There are a lot times when we interact with animals that it makes sense to keep quiet, but this podcast isn’t about any of those. This podcast is about keeping quiet when we’re just itching to offer advice to owners whose animals are experiencing serious and even what we may consider life-threatening problems. Aside from the fact that our motives might not be as pure as we would like to think, such advice may do more harm than good.
Read more →I’ve long maintained that at least some of us use our relationships with animals to dry-run human-human interactions. And certainly there’s no shortage of data that indicates that many people relate to their pets as members of the family. For most that means they relate to the animal as one of their kids or, if they don’t have children, the way they think a young child should be treated. What we think about less often is where those ideas of child-rearing that we then project on our companion animals come from: are they passed down from generation to generation?
Read more →Remember how when you were a little kid your parent or some other adult would end a discussion with finality by saying, “Because I said so.”? As we get older, it’s not uncommon for some people to evoke religion or science the same way. Those in the former group seek to terminate discussions in their favor by quoting the Bible, Koran, Torah or other religious text. Those in the latter quote the findings of a scientific study or studies to achieve this same goal. When we view religion or science as the ultimate authority, it’s only natural that we
Read more →There’s an ancient saying, “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud.” We currently live in an age of media-driven training stars who create the impression that everything we need to know about getting animals of any species to do what we want to them to do is known. Then when a wild animal with countless years of training or a pet dog who ranked first in his obedience class attacks someone, we feel betrayed. Worse, we feel betrayed by the animal. But is it really the animal who betrayed us? Or someone or something else?
Read more →Within the medical community stress is a lot like evolution in theological circles: people either accept it as real or they don’t, and they often support their orientation with an enthusiasm that borders on religious zeal. My more reserved temperament and upbringing don’t lend themselves to public zealous responses. But if they did, I’d have to say that the failure to acknowledge the role stress plays in physical problems gets me about as close to a zealous response as I’m likely to get. As a veterinarian, I realize how inconvenient acknowledging the role emotions and the bond play in
Read more →For those of you who encountered problems with the FaceBook-podcast interface, the problem has been indentified as an FB-unfriendly code. This has been changed for the last 60 podcasts with the remaining ones to follow. If you have bookmarked any podcasts, you may have to remark them. If you have any questions about this, please let me know. I’m clueless, but will forward them to my son who is not. Thanks for your patience and I apologize for any inconvenience this glitch may have caused.
Read more →While some people spend a lot of time and energy arguing about whether evolution is real or some demonic myth, others have been observing the behaviors of some of nature’s smallest creatures. Their discoveries add a whole new dimension to the web of life that unites all living being on the planet and makes such arguments seem even more inane. For a nice overview of horizontal evolution, check out Horizontal and Vertical Evolution: The Evolution of evolution by Mark Buchanan in the January 26, 2010 issue of the New Scientist here.
Read more →Emily Dickinson is my favorite poet and my favorite poem by her is 1212: A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day. Even though we humans like to use our written and spoken language as evidence of our superior brain-power, like all animal displays words that have one meaning in one context may have a completely different meaning in another. This podcast considers one word commonly used in behavior whose new meaning may, literally, come back to bite us.
Read more →After I did last week’s podcast, I kept thinking about animals who live between two worlds, either by their own choice or those imposed on them by humans. When I did that, I came up with other examples and the feeling that there were even more. In fact, by the time I finished recording this, I had to wonder whether this might be becoming the norm instead of the exception in the human-companion animal world. Lest you cat-folks think you’re spared from a lot of temptations that dog-folks must face in this regard, don’t be too sure. The day
Read more →Because nature isn’t linear, it’s only natural to expect there to be individuals and species which don’t quite fit into the little boxes we humans create for them. When these animals occur in the wild, their ability to span two worlds is a source of amazement to us. Who can deny what such individuals and species reveal about the fantastic potential inherent in even the lowest of life-forms? And who could can deny their appeal to us novelty-loving humans? When such creatures so evolve to survive in their environments is one thing. But when animals wind up trapped between
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