News Briefs for the Week of January 13, 2003
By Marcella Durand for Cat Facts
- Wine with a Conscience
It's a small thing, something you usually throw away and never think of again. Yet its continued use could make all the difference to the survival of the Iberian Lynx.
In June, we reported on the plight of the Iberian Lynx, who is the world's most endangered wild feline species. According to SOSLynx, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the Lynx, this species could go extinct practically overnight because its population numbers are so frighteningly low. In fact, SOSLynx estimates that there are fewer than 150 Lynx left in the wild.
One of the major threats to the Lynx is loss of habitat. And there is something you can do to help. We've all heard about the advent of artificial corks for wine. According to plastic-cork fans, they have some advantages, including being slightly easier to pull out of bottle. However, by choosing wine and champagne with traditional corks -- made from
cork trees in Spain and Portugal -- you can help to preserve the rapidly disappearing cork forests of the Iberian peninsula where the Lynx live. These forests are an essential part of the natural Mediterranean "maquis," a mosaic of shrub and woodlands. They protect and shelter the Lynx, who breed and rear their young in them. And using cork from these trees does not damage them in any way. The cork is simply tree bark and
carefully peeling it does not harm the trees. Many of the trees in the Iberian cork forests are more than 100 years old and have been harvested continuously.
If you'd like to learn more about the Iberian Lynx and its plight, visit SOSLynx at www.soslynx.org, or read Eduardo Gonçalves's book on the Lynx, The Algarve Tiger.
- You Say Cat Owner, I Say Slave...
Finding the right word for those who share their lives with pets is causing some serious controversy in California. In fact, the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) recently stated its opposition to the trend of legally changing the term pet "owners" to pet "guardians," and has even issued a white paper detailing the many concerns and questions that veterinarians have about such a change. For instance, asks the CVMA, could an animal, through its "guardian," make a tort claim against a veterinarian for the loss of being able to reproduce? Or for returning the animal to a person whom the veterinarian knew or should have reasonably known was being abusive? And, finally, if animals are no longer property, but wards of a guardian, then who the heck's responsible for the bill?
San Francisco recently passed a preliminary proposal to amend animal control regulations to incorporate the word "guardian." Other cities that have already made the change include Berkeley, California; Boulder, Colorado; and Sherwood, Arkansas. Supporters of the change believe seeing animals as mere property can lead to animal abuse, and that "guardian" implies a much more serious relationship.
However, for those of us who know, love, and live with cats, "slave of cat" is probably the most precise way to describe our relationship with those gentle little fur-covered tyrants.
|
