Author David Kirby says cattle eating cattle by-product could risk another outbreak of mad cow disease. The FDA says there’s no measurable risk. (Photo courtesy of the USDA)
The hamburger you put on the grill this weekend could be from cattle raised on feed that includes chicken feces. Lester Graham reports…a year-old Food and Drug Administration rule says it’s safe:
Transcript
The hamburger you put on the grill this weekend could be from cattle raised on feed that includes chicken feces. Lester Graham reports…a year-old Food and Drug Administration rule says it’s safe.
The rule came about after the mad cow disease outbreak. It made some changes, but still allows putting chicken litter – that’s the straw, feathers, chicken manure and scattered food left after raising chickens in a building– into cattle feed.
David Kirby wrote a book entitled “Animal Factory.” He says the government buckled to the chicken industry because the industry didn’t have a place to go with all the chicken litter.
“There’s too much to spread on local farmland, so they very often put it into cattle feed. It contains urea which cows can convert into protein.”
Chickens are messy. They scatter their feed and it gets into the chicken litter that’s put in some cattle feed. Some chicken feed contains beef by-products. Kirby says cattle eating cattle by-product could risk another outbreak of mad cow disease. The FDA says there’s no measurable risk.
Aimee Hurt, with the group Working
Dogs for Conservation (Photo by Brian Mann)
Wicket, on the trail of some moose pellets (Photo by Brian Mann)
Researchers and environmentalists are
experimenting with a new method for collecting
biological samples in the wild. They’re using
trained tracking dogs to sniff out everything
from rare plants to moose pellets. Brian Mann
joined the hunt in New York’s Adirondack Mountains:
Transcript
Researchers and environmentalists are
experimenting with a new method for collecting
biological samples in the wild. They’re using
trained tracking dogs to sniff out everything
from rare plants to moose pellets. Brian Mann
joined the hunt in New York’s Adirondack Mountains:
It’s early, the sun still tangled in the alder trees, when we set off
on foot down a
narrow logging road.
(sound of walking down the road)
Soon, Heidi Kretser with the Wildlife Conservation Society finds the
first evidence that
we’re not alone.
“These are moose tracks.”
New York’s moose population has surged in recent years, to move than
500 animals.
Researchers have been tracking moose using airplanes and radio collars.
But today, were tagging along behind a cheerful black lab mix named
Wicket.
(sound of dog’s collar jingling)
Wicket flashes back and forth across the trail, snuffling eagerly.
She wears a bright
red vest and that tinkling bell is designed to keep her from actually
meeting a moose
head-on.
Her owner and handler, Aimee Hurt, says using dogs to find biological
samples – everything from plants to rare birds – isn’t new.
“I think if you talk to a lot of biologists who’ve been out
in the field for
decades, ‘Oh yeah, my dog figured out that we were looking for —
whatever.’ And they
started honing in on it and helping out. So I really think that dog’s
have been
biologists’ partners for a long time.”
Hurt’s organization – Working Dogs for Conservation, based in Montana
– took the idea
one step further, training dogs in much the same way that police train
K-9 units.
Wicket knows how to find six different kinds of scat, including
mountain lion, grizzly
bear – and now moose
“She is an air-scent dog, which means there’s no tracking
involved — she’s
just sniffing the air for a whiff of scat.”
Heidi Kretser, with the Wildlife Conservation Society, says moose
droppings can tell a
lot about why these Clydesdale-sized animals are returning to New York, what they’re
eating, and how they’ll reshape this forest if their numbers keep
growing.
“By understanding the diet, we’ll get a better sense of what
habitats they
might impact long-term, since they eat 40 pounds of vegetation a day.”
(sound of birds and footsteps)
Wicket leads the team on long ramble through the radiant lime green
forest, and down
across a burbling creek.
(sound of creek)
We see moose sign everywhere – mule-sized tracks, maple trees
stripped of bark. And
then Wicket sniffs out her first pile of droppings.
“Whoopee, good girl. Very nice!”
More poop means better data. So the pellets are trucked away in a
plastic bag for the
trip back to the lab.
For Wicket, the reward is a few minutes of joyous play with a squishy
rubber ball.
(sound of squeezing toy)
“Let’s get to work!” (bell jangling)
Then the team is off again, with Wicket snuffling happily through the
trees. Biologists
hope to use the same method to study other wildlife – from grizzlies
to mountain lions.
A dealer in plant fertilizers is getting top dollar for product that he gathers close to home. Fred Kight reports some gardeners are just bats for the nutrient:
Transcript
A dealer in plant fertilizers is getting top dollar for product that he gathers close to home. Fred
Kight reports some gardeners are just bats for the nutrient:
What sells for 14 dollars a pound, comes from church steeples and is a fantastic plant fertilizer?
It’s bat poop. Or, more properly, bat guano.
Matt Peters says he already was selling worm dung as a plant food.
