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My roommate has four legs |
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September 24, 2008
Kristina Durkoske figures Vinny is about as perfect a roommate as
anyone could hope for. He's cheerful and adaptable, likes her friends,
is respectful of the other dormitory residents, and when Durkoske is stressed, he does what he can to help.
"He really is my baby," says Durkoske, 20, of 6-year-old Vinny, her
family's bichon frise. Vinny has traveled with her to Mexico, Canada
and Italy and now shares her dorm room at Washington & Jefferson
College near Pittsburgh, where she is an international business,
Spanish and pre-law major. "When I graduate, he'll go with me to
wherever I get a job. That's just the way it is."
Washington
& Jefferson two years ago joined what appears to be a growing
college-life trend -- pet-friendly dorm rooms offered to interested students. There are at least a dozen such colleges so far, and administrators and students alike declare the concept a hit.
"The
pet owners really like it, of course, and those who don't have pets
like the interaction," says Mike Robilotto of Eckerd College in St.
Petersburg, Fla., which has allowed pets in a few dorm rooms for
decades and now has more than 40 pets in three residences. The pet
housing is full now, he says, "and the students are trying to push for
more."
Factors contributing to a college's decision to establish
pet-friendly dorms: Many animal lovers have opted to live off-campus,
biting into colleges' housing income; and pet prohibitions haven't
always prevented pets being smuggled into dorms. But mostly, the new
policies seem to have emerged in response to a pet-loving society and
from recognition that animals can reduce stress and make acclimating to
college easier.
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Clones' offspring may be in food supply: FDA |
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September 2, 2008
Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may have entered
the U.S. food supply, the U.S. government said on Tuesday, but it would
be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and
conventional products.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in January meat and milk
from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as
products from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers
had followed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones and their
offspring.
While the FDA evaluated the safety of food from clones and their
offspring, the U.S. Agriculture Department was in charge of managing
the transition of these animals into the food supply.
"It is theoretically possible" offspring from clones are in the food supply, said Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman.
Cloning animals involves taking the nuclei of cells from adults and
fusing them into egg cells that are implanted into a surrogate mother.
There are an estimated 600 cloned animals in the United States
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Cloned Meat: It's What's for Dinner |
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August 19, 2008
Proponents of cloning livestock, including cloning companies and
some ranchers, claim that the technology would yield more consistently
high quality meat.
The quality of meat from
conventionally bred herds is inconsistent; some meat is destined for
expensive restaurants while some may be used for dog food.
But
by cloning prized livestock and using them to breed top-notch
livestock, supporters claim ranchers could more reliably produce only
the highest quality product.
After years of study, the
Food and Drug Administration released a lengthy report in January
stating that "food from cattle, swine and goat clones is as safe to eat
as that from their more conventionally bred counterparts."
But not everyone —including another government agency, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and its counterpart in the European Union— is
convinced that your butcher should be stocking meat from clones quite
yet.
Despite FDA's stamp of the approval, the USDA asked the meat
industry to allow time for an "an acceptance process, given the
emotional nature of this issue," said Bruce Knight, the Undersecretary
for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, after the release of the FDA
report.
Knight said the USDA was not concerned about
health issues, but worried that the introduction of the new product
would rouse consumer concern, especially in other countries where
consumers have been extremely wary about genetically modified foods.
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