Save our newspapers: Because it’s hard to raise puppies without them
By Gina Spadafori
May 6, 2009
The last three days I have drifted through two floors of the building where I work, looking for old newspapers that haven’t gone yet to recycling. At home I take the Sacramento Bee and the Sunday New York Times, but I read the Wall Street Journal and other papers online. The Bee is a shadow of its former self, and even the Gray Old Lady is looking as if she’s getting ready to write her own obituary.
It wasn’t enough newsprint for my needs, and when I started asking around, I discovered that most of my friends — even many former newspaper reporters and editors — no longer read their news in print. Ouch!
The best find in the building: Three month’s worth of the Wall Street Journal, which is the absolutely best newspaper for putting under puppies, both for its minimal us of color inks and for the sheer joy of letting the little darlings pee and poop all over the opinion pages. (But hey, as least I’m fair: They’ve been squatting all over the New York Times, too. )
Point of fact: Newspapers are so much smaller now that even the Sunday edition of the New York Times will only last a litter of six fast-growing 4-week-old puppies about two days.
This is just sad. Not just for our democracy — and for my future as a syndicated newspaper columnist — but for generations of puppies yet unborn.
Save the newspapers!
If I need extra paper, I buy packing paper from u-haul, newspaper without the ink. :-)
But last two litters I set up a litter box ( a plastic pan for under a water heater, surrounded by a wooden frame to raise the sides) with pine shavings. They love it, and the used product makes great compost.
Comment by JenniferJ — May 6, 2009 @ 3:58 pm
I’ve been telling friends about this for the last couple of years. It used to be easy to collect newspapers from friends well before puppies were on the ground. Now, many folks have switched to shavings or bought unprinted newsprint for their litters.
Comment by Patti S. — May 6, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
Pine shavings and blank newsprint do not satisfy me as much as the whole WSJ opinion page peeing-on thing.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 6, 2009 @ 4:50 pm
Having raised one litter of my own and two litters for Rescue on shavings (one was a very pregnant bitch who whelped a couple of days after we got her, the other was an abandoned mom with a litter of week old pups - nice, huh?), I will NEVER go back to raising puppies on newspaper!!
Well, that’s not entirely true - I do use some paper underneath their sleeping blankets. But otherwise their pen is just tarp-covered floor for a play area, and a kiddie pool with shavings for a litter box. I’ve got Danes so other breeds might not need such a large litter box. Coated breeds might do better with some other medium besides shavings - they do make a pelleted dog litter but I don’t know how expensive it is.
But as for keeping the pupsters clean, and reducing the time needed for cleaning their pen in the morning or any other time throughout the day - the litter box wins hands down!!
Comment by Barb — May 6, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
BTW - we must have some psychic connection, Gina. When the dogs woke me at 5:45 a.m., I let them out to potty, then brought them back into the bedroom, expecting to get another half-hour to hour of sleep. I dropped off relatively quickly, but awoke a few minutes later. The dream I was having? Opening the first section of the Mercury News to find a four-page article on the ZinKuties…
Comment by Patti S. — May 6, 2009 @ 5:01 pm
The New York Times owners have been embroiled in a huge fight with the Boston Globe which they also own, wanting a 23% cut in costs. Two of the best award winning liberal newspapers in the country in a fight over $$$. Sigh. It truly depresses me. Of course, I am wholly guilty of reading them both online along with WashPO, and totally ignoring their advertisers! It never occurred to me I was depriving litters upon litters of pee papers!
You know, I’d be happy to pay a reasonable online fee to read these papers. Wonder why that hasn’t occurred to them? Doh!
Comment by Anne T — May 6, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
I agree, Gina. Although I don’t have pups and because of my age, probably never will again, I think about all the poor puppies that won’t have newspaper to pee on. Besides, it’s great for other things, too. When I trim their nails in the house, I lay several sections of paper down to catch the clippings or if they get just a trim, the paper is great for the loose hair. Also, we can burn yard debris (branches and such) in the township where I live and the paper is great for starting the fire. I’m always tearing articles out of the paper, too. Lot easier than running copies. It gets expensive buying cartridges. Also I can read a newspaper that I hold in my hands way much faster than the computer. Sad that so many of them are shutting down.
