Your pet's hair can help clean up the oil spill!

If you plan to get your dog or cat groomed, or do it yourself, save those clippings. If you are getting your own hair cut, save those clippings, too. Clean out your brushes and combs - just leave the vacuum bags alone.
Your hair and your pets' fur can help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Don't vacuum it up, because the hair and fur needs to be as free of other debris as possible.
The hair and fur is stuffed into old pantyhose or nylons, and made into booms that soak up the oil and cleanse the water. You can also donate those old nylons, runs and all, by the way.
At the root of this collection drive is Matter of Trust. This is a non-profit organization based in California, and they have already collected thousands of pounds of hair and fur to help make the booms.
"People" salons are collecting hair clippings, too. Carol McCoy, of the Carol Mccoy Salon at Stranz Hair Salon in Macon, said, "We're doing it in our salon, but I don't mind being a collection point."
She said she plans to get boxes soon to ship the hair and any fur, stockings or wool that needs to go, too. Call the salon to make an appointment if you want to get your hair cut, and to coordinate your donations if you have any of the other materials to bring. Call the salon at 478-731-0603 or 478-474-7644. The shop is open Tuesday - Saturday.
Other Macon area salons registered with Matter of Trust are:

• Signature Salon & Spa, Macon (704) 254-1561
• Stranz Hair Salon, Macon ( 478 ) 787-8924
• Studio L.A.S., Macon (478) 746-1386
• Visual Glamour,  Macon 478-474-1712
• Matthew Caleb Salon, Warner Robins  (478 ) 256-0369 
• Serenity Salon and Spa, Warner Robins  (478) 320-5310 or (478) 953-3001      
• Emerald Cuts, Dublin ( 478 ) 275-4222
• Great Lengths, Milledgeville (478) 453-2569

Please call to find out if the salon is willing to add your pet's fur to their donated hair before you drag the fur over to their shops.
While we can't find a local collection point specifically for fur, Coastal Pet Rescue in the Savannah area is accepting donations there for transfer to a Florida collection point.
You can send in donations of hair and fur yourself. Go to the sign-up page at Matter of Trust, sign up and get instructions for sending your donations to them. Although you are asked for credit card information, this is only if you wish to buy from the site (posters, etc.), and you do not have to put in your credit card information. Just leave that part blank and hit the sign up button.
If you own a pet grooming business, hair salon or any other kind of business and wish to donate, go here.
Schools that want to make a class or school project of making donations to help rid the Gulf of Mexico of all that oil and help save wildlife should click here.
Churches, government entities and other non-profits should click here.
Your donation and anything you spend on postage/shipping of that donation, are tax-deductible. Just save your receipt for shipping. Matter of Trust will send you a receipt for the donation after it is received and accepted.
Once you sign up, you'll get an e-mail telling you where to send your hair, fur, wool, nylons, etc.
The oil spill is expected to not only kill precious wildlife resources, but can effectively put out of business all those fishermen and small fishing companies that depend on the sea for their livelihood. This not only impacts them, but will likely cause the price of fish at the supermarket to rise significantly.
If you can't see the video link, click here to see the YouTube video of how fur and hair is used to make mats to soak up oil, and an amazing demonstration of how well these mats work.