The same wind turbines that are causing reports of severe health harms to people around the world appear to be having a similar or more severe impact on dogs and other animals. This is especially troubling because dogs and other domesticated animals rely on humans for humane living conditions and they are unable to tell us when they are under distress from wind turbines.
A couple typical examples are reported in the Hamilton (Australia) Spectator and the World Council for Nature website. The Spectator article documents how a family was forced to seek medical attention for its female Kelpie shortly after wind turbines were places approximately one mile from the family’s home.
“It is usually very active, alert and an excellent working dog, and it has become very withdrawn and this is more evident when wind is coming from the same direction that the wind turbines are in,” treating veterinarian Scott Shrive told the Spectator. (https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/24/working-dogs-may-be-affected-by-wind-farms/)
“The dog is reluctant to come out of its kennel when the wind is coming from that direction – it won’t work, they can’t get it to work, it won’t even jump up on the vehicle, but on days when there is no wind, so when the turbines aren’t working, it goes back to normal, it comes out of its kennel it is happy to work all day like it normally does,” Shrive added.
“She has never behaved like this before, when she is lying on the floor of the kennel in the morning it takes nearly half an hour to coax her up, then when she gets outside she just runs mad, all over the place, it is like her brain is scrambled,” the dog’s owner told the Spectator. “She just runs crazy and then she will settle down and just be very quiet and if you take her away (from the wind farm) then she goes back to normal later on in the day.”
The negative effects of wind turbines are apparently not limited to dogs. The World Council for Nature reported an incident of more than 1,600 minks being born prematurely – many of them deformed – after a wind farm began operation approximately 350 yards away. (https://wcfn.org/2014/06/07/windfarms-1600-miscarriages/)
Environmental stewardship involves more than merely reducing air emissions. It also requires protecting animals from unnecessary trauma caused by wind turbines.