Comment by VJ — May 6, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
Is there any particular reason why one of the new eco-groovy kitty litters wouldn’t work? Is there some species specific thing I’m missing? I mean, would the puppies start thinking they’re kittens or something?
Comment by Susan Fox — May 6, 2009 @ 5:29 pm
You have to be uber-careful with litters meant for cats because, unlike most kittens, most puppies will eat litter at some point. Shavings seem to have little appeal beyond a bite or two, but I’ve had adult dogs snack on some of the pelleted or compressed cat litters. If a puppy ate a good sized quantity of those, bad bad things could occur.
Shavings are inexpensive, and because we compost them, quite eco-friendly particularly as in most cases they are a by product of lumber production anyhow.
And pine smells very nice.
Comment by JenniferJ — May 6, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
Oh, i do have to agree with Gina, having the little pishers deface the WSJ does have a certain element of satisfaction the other alternative lack!
Comment by JenniferJ — May 6, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
Thanks Jennifer! I didn’t know any of that. Why I love this blog Reason #254.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 6, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
Almost 8 p.m., and I just got home from covering a public meeting regarding the siting of transmission lines. People came to speak, saying that among other things, they didn’t know of the project until slowly news trickled from neighbor to neighbor. (The agency I work for isn’t the lead entity on the project.)
Public notices were placed in close to two dozen newspapers by the entity that is putting all this together. Now, 20-30 years ago, that might have caught a lot of people. These days, it doesn’t.
I noticed this when my dad died. The Sacramento Bee wrote a nice obit and placed it prominently. But I am STILL (10 weeks later) running into people who ask, “How’s your dad?”
If we’re not going to have newspapers (and it seems we are not, at least not as they are), I wonder what will serve as the notifier of our communities? We seem to be all breaking up by interest, and even this site is an example of that.
What will be “mass media” in the future?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 6, 2009 @ 8:02 pm
Pine shavings as well as cedar shavings emit volatile compounds that are irritants to small animals. Watch carefully for signs of eye irritation.
Comment by No mail — May 6, 2009 @ 8:07 pm
I think it’s really a shame that the newspaper industry doesn’t look at the internet as an amazing opportunity to expand their audience. TV was slow to join and people were putting things up on you tube, etc., but they finally got around to it and now there’s sites like Hulu and others. I don’t have a TV and don’t like most of the crap that’s on, but there are a few shows I wouldn’t want to miss and I like being able to watch them WHEN I want to instead of being a slave to a programming schedule. I imagine these sites will require a lot more ads soon. And membership. If they ask a few demographic type questions when you become a member or even right before you watch your selection, they can get top ad dollars for running the appropriate ads for the appropriate demographic (not that I’m a fan of ads, but they need to change with the times).
I’ve been thinking about newspapers a lot lately. They can cut costs and save trees by improving their websites and targeting their ad revenue (again, I wish information wouldn’t be supported by corporations, but I digress). If someone forwards me an article and I click to the website, they could ask me a question. Like, my gender, for instance. The article could have specific tags, so they’d already have quite a bit of information on what kind of things I would read. Their advertisers will pay more for that kind of info. Then, they have the ability to suggest other articles to me. Both current, but also past articles. Obviously, the print version cannot do any of this. They can charge for ads on articles that have already run. If I click through, ask me one more question, like age, city, or something random about what I consume.
If it’s one question at a time, it’s not a hassle for me. And the better they are at business and marketing and the more thought they put into web design, the more they keep me clicking around on their site. Which means the more targeted I become as an ad demographic and the more they can charge for those ads. They can also run deals with other papers for suggested articles.
It seems so simple to me. I must be missing something. Maybe just that some businesses think they’ll be around forever and do not hire the creative people that could help them change and grow.
I don’t think journalism will die. Mainstream and lazy journalism might die, but perhaps it was mostly dead at this point any way.
I think the industry will have to work harder and become more creative. I just wish the people who make those decisions would hurry up and get off their lazy butts, because writers, photographers, and staffers at the bottom are the ones who suffer for their lack of creativity.
