Be Kind to Your Pets, Stop Using Stuff that Kills Them

The other day I saw a guy spray RoundUp in his yard. When he was done, he took off his shoes, socks and all of his clothes and rolled around in it. Just kidding. I didn’t see him roll around naked in it, but his dog did.

Our poor dogs and cats don’t wear shoes. They roll around in our yards. They lick themselves. They don’t know any better.

Researchers have known since the mid-1990s that herbicides containing the chemical 2,4-D are associated with cancer in dogs. Popular brand names include Grazon and Spectracide. But could products like Roundup that contain glyphosate also harm our pets? I don’t know if anyone has determined that for sure, but I’m not taking any chances.

This Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid from Bayer AG, the makers of Roundup, to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the product causes cancer. Alberta and Alva Pilliod of California sued the company, saying they were diagnosed with cancer after spraying their property with Roundup for three decades. The Supreme Court ruling upheld a $87 million judgment that the Pilliods won in lower courts.

A week prior, the Supreme Court upheld another lawsuit against Bayer filed by Edwin Hardeman, a California man who also blamed his cancer on Roundup.

A big question mark hangs over the EPA’s “determination” about glyphosate. Earlier this month, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to take another look at its determination. The EPA is set to conclude its glyphosate review in October.

These rulings are quite extraordinary, I think, because many people expected the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court to side with Big Ag. Roundup was developed by the ag giant Monsanto, and they sold the product to Bayer in 2018. One of Bayer’s main arguments in the cases was that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had declared glyphosate non-carcinogenic and thus not a threat to public health. I’m not surprised.

The EPA has a long tradition of cozy relationships with the companies they are supposed to regulate. According to research by The Intercept, every single EPA administrator who continued working after their time at the EPA went on to make money from pesticide companies that they formerly regulated.

This revolving door happens in every regulated industry under both Republican and Demo cratic administrations. Retired army generals go on to work for defense contractors. Food and Drug Administration officials become drug company executives. It goes the other way, too. A former investment banker is now the chair of The Federal Reserve.

That’s how we get never-ending wars, opioid addiction, runaway inflation and weed killers that give us and our pets cancer.

Those of us concerned about such things might feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of what we face. But we can start by taking some small steps – like using vinegar instead of toxic herbicides like Roundup.

I’m amazed by how much better plain old vinegar works than Roundup as a weed killer. I’m not talking about grocery store vinegar. That stuff has an acidity of about five percent. It takes at least 10 percent vinegar to kill weeds. Twenty percent vinegar is the best product to use. It can be purchased from many garden centers in the area.

You can spray undiluted 20 percent vinegar and it will kill just about anything it touches except for trees or woody shrubs. I mix an ounce or two of orange oil to a gallon of vinegar for a slightly more effective mixture. I also add a few drops of Dawn dish soap to the mix. The soap helps the mixture stick to leaves.

Vinegar is a non-selective herbicide. If you accidentally spray it on a rose bush or tomato plant, say goodbye. But it will absolutely destroy any broadleaf weed you wish to kill. I use it to spray fence lines and borders around our landscape.

It doesn’t work so well on grasses. For Bermuda grass, I find it takes about three applications of vinegar over the course of a month or two to really kill it.

If you need something stronger, I think spraying diesel is much safer than Roundup. Microbes that naturally exist in healthy soils can quickly breakdown diesel, especially if you add a little liquid molasses to the diesel. Molasses feeds the soil bacteria. Even though diesel prices are above $5 a gallon right now, that’s still a lot cheaper than Roundup.