Sodium Iodide Toxic to Animals
A veterinary researcher at U.C. Davis is warning pet owners who may be worried about possible radioactive contamination on the West Coast from Japan’s damaged nuclear power plants NOT to give their pets potassium iodide tablets.
“While potassium iodide might help protect dogs, cats, and other pets, as it would people, from the risks of radiation exposure in the unlikely event that radioactive iodine reaches here in appreciable levels, giving it ahead of time carries risks and would be ill advised,” said Michael Kent, who specializes in radiation cancer therapy for animals.
Kent advises that side effects for dogs and other animals who are given sodium iodide, especially in high doses, could include serious allergic reactions; gastrointestinal disturbances like vomiting and diarrhea; impaired thyroid function; and heart damage. High levels can even be lethal.
Dog-Inspired Art
An art show celebrating Bay Area dogs is now on display in the offices of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 101 Eighth St., Oakland, near the Lake Merritt BART station. All of the paintings in the show depict scenes of dogs frolicking in the East Bay Regional Parks, painted by Elizabeth Ennis. They celebrate the vast open spaces in the East Bay and the dogs and people who enjoy these places together.
In her artist’s statement, Ennis writes: “So often dogs in art are portrayed as sitting calmly at the feet of their masters, embedded in the domestic environment of humans. Instead, I want to show them as part of nature, especially in that state of pure, fierce joy they seem to possess when left free to play and explore unleashed.”
The show will run indefinitely and is available for viewing from 9AM to 5PM every weekday.
PETA Activists Aids Japanese Pets
A Canadian woman associated with the animal advocacy group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently returned from spending a week in Sendai, Japan, where she worked long hours every day to rescue animals in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11. Ashley Fruno currently lives in Manila, Philippines, where she coordinates campaigns, investigations, and the internship program for PETA Asia. She helped to rescue dozens of animals during her short time in Japan.
One touching story she witnessed was the reunion of a man with his injured dog Shane, who managed to find his owner against very long odds. Apparently, he swam a long distance through flood waters from his home territory to an unfamiliar building where an emergency shelter had been set up for the displaced.
People were not allowed to take their companion animals with them into shelters, Fruno said, so many pets were forced to fend for themselves amidst the devastation, and many died.
“We urge families around the world to make emergency plans for their animals today — before disaster strikes,” she said, “because nobody should have to make a heartbreaking choice between their dogs and cats and their own safety.”
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