Dog Hair To Mop Up Oil Spills

[Steve]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/sha...ogs_salsa_verde

Asher Price | Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 03:27 PM

Could dog hair help sop up oil threatening to lap up on coastal seashores in the Gulf?

Kit Brooking, who runs West End Grooming, a grooming place for pets, tells me she’s planning to send heaps of dog hair to Matter of Trust, a San Francisco nonprofit that makes fur and nylon into oil booms, known as “hairbooms”.

“I just thought it was a cool thing, and am spreading word to people who cut hair in town,” she said. “Whether it’s human or dog hair, it’s one thing we can do to help out with the oil spill.”

“The usual line from people is, ‘Golly, isn’t there something you can do with [all that hair],” she said. “We’re just pleased we can do something with it.”

Matter of Trust has not returned a call for comment. My favorite part of the group’s website is a line in the “Contact Us” page that says “PLEASE DO NOT SEND HAIR, FUR, WASTE WOOL etc. TO THIS ADDRESS.”

(Donors are instructed to register before learning where to send their material.)

“Thousands of salons mail us hair clippings, swept up off their floors, and the fibers are stuffed into booms or woven into hair mats,” according to Matter of Trust’s website. “We all know about shampooing our oily hair, but it took Phill McCrory, a stylist from Alabama, to realize that hair was also an efficient and abundant material for collecting and containing petroleum spills.”

[ellz]

A humourous reply posted by a friend on another list and reprinted here with her permission.

<paste>This is true. In fact, if British Petroleum had seen fit to respond to my

offer of a baggie full of Puli cords in the early days, we would not be

looking at the eco-crisis we're facing now. Stupid, short sighted engineers.

Well known facts among corded dog owners:

One 10" Puli cord can suck up 50 gallons of water;

One 10" WHITE Puli cord can suck up 60 gallons of oil or any other dark, viscous fluid impossible to remove with soap;

Two detached Puli cords missing on the dog's show side are enough to make a Puli owner incandescent with grief;

Three Puli cords arranged into the characters, "666" and left on the front door mat will drive away irritating men dressed in black and riding bicycles;

Four Puli Cords flowing from an outstretched leg are enough to trip an adult male down a flight of steps far more effectively than a slinky toy, in large part because of their stealth. Remember: Silent but deadly;

Five Puli cords sacrificed by a dog feeling peckish integrate nicely into a pulley system enabling an agile dog to reach a 5 lb. pork shoulder;

Six Puli cords wadded up, while inadequate as an opposable thumb, stop up a toilet more efficiently than 3 rolls of Charmin; Seven would have easily

plugged a gushing oil leak;

Eight Puli cords are enough to make a Rastafarian Chihuahua;

Nine Puli cords can ensnare a small mammal: Two cords (wiggling) to get the critter's attention, the rest to wrap around its thorax. Boa Constrictors

got the idea from Pulik. This is true.

Ten Puli cords tied end to end can tow a Greyhound bus as long as the gear is set in neutral;

A fully corded dog can clear a forest floor of its flora and fauna within several hours, less if there's a dog show the following weekend;

Stupid engineers. Boy did they miss the boat this time.

Susi

Makos Pulik

http://www.knobnotes.blogspot.com/

<end paste>

[Katdogs]

There was an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald about this that was quite inspiring. Wish I knew how to post it using my phone. A community enviro group has tripled to more than 90,000 volunteers meeting up at bbqs and parties, putting human, dog and horse hair into donated stockings go make oil-soaking sausages.

[Erny]

Wow .... if hair works as well as it is purported to, what a great natural way of helping to clean up spills from the ocean.