DEAR DR. FOX: I have been reading and enjoying your column for several years, and have read some of your books. How do you deal with all the bad news about what is happening to wildlife and the environment, as well as all the animal cruelty going on? -- J.G., Winston-Salem, North Carolina

DEAR J.G.: I appreciate you asking this question, and I know that many people feel as I do. Those feelings include frustration, outrage, sadness and grief. What keeps me writing, informing and -- I hope -- inspiring others is my love for animals and nature. That is my antidote to despair.

I do not hate those who cause animal suffering, environmental destruction and the desecration of nature, which many regard as sacred. I pity them. I do my best to show that in harming others, and in harming nature, they ultimately harm themselves. They should be prosecuted, but also educated.

The sciences have shown that we are biologically, physiologically and ecologically connected to nature: the living biosphere of planet Earth. But we are less connected empathically and cognitively, and are causing increasing harm to the life community, including ourselves.

The climate crisis is a wake-up call. Those who chose to live in denial are suffering from what I call "empathy-deficit disorder," which is evident in the political violence and divided factions of society. Collectively, we must become more connected and responsible for animals, nature and each other.

EMISSIONS' EFFECTS ARE 'BEYOND SCIENTIFIC DISPUTE'

The fact that greenhouse gases harm human health is “beyond scientific dispute,” reads a report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, one of the leading scientific bodies in the United States. The report complicates an effort by the Trump administration to revoke its environmental agency’s endangerment finding, the seminal 2009 declaration that came to the same conclusion about harm to human health. If the Trump administration succeeds, the government will no longer have any authority to regulate planet-warming emissions. The National Academies report says the 2009 finding was accurate and “has stood the test of time.”

Adding fuel to the fire, President Trump, in his address at the United Nations on Sept. 23, lambasted green energy alternatives like wind turbines. Climate change, he asserted, is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

SOME DOGS CAN CATEGORIZE WORDS

Some dogs have large vocabularies and can learn categories of words based on function, like toddlers do, according to a study in Current Biology. Researchers found that dogs can associate words like “pull” and “throw” with functional categories of toys, even when the toys vary in appearance.

See the study "A citizen science model turns anecdotes into evidence by revealing similar characteristics among Gifted Word Learner dogs" by Shany Dror et al., published in Scientific Reports in 2023.

CAT LIKELY CONTRACTED H5N1 INFECTION FROM RAW FOOD

A cat in San Francisco was euthanized after getting infected with H5N1 avian influenza, likely from consuming infected raw chicken. The virus was found in two lots of RAWR Raw Cat Food Chicken Eats, according to the FDA. Genetic sequencing showed that the H5N1 lineage in the food and the cat was one that had been circulating in birds and cattle last November and December. (Full story: The Associated Press, Sept. 3)

CONTAMINATED RAW PET FOODS POSE HAZARDS TO PEOPLE

The case of a young girl who developed severe hemolytic uremic syndrome linked to contaminated raw pet food highlights the danger of feeding raw food to pets. Raw food is prone to contamination with E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens. Cross-contamination can occur when people handle contaminated pet food and then prepare food for themselves or their families without washing their hands. (Full story: Food Safety News, Sept. 7)

(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: 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.)