DEAR READERS: Efforts to protect the wolf in North America have now been thwarted yet again by the Trump administration, as the Department of the Interior decided to remove the gray wolf from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Yet there is only a fraction left of the original population that once ranged across much of the continent -- some 15% -- because of human encroachment, trapping, poisoning, snaring and shooting.

Ranchers, fur trappers and recreational “sports” hunters and outfitters are happy now. These special interest groups are not representative of the democratic majority that has voted in favor of animal and environmental protective legislation, yet this immoral minority wins once again. I say “immoral” advisedly, since there are many ranchers and hunters who respect and choose to protect the wolf, as well as the cougar and other predators. Some ranchers who lose stock to this increasingly displaced, persecuted and starving indigenous species see it as the price they must pay for encroaching on the wolf’s domain.

The immorality of conspicuous consumption and destruction is evident in Trump’s plan to strip protection from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and open up all 16.7 million acres to logging and other forms of “development” in one of the world’s largest, and last, temperate rainforests. The legacy of America’s imperialistic invasion, genocide and violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and species lives on as we continue to wolf down all that we can, in the name of the GNP: the gross national product.

No less is happening in other countries striving to live high off the hog: Grasslands, wetlands and forests are turned over to commodity crop monocultures and livestock- and poultry-feed production, displacing and disenfranchising small farm cooperatives and communities in the process. In our unbridled, conspicuous consumption of fossil fuels, we are indeed burning the Earth’s past as well as its, and our, future.

As one who has raised and studied wolves as an ethological scientist, winning their trust and devotion, I am crying now for our loss of humanity and sense of kinship with all life. No one who knows wolves, as I shared in my book “The Soul of the Wolf,” would ever seek to kill one as a trophy or wear their fur as some fashionable adornment. Indigenous peoples like the Ojibwe have a very different hunting ethic and regard for wolves. For them, and others who share their worldview, the wolf is a totemic species, a sacred presence in the life-community worthy of equal and fair consideration.

I challenge the bioethics of wolf and all wildlife management “science” that calibrates sustainable “harvesting” quotas and acceptable “recovery” counts. From a bioethical perspective, such management is purely anthropocentric. Like sustainable farming, wildlife management must be eco-centric; natural systems work best when we step outside and observe -- rather than intervene, control, exploit and kill.

Predator “services” have been long documented as contributing to herd health for deer and other herbivores, and to the protection of forest habitats from over-grazing/browsing. When fewer sapling trees are consumed, this enables forest regeneration, even more crucial in this age of climate change.

Beyond anthropocentric religious belief, there is no science-based evidence that nature was created for man’s exclusive use, that other animals are our inferiors or that natural resources are for us to harvest or exterminate however we choose.

Between the Golden Rule and the Rule of Gold is the Delphic Golden Mean: the concept that truth and goodness lie between the extremes. Where, in a society of conspicuous consumption, destruction, cancer and other “diseases of civilization,” do we find this mean? We must respect the Golden Rule and find that ethical point in our lives and politics, deciding the fate of the wolf and all we embrace. The choice is ultimately ours.

ONE HEALTH AND DOMESTIC CATS

Grant Sizemore of the American Bird Conservancy recently participated in Delaware Valley University’s One Health Seminar Series. The talk explored the impacts of at-large domestic cats on the health and welfare of animals, humans and the environment, and what steps we can all take to foster better health among our communities. To watch the presentation, search “Domestic Cats and One Health: What You Need to Know” on youtube.com.

(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: Thank you for your reference and support of indigenous and alternative treatments in a recent column. Since you mentioned you’ve received criticism for this, I felt I should write and express my appreciation. Indigenous wisdom often creates harmony and well-being in our relationships with the Earth and the animal world -- needed especially now!

Our pet is a 5-year-old tuxedo cat, Vinnie, found in an intersection by workmen. Mostly domesticated, he spends his days on our Florida porch defending us from lizards and keeping us fit by demanding we perform doorman duties for him. -- E.C., West Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR E.C.: I appreciate your support of the more holistic approach to health that I advocate. In my mind, that means we cannot live in the absence of the sacred. The dire consequences of not living in such a mindful state are beautifully and succinctly shared by Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday, a Kiowa American Indian, in his book “Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land.”

