Herbicide Safety And Pets
Herbicides can improve the appearance of your landscape, but those same chemicals might be harming your pets. Evidence shows that exposure to certain herbicides increase a pet's chances of getting diseases like cancer. It is important to follow safety warnings to protect your pets and other pets in your neighborhood.
-
Definition
-
Dandelions are a common target of herbicides. A herbicide is a substance used to kill plants. People often use herbicides in their yards to kill weeds.
Conventional Herbicides
-
If you choose to use conventional herbicides, follow all warning labels, which will tell you how to properly apply and store the herbicide.
-
Nontoxic Herbicides
-
Nontoxic herbicides such as corn gluten meal or white vinegar are good alternatives to conventional herbicides, but they can only be used on certain plants and in certain conditions.
Chemical Alternative
-
An alternative to using an herbicide is picking weeds by hand. This poses no danger to your pets and is your safest, though more labor intensive, option.
Ingestion
-
If you suspect your pets have ingested an herbicide, call your veterinarian or an emergency veterinarian immediately.
-
References
- Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association: Herbicide Exposure and the Risk of Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder in Scottish Terriers; Glickman LT, Raghavan M, Knapp DW, Bonney PL, Dawson MH; 2004
- New York Times: Lawn Herbicide Called Cancer Risk for Dogs
- Iowa State University: Corn Gluten Meal Research Page
Resources
- Photo Credit dog with wet nose image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com Dandelion lawn image by Mladenov from Fotolia.com
