Month: July 2010

NYC Gasses Geese, Throws Them in a Landfill

About 400 geese were gassed last week in Brooklyn, as they are considered nuisances. There is no relocation program, and obviously little to no reasoning, as the geese could have been used as food, at least, rather than meaningless slaughter.

The New York Times reports:

The carcasses of the Prospect Park geese will be double-bagged and dumped in a landfill. Other states use different methods, like turning the geese into food or animal feed. This year, the Agriculture Department donated 900 pounds of goose breast to food pantries in Pennsylvania.

I don’t even understand the logic of killing the geese, and to add insult to injury – throwing them in a landfill.  Wtf!?!

(Thanks to Seth for the tip)

Your Daily Gross-Out, Courtesy of PETA

The Baltimore Sun has an in-depth look at the health benefits of milk today, and of course PETA is quoted warmly and accurately:

A PETA website says that “dairy products are a health hazard” that are linked to “allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer and other disease.” For a topper, the site says that milk is often contaminated with cow’s blood and pus.

I sincerely hope you are as grossed out as I am, especially since milk is one of my hangover remedies.  Gaaaaroooosssssss.

The People’s Republic of Supermarket

So, as I tweet and “work,” I’m also reading up on the UK’s newly-launched The People’s Supermarket, a supermarket that is expressly modeled after the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn.

The Telegraph further reports:

Once you pay your membership fee (£25) and sign up for a four-hour shift, you will be part-owner of TPS. You will be able to vote on what foods are stocked, and help make decisions on how it’s run. You might also find yourself on TV, thanks to a Channel 4 documentary series that (of course) is following the birth of the store.

So,  the concept is that The People’s Supermarket-branded items are sans overhead built into the pricing – so UKers will pay less for their groceries.   You work your 4-hour shift (and if you miss it, you have to work a double to make up for it), you buy your groceries, you are a part of your community.  I wonder how it will do?  And I wonder how I can get my grubby hands on the documentary?

Pampered Urban Chickens–LITERALLY

women in chicken costumesIf you think you could just buy a fancy coop for your urban chickens, you have not explored the full accessorizing possibilities. Now you can get diapers for your birds!  From the WSJ:

Ruth Haldeman began adopting pet chickens in 2002. “I wanted fresh eggs, but I found that chickens are like peanuts, you can’t have just one,” she says. Before long, Ms. Haldeman had founded ChickenDiapers.com in Hot Springs, Ark.

“Everyone was talking about how there was a need for diapers,” she says, given that chickens typically can’t be potty trained. “Oh, lord, what a mess they make.” Ms. Haldeman, who is also a full-time chemist, designed a chicken diaper with a replaceable liner.

I would like to see a Venn diagram of how the diapered chicken community and the diaper-free children community overlap. The diagram would be a chicken butt and a baby butt, touching.

Note: If you appreciate the awesomeness of this image, click on it to see the back view, complete with tailfeathers.