/end rant
Sorry. As a small business person, I know that no one is going to pick me up if I fall, so I have to be creative and work harder than a giganto company does and I guess that makes me a little hard when it comes to this kind of thing. That, and I like the idea of less paper. Now if only those damned phone books would stop coming even after I’ve requested them not to…
As for the puppies, that is a tough one. I know there’s cat litters that are made from recycled paper. We use pine pellets because they last a lot longer and are amazing with odor control, but I can see how a little pup might consider snacking upon them. Oh, puppies. So cute and so mischievous. Somebody will think of something though. Maybe a new little business will crop up from someone’s creative and forward thinking attitude toward this problem!
Comment by Amy — May 6, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
Gina, I think that instead of notices going into multiple newspapers, they will have to go onto multiple websites. What doesn’t seem to exist yet is the equivalent of the local daily paper where everyone knows to look for what’s happening. At least until the remaining local papers stop desperately trying to figure out how to keep cranking out paper versions and just get over it with and go online.
Good point about the VOCs from shavings. What about shredded office paper? Recycled, of course.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 6, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
That’s what I’m saying, Susan: There’s no equivalent yet to the “town square” that newspapers were.
Looking at the people who addressed the elected officials tonight, it would be hard to imagine how one would choose which media outlets would reach them.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 6, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
The other trad media like radio and tv still exist, although they are fragmenting quickly also.
Blogs? How many of us come here first for pet news?
Will someone start to aggregate blogs into something that starts to function as a local central news source? You guys do that now to some extent for animal issues.
Maybe there won’t be one centralized place, but topic-specific places that can do in-depth coverage on their area of interest.
I read SFGate, WaPo, NYTimes, the local rag, CNN, Doonesbury every morning online. I have no interest in a paper news source. Our local newspaper does an e-edition, which is a facsimile of the “real” one. And I’m willing to pay $39/yr for it. Isn’t the SF Chronicle doing the same thing now? So maybe the town square moves online?
Maybe both of the above will be true?
I do wonder what people will do who don’t have access to the internet, but I’d bet they aren’t newspaper readers either. Just a guess.
All of us who are interested in animal welfare issues would probably love to have a “town square” so we could know what was going on without having to go to multiple sites.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 6, 2009 @ 9:09 pm
I think there is a need for local news online. Community on-line bulletin boards essentially.
As for VOCs from shavings, it’s why I resisted so long. But there is a big difference between a small box of them in the corner of a open, ventilated pen and confining a small animal to a plastic or glass cage that is filled with them.
I’ve done the shredded paper thing too, but a) they ate more of it and b) shavings hold up better and don’t get matted down when wet as easily.
On the other hand, paper does not get everywhere the way shaving seem to do!
Comment by JenniferJ — May 6, 2009 @ 9:23 pm
Our local paper is part of the Journal Register mess. We’re down to one reporter who only covers the crime beat and an editor who is more right-wing than Toomey (the PA R who would have beat Sen. Spector in a R primary, so Spector switched to the D’s).
Things are so bad that most of us get our local news through 5 different local blogs and the Council Meetings on TV (I’ve been trying to get the Planning Commission meetings on TV, too, but Council won’t as part of cost-cutting).
I can’t support bad writing — we don’t buy the local paper anymore, but still get the Philadelphia Inquirer (which is a shadow of its former self and several of my favorite polictial columnists have been let go, who I really miss) and the Wall Street Journal (the American Experience episode on Pete Seeger on PBS had Seeger saying HE reads the WSJ, so I retain my lefty creed while reading the marketing, book reviews and features while my husband reads the business articles. We both actively avoid the opinion pages!).
We use newspapers as mulch as the community garden, so most of our gardeners still read the Inquirer. Maybe the gardening tread will help bring back newspapers — I wouldn’t mind the gardening section going to a couple of time a week! ;-D
Comment by Dorene — May 7, 2009 @ 4:10 am
I have the same issues with the parrots. Not enough newspapers to go around, and I end up purchasing blank newsprint. The pellets don’t work because the birds eat them - crazy birds are a real pain in the rear to get them to eat a small portion of pelleted bird food, but compressed newsprint? No problem!
