DEAR DR. FOX: What is going on? I am heartbroken that I have lost my second boxer, Molly, an 8-year-old spayed dog, to incurable cancer. I go online and it makes me sick to read about so many kinds of cancer affecting us and our dogs. Can you give me any insight to help put my mind at rest, or is there no end to this? -- B.K., Washington, D.C.

DEAR B.K.: I have addressed this sad situation repeatedly in my newspaper column. Some breeds are more susceptible than others to certain types of cancer, which points to genetic susceptibility.

Researchers identified a specific variant of a gene associated with extended lifespan (nearly two years longer) in golden retrievers, and the findings may have implications for human cancer research, according to a study published in GeroScience. Golden retrievers are believed to be genetically predisposed to cancer, and the gene in question can both suppress and stimulate tumor growth. (Full story: ucdavis.edu, Oct. 19)

However, genetics are clearly not the only factor at play. Cancers are also common in mixed-breed dogs, like landrace dogs. So sheer genetic susceptibility does not seem to be the main cause. Rather, most epidemiologists see various cancers as being of environmental origin: specifically, from the chemical pollutants we have put into our air, food and water.

Humans, of course, suffer these same effects, tragically including the youngest among us. According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization (acco.org), "Each year in the U.S., there are an estimated 15,780 children between the ages of birth and 19 years of age who are diagnosed with cancer. Approximately 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer before their 20th birthday. Globally there are more than 300,000 children diagnosed with cancer each year." (Read more here: acco.org/us-childhood-cancer-statistics.)

Per the American Cancer Society (cancer.org), "After accidents, cancer is the second leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 14. About 1,040 children under the age of 15 are expected to die from cancer in 2023." (Read more here: cancer.org/cancer/types/cancer-in-children/key-statistics.html.)

In my opinion, this is a national -- indeed, an international -- disgrace, where public health and preventive medicine have taken second place to those vested interests that pollute our air, water and food. As a longtime member and supporter of the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association, I am not alone in this perception of the tragic situation in what some regard as an “advanced” civilization. To find a veterinarian who shares this approach to companion animal health, go to ahvma.org.

WILD ANIMALS FEAR HUMANS MOST

I was recently asked by a reader for an answer to her child’s question: “Why are wild animals so afraid of us? Why do they always run away when they see me?”

My response is that, for hundreds of thousands of years, we humans (and our now-extinct carnivorous primate relatives) were predators, killing other animals for food. Now, some behavioral researchers have documented animals' instinctual aversion to humans.

According to a recent study, giraffes, elephants, rhinoceroses and other wild animals are more scared of the sounds of humans talking calmly than they are of lions. “If the fear of humans is so pervasive, and happens to all animals out there on our planet, then it really adds a new dimension to the worldwide environmental impacts that humans might be having,” said researcher Liana Zanette of the University of Western Ontario in Canada. (Read more here: "Fear of the human ‘super predator’ pervades the South African savanna" by Zanette et al, published in Current Biology, October 2023.)

As I have emphasized in an earlier column, visitors to wildlife preserves and wilderness areas disrupt the animals' feeding, resting, nursing and hunting patterns, which means those who really care should keep away. Authorities should limit public access to the hours of the day when the animals would be least disturbed.

(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: This the third in a three-part series about the cattle industry’s continuing assaults on wildlands, wildlife and biodiversity, as well as its contributions to climate change and risks to public health.

One hamburger in your local store probably contains meat from abroad as well as from U.S. producers. Beef and soybeans are imported from Amazon forest-destroying Brazil to feed livestock and poultry. Per a story in Tri-State Livestock News, a cattle industry publication, "The U.S. imported a record-breaking amount of fresh beef from Brazil in 2022. In January 2022 alone, imports reached nearly 100 million pounds -- a more than 500% increase relative to the same month a year earlier -- with fresh beef accounting for 83 million pounds, according to USDA." (Read the full story here: tsln.com/news/us-imports-from-brazil-continue.)

Family-owned Minnesota-based multinational Cargill Co. is deeply involved in these extractive activities, as per the appeals from a coalition of several organizations in their report, “A Grain of Truth.” (See burninglegacy.org and stand.earth.)

India, with a population of 1.4 billion people -- of whom an estimated 224.3 million were undernourished in 2019-2021, according to a U.N. report -- is one of the world’s largest exporters of beef (from water buffaloes). About 1.5 million metric tons of Carcass Weight Equivalent (CWE) of beef and veal were exported from India in 2022. (Read more here: drovers.com/news/industry/major-beef-exporters-and-importers-2023.) India is also the world’s third-largest exporter of dairy products. (Read more here: statista.com/statistics/268191/cow-milk-production-worldwide-top-producers.)

Domestic cattle roaming and breeding freely, and thus becoming feral, are an issue in several countries. In India, many of the 5 million stray cattle are discarded males (castrated bullocks used as beasts of burden) or no-longer-productive milk cows. State governments run by the party of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi have tightened laws to protect cows, making it harder for farmers to sell unproductive cattle for slaughter. (Read more here: nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/india-five-million-stray-cattle-sacred-hindu.) To learn more about the plight of India’s “sacred” cattle, read the book "India’s Animals: Helping the Sacred and the Suffering," which I wrote with my wife, Deanna L. Krantz.

