What need has a cat for silver? Last living argyria victim challenges claims

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

DERBY LINE, Vermont– –
Celeste Yarnell, author of Cat Care Naturally,
is aggressively marketing colloidal silver
preparations for cats. Longtime humane
activist Rosemary Jacobs takes that personally.
“Since colloidal silver is being sold
as a dietary supplement,” not as a drug,
Jacobs warns, “these preparations are unregulated
and untested by the FDA.”
Disfigured by colloidal silver since
1956, when she was just 13, Jacobs knows
first-hand that it can be dangerous indeed, to
both animals and humans.
“I may have more silver in my body
than anyone else alive today,” Jacobs affirms.
“I am one of the few people, including physicians
and veterinarians, who knows about the
condition argyria and the dangers of colloidal
silver preparations. Ms. Yarnall claims that
‘colloidal silver has been used for thousands of
years, apparently with no harmful effects on
the body.’ This is not true. Colloidal silver
causes a r g y r i a, a slate-grey discoloration of
the skin. The condition is irreversible and cannot
be colored with makeup. I know because I
have it. I got argyria from nose drops a doctor
gave me over 40 years ago. Any serious
research on colloidal silver would find the connection.
It’s in the literature.”

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Birds

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service on May 18 commenced poisoning
5,700 seagulls at the Monomoy
National Wildlife Refuge, off Chatham,
Cape Cod, to protect an estimated 35
endangered piping plovers from predation.
The killing proceeded after U.S.
District Judge George O’Toole denied a
request for an injunction against it filed
by the Massachusetts SPCA and the
Humane Society of the U.S.
The Ngatihine Maori, of
Whangarei, New Zealand, on May 16
welcomed home the two survivors of four
endangered kiwis, tested along with six
bats at the government’s Wallaceville
Animal Research Centre to see if the rabbit
calicivirus disease currently ravaging
the Australian rabbit population might
harm native species. The February
killing and dissection of the other two
kiwis provoked protest from Ngatihine
leaders, who charged that they were misled
when they authorized the birds’ use.

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News from abroad

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

A ferocious spring battered central Asia into May––and got
worse when Mongolia officials seeded clouds to produce unseasonable snow,
hoping would help quell at least 288 simultaneous grassfires that killed 17
people, injured 62, burned 31,000 square miles of forest and pasture, forcing
the immediate relocation of more than 1,600 families and 436,000 cattle,
with the evacuation of another 1,600 people and 588,000 cattle anticipated.
The snow––almost the first to hit Mongolia in more than a year––put out only
a few of the fires, but froze or drowned at least 4,900 cattle, along with two
shepherd boys and their 150 sheep. Just to the south, in China, 700,000 cattle
and yaks reportedly froze to death in February during a natural cold snap.
Cyprus SPCA president Toula Poyiadjis on May 18 led 100
CSPCA members and their dogs, donkeys, and a chicken to the palace of
Glafcos Clerides, president of Cyprus, demanding enforcement of humane
laws. “Cyprus lags behind other countries in its treatment of animals,”
Poyiadjis explained. “There is prejudice, fear, and an inexplicable mania for
killing animals.”

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Safe at last!

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Marine mammologist Ignacio Agudo, left, posed for
one quick photo with Alice Dodge of Pet Search, right, on their
way down the gangplank to Aruba after the first leg of his dramatic
February escape from Venezuela––where Agudo and fellow
ecologist Aldemaro Romero have been wanted for alleged
treason since February 1994, because they videotaped fishers in
the act of killing a dolphin for bait one full year before. The
video, aired on both U.S. and Venezuelan television, severely
embarrassed the Venezuelan government in their effort to undo
the U.S. “dolphin-safe” standard for imported tuna.
Romero escaped earlier, along with his family, and
now lives in Miami. “It is hard for me to recognize Ignacio
without his beard,” he laughed when shown the photo. “I have
never before seen him without it.”

