Exotic animal ownership gains acceptance on Plains
Exotic animal ownership gains acceptance on Plains
NORA HOLZMAN
Copy Editor
There are dog people, and then there are cat people. But for some, that just isn't enough of a choice.
Whether you know it or not, iguanas, snakes, tarantulas, even a wolf or a cougar may be living right next door to you. Exotic pets are growing in popularity, and Auburn hasn't been immune to the trend.
"It takes someone with a little bit of freak in them," said Brad Wagner, an Auburn alumnus and owner of two tarantulas. "You never know what's going to make a good pet. I've never had a tarantula chew things up."
Wagner said he never thought he would own tarantulas. He developed an attachment to them when he was caring for some for a friend of his. They got sick, and he realized he didn't want them to die. He's had tarantulas of his own ever since.
"People think they're weird or gross, but I think it's kind of interesting the way they move. They're pretty durable and easy to take care of." Wagner said, adding that tarantulas generally live to age 25.
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He owns a wooly tarantula, which he said has a leg span of eight inches and fangs that extend 5/8 of an inch, and a pink toe tarantula, which he doesn't handle much because it's too fast, he said.
Wagner has also owned a gecko, although it was for more practical reasons.
"Geckos eat roaches, so when I was in the dorms we got one and let it loose. We were the only room in the dorm without a roach problem," he said.
Veterinarian Twila Floyd played with tarantulas, lizards and horned toads during her youth in west Texas. She specializes in exotic animals at her practice at the Auburn Veterinary Hospital, and she said the job "just fell in my lap" after her childhood experiences.
"Everybody sees beauty in different beasts," Floyd said. The people in her office come in with their unusual pets, each looking at the others and wondering how they could keep such strange animals as pets, she said. "People fear that I'll think they're weird."
Floyd said people keep exotic pets because, "People are attracted to the inner spirit of a species. It's a bonding of one species to another. Some prefer feathers, scales, leather or fur."
Floyd has seen all kinds of pets in her practice, including iguanas, snakes, turtles, monitor lizards, toads, rabbits, ferrets, chickens and even peacocks, emus and ostriches.
A variety of people own exotics, not just college students, Floyd said, although there are a wide range of animals here. "People come from two hours away to see me," she said.
But perhaps in a few years they won't have to. Floyd believes the United States is moving toward greater acceptance of exotic pets.
"Vets will have to branch off; they'll have to be different," she said. "And they'll have to really like exotics. If they don't, their clients will know."
In a few years, Floyd said, pets that are considered unusual today may be more typical, especially because of apartments that forbid tenants to keep cats or dogs.
"People want comfort; they want to feel something that will respond. Each to his own beast," she said.
George Hunter, owner of Hunter's Marine and Exotic Connection, is counting on that growth in exotic pets. He plans to open Tiger Shark Pets, which will be located in the Annalue Plaza near the Kroger grocery store, near the end of November. Tiger Shark will deal exclusively in exotic animals.
Hunter said he defines exotic pets "for a college town" as reptiles, raccoons and ferrets, although those are becoming more common.
"For me, exotic would be wolves, lynxes bobcats, cougars, zebras, wildebeests, wombats Ñ things like that," he said.
Hunter said he believes exotics are becoming more mainstream, except perhaps for poisonous snakes.
"Pets offer enjoyment, companionship," he said. "A cougar has much more personality than a house cat. Of course, not everybody has the facilities to keep a cougar."
Hunter's own pets include a wolf, foxes, raccoons and two African pygmy goats. "Exotics are more appealing; they're more fun," he said. "A black lab doesn't have the same ingenuity as a wolf."
From what he's seen, both men and women are interested in exotic pets, Hunter said.
He said, more males than females own snakes, but he sees many women who own ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs and birds.
Tiger Shark Pets will carry reptiles, birds, ferrets, even live sharks for sale and display, Hunter said. He's trying to get a tiger in the future to make the store's name a reality.
Hunter got much of the tanks, cages and inventory for the shop from the Pet Stop exotic pet store, which closed this fall.
"I'd been looking at it since the summer," he said. "Pet Stop was on its way out, and the opportunity arose when it shut down."
However, Hunter said his store will be very different than Pet Stop.
"It'll be clean; that's the major difference. There won't be any deadbeats working there. We'll have a full line of pets, and the prices will be much cheaper than Pet Stop, now and in the future," he said.