Incidentally, the supposed issues from Pine shavings are waaaaay overblown. Pine shavings and pellets, processed properly, have the oils removed and are not a problem. Cedar shavings can be an issue for more sensitive animals (although we use Cedar chips in our backyard to repel bugs and Cedar shavings in our dog beds for the same reason with NO issues) but these days pine shavings are safe as long as ventilation is provided (ie no glass terrariums).
Comment by Kim — May 7, 2009 @ 8:15 am
Until last year we had two dailies. I subscribed to the one with significantly less circulation; now I take the only one. It’s thinner, shorter width, less of everything except ads. But I remain, and always will remain, devoted to a print newspaper even though I read some news online during the work day.
The state of newspapers today makes me cry.
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — May 7, 2009 @ 9:04 am
Those composted dirty dog shavings should not be used in a garden since the composting process will not destroy encysted parasites and they can live for ten years or more in the soil and some can infect people.
I have pretty much quit buying the local paper since they have cut out almost everything I found interesting.
I subscribe to a lot of blogs and news feeds and they are aggregated together on pages that I have laid out by subject. I get news feeds from the two largest local news outlets and from CNN, MSN, NPR and the NYT, among others.
Comment by Marguerite — May 7, 2009 @ 9:33 am
Solid waste gets meticulously scooped out and goes into the pet septic set up, or double bagged to the dump depending on the time of year. Wet shavings are mixed in with earth and grass/leaves/garden/plant trimmings in the vineyard to naturally compost. It breaks down with surprising speed.
Where we live unfortunately coccidia and giardia are endemic. Thankfully they don’t seem to infect people easily and adult healthy animals rarely have a problem, but puppies sometimes yes. I generally buy compost for the garden from a local source. :-)
Comment by JenniferJ — May 7, 2009 @ 10:59 am
Nothing in my house gets done “meticulously.” Ha!
I swear if they don’t let Christie out of jury duty soon I’m going to drive to SF and tell the court I’m her sister, and we’ve just lost our entire family to a serial killer, which will surely mean Christie cannot be impartial on matters of guilt and innocence at this time.
Free Christie!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 7, 2009 @ 11:56 am
Or you could just tell them that her legal guardian is looking for her.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 7, 2009 @ 12:05 pm
Or you could just tell them that her legal guardian is looking for her.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 7, 2009
Yes! Great idea!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — May 7, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
The shavings when we have puppies are about the ONLY thing in my house that gets done with that level of care. I raise pups right next to the kitchen and if there’s more than a trace of odor, I have to here about it from the other 4 humans!
Gina, show up at the court house and tell ‘em Christie forgot her meds…. Then be ultra-evasive if they ask what kind. ;-)
Comment by JenniferJ — May 7, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
Tell them she’s having whatever Manny Ramirez had.
Giants play Dodgers tomorrow.
Comment by Susan Fox — May 7, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
She could say she has an appointment with her probation officer.
But seriously. I read the Chicago Tribune went all-online and revenues dropped precipitously. I still think an all-online format is where we are headed, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing — for the environment, at least. The transition will be getting portable devices for reading online newspapers in the hands of the same people who would read paper copy. As for the puppies — we’ll figure something out. If not pine or cedar litter, then yes, shredded office paper. We have a TON of that.
Comment by Susan — May 7, 2009 @ 8:26 pm
LOL… I’m on the civil jury track, not criminal. I think they’re much more lenient. ;)
Everyone I know tells me they don’t start new juries on Friday. SO WHY DO I HAVE TO GO IN????
Comment by Christie Keith — May 7, 2009 @ 10:11 pm
Try the newspaper recycling bin at the local dump. Most jurisdictions do not have rules against taking bales of newsprint out of those bins right after some public minded citizen has dropped them in, all neatly baled with string for the most part.My present badly spoiled dog was raised entirely on these.
Comment by Peggy Merrill — May 11, 2009 @ 6:41 am
I got off jury duty once because I said I had to be at home to care for my Greyhound, who had just had a leg amputated. Husband got off jury duty on a dog case because I was editor of Dog Fancy and the breed we had just featured on the cover was the same breed that was involved in this particular trial (Bichons Frise).
Comment by Kim Thornton — May 11, 2009 @ 9:10 am