Dog hair being used to contain the Gulf oil spill

[G_j]

http://www.stargazette.com/article/20100507/NEWS01/5070353/1117/NEWS/Dog+hair+being+used+to+contain+the+Gulf+oil+spill


Dog hair being used to contain the Gulf oil spill
Elmira groomers spreading the word
By Ray Finger • May 7, 2010, 6:55 pm

You may think of the hair of the dog as a proverbial cure for hangovers, but animal fur -- and human hair as well -- is actually being used to help clean up the Gulf Coast oil spill.

Toughpups and Pampered Princesses, a dog-grooming and canine day care business in Elmira, is part of a national effort to collect clippings from animal groomers, barber shops and hair salons. The material will be stuffed into recycled pantyhose, tied up as sausage-shaped "hair booms" and sent to the Louisiana coast to contain the spill.

"I would like to get a couple of hundred pounds, if at all possible," business owner Leo Sanders said after he kicked off the effort on Friday. He is collecting animal fur, human hair and nylons to be shipped and assembled elsewhere.

"We've been trying to get the word out to as many people as possible just to bring their animals down. We can take care of everything," he said. "It's summertime. If you were thinking about getting your dog groomed, now's the time to do it because it can really help. It's more important than it's ever been, quite frankly."

Instead of being absorbent, animal fur and human hair are adsorbent -- meaning that oil will cling to the hair booms that are being used to encircle and contain the oil slick, according to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based environmental charity.

..more..

more info: http://matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html

[donco6]

1. Dang - do they need more?

I could probably solve that problem just with my rugs.

[OhioChick]

6. LOL...

Same here. My Siberian is 'blowing her coat' now. :banghead:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is good!

Kudos to him!

[undeterred]

3. I can brush a lot of undercoat from my dog

but I doubt it weighs more than a few ounces.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Website with more info...

http://matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html

[G_j]

5. thanks

& in time to add it the OP.

[Auggie]

7. I predict we'll see a lot of hairless dogs very soon

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Some hairless dogs are quite attractive, even win prizes and stuff

[glowing]

9. And the really cool thing is that that they can be washed out, like your hair,

and re-used again.

[IDemo]

10. I could throw a stick in the Gulf

and my dog would have that water sparkling clean in no time.

[ashling]

11. It seems like the oil containment booms could be more efficient

if the incorporatws the hair mat technology demonstrated in the video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQOD_Ir2vQ

[G_j]

16. interesting

thanks

[razorman]

12. Oh good Lord. Now it's all going to wind up all over my damn living room.

[csziggy]

13. It's too bad - we have clipped most of the horses on the place in the last month

And the horses we didn't clip were leaving mats of hair in the pasture where they rolled. That could have provided a hundred pounds or so of hair. But we just sweep it out of the barn and the birds use it to line their nests.

I'd suggest contacting horse farms, but since horses shed by how long the day is, most in the northern hemisphere would have already shed or been clipped.

[G_j]

17. good thought

I imagine horse hair would have similar properties.

[kestrel91316]

14. If I still had my Great Pyrenees, I could surely get that oil spill cleaned up

singlehandedly.

[AnnieBW]

15. Here, kitty, kitty!

I just took the Furminator to my fat boy and got off enough to soak up a few hundred gallons. Anybody got an address to send that hair to?

[G_j]

18. ==

[G_j]

19. Oil Spill: Donating Pet and Human Hair to Help

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/oil-spill-donating-your-pets-hair-and-your-hair-to-help.html


Oil Spill: Donating Pet and Human Hair to Help
posted by Megan, selected from Mother Nature Network May 8, 2010 5:07 pm


If you’ve been keeping tabs on the catastrophic (an adjective I feel like I’ve been having to use far too often lately) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you’ve probably been wondering how exactly you can help. Well, for those of you with furry, four-legged flatmates, it can be as easy as sweeping the floors and collecting all that errant fur and hair.

So how exactly can hoarding pet fur help with cleaning up one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory? Enter Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that’s been accepting donations of non-filthy pet fur and human hair since 1998 to craft oil-absorbing hairmats — described as “flat square dreadlocks” — and hair-stuffed containment booms made from recycled pantyhose. These hairy contraptions are effective at soaking-up oil and they don’t require any new resources … just stuff you’d normally trash (or compost) unless you’re into, umm, stockpiling fur.

I must say, sending along fur to Matter of Trust via Excess Access is an eco-ideal spring cleaning mission for folks with critters around the house. In addition to pet owners, groomers and salon owners can get involved too by sending in bulk shipments of hair/fur. In fact, as of today, 400,000 pounds of hair was en route to the Gulf Coast.

Head on over to Matter of Trust for instructions on how you, and Mr. Bojangles the beagle, can help out.

http://matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html
-----------------------