"There will be more selection, although there won't be any poisonous snakes Ñ too much liability," he said. "The store won't be a zoo."
Hunter said, "We'll try to get whatever anybody wants, as long as its legal." Some pets require permits because they are so unusual or difficult to care for.
"I don't want people hurting animals and suing me because they die," he said.
Hunter has been in the pet store business for nine years, and although he is studying anthropology and archaeology at Auburn, he said he plans to continue in the pet business for the long term.
"I hate for people to be limited. I hate to be limited where I'm at, and I feel that's where Auburn's at Ñ not growing fast," he said.
"Exotics aren't for everybody. They must be respected; most won't let you handle them bad. It takes a special person.
"I just hope people are responsible enough," he said.
Kimberly Kinsey has learned much about how to care for her exotic pets from her work as a receptionist at the University small animal clinic.
She is the proud owner of a ferret, three iguanas, a snake and a dog.
"You really get attached," she said. "Animals have lots of personality."
Kinsey said when people find out about her pets, "They ask if I have a zoo." But she said exotics such as iguanas and snakes are actually quite common in the clinic.
"We even had a cougar once, owned by a college student," she said, adding that just obtaining a permit for a cougar costs about $2,000.
She said her pets are relatively easy and inexpensive to care for. For reptiles the initial set-up is the greatest expense because of the need for heat lamps and large cages.
The iguanas eat fresh vegetables, which costs her about $7 every two weeks, "and that's for three of them," she said. "They're definitely more expensive than a dog."
Kinsey said she would eventually like to get a Komodo dragon and a blue and gold macaw.
"My next animal will definitely be a bird. "I'm just expanding my little world," she said. "They're like a family."
Study links tobacco carcinogen with lung cancer
TAMARA MOSER
Assistant State/Local Editor
It seems everywhere you turn there are pictures of beautiful men and women having a good time and holding cigarettes in their hands with logos like "You've come a long way baby."
However, many say this glamorized product is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the United States, yet it is falsely advertised.
Michael Thun, the director of analytic epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, said, "Nicotine causes over 400,000 deaths in the United States per year, but has escaped regulations and lawsuits."
For years, there has been controversy between the medical community and tobacco companies over whether cigarette smoking leads to cancer and if it is addictive.
Last month a scientific study, done by a group at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, officially proved a carcinogen in cigarette smoke causes lung cancer.
The carcinogen, benzo(a)pyrene, enters the lungs and becomes a new compound called benzo(a)pyrene diol epoxide, or BPDE.
It has been shown that BPDE is strongly associated with genetic mutations on the p53 gene, a gene that naturally prevents cancers and is commonly linked to lung cancer, a release from the Cancer Center, said.
The new study, however, has found the BPDE carcinogen actually binds to the gene at these three mutations, establishing a molecular link to lung cancer.
Dr. Moon-chon Tang, associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas, is one of the authors of the study.
His laboratory developed the method to track where this binding occurs.
"There are two important processes in our study. The first is to map the distribution of the benzo(a)pyrene binding to the DNA strand. Enzymes taken from E-coli (a bacteria) are used to cut these bindings like scissors," Tang said.
"We next amplify the cuttings by 10 million fold and use radioactive materials to identify the bindings."
"We found that benzo(a)pyrene definitely bonds with the p53 gene, a crucial gene linked to cancer," he said.
The p53 gene is associated with 50 percent of all human cancers such as skin cancer and liver cancer, Tang said.
"It is also directly related to 50 percent of all lung cancer cases because of its binding with benzo(a)pyrene," he said.
Benzo(a)pyrene is a major component in tobacco, but it is also found in other things such as fossil fuels, he said.
It is produced by the combustion of any organic matter. For example, the exhaust from cars and trucks and smoke from a backyard barbecue.
Thun said, "The danger lies in the amount of exposure to the carcinogen."
"What a smoker does is intentionally and repeatedly inhales the smoke into the lungs, so the dosage is much higher and intense than regular air pollution," he said.
Second-hand smoke is dangerous, as well, but it is a much weaker exposure than active smoking, Thun said.
"People who smoke do not realize how hazardous it is," he said, "Smoking is a Mount Everest of health hazards because young people start to smoke and can't quit, and it's long-term smoking that causes the damage.
"Secondly, because cigarettes not only cause lung cancer, but also eight other minor cancers, it has a much broader affect than any other product. It causes premature death in about half of the people who smoke."
