Pet Poisons. Accomplishments for Seals. Protect Caribou and Other Wildlife. Foxes in London. "Whole Egg Waste". Lusitania Sunk. Diatomaceous Earth.

For Mammal Monday:
  
Top 20 Causes of Pet Poisoning in 2011
"Over 100,000 cases of pet poisoning were reported in the U.S. in 2011.

The same poisons are at the top of the list every year and include chocolate, raisins and grapes, and consumables containing the sweetener xylitol.

If you suspect or know your pet has been poisoned, don’t panic. Keep your wits about you and immediately contact your veterinarian, an emergency vet clinic or the pet Poison Control Center hotline."

Top 20 Pet Poisons in 2011

Chocolate

Raisins

Mushrooms

Xylitol (sweetener)

Grapes

Vitamins

Gum

Bones

Chicken

Macadamia Nuts

Sugar

Bread

Cake

Coffee

Corn Cobs

Dough

Meat

Rawhide

Salmon

Avocado

If You Think Your Pet Has Been Poisoned, Try not to panic. Keeping your cool will help you help your poisoned pet.

If you suspect your dog or cat has ingested a poison and you have questions or need guidance, you can call the ASPCA's Poison Control Center hotline at 1-888-426-4435. The hotline is answered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

If you're sure your dog, cat or other pet has been exposed to a toxin, get her to your veterinarian or an animal emergency clinic right away. If you know or suspect the substance your animal got into, bring it along.

If you caught your pet in the act of ingesting a toxin or you know for a fact it happened less than two hours earlier, depending on what your pet got into and his symptoms, you may want to induce vomiting.

Complete Article at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/25/top-pet-poisoning-causes.aspx
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Accomplishments for Seals,  May 4, 2012

"Every year we get closer to ending Canada's cruel, commercial seal hunt.    See how far we've come.

It’s nearly over.    Soon, the baby seals who survived this year's slaughter on the ice floes around Newfoundland will be out of the sealers' reach. The blood-soaked ice pans have melted -- and if it weren't for the footage our team captured, then no one would know the carnage we witnessed.

Video: http://youtu.be/4ey4XgAKzZ0   May 4, 2012 by hsus

"We were there to expose the slaughter to the world -- preventing sealers from carrying out their killing in secret. I assure you, the suffering of the baby seals immortalized on film will not be in vain.

More than 300,000 baby seals were saved this year, because together, we have made demand for seal fur almost obsolete. In recent years, the European Union and Russian Federation have both joined the United States in banning trade in seal products, removing important markets for seal products.

So despite the government's shameful $3.6 million subsidy to the sealing industry, out of a commercial quota of 400,000 harp seals, less than 70,000 have been killed this year.

Resistance and hope:  This has been a year of extremes. A record-low sea ice cover caused hundreds of thousands of baby seals to die when they were forced into open water before they were strong enough to survive there. Ignoring the plight of the struggling baby seals entirely, the Canadian government ruthlessly set the highest quota for seals in history, authorizing sealers to kill more than 468,000 of them.

May 2012:  Smartphone users have downloaded nearly 4,800 copies of our app to help diners find restaurants near them that are boycotting Canadian seafood. The app, for iPhone/iPad or Android, continues to be available free of charge.    And The HSUS's and HSI's seal hunt infographic was shared more than 16,000 times on Facebook and Twitter, exposing an ever larger audience to the need to end this hunt.   Your support has also helped us to expand our Protect Seals boycott of Canadian seafood, providing a direct economic incentive for Canada’s fishing industry to stop the slaughter.

More at: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/dispatch/2011/04/seal_hunt_extremes_041611.html
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Baby caribou will be displaced from their safe calving grounds – and into grave danger.
"That same development would attract more nest predators and disrupt the coastal wetlands international nursery of migratory birds.

Each spring, a herd of almost half a million caribou travels hundreds of miles north to western Arctic Alaska. These iconic northern creatures have another name you may know them by – reindeer. In their sheltered summer home, caribou moms calve and nurse their young. Cooling, coastal breezes keep ravenous insects away, and wolves, bears, and other predators rarely venture this far from the foothills.

Without this safe haven, few of the newborn calves would survive. In this currently remote and undeveloped landscape, caribou movements through foothills and migratory bird populations in coastal wetlands represent our country's last, greatest wildlife spectacle.

If we don't act now, companies will be allowed to develop in key regions – Utukok and Teshekpuk – where Alaska's largest herd of caribou give birth. Baby caribou will be displaced from their safe calving grounds – and into grave danger. That same development would attract more nest predators and disrupt the coastal wetlands international nursery of migratory birds.

