DEAR DR. FOX: I wanted to alert you to this: Missouri State Rep. Jim Murphy, a Republican, is sponsoring a proposal to overturn local declawing bans. The bans in question were approved in the city of St. Louis in 2019 and adopted by St. Louis County in 2022. -- D.L., Maryland Heights, Missouri

DEAR D.L.: Any veterinarian supporting this proposal should lose their license to practice. Declawing is an inhumane mutilation of cats that lessens their quality of life, and it is outlawed in many countries (drfoxonehealth.com/post/declawing-cats).

It seems to me that the Republican party is afflicted with what I call "empathy deficit disorder." Elon Musk even declared empathy to be “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization."

H5N1 AVIAN INFLUENZA FOUND IN MORE CATS, SKUNKS, MICE

The USDA recently confirmed 15 cases of H5N1 avian influenza in mammals, including domestic cats in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Illinois, as well as skunks, mice, foxes, a raccoon and a bobcat. The department also reported H5N1 outbreaks in poultry in Indiana and Maryland, and in another dairy cattle herd in California. (Full story: Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, April 2)

REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE EXPLOITATION, TRADE

Below, please find the abstract from an important new study: "Chains of Commerce: A Comprehensive Review of Animal Welfare Impacts in the International Wildlife Trade" by Helen Lambert et al., published in Animals, 2025.

"Abstract: The commercial wildlife trade involves billions of animals each year, consumed for various purposes, including food, fashion, entertainment, traditional medicine, and pets. The experiences of the animals involved vary widely, with negative welfare states being commonplace.

"To highlight the broad scope of animal welfare impacts across the commercial wildlife trade, we present 10 case studies featuring a range of species traded globally for different purposes: 1. ball pythons captured and farmed to serve as pets; 2. Zebra fish captive-bred to serve as pets; 3. African grey parrots taken from the wild for the pet industry; 4. sharks de-finned for traditional medicine; 5. pangolins hunted for traditional medicine; 6. crickets farmed for food and feed; 7. frogs wild-caught for the frog-leg trade; 8. crocodilians killed for their skins; 9. lions farmed and killed for tourism; and 10. elephants held captive for tourism.

"The case studies demonstrate that wild animals commercially traded can suffer from negative welfare states ranging from chronic stress and depression to frustration and extreme hunger. The individuals involved range from hundreds to billions, and their suffering can last a lifetime. Given the welfare issues identified and the growing recognition and scientific evidence for animal sentience, we propose reducing and redirecting consumer demand for these consumptive wildlife practices that negatively impact animals."

DR. FOX HERE: When we stop treating other species as commodities, we may recover our humanity. To that end, a think tank called Interspecies Internet is working to accelerate our understanding of interspecies communication. Those interested in learning more should go to interspecies.io.

ZOO ELEPHANTS SURROUND JUVENILES DURING EARTHQUAKE

Adult elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park formed a protective circle around juvenile elephants during an April earthquake. In the wild, elephants form similar “alert circles” around juveniles to protect them from threats. (Full story: Los Angeles Times, April 14)

(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: Although I am not a follower of Catholicism, I join the billions of people mourning the passing of Pope Francis on Easter Monday. He was the embodiment of humility, courage and universal love. He was critical of the Trump administration’s mistreatment of immigrants and its denial of climate change, which is affecting the poor in many countries.

In his encyclical "Laudato Si," Francis railed against “unbridled anthropocentrism,” which is harming all of God’s creation. Ultimately, only that which we hold sacred is secure. He stated that if we are cruel or indifferent to any living creature, we inevitably end up showing similar treatment to one another.

“Every act of cruelty towards any creature is contrary to human dignity,” he wrote. “Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.”

While the Catholic faith views human beings as uniquely made in the image and likeness of God, Francis assures us that the “dominion” we were given over creation in the Book of Genesis was not meant to mean destruction -- but rather, stewardship and care.

From a spiritual perspective, every sentient being is a theophany: a manifestation of divinity or of creative power and mystery. As such, each being deserves reverential respect and understanding. I think the door of our collective human consciousness is opening, cognitively and empathically, with this realm of being -- the universal in the particular and the particular in the universal.

Is it any coincidence that the state of the environment -- with dying, drought- and fire-ravaged forests and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reaching new heights -- mirrors our own condition? Medical and mental health costs are escalating, with health insurance and prescriptions becoming unaffordable for many. Globally, 733 million people are estimated to be hungry. Shamefully, half of all child deaths (ages 5 and under) are linked to malnutrition. This has less to do with overpopulation than with unequal distribution of wealth and resources.

