pnbsp;/ppspan style=”font-size:16px;”ustrongCheers/strong/u/span/ppnbsp;strongWest Hollywood/strong and its City Council members have earned a Cheer for their defense of all animals whose lives are taken by the fur industry ever year. As of Sept. 21, West Hollywood became the first city in the United States to ban the sale of wearable furs in retail stores./ppimg alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/West-Hollywood.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 179px; float: right; margin: 5px 6px;” //ppnbsp;City Council members passed the law two years ago. More than 50 million animals raised on fur farms around the world are slaughtered for their pelts annually in addition to the approximately 10 million animals trapped in the wild.nbsp; While fur sales have declined in the U.S. over the last decade, unfortunately global fur sales actually increased in 2012, driven by growth in Asian markets and increased designer use. In the United States more people buy fur in New York than any other city, followed by Chicago. Letrsquo;s hope states and consumers look to the West Coast fashion capital as a role model instead of New York so we can end the unjust practices of the fur industry.br /nbsp;/ppnbsp;/ppCheers to strongPesticide Free New Canaan in Connecticut/strong for its efforts to raise awareness about the health risks of pesticides to humans and domestic and wild animals. As Micaela Porta and Heather Lauver walked through their New Canaan, Conn. neighborhood on the way to pick their children up at school back in 2011, they were struck by the number of yellow pesticide application flags that they saw.nbsp; The flags depict a parent, child and dog with a black line through them indicating ldquo;Keep off the grass.rdquo;/ppldquo;I had this a-ha moment because I really looked at the flag and it depicted 99 percent of everybody who was within a three-mile radius of where we were standing, and I was like, lsquo;What are we all doing?rsquo; rdquo; Porta told Friends of Animals. nbsp;ldquo;And there was a dog not three feet from that flag when I first woke up to it.rdquo;/ppTo get others in their community to wake up and reduce the use of pesticides the moms founded Pesticide-Free New Canaan as a non-profit initiative supported by a local nature center./ppSince then the women use their limited free time mdash;ldquo;time that we can beg borrow or steal time from our families and other responsibilities,rdquo; said Porta, to make public presentations about the health risks of pesticides to humans and animals and the need to switch to organic lawn care./ppldquo;We started researching these chemicals and then we couldnrsquo;t not do something,rdquo; Porta said. nbsp;ldquo;Itrsquo;s a business. A lot of these chemicals were created as biological agents meant to kill living things.rdquo;/ppimg alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ladybug.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 200px; float: left; margin: 6px;” /One of the really popular ingredients, a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-D”2,4-D/a, found in more than a thousand products sold in the United States, is actually derived from Agent Orange, Lauver said, adding that the Environmental Protection Agency has no testing program for human health effects of pesticides./ppldquo;So we have surplus military chemicals that needed to be monetized and sold for other purposes.nbsp; This isnrsquo;t new, itrsquo;s been going on since post war but every year there is a new product, a new four-step program and a new this or that,rdquo; Porta said.nbsp; ldquo;I think that even in the last two or three years peoplersquo;s tolerance for weeds has diminished and what you are seeing now are lawns that look like putting greens./ppldquo;Our point is where your kids and your pets and your family and neighbors health is concerned, is it really worth increasing the rates of leukemia, lymphoma and all kind of things? We are talking about allergies and asthma and depression and fertility issues. Is it worth it for crab grass?rdquo;/ppOn Oct. 10 the duo addressed their local Rotary Club and shared research about chemical lawn pesticides, including:/pullipLong-term consequences of pesticide exposure include depression, lowered fertility and miscarriage, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, neurological damage, liver and kidney dysfunction and cancer./p/lilipDogs exposed to pesticide-treated grass have increased risks of bladder cancer and lymphoma, from two to seven times respectively./p/lilipAccording to the American Academy of Pediatrics, evidence shows links between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function and behavioral problems./p/lilipThe placenta does not protect a fetus from exposure./p/lilipA strongUniversity of Iowa/strong study found that working as a golf superintendent significantly increased onersquo;s risk of getting non-Hodgkinrsquo;s lymphoma, brain cancer, lung cancer, large intestine cancer, and prostate cancer.nbsp;/p/li/ulpThe women also shared tips on switching to organic lawn care, which they pointed out people can do on their own or they can hire an organic landscape provider.nbsp; The first step is always a soil test as weeds and pests thrive in soil that is not pH balanced and poorly fertilized./ppldquo;Getting your lawn off drugs is a process,rdquo; Lauver said. ldquo;Itrsquo;s like any drug problem, though, you donrsquo;t just stop cold turkey because you are going to get grubs and itrsquo;s going to look horrible. Get a soil test.rdquo;/ppPorta pointed out that one of the biggest accomplishments of Pesticide-Free New Canaan thus far in addition