Chippie: R.I.P.

Dear Neighbor,

Today, when you were busily squirting (what I presume was) weedkiller around your yard to kill off little stands of Public Enemy Number One (to the uninitiated, that would be “dandelions”), you also nailed a chipmunk.

It had been bouncing about, as chipmunks do, scurrying back and forth across the street all day.

After it ran right across the area you had just sprayed, it managed to stagger back across the street, had massive convulsions and died (after suffering horribly) a few moments later in our yard.

Yes, there are lots of chipmunks in this world. What’s one chipmunk?

Well, let’s see, it’s a mammal… like us humans… and reacts to poisons the way we do… and that should raise at least a little warning bell, don’t ya think?

I do.

Tonight, I for one am massively pissed off at everyone who feels that it’s fine to poison their yard “because it doesn’t harm anyone” and who says, regarding the use of pesticides, that “it’s my property so I can do what I want.”

Tell that to all the chemically injured who are harmed by the pesticides and other chemicals used around them. Tell that to the Gulf War vets, who were poisoned by pesticides. Tell that to all the women who have suffered breast cancer and second-hand infertility from pesticides (as well as from other chemical exposures). Tell that to the mutated amphibians, the reptiles and mammals, the birds and what seems like just about everything living that’s negatively impacted on one level or another by these chemicals–even if they aren’t killed outright.

Tell that to the chipmunk.

Oh, wait. You can’t. It’s dead.

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  By Elyse, August 5, 2010 @ 5:10 am

  Sounds like many of my neighbors. Have to have perfect lawns. Bumblebees comes over and drop DEAD in my yard

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  By Carol, August 5, 2010 @ 7:40 am

  I LOVE Chipmunks. So sad. Here in Belize, everything is available from DDT to Malathion to whatever. But… they aren’t used much. Over in San Pedro (on the island), we were doing a wine tasting once when the guy came around with a fogger – malathion. Didn’t even SAY anything and wasn’t wearing a mask. They rarely do. Scary as hell. And the tourists who hang out on the beaches don’t have any idea because normally they do it early in the a.m.
  Hugs to you and Mike.

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  By kimberly roush, August 5, 2010 @ 11:52 am

  “It is my property I can do what I want” or
  “It is a free country” are the two ignorant excuses. Well we have laws to protect us from some deadly things – but not enough laws especially to
  cover the toxic onslaught of our age.
  Where do the enlightened people live?

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  By Kris, in New England, August 5, 2010 @ 2:15 pm

  Well there is some truth to the idea that it is their property. That being said there are so many environmentally safe alternatives that work just as well, if not better, than chemicals that will torture a poor defenseless animal like a Chippie.

  We have a serious ant problem in our yards where I live and years ago we would use diazanon crystals. We always took great care with how they were disperesed and we’d ensure they were watered down all the holes in the giant roiling-sand ant farms in the lawn. You can’t get it anymore but there are other products that may work slower, but they do work.

  Poor little Chippie. *sniff*

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  By JAS, August 5, 2010 @ 4:52 pm

  Carol, there is no way I can imagine living in Belize, from the background you’ve shared since moving there. Ugh. It seems like Belize is the dumping ground for what companies get banned from selling elsewhere!

  Kris, I absolutely agree with you when you say “Well there is some truth to the idea that it is their property.” And when a pesticide is created that stays within property bounds, and doesn’t enter the air, soil or water of any other property regardless of how toxic it is, or kill or maim the animals that don’t recognize artificial property boundaries, property owners can spray to their hearts content on their own property and I won’t care one wit.

  “That being said there are so many environmentally safe alternatives that work just as well, if not better, than chemicals that will torture a poor defenseless animal like a Chippie.

  Exactly. There are more and more choices becoming available that truly work as well as the synthetic pesticides. Neudorff’s “Fiesta” broad-leaf weed killer doesn’t harm grass or mammals or birds or… well, you get the picture… and reports from homeowners and landscape professionals who have tried it say that it works especially well on dandelions. The product is a spray made from a chelated form of iron! It’s widely available in Canada, and just became available in the United States. It’s sold by Ortho as “EcoSense” weed killer in the United States, under an exclusive licensing agreement Ortho has with Neudorff.

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