DEAR READERS: I encourage those who have not seen the 1992 documentary "From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers' Warning" to do so. Here is a description from FilmsForAction.org:

"The Kogi are the last surviving civilization from the days of the Inca and Aztec. They see themselves as the spiritual guardians of life on Earth. For four centuries, they lived in seclusion in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains, carefully guarding their isolation. When the tribal elders began observing signs of ecological crisis in the changing patterns of snow and bird migration, they emerged from their seclusion, inviting BBC filmmaker Alan Ereira to record their prophetic message to the world."

To see the film, go to: filmsforaction.org/watch/from-the-heart-of-the-world-the-elder-brothers-warning.

The Kogi are also featured in a 2021 Pulitzer Center article about "the four Indigenous groups that reside in the region and refer to themselves as the Elder Brothers -- the Kogis, the Arhuacos, the Wiwas and the Kankuamos." The article explores the groups' approaches to living with, and in, nature, drawing on the wisdom of spiritual leaders called Mamos.

“Modern society’s emphasis on Western science has eclipsed the essential spiritual nature of the Earth, as well as a core reality that is obvious to the Arhuacos: that of the interconnectedness of all life," reads the article.

Quoted in the piece is Amado Villafana, an Arhuaco filmmaker and cultural interpreter, who states: "The Younger Brother (modern society) always makes separations. But lately the quantum physics area is beginning to recognize that everything is in everything else, and nothing is separated. And (it recognizes) the ways in which one thing affects another, right? And when that is broken, there are consequences. So I believe that quantum physics is finally beginning to approach the knowledge of the Mamos.”

To read the full story, and for more details about the conservation needs and works of Indigenous peoples, go to: pulitzercenter.org/stories/arhuacos-message-mamos-prophets-sierra-nevada.

U.S. DISBANDS CONTROVERSIAL CLIMATE PANEL

Please see this Sept. 12 briefing from nature.com:

“Faced with a lawsuit, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has disbanded a panel of five well-known critics of climate science who issued a controversial draft report that casts doubt on the evidence underlying global warming. The document serves as the scientific basis of the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal a landmark 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare -- which could ultimately prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating those emissions. The Department of Energy has declined to withdraw the report, although observers note that disbanding the panel could further undermine the report’s legitimacy.”

TRUMP TARIFFS HARMING FARMERS, THE ENVIRONMENT

The tariff war with China has led many countries to buy soybeans from Brazil, rather than from American producers. For details, see the article "Soybean farmers lose their market," Minnesota Star Tribune, Sept. 12.

The ripple effects of this tariff war are not only impoverishing America’s soybean producers, but also escalating Brazil’s destruction of the Amazon rainforest for soybean and beef production. Also, there may soon be a shortage in toilet paper since U.S. manufacturers rely on imported wood pulp from Brazil’s trees.

The trees, along with the plankton in the seas, are now dying as the oceans warm, reducing our sources of the oxygen we need to live. All this must stop to help rectify climate change, but that is not on any politician’s agenda.

Slicing up established supply-chain connections with arbitrary and capricious tariffs, and without World Trade Organization accords, is clearly causing more harm than good -- ecologically, environmentally and socioeconomically.

DEAR DR. FOX: Our 8-year-old Chihuahua mix, Newbie, had been doing fine until a few days ago. He now won’t take the small step up to the back door, as he’s done for the past three years, and won’t jump up to my husband’s lap. He walks up and down the main stairs just fine.

He has no other symptoms. His range of motion is within normal limits, and he indicates no pain when we palpate his spine. His yearly vet checkup is in a month. Meanwhile, any ideas? -- C.H., Cleveland, Ohio

DEAR C.H.: Newbie may have a phobia after slipping, or another problem common in small dogs: a loose, luxating patella. Sidestep that problem, as well as the possible phobia, by just picking him up to go outside or onto a lap. A daily massage, as per the protocol in my book “The Healing Touch for Dogs,” would be beneficial.

If he has arthritis in one or more joints, it may not yet limit his range of motion, but would cause discomfort and fear in some situations. As a precaution, I would give him a daily supplement of chondroitin, glucosamine and MSM, crushing up half of a 250 mg pill in his food daily. (I give a full 250 mg daily to my dog, Kota, but she is 42 pounds -- likely much larger than Newbie.)

(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: The veterinary profession, for better and for worse, has served the interests of society and the economy for generations as part of the cultural separation of humanity from animality. I detail the ethical challenges of helping end this separation in my 2025 book “One Health: Veterinary, Ethical and Environmental Perspectives.”

Regrettably, the American Veterinary Medical Association has yet to show significant progress in this regard. In a meeting in August, the AVMA House of Delegates refused to add the word "often" (proposed by Dr. Colleen Currigan, Feline VMA delegate) to a sentence about cats' post-surgical pain after declawing, opting instead to keep the word "may." Once again, people’s interests are being put before those of animals.

For cats, declawing is dismembering mutilation. Countries that prohibit the declawing of cats include Australia, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Israel and New Zealand, as well as most of Europe and the United Kingdom. In Canada, most provinces have banned the procedure. Multiple states in the U.S. have successfully passed declawing bans, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland and New York, as well as Washington, D.C. The list of individual cities that have banned declawing continues to grow, as well.

For more details, go to peta.org/news/where-declawing-is-illegal.

