18-03-2003, 01:44 AM
|
|
|
Is it OK to put dog poop on a garden?
In article ,
(Thalocean2) wrote:
Carnivore and omnivore feces contain heavy metals. (mercury etc.) The metals
will transfer from your soil to your plants. When you eat these plants the
metals will collect in your brain tissue and eventually cause damage.
Laura B.
If heavy metals were a problem in your cat & dog feces, it would be from
something in the immediate environment, & their heavy metals would
possibly match those of all the people in the same environment. It
certainly is NOT a problem restricted to carnivore or omnivore.
Composting does play a role in the introduction of unwanted heavy metals
into the gardening environment: Use of fireplace ashes, lawn clippings
from grasses fed mineral fertilizers, use of toxified lumber's shavings or
sawdust or painted material or dyed paper, & the heavy metals that pollute
CATTLE feeds hence steer & cow manures or which are even normal in sorghum
feeds & suchlike. Even STRAW can be a source of heavy metal pollutants.
There are many sources including a natural amount of heavy metals in the
soils used by plants as nutrients or picked up in cell manufacture, but
the usual causes of excess pollutants & excess phosphorus in the cattle
feeds, as in the lawn clippings or in straw, & ultimately in manure
composts (largely from herbevores), are mineral fertilizers, non-organic
gardening practices (chiefly pesticide use), bulking agents in commercial
composts, automobile & lawnmower pollutants, & even abrasion from stable
equipment. Among which the most signficant are phosphorus fertilizers
typically contaminated with zinc & cadmium; pesticides & herbicides; &
airborn pollutants from factories & motor vehicles including lawnmowers --
these are the sources that end up even in (herbevore) livestock manures
then composts. Dog poo isn't even on the map.
Some miscellaneous dog & cat poo compost facts:
Dog poo compost is higher in phosphates because dogs eat bones (or at
least dogfood with bonemeal in it).
Even clean soil can cause disease (gardening is a foremost cause of blood
poisoning, as tetanus lives in most soils) & good hygiene is certainly
necessary whether or not one is composting poo. But poor compost practices
may permit Toxocara to live some while in a heap, & hygiene becomes
especially necessary if one is turning a smelly pile. When the compost is
so well aged it smells like sweet autumn humous, even Toxocara will have
disappeared, yet because tetanus is always a risk, good hygiene after
handling composts or even regular soils remains essential. And note most
importantly, if your dog IS infected with Toxocara, then the eggs are
already all over your garden -- poo in the compost does not actually to
that risk.
Thermophilic conditions that result in pure ready compost in only three
weeks are difficult for most of us to achieve, though Ann Ripey's study
used normal backyard composting techniques. One reason it worked so well
for her is because, in fact, the presense of feces in a compost pile
itself increases thermophilic activity. If MORE of us would compost the
catbox & the dog-doo, the temperature of the compost pile would
automatically be higher. But anyone who worried about their temperatures
could just cycle the compost back into the garden after a full year.
If you read THE HUMANURE HANDBOOK - A Guide to Composting Human Manure --
you may still not want to break the law & dump your own turds in your
compost pile, but the whys, hows, & wherefores that show even human turds
would in fact be suitable for composting would help allay peoples' largely
baseless fears of composting doggy-duties & catbox gobbets.
All that said, it is still true that Toxocara is a health risk from owning
a dog or growing vegetables where dogs have access -- a risk all but the
most inveterate animal-haters have always been willing to take. And poo in
the compost is the exact level of real risk, not greater. Children are
most prone to getting worms from dogs but from direct contact with the
dog. Divisiveness on this issue is apt to remain because Toxocara will
always be a credible rather than merely superstitious worry -- but it is
the same risk from owning a dog at all. That heat-composted dog manure is
100% safe in all cases is nevertheless divisive because people will reply
that backyard composts do not sustain the reach the ideal temperature --
though in fact the 130 degree temperatures are EASILY and ROUTINELY
sustained, & when they are not it is mainly because of the lack of a fecal
component which would in fact increase the thermophilic activity. There
are arguments on both sides, but as point of fact, there are parallel
risks to steer & cattle manures & chicken manures, e-coli being only the
most ferocious of many risks, but as with dog poo, no risk at all when
fully composted.
So to me this remains central -- people who are paranoid about this sort
of thing shouldn't be gardening at all, since blood poisoning from merley
touching the ground is as great a risk, & even if they don't have pets,
some neighbor's dog probably pooped somewhere along the lawn, & risk of
toxocara is ALREADY as great as ever it gets. Indeed, the only safe thing
is never to go outside at all, & slather oneself with Pine Sol on an
hourly basis until the phenols destroy these paranoids' livers.
-paghat the ratgirl
--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/
|