DEAR READERS: As a veterinarian and advocate of One Health, I cite scientific references in many of my writings because I am often told I am "going overboard" and "exaggerating" the seriousness of the issues that I address. Indeed, there are many people, including politicians and others with vested corporate interests, who would rather not know the facts and maintain business as usual. But in any democracy, this is not acceptable -- especially when the health of our children and of other species is put in jeopardy.

Relying on vaccines and pharmaceuticals to treat emerging zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals to humans), and the mass extermination of the animal carriers of such diseases, is no solution. These treatments may be profitable for a few, but preventive measures must be put first. And the effects of climate change cannot be ignored.

Reducing our carbon footprints and energy use, especially for transportation and travel, are part and parcel of a One Health initiative. The telecommunication industry's expansion of corporate and personal internet services, which depend on proliferating, energy-consuming data storage and transmission centers, only exacerbates climate change.

An article by Laura H. Kahn and Richard Seifman, "It's Time to Get Serious About Preventing Pandemics," underscores the need for a more holistic approach by responsible international aid and health agencies. Kahn and Seifman state: "The good news is that the World Bank, with the World Health Organization, is about to launch a brand-new international multilateral financing mechanism called the 'Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response' Financial Intermediate Fund (FIF) to provide long-term funding to address pandemics. FIF is targeted to reach $12.5 billion within five years. ... Unfortunately, the preparedness and response parts of the mechanism are receiving the lion's share of the attention and funding compared to the prevention part. ... We must include veterinarians and other animal health professionals who receive extensive education and training in zoonotic diseases, and environmental health experts, to be part of the pandemic prevention solution. So far, their involvement has been minimal, which jeopardizes the effort's success."

I would add a note of concern with regard to the pandemic-potentiating consequences of the documented cellular, immunological and other adverse health effects of nonionizing radiation from 3G, 4G and 5G telecommunications towers and satellites. For more on this topic, see the following journal articles: "Appeals that matter or not on a moratorium on the deployment of the fifth generation, 5G, for microwave radiation," Lennart Hardell and Rainer Nyber, Molecular and Clinical Oncology, March 2020; "Effects of nonionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 1: Rising ambient EMF levels in the environment" and "Part 2: How species interact with natural and man-made EMF," Reviews on Environmental Health, May 2021.

See also this article from the Environmental Health Trust: ehtrust.org/in-historic-decision-federal-court-finds-fcc-failed-to-explain-why-it-ignored-scientific-evidence-showing-harm-from-wireless-radiation.

SCIENCE, ETHICS, LEADERSHIP ALL NECESSARY

A recent New York Times piece by science writer Ari Schulman about Anthony Fauci underscores an essential flaw in the U.S. public health system. As Schulman writes, "A science that people will follow must lead."

Science without ethics is hazardous; ethics without science is vacuous. Science informs politics, and ethics guide when politicians are committed to serve the common good.

The science and bioethics of a One Health approach to pandemic prevention must be adopted by the U.S. Public Health Service. A One Health approach calls for informed public involvement linked with animal health (animals being the primary source of new and old pandemics) and environmental protection without political interference. Such an integrative approach to pandemic prevention, rather than the marketing of ever-more vaccines and pharmaceuticals, is long overdue.

DEAR DR. FOX: Thanks for your cogent columns. You are a much-needed voice urging humanity to adopt responsible and spiritual living.

Also, I wish to thank you for your pet care advice. My dog's vet is impressed with how well he is doing as he approaches 14 years of age. He is convinced it is the food I prepare for him, using your recipe. -- B.C., Nassau, Bahamas

DEAR B.C.: I do appreciate your kind words of support. These are indeed challenging times for person and planet.

Readers, please note: My dog food recipe, which many of you are using and reporting significant health benefits, is posted at drfoxonehealth.com/post/dog-food-recipe.

(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 DR. FOX: I just read your column about animal suffering and the need for better animal protection laws -- and for their enforcement. It was refreshing to see my beliefs so succinctly expressed.

For years, I have been calling for all acts of animal abuse to be federal felonies. Local laws are not the answer when the entire country needs to have the same policies. We should also have a federal registry of animal abusers like we have for sexual predators. The public should have access to that information.

There are so many pets that live in despair. Animal care personnel or police should not have to get permission from abusers in order to take animals out of hellish situations.

Animals should not be used in labs, where many are kept in bare cages without any socialization and endure torture until being killed. Their lives are nothing but fear, pain and hopelessness. Their only escape is death. And farm animals should have the same protections as other animals.

A huge number of abandoned and homeless pets are trying to survive on the streets. The animal care groups that are meagerly funded by government are useless in addressing this problem; they have revolving doors, taking in strays and killing them to make room for a new batch. They don't take care of the medical needs of the animals, and probably kill more animals than they adopt out. The not-for-profit groups do as much as they can for the animals, but our tax dollars don't support them. They have to depend on donations in order to keep their doors open.

