A new way to save money

[bazooka]

http://reuters.excite.com//article/20041214/2004-12-14T142918Z_01_N14659580_RTRIDST_0_...ONKEYS-DC.html

Donkey Power for Green Grass Cutting
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Dec 14, 9:29 AM (ET)

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian town is setting donkeys to work mowing the grass on the side of its highways in an effort to save money and reduce pollution.

Fed up with paying some 100,000 euros ($132,800) a year to cut the grass on its out-of-town roads with tractor-mowers, the local government of Treviso, near Venice, said on Tuesday it had bought six donkeys to do the work instead.

"This purchase will allow us to save cash as well as launch an experimental ecological project," said local government chief Luca Zaia, who paid just over 2,000 euros for the six animals.

Motorists need not fear running down the donkeys -- they will only be allowed to munch the grass in roadside areas that are fenced off from traffic.

[hech54]

Just remember though....Donkeys and Mules kill more people yearly than airplane crashes.....

[bazooka]

Just remember though....Donkeys and Mules kill more people yearly than airplane crashes.....

[yoda313]

Hello,

What about feeding the animals??? They need more than grass don't they??? And what about maintenance?? (you know, health stuff??)

I still say a lawn mower is better...

Kevin

[BJ_M]

a cow creates more pollution than 2 avg late model cars (true) , donkeys cant be much better i would think ..

[BJ_M]

Cows burp an abundant supply of methane every day - about 280 liters per animal (in other words, the average cow could fill 140 two-liter soda bottles with gas daily). Unfortunately, burped methane is more difficult to collect, with the result that about six million metric tons of it float blissfully up into the atmosphere every year. And that's just from herds in the United States. (Worldwide, ruminant livestock - including cattle, sheep, goats, and buffalo - produce about 80 million metric tons of methane per year, accounting for 22% of human-induced methane emissions.)

Methane is second only to carbon dioxide in the list of greenhouse gases. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it's 21 times better at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2 (a fact that can be attributed to the larger size of the methane molecule - CH4). The six million tons of methane that North American cows burp annually are equivalent to 36 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Why do cows burp so much methane? As with the anaerobic digester, the answer lies with bacteria. Billions of bacteria are busy at work in the cow's rumen (the first of the four chambers in its stomach), breaking down grass and hay in a process known as enteric fermentation. The bacteria - which live symbiotically in the cow's gut - are essential to its digestive process. One of the anaerobic bacteria produces large quantities of methane as a byproduct, which the cow gets rid of by flatulence and burping.

Diet is also one of the reasons cows are so 'explosive'. Beef cattle were originally designed to eat grass but now most beef live on feed mixtures. The reason? It's faster, and so more profitable. Although the cows get very big, very fast, the enormous quantities of corn, protein supplements, antibiotics and other drugs, including growth hormones create gas. Petroleum fertilizer is used to grow much of the corn used in feed, and in effect, we have basically created a tasty, oil-fueled, gas-producing machine.

[zzyzzx]

a cow creates more pollution than 2 avg late model cars (true) , donkeys cant be much better i would think ..

A donkey is much better. A cow has something like 5 stomachs. I imagine I could burp and fart much more if I had that kind of equipment.

[ViRaL1]

a cow creates more pollution than 2 avg late model cars (true) , donkeys cant be much better i would think ..

A donkey is much better. A cow has something like 5 stomachs. I imagine I could burp and fart much more if I had that kind of equipment.

4 stomachs. RAIS?

[BJ_M]

a cow creates more pollution than 2 avg late model cars (true) , donkeys cant be much better i would think ..

A donkey is much better. A cow has something like 5 stomachs. I imagine I could burp and fart much more if I had that kind of equipment.

it is only the first of the FOUR stomachs that create the gas - donkeys have the same symbiotic bacteria - as thier diet is the same ...