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At this very minute, a rogue army of tiny worms dressed in camouflage and smoking unfiltered Pall Malls is no doubt planning a midnight raid on the cute little heart of Hazel, the pet pooch of one of Static’s colleagues. Like many others, Hazel’s pet owner went to his vet recently to buy heartworm medicine, only to learn that the price had doubled since the previous year. The vet’s only (abrupt) explanation: “The price of the medicine went up.”

Undaunted, and now determined to go around said vet, Hazel’s daddy went to the computer and looked up the numerous online companies that sell pet medicines. He found a well-known national firm that would sell the pills at half the price the vet was charging. But they still required a prescription — and Hazel’s vet wouldn’t help. He said the company had been fined for selling non-FDA approved medicines. The online company said that wasn’t so, adding that this was a common tactic by vets.

The company had indeed drawn federal scrutiny eight years ago for selling a misbranded product, but since then it has earned accreditation from a national pharmacy association. Regardless, Hazel’s daddy doesn’t need an investigation to figure out that there’s a potential conflict of interest when the person who writes a prescription also insists on filling it himself.

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When last Static checked, Hazel was wagging her tail and enjoying the shade outside her country home. Her owner meanwhile, is beginning to froth at the mouth, yelling that vets and their practices should be the subject of Fort Worth Weekly’s next investigation. Grrr.

 

Let’s Clear the Air

Are you reading this on Wednesday? If so, it’s Take Action for Clear Air Day! Yay! Go outside and breathe! Or, as a group called Air North Texas suggests, go ride a bike or check your car to make sure it’s running as cleanly and efficiently as possible.

Those are nice ideas. Static itself once considered riding a bike to work, until it considered the state of the numerous railroad crossings between home and the Weekly’s digs, the lack of bike lanes in this town, and the advisability of arriving at work with um, a distinct glow.

But here’s maybe a better idea: You want to work for cleaner air in North Texas? In that case, go join the North Central Texas Communities Alliances and its fight to rein in gas well pollution. Or write your legislator or member of Congress and tell them that air breathers vote, and that you want to see better regulation of polluting industries by state agencies. Call up the EPA and thank Al Armendariz and his crew for working to clean up North Texas air, despite the myriad roadblocks thrown up by the state.

Static will stop now since, like Hazel’s owner, it is beginning to froth. And glow.

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