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Recently, the Wall Street Journal published a story about the growing concern over spot-on insect control products. The Environmental Protection Agency has made public their renewed scrutiny of these types of products; even going so far as to have published a long list of pest control treatments that are under review after receiving many reports of pets that have suffered from chemical burns, seizures and even death in direct relation to the use of these products. Pet owners across the country have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of such products after their own animals suffered injuries from the treatments. In May of 2008, one year before the publication of the WSJ story, Austin’s own Melissa Mowrer Rogers and her sister Kathy M. Heiney launched a new company, Energetic Solutions, and began working on an innovative solution that provides a safe alternative to chemical pest control treatments. They call it Shoo!TAG, and it made its debut at the Global Pet Expo in February of this year.
Shoo!TAG is a small tag with a magnetic strip which has been encoded with frequencies that certain insects don’t like. It is animal-specific and insect-specific. The sisters’ invention came out of a concern for the animals, people and the planet. “I have a chemical sensitivity,” says Heiney, “and I love animals; I work with animals, so it was important to find a solution that everyone could live with.” Rogers adds, “We don’t believe in chemicals.” Both women have backgrounds in energy science, which allowed them to work in tandem with their network of scientists to develop their line of products. “We came up with the idea out of years of work with energy medicine,” Heiney says. “We consulted with scientists who agreed that the idea was feasible.” The tag creates a frequency barrier through its interaction with the animal’s energy field. “It uses the animal’s field as a battery,” Rogers explains. “It needs to be worn for 24 to 36 hours to build the barrier.” She adds, “We’re not magic, we’re just a different way of dealing with pests.”
While synthetic chemicals like permethrin, a neurotoxin, are under the EPA microscope, Rogers and Heiney warn that “natural” insecticides are also a problem. Pyrethrin, a natural chemical derived from chrysanthemum flowers, is used to repel mosquitoes and flies; it is also toxic to dogs and cats, causing reactions ranging from tremors and vomiting to seizures and even death. Both Rogers and Heiney have had personal experiences with toxic insecticides and their consequences. Heiney worked with horses in a barn that was misted with pesticide every fifteen minutes to control flies. “These horses were athletes,” Heiney says, “and their owners wondered why they weren’t performing at their best. I was breathing in that same spray and I knew the effect it was having on me.” She adds, “The fact that the horses performed as well as they did was a testament to their athletic ability, but they were breathing in poison every 15 minutes, so how could they be at their best?” Rogers had been treating her Shih Tzu for fleas with a chemical solution before developing the tag. “Every time I used the treatment on her, she would be sick for two days after the application,” Rogers says. “I hated using it on her, but I also hated seeing her scratch constantly and be miserable from the fleas.” Heiney adds, “People don’t want chemicals on their animals or in their homes or around their children.”
Just as we have learned that the overuse of antibiotics produces “superbugs” which are resistant to current medications, we are also learning that the same is true for pesticides; insects are developing resistance and becoming stronger. “Bugs have a place in the ecosystem too,” says Heiney. “We don’t kill anything, not even bugs.” By design, an insect has to bite a chemically-treated animal in order for the poison to have an effect on the pest. By creating a frequency barrier, the insects are dissuaded from biting and, sometimes, even landing on the animal. “Even if you see the fleas, there are less of them and they are usually slow and easy to pick off,” says Rogers. “You’ll find them at the surface, not buried in the animal’s coat.” Heiney adds.
The environmental impact of chemical pesticides has not gone unnoticed by Rogers and Heiney. Both sisters are proponents of organic farming and are concerned about these poisons polluting the soil and the groundwater, as well as lakes and streams. “We all have to share the planet,” Heiney says. “We’re polluting our world so much; what are we leaving to our grandkids?” Aside from avoiding chemicals in the treatment of pests, the sisters also designed their tag to be environmentally safe, “from cradle to grave.” “Our goal is to have a full circle company,” says Rogers. “We recycle, and recycling includes recoding non-damaged magnetic strips and donating them to animal shelters.” This solves several problems for shelters. “Pharmaceutical companies offer chemical pesticides at discounted prices for animal shelters,” Heiney says. “Shelters are nonprofit, so when we donate recoded tags, it frees up their budget and prevents future health complications for the animals.” It also prevents the release of more chemicals into our ecosystem.
With the current interest in green technologies and healthy living, the stage has been set for Rogers and Heiney to change the way that people deal with pests. They have created tags for horses, dogs, cats and people, and are currently developing a tag for cattle as well; they have even been approached by family members of troops serving in Iraq to develop a tag for “sand fleas,” a common pest that causes much suffering for soldiers in the region. Shoo!TAGs are being distributed across the globe, in over 11 countries, and the momentum is growing. Says Rogers, “We’re not the magic bullet, but we’re close.”
MORE INFO
www.shootag.com