These 23 million acres of terrain in Arctic Alaska make up the largest public landscape in the United States – and one of our most precious wild places. In addition to hosting caribou that journey hundreds of miles each year to their traditional calving grounds, the region draws millions of migrating waterfowl and shorebirds to nest each spring. WCS has been working in western Arctic Alaska for more than a decade to study and protect this huge array of breathtaking wildlife.

As the BLM considers several proposals for what to do with the land, one of their top choices is a smart, workable plan we are excited to stand behind as it balances areas for development with key protection from development in the most important areas for wildlife. In addition to our commitment to saving the region's precious wildlife, we have a concrete proposal for how to develop its natural resources, too.  

We have to speak out if we want to protect majestic herds of caribou and other extraordinary wildlife – but the public comment period will close quickly.    Help the Bureau of Land Management make the right decision – Protect caribou and other Arctic wildlife.   Submit your comment by June 1!  More at: http://e.wcs.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=21942.0&dlv_id=27841_
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Foxes in London    http://youtu.be/m6E4kQPCKec

"This family of foxes were so entertaining! I had the camera set up for weeks hoping to catch them on film. Eventually got the mum with five of her cubs enjoying the sunshine in my garden."
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"Whole Egg Waste" - Unfit for Humans, But Fine for Dogs and Cats
"Whole egg waste comes from egg grading facilities, egg breaking facilities, and hatcheries. Exactly how it is transformed into powdered egg product for the pet food market isn’t clear.

“Egg product” is an ingredient in many lower quality commercial pet foods. It’s up to pet owners to guess whether this egg product came from eggs fit for human consumption, or egg waste products.

Hopefully, by leaving pet foods containing egg product on store shelves, we are discouraging the practice of repurposing human food waste as nutrition for our beloved four-legged companions." Complete Article at: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/04/06/egg-product-as-pet-food.aspx
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On This Day:

German submarine sinks Lusitania, May 7, 1915:

"The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel's course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship's boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes.

Germany justified the attack by stating, correctly, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship, and that it was carrying munitions. It was primarily a passenger ship, however, and among the 1,201 drowned in the attack were many women and children, including 128 Americans. Colonel Edward House, close associate of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was in London for a diplomatic visit when he learned of the Lusitania's demise. America has come to the parting of the ways, he wrote in a telegram to Wilson, when she must determine whether she stands for civilized or uncivilized warfare. We can no longer remain neutral spectators.

Wilson subsequently sent a strongly worded note to the German government—the first of three similar communications—demanding that it cease submarine warfare against unarmed merchant ships. On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland.

Faced with the overpowering size and strength of the British Royal Navy at the outset of World War I, Germany realized its most effective weapon at sea was its deadly accurate U-boat submarine. Consequently, in February 1915, the German navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, declaring the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be subject to attack.

Though the United States was officially neutral at this point in the war, Britain was one of the nation's closest trading partners, and tensions arose immediately over Germany's new policy. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. On the same page, an advertisement announced the imminent sailing of the British cruise liner Lusitania from New York back to Liverpool.

Wilson's actions prompted his secretary of state, the pacifist William Jennings Bryan, to resign. His successor, Robert Lansing, took quite a different view of the situation: the sinking of the Lusitania had convinced him that the United States could not maintain its neutrality forever, and would eventually be forced to enter the war against Germany.

On the German side, fear of further antagonizing Wilson and his government led Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to issue an apology to the U.S. and enforce a curb on the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. By early 1917, however, under pressure from military leaders who advocated an aggressive naval policy as an integral component of German strategy in World War I, the government reversed its policy, and on February 1, 1917, Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare. Two days later, Wilson announced that the U.S. was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. The United States formally entered World War I on April 6, 1917."
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Yesterday:

Maddie and Muffie came to stay for a couple of days, while their "parents" go to Coushatta Casino.

I spent some time researching the benefits of 'Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth', http://www.morethanalive.com/Diatomaceous-Earth-Food-Grade-Powder , apparently it is good for all sorts of ailments, for animals and people, including high cholesterol, and celiac disease.

I am still upset about having to use Blogger to draft this journal. See that big space at the top of this page, it won't go away.  If I touch a picture it goes either to the top or the bottom of the page, so I have to cope with that.  As I get Error 401 when I try to draft in Live Writer, I downloaded another program called Qumana.  That didn't work either, so now I don't know what to do.

Maybe Blogger will wake up, and make their drafting easy like Live Writer, one day.