You'd need to ask your local Jewish community if they use yews at all. Yew doesn't occur naturally in Israel, so there is no tradition for its use in Judaism as a religion; if there is any modern use, it will be concepts picked up by Jewish communities from other peoples, and may well differ from one Jewish community to the next depending on where they are. Generally, the tree most commonly planted in cemeteries in the Mediterranean region is Cupressus sempervirens, but I don't know if this tradition is followed in Jewish cemeteries (though Cupressus sempervirens isn't reliably hardy in zone 7 anyway). I'd also guess Jewish communities may have very different traditions in respect of pets, as opposed to human cemeteries. I'm not aware of any veneration of deceased pets in Judaism, not in the way that e.g. cats were venerated in ancient Egypt. Resin

I think this is a very tough issue. We chose to live on conservation b/c of the wildlife that we might see. We have lived in our home for over 4 years and I've never seen a 'coon or 'possum in our yard. We did have an armadillo issue for which we hired a trapper to catch and relocate to his acreage (he said that's what he would do and I hope he did). Other then that, I have never had a problem with any animal eating/stealing/destroying anything I have grown. I have a 40-mile roundtrip commute to my office each day. Every day, I see so many poor animals that have been run over. At the rate I am seeing roadkill, I truly question that there are more of them than there are of us. Look at the amount of habitat loss! I also blame some, certainly not all, of the animals that get hit on people not paying attention to the road and/or speeding. One of the main roads leading to where we live is a very dark, narrow, 2-lane road. Because I have seen deer, rabbits, 'coons, etc., I know to drive as slow as I can and pay extra attention to my surroundings. But that is my soapbox for another thread. Personally, I cannot justify killing these animals, unless like Nicki said, it's for food or the animal is suffering. Call me a bleeding heart, but I personally do not think it is right to kill or harm these animals because they eat our veggies. Like Marcia and others have said, my philosophy in my yard is to live and let live. I have enough space and grow enough stuff to be able to share with the wildlife that live around me.

Dirtgirl - loved your writings about the bobcat/coon encounter! We have a few bobcats here in North Texas, but so many new houses have been going up the last few years, many of the critters who were here 10 years ago have now headed to more secluded spots. We keep a swing in the woods on our property. One night, several years ago, we were setting in the swing, night had fallen and we were armed only with a flashlight. It had been so quite, I was sure nothing was going to be viewed that night. But I turned on the flashlight and it shined right into the beautiful eyes of a silver fox who was standing about 10 feet away from us. How we didn't hear it approach, I'll never know. It was not afraid of us and wandered along it's way. We were so delighted! Back into darkness - still very quite, so again I turned on the light and this time, we saw what we were hoping not to see - a skunk. Very quietly, we got up and hurried up the creek bank and out of those woods. That night viewing was over in a hurry. We see lots of critters around here - one of the real joys of country living. Too bad the country is vanishing here, but we've seen and enjoyed this place for years now. We are truly blessed. Janice in Texas

I disagree with several of these points. 1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points This is the industry's definition of by-products: The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto. None of these things are bad for an animal to eat. In fact brain tissue contains taurine, an important amino acid that is not found in other body parts. Liver is an excellent source of iron. Bone and cartilage contains calcium, phosphorus, glucosamine, and chondroitin sulfate and other important trace minerals. How do you think wolves survive 20 years without someone sprinkling vitamins and minerals onto their food? They eat the WHOLE animal, and therefore don't need extra stuff. Vitamins and minerals are only added to pet food because much of the healthy stuff has been removed. The only reason people don't eat by-products is because we think they are yucky tasting (well, some people eat by-products, they just call them tripe, menudo, liver, etc). Wolves don't eat the meat and leave the rest of the animal laying around, they eat the whole animal, and since dogs and wolves are genetically identical, dogs should eat the whole animal too. The "evil" of by-products was invented by a very clever marketing firm, not based in fact or science of animal nutrition. 2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points This isn't a problem unless your dog has allergies. 3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points Actually, if the food contains these preservatives, subtract all 100 points. NEVER feed a dog or cat a food containing these items. EVER. 8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points 9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points Corn is not a bad thing to be in dog food, unless your dog happens to be allergic to it. However I agree it should not be a top 5 ingredient. 11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points 12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points 13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points 14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point There is nothing wrong with lamb, soy, wheat, or beef unless your dog happens to be allergic to any of these items. The soy and wheat should not be in the top 5 ingredients since they are not animals, and dogs are by nature, mostly carnivores. 13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point Actually don't bother adding a point because the amount added is never enough to have any benefit. The other points are good. I personally would add a lot more points for raw diets though.