When nearby church leaders called him about their bat dropping problems, he added the guano to
the fertilizer inventory of his Ohio business. Peters says some customers are attracted by the
novelty… while others just want healthy plants:
“Definitely in my own personal trials I’ve been amazed at the power of bat guano. I never knew
green could be so green.”
Peters says the original manufacturers, so to speak, of his guano eat mosquitoes.
Since mosquitoes are nitrogen-rich, so is the bat guano… and plants love nitrogen.
Nature is a big buffet table. One thing eats another – that eats another –
and so on. That’s a fundamental concept of ecology called the food chain.
One city is giving everyone a lesson about a dog’s place in the food chain.
And as Shawn Allee explains, it’s a lesson some would rather not hear:
Transcript
Nature is a big buffet table. One thing eats another – that eats
another – and so on. That’s a fundamental concept of ecology called
the food chain. One city is giving everyone a lesson about a dog’s place
in the food chain. And as Shawn Allee explains, it’s a lesson some would
rather not hear.
Katherine Raz takes up the leash of a slow-moving, black dog. But she’s not
walking her dog through snow. Raz is a professional dog walker.
Allee: “This is one quiet dog.”
“Oh yeah, she’s pretty mellow. Velvet. Velvet. See, she doesn’t even respond
when I call her.”
Velvet is in no hurry to walk, but Raz has got to hustle. She walks dozens of
dogs each week. And business is growing.
“Since I’ve been up here, we’ve had to hire three other people to cover all the
people who’ve called for walks.”
Some residents say all the new dogs are making a big mess. Velvet stops to
prove the point.
“I’ll use the produce bags to capture this. This is a fine specimen here. As
far as picking up the feces, I always thought it was just a cosmetic thing.”
But a sign informed her otherwise.
“I was walking a dog late at night and I was actually stopping to read the sign
because I was so bored. And it’s like, please, pick up the dog droppings because
rats use them as a primary source of food. I was like, Oh, God that’s horrible.
That just gives an image that’s not pretty.”
Indeed, Chicago’s putting dog owners on notice. The city put up that sign
Raz found. It came from the Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Fliers at City Hall say the same thing.
I read one of those fliers to Jose Cruz, Chicago’s rat control Czar.
“They prefer fresh food but will eat many things, such as pet food, dog
droppings, quote – a rat favorite.”
Allee: How do we know that’s the case, that dog droppings are a rat favorite?
“Because we’ve actually come across locations that we don’t see that there’s
not a huge problem with people not containing their garbage.”
The problem is that people are not picking up after their dogs.
Allee: And if I live in a neighborhood where people aren’t picking up after their dogs?
Am I in trouble for a rat problem in the future?
“No, you’re not. Just because there’re lots of dogs, doesn’t mean you’re going to
have a rodent problem.”
Cruz says it all turns on whether people actually clean up. But will enough dog
owners really do that?
Katherine Raz isn’t sure.
“See, there’s a dropping someone didn’t pick up.”
Allee: How often do you see that?
“Oh, all the time.”
Maybe the owners don’t read the signs. Or…maybe they just don’t buy the
dog – feces – rat connection.
I don’t either.
So, one night I meet up with an urban ecologist. Joel Brown is with the
University of Illinois at Chicago university.
Allee: Where are we?
“Right now we’re on the grounds of the UIC greenhouse. It’s a small green patch
that’s bordered by the Kennedy, a large parking garage, and one of the science and
engineering buildings.”
But it’s enough space to let nature run its course. Brown points to a darkened
patch of weeds and trees. He swears I just missed a rabbit.
“You can hear a cottontail running right through the underbrush right here.”
There’s more to observe, though. A falcon dines on pigeons that land here.
Dogs eat the rabbits. And there’s a raccoon that snatches food from the student
parking lot.
Brown says all of these have found a niche in Chicago.
“So what you see is a very dynamic process. Nature is not an art gallery; it works
around us and works in response to us.”
But could rats really take advantage of that neighborhood’s growing dog population?
Brown says, maybe. But perhaps not in the way the city claims.
“It is more likely that a single French fry, or a dog biscuit, pet food left
outside, a
sandwich left on a park bench … all of the incidental bits of food that we leave
behind
without even thinking about it. Those are much more likely to be feeding and breeding
the rat population than dog poop.”
He says it’s a minor link, but the city makes a good point nonetheless.
“That’s the part that, to me, is exciting. The fact that they’re even thinking about
these connections, shows they’re thinking smart.”
Ultimately, signs with dire warnings can’t control dogs’ impact on the neighborhood.
Brown says the behavior that matters most comes from a peculiar animal.
That’s the one that walks on two legs, has a big brain, and can recognize its own
connections to
the natural world.
For many people, it’s a spring ritual: cleaning up after dogs who’ve left their calling card in your yard all winter long. But for one man, this dirty job turned into a treasure hunt. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson explains:
Author David Kirby says cattle eating cattle by-product could risk another outbreak of mad cow disease. The FDA says there’s no measurable risk. (Photo courtesy of the USDA)