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Strange but true tales of attitude

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

Nearly a year after refusing to
pay the Humane Society of Greater Akron
$150,000 annually for animal control service,
the Akron city council is reportedly moving
to set up a municipal animal control
agency––spurred by public outrage over an
April 12 incident in which health officials
boarded up the home of Bill Woolridge, 77,
with 27 dogs inside. The home was sealed
due to alleged unsanitary conditions discovered
by paramedics who responded to an
emergency call when Woolridge’s wife died.
Volunteers rescued the dogs the next day.
Akron city service director Joseph Kidder
called the HSGA request for $150,000
“exhorbitant,” but at 67¢ per capita, it would
have come to 43% less than the U.S. average
of $1.18 per capita paid for basic animal pickup
and impoundment. Akron had been paying
just $19,600 a year, less than 10% of the
cost of running the HSGA shelter.

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Like winning both the Cy Young Award and the MVP

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

DENVER––Patti Olsen, DVM, recently named
to the newly created post of Director of Veterinary Affairs
and Studies for the American Humane Association,
received the American Animal Hospital Association’s
Humane Ethics and Animal Welfare Award on March
11––and the Geraldine Dodge Humane Ethics in Action
Award on April 27.
“As a specialist in the area of small animal
reproduction, Dr. Olson has conducted research for many
years on non-surgical sterilization and contraceptive
options,” said AHA spokesperson Joyce Briggs. “Dr.
Olson is a founding member of the National Council on
Pet Population Study and Policy, and will lead a scientific
workshop scheduled for August 9-11, in Denver, entitled
‘A Critical Evaluation of Free-Roaming/Unowned/Feral
Cats in the United States.’”

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Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

“The Progressive Animal Animal Welfare Society is
attempting to reduce the population of homeless cats with a
specific campaign reaching out to low-income families,”
reports companion animal services director Scott Van
Valkenburg. “First, PAWS is offering neutering surgery for any
puppy or kitten under four months of age for $5.00––or we’ll fix
a whole litter for $10.00. On April 20, PAWS volunteers distributed
500 door hangers in low-income neighborhoods identified
by animal control officers as having many homeless cats. PAWS
is now asking social service agencies to promote our low-cost
neutering campaign, and is posting information about it in social
service offices.”
The Los Angeles SPCA and Ventura County Animal
Control reported on April 29 that “over 500 birds from private
sanctuaries and dozens of horses from residences” had been
evacuated from the path of a local brushfire.

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Woofs and growls

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

In January the International
Fund for Animal Welfare quietly fired
Annemieke Roell, a staffer for 13
years. On April 27, Peter Kuittenbrouwer
of the Toronto-based Financial
Post revealed why: “Three years ago,
sent by IFAW to live in the Magdalen
Islands,” to arrange tourists’ visits to
see seals not being killed, “Roell made
friends with the seal hunters. She tasted
some seal meat and liked it. ‘I had it in
a pate, I had it in stew, I had it in salami
and pepperoni,’” Kuittenbrouwer
quoted Roell. In November 1995, sealing
advocate Gary Troake and Roell
“tried to broker a deal,” Kuittenbrouwer
continued. “The sealers agree to oppose
the trade in seal penises, which are
sought after as an aphrodisiac in Asia,
and IFAW drops its opposition to the
hunt.” Roell told Kuittenbrouwer she
now hopes to “do something from the
other side.”

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HEROIC CAT HONORED

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1996:

The Illinois Senate and village of Wheeling, a
Chicago suburb, on May 6 commended Brat the Cat,
age one, for “ingenuity and persistence” in saving the
life of Jose Ybarra, 15, early on March 15, when
Ybarra suffered a seizure in his sleep from a sudden
attack of meningitis. Brat, a foundling kitten adopted
by the Ybarra family last July, heard Jose thrashing in
his bed and became alarmed, but couldn’t get through
the bedroom door. Shethen ran to wake Jose’s mother,
Karen Ybarra Hummerich.
“She was licking my mom’s eyelids, scratching
and meowing, doing anything she could,” Jose told
media. Hummerich shooed Brat away, but rose to
investigate when the cat tried to claw her way through
Jose’s door. Jose was by then in a coma.
“Our family physician said that if the cat had
not woken us up, we probably would have found him
dead in the morning,” said Hummerich. For five days it
was uncertain whether Jose would ever awaken––but he
then recovered quickly, and has resumed a normal life.

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