DEAR DR. FOX: I expect you have gotten dozens (at least) letters regarding L.O. in Florida. Though tempted, I will not stoop to her level and call her names. I think, however, she is an example of someone who, at heart, is not really a cat person, and maybe not even an animal person, since her convenience seems to be first and foremost in her mind. At her age, she is unlikely to change.

Long ago, I worked for a vet who very rarely, and only in exceptional situations, would consider declawing a cat. How rarely? There was only one done in the four years I worked for him. I will not go into why he agreed to it that one time, but I was assisting during that operation.

I think anyone who is thinking about having a cat declawed should watch a video of how it is done. It is brutal and bloody. I don’t know if people are simply ignorant or if they do not care, but they need to understand that it is equivalent to amputating all 10 of their fingers at the last joint. Since cats are quadrupeds, the effect is also equivalent to doing the same amputation of all 10 of a human’s toes. While a person could manage to function, to some degree, if this was done, no one would be so callous as to suggest that everything would be just “fine” or “normal” after the procedure if done to a human.

I also wonder if the same people who routinely declaw cats are also in favor of declawing dogs who scratch or are diggers. It is done, unfortunately, as I understand, but not as often. Most people seem more willing to work on training their dogs, keeping their nails trimmed and filed, and either fencing off no-dig areas or keeping their dogs on leashes when outdoors rather than routinely mutilating their feet for their own convenience. Why aren’t cats given the same consideration?

In my 65+ years, I have had many, many cats and have never even been tempted to declaw one of them. I have provided them with various types of scratchers and even trained them on their use when they did not “get it” on their own. I have trimmed and filed nails. I have used nail caps. Yes, I have still had furniture scratched, and I have been scratched more than once myself. I have also had chewers (cats and dogs) and been bitten, but I have not yet stooped to having an animal’s teeth removed to solve that problem.

If a person is not prepared for all that comes with sharing a home with a pet, maybe they should stick to cuddling up with a big, soft plushie instead of trying to surgically modify an animal to suit their preferences.

Thanks for letting me vent. -- K.D., Sebastopol, California

DEAR K.D.: Many thanks for your contribution about this detestable mutilation of cats. Many countries and states have banned declawing of cats due to its harmful nature. Declawing is banned in at least 42 countries, several U.S. states, and 9 out of the 10 Canadian provinces.

Your own personal experience witnessing this surgical procedure is a wake-up call that all cat owners and would-be cat owners should consider whenever a veterinarian in the U.S. suggests it be done while the kitten is anesthetized for spay/neuter.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: While the mainstream media are pointing to the rise of authoritarianism in the democratic republic of the United States of America, where the Constitution and rule of law are being usurped, some are documenting how the rich are becoming even richer. This is the underbelly of mammonism, not authoritarianism.

Mammon is the deification of the accumulation of wealth. One’s life becomes a quest to accumulate more and more wealth and property until it becomes a religious practice supplanting all other things, and wealth becomes an object of worship. For more insights, go to earthandaltarmag.com/posts/what-is-mammon.

I see this as an ethical and spiritual crisis of these times where there is deepening engagement in the blatantly mammonist, energy-consuming cryptocurrency industry and little evidence of the executive branch of the U.S. government caring for the poor and needy at home and abroad. For many Americans, caring for an animal companion, of significant emotional benefit for millions, is too costly, and animal shelters are now filling up across the country. For desperate immigrants, all now declared “criminals” for entering the U.S. without visas, there is no justice, due process or compassion.

Many Americans who are not poor and are aware of their carbon footprints are buying and traveling less. Others struggle to pay for medical insurance and costly medications or to be free from addictive purchasing in a culture of hyperconsumption, living beyond their means and going into debt.

Following the template of Project 2025 to dismantle federal agencies and public health standards, including vital environmental protection and biodiversity restoration, the ill-advised Trump administration is limiting investments in safer, alternative, “green” energy sources, and promoting more oil, gas and coal extraction and deforestation of public lands. This is a stolen future for generations to come, whose quality of life under increasingly extreme climate change perturbations we are already experiencing.