DEAR DR. FOX: Have you ever addressed the issue of people running with their dogs? There are times the dogs’ tongues are hanging sideways as they are compelled to trot alongside their owners, whom I deem to be terribly selfish. I never see these people running with water for their dogs. I’ve seen one lady discipline her dog for not keeping up -- a little Frenchie, at that. I scowled at her, but did nothing else.

To me, it’s animal abuse. I realize some dogs like the exercise, but often it looks too extreme. How should a dog owner evaluate their dog's tolerances? I’ve seen many Labs panting, while some dachshunds trot along happily. I don’t know the distances they have covered, though.

We have a tri-paw rescue, and she seems to overheat just while walking on some of our warmer days (temperatures in the 80s). We always have water for her, and don’t push her. She’ll stop walking sometimes, and we give her a rest. -- N.H.A., Skagit Valley, Washington

DEAR N.H.A.: I have repeatedly raised this issue in my columns over the years, and your concerns are valid. I cannot emphasize enough how stressful it can be for dogs to have to run beside their owners in hot weather.

Dogs cannot sweat like humans to regulate their body temperature, but instead must pant, creating evaporative cooling orally. This is why they can quickly become dehydrated. Also, many owners are unaware how hot the sidewalk or pavement can become, even to the point of burning dogs’ feet.

Heat stress can lead to heat stroke, which can be fatal without immediate emergency veterinary care. Dogs especially at risk are those like the French bulldog you saw -- one of the brachycephalic ("pushed-in face") breeds, which can have difficulty breathing at the best of times. Also at risk are older dogs, overweight dogs and those with chronic heart, joint and other health problems.

Both heat stress and heat stroke can be prevented with mindfulness and empathy. Owners should always take water for their dogs when outdoors for any length of time in hot and humid weather. There are also crushed-ice cooling jackets, which can help.

CLIMATE IMPACT OF SOME DOG FOODS

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, many people underestimate the climate impacts of certain actions and overestimate the impacts of others. People also underestimate the negative environmental effects of dog ownership, which contributes to climate change primarily through the feeding of beef to dogs. Dog owners can reduce their climate "footprints" by choosing less carbon-intensive foods, such as seafood and turkey.

For documentation, see the study “The global environmental paw print of pet food” by Peter Alexander et al., published in Global Environmental Change in 2020.

ANOTHER SUPER-DOG!

A certified gluten-detection dog named Suki has been a “game-changer” for Kendra Williams, who has celiac disease. Suki sniffs Kendra's food for gluten and signals with her paw if she detects it. She touches Williams with her nose if the food is safe, saving her from being sick for weeks. (Full story: ABC News, Aug. 26)

(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: Here is an excerpt from the 2025 Policy Book of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (uscattlemen.org):

“WHEREAS the gray wolf management under the Endangered Species Act has proven to be detrimental to livestock producers; and WHEREAS the gray wolf population has exceeded predetermined levels; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED USCA supports efforts to fully remove the gray wolf from consideration under the Endangered Species Act.”

Like the extermination of Indigenous peoples in centuries past, this attitude toward wolves is a sad reflection of ignorance, fear and prejudice. And it is sadly in service to the environmentally damaging beef industry. The U.S. also imports beef from Brazil, where the cattle industry plays a major role in destroying the Amazon forest. (See my post here: drfoxonehealth.com/post/a-beef-about-beef-boycott-long-overdue.)

While the price and consumption of beef are on the rise in the U.S., the beefeaters of today are major contributors to climate change -- along with this entire industry. The atavistic capitalists of agribusiness and other industries contributing to the climate crisis are roundly confronted by Michael Grunwald in his 2025 book, “We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate.” What is good for the Earth is good for us, and eating beef, as Grunwald asserts, is not.

My friend Jeremy Rifkin said much the same in his 1992 book, “Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture.” That was 33 years ago! How slow we are to change for the sake of the Earth and the animals, as well as for our own health.

EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES WITH VAFAW

The Veterinary Association For Farm Animal Welfare connects veterinarians around the world to improve the care, health and well-being of farmed animals. Webinars hosted by VAFAW on topics such as pain mitigation and humane end-of-life practices have drawn an international audience. For more details, go to vafaw.org.

GETTING TO THE SOURCES OF HEAT WAVES

From Nature.com: "Climate scientists have been attributing storms, droughts and heat waves to global warming for two decades. Now, they are tracing the chain of responsibility all the way back to the producers of fossil fuels. A study published in Nature shows that around one-quarter of the heat waves recorded over 2000–23 can be directly linked to greenhouse-gas emissions from individual energy giants. The findings could provide fresh evidence to support lawsuits seeking to hold companies accountable for their impacts on the climate."

See the full study: "Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors" by Yann Quilcaille et al., published in Nature in 2025.

RECOVERING CIVILIZATION VIA ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Many readers will appreciate this post by Dr. Evaggelos Vallianatos, a former EPA employee and whistleblower, calling for the establishment of a neo-Platonic and Aristotelian Academy in these times of conflict and ecological and socioeconomic crisis. See the essay here: radiofree.org/2025/08/28/do-we-need-a-platonic-aristotelian-academy.

DOGS CAN GET, AND POSSIBLY SPREAD, COVID-19

“Due to close contact in shared households, pet dogs may be at increased risk for contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus from infected individuals in the same household,” researchers wrote in Virus Research. SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were found in 68% of dogs living in households where someone had had COVID-19, compared with an overall seroprevalence of 12.2% among dogs in general.

Seropositive dogs showed no signs of infection and had been brought to a veterinary clinic for other reasons. (Full story: Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Sept. 9)

(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.)