CLIMATE, DIVERSITY, INCLUSIVITY AND NATIONAL DOG FARTING AWARENESS DAY COLLIDE IN NOTED JOURNAL

Hence Scientific American's continuing coverage of the struggle to clear the air and secure climate justice by ending the racist & elitist repression of pit bulls: 

Things to Know on Dog Farting Awareness Day

By Julie Hecht  April 8, 2017

What are dog farts made of? And can they be less stinky?

 Walter the Farting Dog delivers on fiction—it is Walter’s flatulence that thwarts robbers—recent studies provide actual data on dog farts... In 2001, researchers at the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in the UK published a study detailing a noninvasive technique to investigate dog flatulence in real-time. A special doggie jumpsuit with a tail-hole. A dog fart suit.
 

Dog fart science

But what makes dog farts stink? The researchers took their cue from human flatus, which contains “the atmospheric gases nitrogen and oxygen plus the non-atmospheric gases carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane, also referred to as fermentation gases.” Sulfur gases, particularly hydrogen sulfide, are behind our visceral response.

To investigate whether a combination of charcoal, Yucca schidigera, and zinc acetate would decrease the stink in dog farts, dogs got back in the fart suit.  Then the dogs consumed treats containing the three ingredients.** The fart suit captured and measured hydrogen sulfide concentrations, while the Odor Judge rated the farts.

The treats with the three ingredients did the trick! While the number of farting episodes did not decrease, the stench of the emissions was less aversive…

Fart Facts

• Hydrogen sulfide is behind the stink in stinky dog farts.
• Dogs eating treats containing charcoal, Yucca schidigera, and zinc acetate will continue to fart but will produce less-stinky farts.

Make every day Dog Farting Awareness Day! 

Today is also National Dog Fighting Awareness Day. 

While illegal in every state, thousands of dogs are still forced to train, fight, and suffer every year. Let's end dog fighting.

As the editors noted this November: 

Critics sometimes tell us that Scientific American has strayed from what might be called “classical science content” and is wading into subject areas where we don’t belong.

This claim bubbles up most often when we publish stories related to social justice or human rights—on the research supporting health care for transgender people, for instance, or abortion as basic medical care. 

A Twitter user replied to an opinion piece against forcing trans girls to play on boys’ sports teams by writing, “You should probably move everything back to science, facts and stats and leave the ‘wokness’ [SIC], narrative skewing and agenda setting behind. It’s not good for your credibility.”

And in response to a recent job listing that described our commitment to diversity and inclusion, someone else tweeted: “Advancing DEI & Social Justice is not something any truth-seeking institution or organization should prioritize.”

These detractors are telling us to “stay in our lane,” that scientific inquiry is a pure, clean, completely objective enterprise, and that what we publish should be devoid of politics or the perspectives of people who are affected by the culture of scientific research. 

But the truth is that science is relevant to every element of society, including policy and politics.

MISS HECHT'S ESSAY CONTINUES  SCIENTIFIC AMERICA'S DECADE LONG COMMITMENT TO COVERING CANINE CLIMATE CHANGE 

References

Collins et al. 2001. Development of a technique for the in vivo assessment of flatulence in dogs. Am J Vet Res. 62, 1014-1019.

Danzi, D. F. 1992. Flatology. J Emerg Med. 10, 79-88.

Giffard et al. 2001. Administration of charcoal, charcoal, Yucca schidigera and zinc acetate to reduce malodorous flatulence in dogs. JAVMA. 218, 892-896.

Suarez et al. 1998. Identification of gases responsible for the odour of human flatus and evaluation of a device purported to reduce this odour. Gut. 43, 100-104.