My dogs Snowy and Timber loved to play in the grass around my home and in our neighborhood parks. I never thought much of it until they both died of cancer. I looked into possible causes, and I found our neighborhood, like most neighborhoods, is sprayed with the harmful pesticide Atrazine and other chemicals.  

When Snowy and Timber would get sick after eating grass and weeds I merely thought their bodies couldn’t digest the plants. Unfortunately, I believe these reactions were most likely due to them consuming toxic chemicals all  over the ground, and their prolonged exposure most likely lead to their cancer.

It is too late to help my beloved pets, but many pets are at risk of illness and death as long as Atrazine continues to be sprayed in communities across the country.

A 2016 report from the US Environmental Protection Agency confirms that Atrazine, the second most widely used weed killer in the US, poses a risk to animals. Even low levels of Atrazine have been linked to a number of health problems, and the chemical has recently been banned in Europe. Now, the EPA has asked for the public’s comments on the safety of Atrazine.

It pains me to think that it took the death of my two dogs to alert me to this huge environmental and public health problem. Please join me in asking the EPA to ban Atrazine.