We must move away from beef to safer, more sustainable sources of nutrients, including microbial proteins. (Read more here: "Projected environmental benefits of replacing beef with microbial protein" by Florian Humpenoder, published in Nature, May 2022.)

The social, public health and environmental costs of the entire global beef industry, and associated operations for dairy cows, pigs and poultry, should be ethically unacceptable in any civilized, democratic society.

Cattle are routinely treated with pesticides and other anti-parasite drugs that now pose a significant ecological and environmental concern. Since the 1950s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved several steroid hormone drugs for use in cattle and sheep -- including natural estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, and their synthetic versions -- along with various antibiotics, all in order to boost productivity, consumer risks notwithstanding.

Drugs like Zilmax (now banned in many places over animal well-being issues) and Optaflexx (ractopamine) are given to cattle and other farmed animals to make them leaner. But the animals are chronically stressed by this kind of neuro-psychotropic drug, which makes them hyper-alert. The anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, widely used until a recent ban, was highly toxic to India’s vultures, who were consuming contaminated cattle remains and were almost exterminated across the subcontinent. China is genetically engineering massively double-muscled cattle and other animals for human consumption.

According to research by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, emissions from meat and dairy combined now make up around 14% of all global greenhouse emissions. (Read more here: "Why Is Beef Bad for the Planet?" at sentientmedia.org, and here: "Environmental and land use consequences of replacing milk and beef with plant-based alternatives" by Marcela Porto Costa et al, published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, 2023.)

All of us must change if we are to ever restore the healing connections of One Health for our One Earth. Reducing the billions of farmed animals raised for human consumption will facilitate planetary CPR: conservation, protection and restoration of biodiversity and wildlife. After all, none of the plants we eat can infect us with zoonotic diseases, while the animals we consume most certainly can and do!

To read this three-part series in its entirety, go to: drfoxonehealth.com/admin/#/collections/post/entries/a-beef-about-beef-boycott-long-overdue.

(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 want to call your attention to a recent article by Trisha Pasricha about letting your dog give you "kisses" on the face. What she writes contradicts what I read in one of your columns not long ago, where you said that it is generally OK. What is your response? -- B.M.V., St. Paul, Minnesota

DEAR B.M.V.: Dr. Trisha Pasricha is the Ask a Doctor columnist for The Washington Post. In the column you reference, she focused on the bacterium Capnocytophaga canimorsus, which she says can be “risky for the elderly, those who consume a lot of alcohol or among those who are immunocompromised.” She then quotes an infectious disease expert, who says that the odds of getting a case of sepsis from this organism are “around the same odds as getting struck by lightning.”

As I emphasize in my post on this subject (drfoxonehealth.com/post/dogs-kisses-licks-and-saliva-that-heals), pet owners should “always wash hands before preparing food and before eating, and wash out pets’ food and water bowls daily. The bowls could contain salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter and listeria from pet foods, which could infect family members. The main source of these harmful bacteria, some of which have evolved resistance to antibiotics, are the meat and poultry ingredients in raw and frozen pet foods (and in batches of contaminated dry kibble).”

Pasricha goes on to stress the importance of rabies vaccinations and of supervising children around dogs to prevent dog-bite injuries. This is all very well, but she then states that dogs should be given "an anti-parasitic medication monthly.” This is ill-advised, since some of these drugs can harm dogs, are an environmental hazard and can affect family members when they are applied to the dog’s skin. Such advice is imprudent in the absence of evidence that treatment is indicated by a veterinarian. Routine monthly treatments may be profitable for the manufacturers and prescribers, but can lead to parasites evolving resistance.

As a matter of medical clarity, humans kissing each other pose more of a health risk, especially from various serious viral infections, than your dog kissing you. (For details, see the study “Viral Diseases Transmissible by Kissing” by Jacobo Limeres Posse, et al, published in Saliva Protection and Transmissible Diseases in 2017.)

TSA: DON’T SEND PETS THROUGH AIRPORT X-RAY MACHINES

Airline passengers traveling with pets should not send their pets through airport X-ray machines at security checkpoints, as doing so needlessly exposes the animal to radiation, according to the Transportation Security Administration. Radiation exposure can cause cancer and other illness, says AVMA Immediate Past President Dr. Lori Teller, and pets being carried in the cabin should be removed from their carrier before the carrier is sent through the X-ray machine. “If you’re concerned that your pet may get freaked out or try to escape (during the security check) you can always ask for a private screening in a quiet room,” Dr. Teller said. (Full story: Houston Chronicle, Sept. 19)

HONEY HEALING HORSES: SAVE THE BEES!

Medical-grade honey applied directly within the synovial cavity was safe and effective in a study involving three horses that had undergone synovial sepsis surgery, veterinarians at Cotts Equine Hospital reported. No adverse effects were observed, and none of the three horses showed signs of lameness after treatment, says equine veterinarian Richard Coomer. (Full story: TheHorse.com, Sept. 19)

For all our sakes, let’s save the bees, decimated by the many diseases and pesticide poisoning we have brought upon them.

(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.)