners and veterinarians. Thebest approach may well be to givesome of the nonmeat supplements

and/or foods a try. If your cat won’teat them, or does not do well onthem — take kitty to a veterinarianfor a checkup to find out — you canalways go back to what you werefeeding her before.

Send questions to Earth Talk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 or e-mail: earthtalk@ emagazine.com .

For city chickens,custom coop isheaven on EarthBy Mariana Greene

The Dallas Morning News

The city chickens moved into their newluxury residential facility on the eve of abig freeze back in December. They stillhad a punch list for the builder, but sincethe new roost was roomier and moreweather-tight, the hens wanted to takeimmediate occupancy. Paint touch-upsand installation of the chandelier couldcome later.

They hunkered down in a thick mat-tress of clean, sweet-smelling hay andsurvived the cold snap without contract-

ing the sniffles.Not that there were no mishaps.

Housewarming, in this case, had awhole new meaning. Violet got too closeto the heat lamp and burned the feath-ers off her head. And the builder didn’theed his wife’s warnings, as usual, burn-ing a hole through the wood with a heatlamp. (Construction materials treated

with fire retardant really work.)I have kept backyard chickens in sev-eral habitats over the years and foundall of them lacking. My husband agreedto design and build a custom version.

With most of the yard already oc-cupied by garden beds, the designer-builder had to prefabricate the structurein sections because the new complex

http://petfoodshop.com/

http://vegepet.com/




http://vegepet.com/

http://petfoodshop.com/



14 GOING GREEN | S und ay , March 14 , 2010 co mm er c ia l a pp ea l.co m

was going where the old roost and runstood. Yet the hens had to be protectedfrom predators, and my flowers had tobe protected from the hens.

This we knew:Hardware cloth, not chicken wire, is

the best material for a chicken run.Predators cannot reach through thesmall openings in hardware cloth to snag a hen. Songbirds, which carry avian dis-eases, cannot hop through the openingsin hardware cloth to eat seeds and grain.

Install the walls of hardware clothseveral inches below ground level andfill the trench with decomposed granite,

gravel or another material so predatorscannot dig under the pen. A run alsoneeds a predator-proof roof that doesnot block sun.

You don’t want to stoop to cleanthe roost or collect eggs. The design,therefore, is raised off the ground by afoot, with a storage cabinet taking upthe first level. The chickens can get un-der the structure in inclement weather.

Provide openings for ventilation inwarm weather that can be closed whenit is cold or rainy.

Install multiple roosting perches atseveral levels, and position them wheredroppings from chickens above won’tfall on lower-level hens. Some hens liketo huddle together for warmth and com-fort; some don’t.

Create a place for waterers that can-not easily be contaminated by droppings.Include several nesting boxes in the

design, depending on the size of yourbackyard flock. I’ve not been able to fig-ure out what, to a hen, constitutes a sat-isfactory nook for egg-laying, other thanprivacy. We have three cubicles that areexactly alike, all in a row. But the hens will

use only one of them. Some days a hen

makes a depression in the hay bedding toreceive an egg, and others follow suit, ig-noring the nesting boxes altogether.

After months of weekend work days,the hens were hustled into their tidy,weather-tight new quarters at the startof what was to be the coldest span of theseason, to date. The north wind blowsagainst solid walls. There are plenty of roosting rails, whether a hen wants tohuddle next to her coopmates or preferssolitary evenings. Their food and waterare protected from contamination. Theyhave room to scratch for bugs andstretch their wings, and the quiet onescan dodge the pecks of the mean girls.

I call it the poultry palace. The henscall it home.

Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News

Rose makes her way out of thechicken roost next to the ladder.




Little bite, lot of bark

By Christina Hoag

Associated Press Writer

WEST HOLLYWOOD,

Calif. — The vote to banthe sale of dogs and catsin this famously liberalenclave will likely havemore bark than bite, sinceno pet stores in the citycurrently sell animals.

But officials hope thatthe recent unanimouscity council vote will beseen beyond West Holly-wood as a symbolic standagainst puppy mills andkitten factories.

“You have to starts o m ew h e re , ” s aidMichael Haibach, deputyto Councilman JeffreyPrang, who sponsored

the legislation. “The morepeople who jump on thebandwagon the better.”

This quirky city has areputation as a trailblazerin animal welfare rights.

It became the first cityin the country to prohibitcat declawing in 2003, a

measure that has sincespread to dozens of othercities, including Los An-geles. Another West Hol-lywood ordinance official-ly terms pets as“companion animals” andgives their “gu a rd i a n s ” alocal tax deduction for

pet adoption fees.Since the pet sales or-dinance was introducedearly last month, the cityhas received dozens of in-quiries from other munic-ipalities across the coun-try interested inreplicating it, Haibach

s aid.Pet shops would only

be permitted to offer an-imals from shelters forsale once West Holly-wo o d ’s ordinance goes in-to effect in September.South Lake Tahoe adopt-ed a similar ban last year.

Advocates for the petindustry said such ordi-nances are misguided be-cause they do not tacklethe source of the problem— irresponsible commer-cial breeders who keepanimals in deplorableconditions.

Ban seeks to curb

demand from puppy mills, kitten factories

Reed Saxon/Associated Press

Dogs tussle over a toy at an off-leash facility fordogs and their owners in West Hollywood, Calif. Thecity adopted an ordinance banning stores fromretailing cats and dogs in a move aimed at curbingso-called puppy mills and kitty factories.

Going Green Memphis 3-14-10

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