Cats shouldn't hang out in supermarket meat cases
Cats like meat.
Even though we live in central Manhattan (Kansas), there’s a small greenbelt behind the house and we’ve had visitors such as deer, turkeys, and yesterday, a fox.
The raccoons, squirrels, birds and rabbits are everywhere.
My two black cats have had happy hunting since our 2006 arrival, and left me a pair of lucky rabbits feet the other day (the two black ones, as kittens in this pic, from 2003; the other one, named Lucky, wasn’t so lucky).
Because cats like meat, it’s a good idea to keep them out of supermarkets, especially those with a butcher shop, or a meat case with open doors.
A colleague sent along this video of a cat in a meat case in a supermarket, apparently, according to readers’ comments, in St. Petersburgh, Russia. Not good supermarket food safety practices.
If you yak on your cat, what's the best way to clean it and avoid norovirus transmission?
Amy has covered what to do if a student pukes in class; Ben and Mayra have made up a groovy infosheet on cleaning procedures.
But what if you yak on your cat or dog?
Specifically, as Scott Weese asks at the Worms & Germs Blog, when he should be enjoying turkey in Guelph, how do you disinfect a cat?
Weese explains how a colleague’s wife once had norovirus and spewed on the family cat, and says, dogs and cats cannot become infected with norovirus. However, they could act as a source of infection is their coat was contaminated.
Weese figures a bath is the best way to go (not the oven, right) and that anyone bathing a heavily contaminated animal should wear a mask and gloves, change their clothes after, clean any contaminated surfaces with bleach or another disinfectant and wash their hands.
He also concludes that the easiest way to handle this is to avoid vomiting on pets.
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New York teen left kitten in oven to die
Associated Press is reporting a New York City teenager has admitted that she failed to let a kitten out of an oven after a friend put the animal inside and left it to roast to death.
After pleading guilty to charges of animal cruelty and attempted burglary on Wednesday, 17-year-old Cheyenne Cherry confronted a row of animal activists outside the courtroom. Cherry stuck out her tongue and told the activists that the kitten named Tiger Lily was dead.
Authorities say Cherry and a 14-year-old friend ransacked a Bronx apartment before putting the cat in the oven, where it cried and scratched before dying.
The 14-year-old was charged with aggravated animal cruelty and burglary in the May 6 incident.
Cherry will serve a year in jail under a plea bargain.
Cats eating better than their owners
I’ve just started my first year of veterinary school, and after only two days into the program, I’ve been contacted by at least five pet food companies touting their premium pet food that is healthy for pets and tasty as well. I suppose that pets enjoy the variety of flavors, but a new study from Australia suggests it’s doing more harm than good.
Deakin University scientist Dr Giovanni Turchini has discovered an estimated 2.48 million tonnes of forage fish - a limited biological resource - is consumed by the global cat food industry each year.
This puts cats ahead of people as far as consumption rates go; pet cats are eating an estimated 13.7 kilograms of fish a year, which far exceeds the Australian average (human) per capita fish and seafood consumption of around 11 kilograms.
Just as obesity has become a major epidemic among Americans, it is also an epidemic among pets. These tasty canned foods with enticing flavors such as “shredded yellowfin tuna fare” only encourage pets to grow wider around the belly all while pet food companies continue to cook up new ideas for making cats want their food.
What happened to cats eating regular dry food? Though, even the dry food goes overboard for Fancy Feast, which touts three different flavors for the finicky cat. With the slogan of “A bowl full of ‘I love you,’” Fancy Feast has definitely gone overboard in pampering cats. If you love your pet, then why are you feeding it a high-fat meal?
The luxury products containing fish unfortunately are contributing to the overfishing problem worldwide.
Pregnant humans and cats can co-mingle
My friend and OK hockey player Scott Weese seems to be having fun with his Worms and Germs blog. It’s a great resource for pet ownership, especially aspects of zoonotic disease.
Yesterday, Scott asked, are pregnancy and cats compatible? Amy, who’s six months pregnant, and I share our Manhattan home with two dogs and two cats (the cats are from Walkerton, Ontario, and made the trip to Kansas with me). Scott writes, and I didn’t know about the 24-hour infectious bit, that,
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“Cats are the only animal species that can spread Toxoplasma in their stool. Shedding rates in cats are quite low, but can be higher in cats that go outside, hunt or are fed raw meat. However, it takes 24 hours or more for Toxoplasma in stool to be infectious (that means that fresh stool cannot spread Toxoplasma). That key point greatly reduces the risk of transmission from cats.”
Sure, if you clean the litter box regularly. That’s Amy with Crystal (right).
Setting Boundaries: Pets and your newborn baby
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My ex mother-in-law once told me that if I had a baby I would have to get rid of my cats. I replied, “No cats, no baby.” My step-brother's cats mysteriously disappeared once his firstborn was old enough to crawl. Doug and I have two cats and two dogs and no intention of giving them up or sending them outdoors once the baby arrives. Sure, there’s dog hair all over the floors and it’s going to be a hassle learning to manage new and old responsibilities – and much more difficult to keep pet hair out of the baby’s mouth once she’s mobile. But we committed to the pets long ago and have been working on teaching them their order in the home. The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, recommends that the dogs not even be allowed near the baby’s belongings at first to teach them that Baby is Alpha. Let them sniff at a distance until they know their place. When the dogs go for a walk, it should be behind the stroller, and they shouldn’t get unsupervised visitation, if they are allowed at all, in the baby’s room. It’s all about setting boundaries.
The Worms and Germs Blog by Doug’s ex-hockey buddy Scott Weese (he’s still a buddy but no hockey for Doug in Manhattan) recommends in “Old pet, new baby...new problems?” that we visit our veterinarian and the humane society to get advice on introducing the dogs and cats to the baby. Scott provides relevant downloadable pamphlets from the Calgary Humane Society in his blog post.
We want all four pets and the three of us to survive the transition without nips, scratches, or territory marking. We get enough of that from our friends and colleagues.
Cat poop coffee
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2008/01/05/mi.cat.poo.coffee.beans.wzzm
Cat poop coffee, or kopi luwak -- otherwise known as the most expensive coffee in the world -- is, according to wiki, coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, and in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee which are coffee berries which have been defecated by local weasels. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet.Lots has been written about cat poop coffee, but here's a more graphic representation from a few months ago.
And don't eat poop.
Glowing cats
South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure that could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.As part of the procedure's side effects, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.
The Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday,
"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned. The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model [cloned] animals suffering from the same diseases as humans."
Brewing coffee from cat poop
According to ITN and Yahoo! News:
"Makers claim they gather undigested seeds from ripe coffee cherries, that have passed through the stomachs of civet cats and use them to make the drink.
It has been suggested enzymes in the animal's stomach break down the proteins in the seeds and give them a bitter taste that enhances the flavour."
They may be right about the poop seeds affecting the flavor, but the safety risk of this practice is high. The filth that these seeds come from could contain E. coli or other fecal coliforms that can lead to health issues. We'll keep an eye on this practice, but I wouldn't be surprised if we hear about a few people getting sick off of this practice. Read the full article here.
