Pets and gadgets don’t mix – iPod and Wii harmful to animals
By Dave Parrack
We’ve all, unless we’re trailer trash, got electronic gadgets sitting around the house. Some of them, such as laptops and telephones, will be used on a daily basis, while others, such as karaoke machines and games consoles are more likely to be used less often. But they all have one thing in common: they are harmful to animals… potentially.
I have a pet cat, and he’s a little rascal, getting behind the TV stand and getting himself tangled in the wires, or chasing the lead while I’m playing Guitar Hero. But until now, he’s managed to escape serious injury as a result of these run-ins with electrical items. But it seems not all pets are quite so lucky.
A new survey of 3,000 pet owners by Petplan showed the levels of risk presented by various different household gadgets. Obviously, the survey is a little biased seeing as the company behind it offers pet insurance for a monthly fee and needs to scare animals owners in to taking out expensive premiums, but still, it’s fun to see which gadgets are the main culprits for large vet’s bills.
The Top 10 gadgets most likely to injure pets
1) iPod (15 per cent)
2) Laptop (10.8 per cent)
3) Remote Control (10.8 per cent)
4) Plasma TV (10.8 per cent)
5) Wii (10 per cent)
6) DVD Player (10 per cent)
7) Playstation (8.3 per cent)
8) Nintendo DS (5.8 per cent)
9) Mobile Phone (5.8 per cent)
10) Karaoke Machine (5.8 per cent)
I can understand how a plasma TV or games console can injure a pet but an iPod? What? How? By listening to metal too loud through their headphones? A mobile phone also seems a strange one. Unless pets are making long distance calls and getting kicked when the phone bill comes in, I fail to understand how one can be injured.
Vet Brian Faulkner told The Telegraph:
The survey shows how involved our pets are in our everyday lives which is something that can take a while to get used to. Dogs are especially inquisitive and often get under your feet when you are concentrating on something else.
Luckily, most of the time they see you before you see them and manage to move out of the way before you step on them but it is not uncommon for vets to have to help them through the odd accidental owner-inflicted scrape and bruise.
Personally speaking, if I had to choose between all my gadgets and my cat, then poor old pussy would be getting rehoused quicker than I can watch a Blu-ray movie on my PS3. So he’d better learn to respect the boy’s toys and not getting injured by a falling remote control.
There is one solution I suppose: buy an electronic animal such as a Sony AIBO and then your pet and gadget is one and the same thing. That could work.
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on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
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Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!
October 20th, 2008
Clearly those iPods are quite vicious.
October 24th, 2008
I assume they are referring to electrical shock or strangulation as opposed to RF radiation, which still seems a debatable subject, as in mobile phones etc, and 2 way transceivers, there are still those who say no problem and others who disagree.
Dave.