I believe there are many people who would join a movement dedicated to making the changes our society needs, but efforts today are scattered, and the funding isn't there. I just want to know: Where is our humanity? -- J.G., Boynton Beach, Florida

DEAR J.G.: It is evident from the United Nation's 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ipbes.net/assessment-reports/eca) that we have yet to learn to share this planet with other intelligent life forms. Doing so would be for our own good, which is bound to that of the other beings who compose and sustain the planet's community, even if we do not respect and care for the least of them. Without the ethics of respect and care, we are less than human and have become the most dangerous species on Earth. Inhumanity has no bounds -- ecologically, spiritually or ethically.

The ethics of respect and care awaken compassion and empathy, broadening into bioethics and giving rise to the One Health movement, which is now recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov/onehealth). The One Health framework is being embraced by more and more physicians, veterinarians, farmers, foresters and others who wish to protect animals and natural resources.

War, slavery and genocide -- culturally accepted norms throughout all of human history -- have their equivalents in our treatment of animals: the "wars" against pests and predators; the extermination and extinction of many species and their habitats; the enslavement of beasts of burden; the torture of animals to test cosmetics, other consumer products and even military weapons. Domestic animals are still treated primarily as commodities with minimal government oversight, and welfare standards are not always effectively enforced.

It will take a massive cultural shift -- ethically and economically, if not also religiously -- for domesticated and captive wild animals (such as those on fur farms) not to be regarded as commodities, and wild animals as trophies. In my opinion, that shift is long overdue for the sake of our humanity and the rest of life on Earth!

PET REPTILE PUBLIC HEALTH WARNING

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contact with pet bearded dragons is the likely cause of the salmonella Uganda infections that affected 44 people across 26 states last year. Of the 33 people with salmonellosis interviewed by public health officials, 21 reported contact with a bearded dragon before falling ill.

The CDC recommends washing your hands after handling a bearded dragon, keeping the reptiles out of the kitchen, not eating or drinking near them, keeping their supplies and habitats clean, and not kissing or snuggling them.

Terrapins (water turtles) are another frequent source of salmonella infections in humans. These and other reptiles should never be released back into the wild: Look at the invasive python issue in Florida. In my opinion, reptiles should never be purchased in the first place, even if bred in captivity rather than being legally imported -- a practice which the U.S. government should prohibit for humane and conservation reasons.

(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 DR. FOX: You have written about animal sentience and feelings, and I want to ask you about plants. They, too, are sentient in some ways; I have been told they respond to human touch and are more sensitive than we give them credit for. What is your opinion? -- R.E., Washington, D.C.

DEAR R.E.: My recent columns have addressed the issue of animals having feelings: emotional reactions similar to our own. It would be an omission not to mention plants.

Contemporary "forest bathers" and Indigenous peoples alike know there is wisdom and healing in plants, and that we can derive benefits from our feelings and communications with plant life. Some cultures believe that their crops are healthier and more productive when sung to.

Nobel Prize winner and plant geneticist Dr. Barbara McClintock observed, "If you pinch a leaf of a plant, you set off electrical impulses. ... There is no question that plants have all kinds of sensitivities. They do a lot of responding to an environment. They can do almost anything you can think of."

"The Secret Life of Plants," a 1973 book by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, documented controversial experiments that claim to reveal phenomena such as plant sentience. This set the stage for more research into the sensitivities and intelligence of plants, which are attuned to each other and to insects and other animals in their environments. For instance, some flowers open to make nectar more accessible in response to the sounds that bees make while hovering over them.

"Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest" by Suzanne Simard, just published, is a landmark treatise opening up the reality of the symbiotic communication between trees and fungi, and the evident sentience of interdependent plant life. Plants use chemical and electrical signals to communicate with each other (wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants). Plants can communicate with insects as well, sending airborne messages that act as distress signals to predatory bugs.

I am very concerned about the impact of various herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, as well as nonionizing radiation from cellphone towers and power lines, on these highly evolved interspecies communication systems and symbiotic relationships.

DEAR DR. FOX: I am a musicologist, and was enthralled when you described playing your flute and having a socialized wolf howl/sing in harmony in your book "The Soul of the Wolf." Some dog owners tell me their dogs like to sing along when they are playing a musical instrument. Others say their dogs howl when they hear a siren because it hurts their ears. What is your opinion on this? And do you agree with me that many animals like music? -- L.V., Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR L.V.: Music can certainly help calm animals. Dairy farmers are well aware that soothing music makes their cows more productive! As for dogs, I have always felt that they howl when they hear a siren because the sound triggers an innate communication response.

Wolves will howl to communicate with pack members when separated. Group howling may have a territorial function, informing neighboring wolf packs of their presence. The lone-wolf howl is like the lonely howl of dogs left alone all day that touches our hearts.

According to an opera singer who heard the ululating howls of my socialized wolf (whom I had raised during my studies of canid behavior and communication), she was "chording" -- singing two notes at the same time -- while I played my flute. My interpretation is that such singing is a soulful expression of communion or joy.

In the book I wrote with my wife, Deanna Krantz, "India's Animals: Helping the Sacred and the Suffering," I describe how the top dog at her animal sanctuary would respond when I played my flute: "On hearing my first note, he would utter a cascade of high-pitched whines and whistles that ignited the entire (resident) pack in a cacophony of yips, yaps, howls and birdlike whistles and trills of happiness that spread to the nearby village, where community dogs began to sing." I imagined this wave of song spreading across the subcontinent.

(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.)