to attracting more than 200 members is the creation of the Pesticide Educational Research Fellowship at New Canaan High School./ppldquo;Heather is a public health expert and has a background in public health and environmental philanthropy and designed a curriculum that engages students with local scientists and other area experts to do water testing in our town, to measure pesticide levels and also nitrates and phosphates and e-coli, as well as just go door to door taking surveys on peoplersquo;s lawn care practices,rdquo; Porta said./ppIn Connecticut, where there is currently a ban on toxic pesticides on school grounds, chemical lawn applications are prevalent in the suburbs, but the Department of Environmental Protection, the agency charged with monitoring pesticide levels throughout the state, is underfunded so that oversight has fallen to about three statewide monitoring agents./ppThis is where we come in, said Lauver, who designed the fellowship as a way of providing a necessary, ongoing service to the town while harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of New Canaan#39;s students./ppThe data collected this year showed that there were 24 pesticide types found in the water throughout New Canaan. What was most alarming to Lauver is that water samples tested positive for imidacloprid, also known as Merit, which controls grubs, from at least half the sites around town./ppldquo;Merit is highly toxic to bees. We are killing our bees,rdquo; Lauver said. nbsp;ldquo;Itrsquo;s not good. If you see this on the list of ingredients in the stuff you are spraying, stop please. Bee colony collapse is real. Itrsquo;s sad. We need things to be pollinated.rdquo;/ppemMaking a difference/em/ppPorta said she is proud of the student fellowship because it has created a partnership with the town and that is essential for establishing a pesticide free New Canaan./ppnbsp;ldquo;I am also really proud of our approachmdash;one lawn at a time. If we were sitting around hoping that 100 people would switch in a month or in a year we would probably be very discouraged,rdquo; Porta said. ldquo;You donrsquo;t see those kinds of numbers. But every time we speak in public we do get a fair amount of people, in some cases half the people, who switch.rdquo;/ppIn nearby Rowayton, Conn., the womensrsquo; presentation inspired the Rowayton Gardeners, with the help of Friends of Animals, to reach out to their elected officials about making the switch from using a chemical called quinclorac to a pesticide-free program at Pinkney Park. nbsp;The park sits along the Five Mile River and is home to many community events like a farmerrsquo;s market and Shakespeare on the Sound.img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pinkney.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 224px; float: right; margin: 6px;” //ppThe town contracted with Paul Saultanis of Country Green in Monroe, Conn., who began transitioning the park last spring. Following a soil test, Saltanis recommended a final limited chemical application of Dimension, a pre-emergent to suppress crabgrass and other weed grass seeds from coming up, and then unrolled the organic program that would improve the soil conditions to eliminate the need for further use of pesticides./ppldquo;The main concept of organic lawn care is to optimize the conditions for the grass by building up the soil. Grass plants like a neutral pH to grow and the whole idea of organic lawn care is to optimize the conditions for the grass so that it can outcompete the pests and weeds,rdquo; Saltanis said. nbsp;ldquo;Once you get some biology going in the soil you can grow grass without the need for chemicals.rdquo;/ppldquo;You want to have living soil.nbsp; You need microbes in there to offset the bad guys. And if the soil is too acidic you donrsquo;t have any microbes. nbsp;The first thing is to correct the acidity with lime. nbsp;The second thing is to put out some food for the microbes. And that is the organic fertilizers to encourage them. nbsp;A step further is to actually add some organic material, compost, which stimulates and gives a good base for the seed. It improves everything particularly if the soil is weak.rdquo;/ppIn the case of Pinkney Park, the soil was acidic as well as deficient in calcium because of salt damage from flooding, so Saltanis top dressed the park with lime, organic fertilizer and compost during the summer months./ppThe next step in September involved planting a mixture of grass seedsmdash;perennial rye grass, bluegrass, and the hardy tall fescue mdash; to give the park some genetic diversity that would sustain it through the heavier foot traffic during summer months./ppSaltanis, whose been in business 19 years, said he has seen a gradual shift over the years and now more than half of his clients are using organic lawn care methods./ppldquo;We are not necessarily changing the minds of people set in their ways, we are replacing them with the young, environmentally minded,rdquo; Saltanis said./ppldquo;I think pet owners are great because I think they understand their pets are walking in these chemicals and licking their paws. I found that one of the main reasons that people decide to give organic a try is they got a new puppyhellip; they feel that they really have to protect the new puppy from harmful chemicals.rdquo;/ppemStart your own local movement/em/ppIf you are interested in getting pesticides out of your community, it is essential to reach out to local politicians and government. Beyond Pesticides, a non-profit headquartered in Washington, D.C., has several fact sheets available to help you organize in your community. nbsp;Visit a