I am struck by the irony of the climate change-associated, post-drought torrential rains and flood tragedy in central Texas that took so many lives on July 4, when Trump signed his Big Beautiful Bill that ignores climate change, reference to which he has had deleted from federal websites.

We should take this tragedy in Texas as a warning, without blame, shame or climate change denial. Crimes against humanity and crimes against nature are coins of the same currency.

On a related note, I would propose renaming Columbus Day, which is an insult to Native Americans. I propose going further than Indigenous Peoples Day, which has already replaced Columbus Day in many locales, to declare an Interdependence Day in honor of all our relations -- human and nonhuman alike.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this topic next week.

MAKING SENSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, from burning fossil fuels -- coal, gas and oil -- along with devastating forest fires, causes our atmosphere to absorb and retain solar radiation, preventing it from escaping into space and causing global temperatures to rise. With the Arctic warming three times faster than the average for rest of the world, the temperature difference between north and south decreases, and so does the speed of the jet stream’s westerly winds. As these winds slow down, its waves typically grow bigger and extend farther to the north and the south. Larger jet-stream waves move eastward more slowly, affecting weather patterns across North America to Central Europe and Asia.

“The big swings of the jet stream tend to be very persistent and to stay in the same place for a long time,” explains Dr. Jennifer Francis, senior atmospheric scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. "As each wave brings either warm or cold air to a region, this slow movement can cause extreme weather patterns, such as heat waves, floods, cold spells, storms and droughts -- and we are seeing these wavey patterns happen more frequently." For more details, go to arctic-council.org/news/shifting-winds-how-a-wavier-polar-jet-stream-causes-extreme-weather-events/#: See also: e360.yale.edu/digest/jet-stream-climate-change-heat-wave.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR READERS: A recently published study adds to the growing stack of reasons to be wary of cellphone use, especially by children.

Researchers at Cornell, Columbia and the University of California-Berkeley studied 4,285 U.S. adolescents over a four-year period, tracking their cellphone use and certain mental health symptoms and indicators. The results link "addictive screen use" to an increase in suicidal thoughts and behaviors. According to the authors, the results indicate that the key element driving the risk of suicidal behavior is not the total time spent in front of screens, but rather the addictive nature of social media and some video games.

“This is the first study to identify that addictive use is important, and is actually the root cause, instead of time,” said lead author Yunyu Xiao, assistant professor of psychiatry and population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College. (See the full study: “Addictive Screen Use Trajectories and Suicidal Behaviors, Suicidal Ideation, and Mental Health in U.S. Youths” by Yunyu Xiao et al., published in JAMA, June 18, 2025.)

The Netherlands recently issued guidelines recommending that children under the age of 15 not have access to social media. France, Spain and Greece have all recently pressed for an EU-wide age verification system setting a minimum age of 15 for social media access. Such measures should be standard everywhere.

The limited scope of life experiences bouncing around the echo chambers of social media should concern all parents and educators. Also concerning are the impacts of meaningless mass entertainment, which can foster shallow sentimentalism, and violent games, which can trigger nihilistic violence. (It should be noted that there are some interactive games that are highly educational, such as WolfQuest, which I recommend due to its scientific accuracy about wolf behavior and ecology.)

So much of the online world is interwoven with advertising -- the lures of consumerism -- and the delusions of autonomy, meaning and purpose. But a truly meaningful life is one of purpose, especially in service to others. Such a life is based on core values and virtues that shape one's character, improve the quality of one's life experiences and benefit one's health -- mental, physical, social and economic.

COPING WITH ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO DOGS AND CATS

An estimated 10% to 20% of people worldwide are allergic to proteins in animal skin cells, saliva or urine, reports HealthDay, and dog and cat allergens are present in nearly every U.S. home -- even those without pets.

People who have pets as young children may have lower risks for allergies and asthma, but exposure to pets as an older child or adult does not appear to have the same effect. Additionally, there’s no such thing as a "hypoallergenic" animal. Instead of seeking such a thing, people with allergies can take steps to minimize their exposure to allergens and manage their symptoms. (Full story: HealthDay.com, June 25)

On rare occasions, dogs have been found to be allergic to their human companions!

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)