2 VUVUZELA, October 5, 2007 NE WS Diagnosing your best friend’s pain MELISSA DOUMAN friend” attitude. Th ey stopped eating ever brave enough to touch a horse’s LOOK, don’t go out and get your cat or drinking water for days on end. hind legs, you may also experience a a Panado each time you think it has Reptiles may burn themselves nasty pain in the head. a headache. According to Dr Lynette very badly if they come into contact Domestic animals, like cats, won’t Bester from the School of Physiology, with fi re. Because they are cold- express their pain to just anybody. the Panados will kill it. blooded and can withstand very high So they might make “hot tin roof” But yes, of course animals do feel temperatures, they may not feel their noises at home, but pretend to be just pain. In her presentation at the scales are burning. fi ne at the vet. Th is is because they School of Physiology on Tuesday, Th ey probably won’t show their feel vulnerable in foreign territory. Dr Bester said animals did feel pain, discomfort. But if you’re silly enough Chemical Engineering student, although the extent and nature were to try to touch them, they’ll become Kaveeren Naidu, is trying to get 2- not certain. violent. million signatures for a Stop Innocent Th is is because there is no way of Th ey are very sensitive to touch, Animals From Suff ering campaign. asking an animal: “On a scale of one- so just coming near them can cause Naidu belongs to a group that wants to-ten, how sore are you?” a vibration that could get them the government to assess the laws to Human medication was designed for striking. prevent cruelty to animals. human bodies, she said. In proportion Birds mask their pain until they If there were stricter laws in place, to most domestic animals, humans are on their death nest. Parrots may they feel people would be more aware could withstand higher doses. squawk to express their discomfort. of an animal’s rights and be less Human painkillers couldn’t be used Lovebirds are assumed to feel a very inclined to hurt it. by animals because they don’t have diff erent kind of pain - an emotional Naidu cited the much-publicised the digestive enzymes to break down one - when they lose their better half. case of the man who severed a husky’s and absorb them. Th ey stop eating, drinking or chirping head with a chainsaw and only She explained that some animals until their organs fail and they die a received a fi ne. “More severe laws were able to communicate their pain lonely death. Th is type of pain, no should be implemented to stop these more expressively than others. Cats amount of medication can cure. people from acting like animals, such made loud caterwauls and become Horses can experience severe as imprisonment,” said Naidu. CAT-ANKEROUS: The author examines her cat Ziggy for signs of pains or discom- aggressive and violent. Dogs could abdominal pain and show this by Th e man who killed the dog died in fort, and is pleased to discover that he seems fi ne! slip into a droopy-eyed depression, looking at their abdomens and a car crash shortly after. “Now that’s Photo by: Melissa Douman with an “I don’t want to be your best contorting their faces. And if you’re karma for you,” said Naidu. Saving the planet from invasion, one plant at a time VOW GREEN PARADISE IN afternoon on Invasives Th e lantana, a tropical invader, has about 240 DANGER OF INVASION: and Biocontrol. He hybrids and spreads greatly because it has no Invasive plants are a explained how invasive natural enemies in its hybrid form. It is among the critical environmental plants are imported most invasive plants in Africa, and it is poisonous. still silent issue, according to Prof. into the country, “Th e American Acacia was introduced deliberately Marcus Byrne. what they mean for into South Africa by the government as a ‘miracle JUMA FORD AND SEBABATSO the country and how tree’,” said Byrne. It has been used for shade and MOSAMO Photo courtesy of www. to stop them from fodder. Th e Australian Acacia has been used for THE OUTSTANDING transmission dk.com spreading further than wood and charcoal and was also deliberately fees that will allow Voice of Wits to go they already have. introduced to the country. back on air have still not been paid, Invasive plants However, both these Acacias drink up a huge a week after the student radio station endanger the water percentage of the country’s water. South Africa has was closed down. supply. Th ese are plants that are not indigenous to about 180 alien plant species which cover about 10- Station manager Ike Rakoto the areas they invade. million hectares of the country. In 2002 they had told Vuvuzela the money was Th ey are imported through diff erent means. caused 7% water loss. It is predicted that in 30 years, “waiting somewhere” in the fi nance Sometimes this is plant trade. But sometimes it’s the water loss in the country, due to these invaders, department, which was something he inadvertent. Some ships take in water as ballast. will be 23 to 95%. had no control over. When they pump it out again in foreign waters, A number of potential solutions have been He added: “Going off the air has they can deposit invasive seeds. Rapid transport put into place, one of which encourages social not aff ected the relationship with like jets suck in seeds from the air and drop them upliftment. It is a programme called Working for management…I don’t think there was in other places. Water. It generates money in poor communities by a relationship in the fi rst place.” Th e point of this exhibition is to develop a employing members to chop down weeds. It aims Anton Harber, head of the media consciousness in young people to keep their world to educate people about nature, while teaching board and Journalism and Media alive. Byrne ignited in his audience the need to some level of botanical skills. Studies said: “Wits’ system for making VUVU VENA worry, because climate change should be seen as a Th e second solution is classic biological control. payments can be maddeningly slow. JOHN F. KENNEDY, the 35th President of the social issue. Scientists fi nd natural enemies from the countries We have done what we can and now United States said in 1963: “Th e Supreme reality of He listed plants like the cactus, the hyacinth, the of origin and transport them to South Africa. Th e we wait for the rusty wheels to turn.” our time is…the vulnerability of our planet.” acacia and the lantana as common invaders. He said natural enemies do not go on to become a new issue Th e next issue VOW will have to Wits hosted an environmental exhibition called these plants were able to invade such large areas in since, as the plant dies, so too do its enemies. Th ey deal with is how to compensate their Roots and Shoots, from Tuesday to Th ursday this South Africa because removing them from their have nothing else to feed on. advertisers. week. Th e programme included speakers with place of origin had rescued them from their natural People are encouraged to read about Th is is a concern, especially diff erent messages about the world we live in. enemies. In areas where they were not threatened, environmental issues and threats. Issues have even considering Absa’s recent investment Professor Marcus Byrne spoke on Tuesday they could fl ourish. been woven into a new high school curriculum. in VOW’s online site. 4 VUVUZELA, October 5, 2007 SLICE OF LIFE A JOURNALISM AND MEDIA STUDIES PROJECT PRODUCED WITH THE SUPPORT OF MEDIA24. The good times of our lives BEING the private person that I am, I found than scheduled. We were so pumped up it a bit testing to write this Slice of Life. So I about the whole thing, if even the smallest The evolution of struggle... thought to myself: let me tell them something thing went wrong, we worried that the trip exciting that happened in my life this year. would be put on hold again. THERE is this amazing story about a gentle creature that lived in the muddy I am from the North West province and am We fi nally arrived sixteen hours later, tired waters of China’s Yangtze River. An endangered dolphin with bad eyesight, it had studying in Gauteng. Up until March, I had but happy at the same time. We were met a highly-evolved radar to compensate. never been anywhere outside of these two by another friend, who is studying at the I heard this story about 10 years ago. Since then, due to over-fi shing and noise provinces. University of Cape Town. She gave us the bad from too many ships, China’s Baijii dolphin has been declared extinct. Its story, My best friend and I decided to pack up and news that the place she had arranged for us like the dodo, will become the stuff of legends. go Cape Town for a trip of nothing but fun. A to stay was no longer available. I never thought about “extinction” as something that happened to a species in chance to visit new province – yay, how very But so determined were we to have fun that my lifetime.