Posted on 09/02/2007 7:28:36 PM PDT by blam
California city may ban oleanders
YORBA LINDA, Calif., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Residents and city officials in Yorba Linda, Calif., are considering a ban on oleanders because of the plant's risk to horses.
Oleanders, which have pink and white flowers, can be deadly to a horse if consumed, and many Yorba Linda residents own horses, The Orange County Register reported.
The Yorba Linda City Council plans to vote this month on banning the plants.
A University of California at Davis veterinary medical publication suggests that horses could suffer heart failure even from eating a small amount of the plant, the newspaper said.
You are invited to a marshmallow and hot dog roast over a camp fire at Post 4. Bring your pocket knife to cut your own stick.
Because you can't kill 'em, even if you put them in a freeway median in the semi-desert and never water them. Think ultra low maintainence.
Dunno about that one, but a couple of adopted Russian orphans died from eating the leaves in SoCal a couple of years ago. Seems they were used to foraging for food back in Russia.
The papers at the time said such deaths were rare, because usually the kid will get sick before eating enough for a lethal dose.
I know that oleanders are poisonous. The point of my post is whether the scout incident actually occurred or if it is urban legend.
I’m not questioning whether oleander is poisonous. I’m questioning whether the scout incident actually occurred or is it urban legend.
BTW, when I saw this headline, I thouth they were talking about “California City”, which is an actual place in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Even oleander won’t grow there.
1. I have never heard of ranchers and livestock owners ever having been referred to as "animal rights groups" before.
2. Oleander is also highly poisonous to human children. (See post 18) If a single gram of oleander leaves can kill a full grown sheep, how much oleander do you think it takes to kill a human child?
Good points. When I had a bike, I always worried I would crash into an oleander bush and have oleander blossoms forced down my throat. It'd definitely make the news... Motorcyclist poisoned in crash.
Yorba Linda is the home of the Richard Nixon library and also has the highest average household in the country. They tend to be politically active and Conservatives.
When I was little we lived near a dirt lane lined with 20 foot oleanders. An old wooden sign called the plants “La Donna Forest”. Being a Donna, I spent all my time playing jungle and fighting through those oleanders dodging the black widow spiders and horny toads. Never once got sick, just sticky.
I remember reading somewhere about a camper who chose a sturdy Oleander twig to roast a weenie on...and was poisoned from the contact with the meat. If that’s true this is pretty toxic stuff. Still...control the horses, folks!
Oleanders are highly, highly toxic, and I would never have one in my yard. (Even if you don’t have kids of your own, all you need is one stupid neighbor kid to have a tragedy and a helluva lawsuit.) That said, they are appropriate for some landscaping, such as (already pointed out) the medians of freeways, since they are very attractive and hard to kill.
But why in the world do they need to ban oleander from the entire town? Does Yorba Linda let horses wander free down the street, like sacred cows in India? For pete’s sake, let the horse owners control their critters!
Some years ago in VA, a guy cut down a bunch of poisen ivy and burned it.
The smoke killed him.
I thought from the headline that the town of California City (in San Bernardino County) was going to ban oleanders. Heck if they did that they wouldn’t have anything green there, period!
Oleanders and ice plants are the official state vegetation of CalTrans.
Well...that's interesting......
lol
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