Word: livestock
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There have been lots of stories lately about chicken coops' becoming a new urban and suburban accessory. But Carpenter considers the squawking hen "the urban-farming gateway animal," the first occupant of a big metropolitan menagerie. Among eco-foodies, the hottest urban livestock bleat, quack, gobble, oink, buzz and ... well, whatever noise rabbits make. Just ask the folks at Seattle Tilth, a composting and gardening nonprofit that this summer added goat sheds and pens to its long-standing local chicken-coop tour. Or ask the participants in Detroit's Garden Resource Program, which recently launched beekeeping classes and saw them...
...growing popularity of raising barnyard animals in backyards - or indoors (at least two companies, ChickenDiapers.com and MyPetChicken.com sell nappies to people who want their birds to bunk with them) - has forced many municipalities across the country to statutorily reckon with allowing livestock within city limits. But legal or not, urban animal husbandry is gaining cachet. That's not only because of the desire to eat local and organic but also because the shaky economy has more people wanting to be more self-sufficient. Says Seattle Tilth garden educator Carey Thornton: "Food you raise yourself just tastes better...
...movement has led to heated debates in city-council meetings over the definitions of livestock, small animals and farm animals. The result: a hodgepodge of animal-ownership laws across the nation and even within a state. This spring in North Carolina, for example, Asheville voted to allow temporary permits for goats to clear vegetation, while Charlotte banned them from properties smaller than a quarter of an acre - despite supporters showing up at a city-council meeting with signs reading I LOVE MY PYGMY GOAT...
...quickly disappearing vultures is an alarming example of how difficult it can be for animals to find their place in our modern world. The advent of 20th century farming replaced wild herd animals, whose carcasses are the staple diet of vultures around the world, with heavily medicated livestock. Diclofenac, a frequently administered anti-inflammatory veterinary painkiller comparable to ibuprofen, has proven to be particularly deadly to the vultures that ingest it secondhand. Though the birds by design have "very strong stomach fluids" that digest even the nastiest of pathogens, this particular drug has proven too much, says Tom Aversa...
...news for the birds. Countries where vultures are most threatened, such as Nepal, India and Pakistan, rely heavily on vultures for a kind of natural maid service: as they clear out dead animals, the risk of disease is also reduced. Dangerous wild-dog packs that feed on dead livestock have also flourished without competition from the birds, says Todd Katzner of Pittsburgh's National Aviary, leading to a new surge of rabies, particularly in Mumbai. "People don't realize what a key role vultures play in the ecosystem," says Aversa. "[They] prevent disease and recycle...