href=”http://www.beyondpesticides.org/”www.beyondpesticides.org/a for information/ppnbsp;/phr /pspan style=”font-size:16px;”ustrongJeers/strong/u/span/ppnbsp;A battle may have been won but the war is not over for sharks in California. A jeer goes to National Marine Fisheries Service NMFS, which on May 2 proposed a rule to implement provisions of the Shark Conservation Act of 2010, which included an interpretation that state shark fin bans, including Californiarsquo;s, which went into effect July 1, are preempted by federal law.nbsp;More recently NOAA, through the U.S. Department of Justice, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the lawsuit against Californiarsquo;s shark fin ban that asserted its opinion on federal preemption./ppAlarmed by the actions taken by the NMFS and the NOAA, Assemblymember Paul Fong (D-Cupertino), who authored the California Shark Protection Act, along with numerous members of the of the California State Legislature, submitted a letter to the Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Acting NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathy Sullivan regarding their concern of the actions taken. In addition, a letter was sent to the chair of the Council of Environmental Quality urging her to work with the NOAA and to reverse their position on federal preemption of Californiarsquo;s shark fin ban./ppldquo;I took action to introduce Assembly Bill (AB) 376, the California Shark Protection Act, after seeing evidence of the cruel and inhumane practice of shark finning, where the fins are removed, the sharksrsquo; body is thrown back overboard, often still alive where the sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown,rdquo; Fong told Friends of Animals via email. ldquo;Scientists estimate that 73 million sharks are killed every year, which greatly affects the balance of the oceanrsquo;s ecosystem.nbsp;/ppldquo;AB 376 closed the loophole in the federal anti-finning law.nbsp;Because federal law requires fishermen to land sharks whole, fin traders slice off the fins once the sharks reach the docks, leaving the bodies to rot, be thrown out, or ground up into fish food. AB 376 is aimed at stopping the statersquo;s contribution to the problem of the practice and the decline of the shark population by banning shark fin in California. California is a trafficking center for shark fins from all over the world, including North America, South America and Asia.nbsp; AB 376 will close our ports and borders to the fin trade.rdquo;/ppFong said he received a tremendous amount of positive feedback and support from constituents in his district and throughout the state./ppldquo;I did receive some negative feedback from some Chinese groups, but in a poll commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 70 percent of Chinese Americans supported the ban on shark fin,rdquo; Fong said.img alt=”” src=”/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/sharkfin2.jpg” style=”width: 300px; height: 220px; margin: 6px; float: left;” //ppIn the letter to Council of Environmental Quality, Fong writes:em The federal governmentrsquo;s amicus brief erroneously asserts that Californiarsquo;s law prohibits fishers from possessing shark fins. Rather, Californiarsquo;s law expressly allows permitted fishers to possess fins in the statehellip;Under Californiarsquo;s law a fisher is permitted to land a shark and place it into the stream of commerce; however he or she is not permitted to sell detached shark fins./em/ppemThe purpose of Californiarsquo;s shark fin law is to reduce the global market for shark finsmdash;the economic driver of global shark declinesmdash;to help reach our shared goal of improving shark populations around the world. Without this law, shark fins from dubious origins would be sold in California unfettered because currently there are no mechanisms in place that require detailed record keeping on species, origin and chain of custody for shark fins.rdquo;/em/ppFong pointed out that numerous countries, states, cities and territories have joined California in banning shark fin sales including the states of Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Delaware; the territories of Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands; the European Union; and the countries of Taiwan, Venezuela, Palau, Maldives and Honduras. In Canada, Toronto, Calgary and numerous cities in Ontario (on Nov. 30, 2012, Torontorsquo;s ban was overturned by the courts) also banned shark fin sales./ppThe proposed rule by NMFS and NOAA has no definite period to produce a judgment, according to Fong./ppWhile Michael Harris, director of the Wildlife Law Program at Friends of Animals, applauds Fongrsquo;s efforts, he believes California should also ban all sport fishing of sharks and is hoping that six species of scalloped hammerhead sharks will eventually be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed to list four distinct population segments of scalloped hammerhead sharks in response to a petition by WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals./ppldquo;There is no justifiable distinction, for example, between the killing of a scalloped hammerhead as a trophy-mount on the wall of a resort in Nantucket or the killing of the same animal to supply fin to market in Asia. Both present risk of extinction to the species,rdquo; Harris said in a letter to Maggie Miller, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service earlier this month./ppldquo;The ESA listing is needed. Not only will it apply nationally, it would prevent any killing of hammerheads,rdquo; Harris said./ppnbsp;/ppnbsp;/ppemCheers and Jeers: October 14, 2013 by Nicole Rivard/em/ppnbsp;/p