The ACS did a study of 1,000 20-year-olds who regularly smoke and found that six will die of homicide, 12 in an automobile accident and 500 from smoking.
Of those who die from smoking, 250 will die between ages 35 and 69.
"The addiction of cigarette smoking is driven by nicotine," Thun said. "Smoking resets the nicotenic receptors that naturally occur in the human body so they need a higher level of nicotine to operate."
Six tobacco companies are being sued by at least 17 states because the states have had to pay unreimbursed medical costs for tobacco-related diseases.
Sharon Blackwell, director of public information and communications for Alabama ACS, said, "For a long time, there has been evidence that smoking causes cancer. Dr. Tang's study just adds more proof that it does."
John Banzhaf, director of Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-tobacco organization, said, "This proof closes the loophole that has enabled tobacco lawyers to deny that scientists have proven a smoking-cancer connection."
The Tobacco Institute, a lobbying organization that represents 13 cigarette manufacturers, had no comment on the research.
According to a report from the ACS, a new cigarette, called Eclipse, is the latest in a series of attempts to create a less harmful cigarette.
This cigarette heats the tobacco instead of burning it and contains just .5 nanograms of benzo(a)pyrene per cigarette. There are between 1 and 15 nanograms in regular cigarettes, the report said.
Thun said, "All previous attempts to create a less harmful cigarette has not yielded a solution to the pandemic of cigarette smoking. I doubt this one will be successful either."
"Everyone's main concern should be the prevention of young smokers and how to immunize the false advertising of smoking," he said. "Only then can the death rate be reduced."
County commissioner plans for new term
JENNIFER ELLIOTT
News Staff
As campaigns have come to a close, it's time for the public to see whether their favored candidates truly have the desire and capacity to meet their goals.
One local politician, Sam Pierce, has once again been elected as Lee County Commissioner.
He is now able to pinpoint his objectives and goals.
"It is good to be back to normal because in the campaign so much energy is put into that, that you can't do all the things you want to do on the county commission," Pierce said.
Pierce wants to keep his focus on long-range goals. "We need to try and have a goal for 10 years down the road," he said.
One area the commission has been able to focus on is long term goals of education," Pierce said.
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Some of the issues Pierce has worked on prior to this term is cleaning up illegal dumps and changing recycling. "We've increased recycling tremendously," he said.
"My goals are to continue doing all the good things we've been doing," Pierce said.
But there is a constant strive for improvement. You can never be satisfied, he said.
All in all, there are four major needs Pierce focuses on: schools, roads, public safety and the environment.
He said keeping these four needs in balance is the key to helping the county.
First, Pierce is focusing on improving the highway department. He said the highway department needs to be more efficient.
"We may have to have some new employees," Pierce said.
One difficulty is the lack of workers. There is only one pothole crew for the entire county. The workers have to fix one road after another, he said.
"We're really kind of strapped as far as the number of employees we have," Pierce said.
Although the county would like to have more personnel, "that means we're going to have to reshuffle our money," he said.
One stretch of road he especially wants to see re-paved is on the Waverly stretch of Highway 188. Pierce said many motorists take a shortcut from Birmingham to Auburn on this stretch.
This road is constantly being re-patched. Pierce plans on having the road improved next year.
"County commission is basically the legislative branch for county government," Pierce said.
A major duty of the county commission is to budget the money in hopes to fulfill the needs of the community.
"We have to look and see how much money we have available, what the requests are and then where we spend the money," Pierce said.
Some of the areas the commission spends the money on include roads, education and law enforcement, he said.
Pierce said trying to meet the needs of the people is a major challenge of local government.
"Even if we make more improvements there's still going to be more demands."
Before Pierce considers any wants of the community, he wants to follow through with the needs of the area.
Pierce said one advantage of Lee County is the low unemployment. "The University helps to keep unemployment very, very low. We're one of the lowest in the state," he said.
The tax policy encourages investment, he said. Job opportunities help the community.
The need to maintain public safety, roads, schools and environment is pertinent to have a continual growth in businesses.
"We're one of the fastest growing counties in the state," Pierce said. "This is why we need to fulfill the needs in the various areas."
Also, as county commissioner, Pierce has to make sure all the requests are legal.
Pierce said long range goals will help in the future to pinpoint where the county is and where it needs to be.
