A slobbering St. Bernard lumbers toward Laura McCartney, followed by a playful toy poodle and a blind Bichon shih tzu that bumps its way around a room.
In their own way, animals were contributing to the cleanup of the large oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deep Horizon drilling rig owned by Transocean Ltd., exploded April 20 and has been spilling crude ever since despite efforts to cap the leak.
“I just think it’s such a disaster there right now, they need any help they can get,” said McCartney, owner of Dazzling Doggies Grooming Salon in Corbeil.
She keeps in touch with other groomers through Facebook and found they were donating fur clippings and salons were sending human hair to San Franciscobased Matter of Trust to be packed into nylons and used as hair booms to absorb the oil slick that has reached Louisiana’s delicate wetlands.
Late Friday, oil giant British Petroleum which operates the rig is reported as saying it doesn’t plan to use the hair and fur, explaining it can absorb the oil without the hair booms, and there have been problems in the past disposing of them.
McCartney planned to send her first shipment of canine locks on Thursday, while New Horizons Hair Team and A Sharper Image were also signed up to send human hair.
People and businesses are encouraged to send longer hair to organizations such as Locks of Love to be used as wigs for cancer patients.
Anyone who wants to donate dog clippings can drop them off at Dazzling Doggies Grooming Salon at 168 Big Moose Rd. The fur doesn’t have to be shampooed, but it should be free of debris. The deadline for the next shipment of fur to Matter of Trust is June 10.
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