It has been predicted that, out of the chaos and suffering of this Anthropocene era, we will be faced with an evolutionary choice. We must renounce dualistic thoughts and usher in what I call the Empathocene era, and what my friend Father Thomas Berry called the Ecozoic era: being mindful of the sacred ecological connections that sustain us and all life on Earth. The realization that all life is interconnected and interdependent is paramount. For details, see my book “Bringing Life to Ethics: Global Bioethics for a Humane Society.”

May the spirit of Pope Francis live on in the name of compassion and justice for all beings.

PROPOSAL WOULD END CERTAIN HABITAT PROTECTIONS

A rule proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service would remove habitat protections for threatened and endangered species, a move experts say could lead to extinctions. The rule would change the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act so that habitat alteration or destruction would not be considered harmful unless a species was intentionally targeted. (Full story: The Associated Press, April 16)

This ruling highlights the Trump administration’s alignment with vested interests that are ethically illiterate and morally bankrupt. Nature is part of us and we are part of nature.

Government should serve the common good, as ecologist Garrett Hardin reasoned in his seminal 1968 essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons." Harvard University biologist E.O. Wilson, in his book “Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight For Life,” asserts that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of fully half the Earth's surface for nature.

Crimes against nature -- such as destroying vital wildlife habitat and eliminating the protection of endangered species -- are coins of the same currency as crimes against humanity. Genocide and ecocide go hand in hand with racism and speciesism under the tyranny of inhumanity. Industrial civilization is facing an existential crisis, calling on all of us in civil society to embrace our ethical responsibilities for nature, animals and each other.

(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: My book of poetry, "For All Our Relations," has just been published by Austin Macauley Publishers. I think many of you will enjoy it.

The book has two parts. The first part contains a message from the Dalai Lama and an introduction by the late Father Thomas Berry. The poems in this part of the book detail my experiences at the animal refuge operated by my late wife, Deanna Krantz. Through the refuge, she provided free veterinary services to poor villagers and tribal communities, which was vital to their economies and health. She faced corruption and death threats in her work saving elephants and other wildlife.

The second part is a collection of poems written between 1975 and 2024. They come from my heart’s deep core of empathy and reverence for all life in a world in need of compassion for all creatures, great and small.

To read more about the book, and to place orders, go to austinmacauleyusa.com/book/for-all-our-relations. All royalties will be donated to animal and environmental protection groups.

SCIENTISTS 'RESURRECT' EXTINCT WOLF

Colossal Biosciences has genetically engineered wolves to resemble dire wolves, which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago. The pups have long white hair, muscular jaws and are on track to weigh 140 pounds at maturity.

After studying the DNA of two dire wolf fossils, reports the Associated Press, "the scientists took blood cells from a living gray wolf and used CRISPR to genetically modify them in 20 different sites. ... They transferred that genetic material to an egg cell from a domestic dog. When ready, embryos were transferred to surrogates, also domestic dogs, and 62 days later, the genetically engineered pups were born." (What is the fate of those surrogate mother dogs, I wonder?)

I have posted earlier about this company, which I wish would focus on helping existing species that are close to extinction rather than resurrecting facsimiles of the already-gone. As the AP story indicates, "'All you can do now is make something look superficially like something else' -- not fully revive extinct species, said Vincent Lynch, a biologist at the University at Buffalo who was not involved in the research." (Full story: The Associated Press, April 7)

These genetically engineered “dire” wolves will be in dire straits without parents or an integrated family pack to instruct them. They will simply become captive curiosities whose very existence is a sad reflection of heartless human ingenuity.

What is also dire is how we are failing the naturally evolved wolves that roam the wild today. These "de-extinction" headlines come as the House Natural Resources Committee advances the misleadingly named “Pet and Livestock Protection Act” -- a bill that would strip gray wolves of Endangered Species Act protections. Wolves were once nearly wiped out by government-sponsored extermination campaigns; their recovery has been fragile and incomplete. This bill threatens to erase that progress.

When asked about gray wolf populations collapsing, bill sponsor Rep. Lauren Boebert is quoted as saying, “Didn’t we just bring a wolf back that was here 10,000 years ago? So, I mean, if it really gets that bad, you know, we could just bring woolly mammoths back and all this stuff.”

It seems to me that human intelligence is getting ever closer to extinction with such legislators in office!

(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.)