I wish for all the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court to read this book, then read attorney Christopher D. Stone’s book “Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects.” There can be no justice when we do not honor all our relations, human and nonhuman.

The Trump administration’s plan to auction off parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas exploration should be seen as not just a crime against nature, but as a crime against humanity. We are related to and interdependent on ALL life, biologically and ecologically.

E.C., you will enjoy this next letter from another reader.

DEAR DR. FOX: Your appeal to indigenous wisdom was a big disappointment. Your biases sure do come through. When these systems are actually scientifically tested, they fail, and by promoting them, you give false hope to people who use them instead of real science and medicine. Just ask Steve Jobs. Oh, you can’t -- he used naturalistic treatments instead of real medicine, and by the time he realized it did not work, it was too late. -- M.J.P., West Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR M.J.P.: Your declaration that I am somehow “biased” in referencing indigenous wisdom as a contributing element in One Health philosophy is understandable, considering your own evident biases of scientism and rationalism. Indigenous wisdom includes, in modern parlance, evidence-based medicine in our ancestral determinations of harmful and beneficial herbs. It is also a source of complementary therapies in holistic human and veterinary medicine.

Science alone cannot be the basis of disease treatment and prevention. For instance, there was no scientific basis established until relatively recently for the analgesic benefits of aspirin. Aspirin contains salicylate, a compound found in plants such as the willow tree and myrtle. Its use was first recorded around 4,000 years ago. Hippocrates used willow bark for relieving pain and fevers, and some people still use willow bark as a natural remedy for headaches and minor pain.

Hippocrates also advised us to let our medicine be our food, and our food, our medicine.

People in the U.S. spent some 8% of their income on food and 11% on medicines and health care in 2019, according to one review. Other reports put per-person annual food costs at around $7,700, and $11,170 for medical expenses.

Healthful food and its production are more costly, but are the first principle of preventive medicine. This is being realized by ever-more enlightened vegan, vegetarian and organic-food advocates.

Albert Schweitzer spoke of the physician “awakening the healer within,” which is also one of the aims of the practitioners of indigenous healing wisdom, as was told to me personally by Fools Crow, the well-known Sioux leader and medicine man. In psychodynamic terms, this is stimulating the will to live, which all good physicians and veterinarians look for in their patients when deciding on a course of treatment or prevention.

All of this sounds “unscientific” to the Big Pharma pill-pushers, who have neuroscience evidence of the effects of various psychotropic drugs on brain and behavior -- convincing many doctors to market antidepressants, anxiolytics, sedatives and sleeping pills. I say this is nuts.

DEAR DR. FOX: We would appreciate you posting this notice, which may interest many of your readers. -- Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education

HUMANE EDUCATION GRAD PROGRAMS WITH ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY

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(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 medical and psychological benefits of animal companionship have been well documented: Children with pets often have fewer allergies and infections, and adults can relieve loneliness, depression, anxiety and high blood pressure just by walking outdoors with their dogs. And this fall, researchers at the University of Leeds in England reported that watching cute animal videos for a half-hour reduced blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in medical school students studying for end-of-term exams.

“I was quite pleasantly surprised that during the session, every single measure for every single participant dropped some,” said study leader Andrea Utley. (Full story: CNN, Sept. 27)

The restorative power of spending time in some natural setting -- such as a wooded park, lake or prairie -- has been long recognized, as I detail in my book “Animals and Nature First.” New research has shown that “forest bathing,” another name for the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku that began in the 1980s, is highly therapeutic, helping alleviate depression and boost the immune system.

While spending time in wooded areas, we inhale compounds called phytoncides that are produced by various trees. Phytoncides have antibacterial and antifungal qualities that help plants fight disease. When people breathe in these chemicals, our bodies respond by increasing the number and activity of T-cells, a type of white blood cells that are the immune system’s first responders to any virus.

Of course, not everyone has access to a forest, prairie or even an urban arboretum, but Mother Nature can still provide some therapeutic support. Sound recordings of falling rain, ocean waves, birdsong and insect noises can put one in a meditative, relaxing state, as can essential oils derived from various trees and herbs. Essential oils of cypress or pine in a diffuser are potent sources of phytoncides. Such aromatherapy is also used widely for the medical and behavioral/emotional benefit of companion animals. Burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) or inhaling its essential oil can reduce chronic pain as an anti-inflammatory, and can also activate poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses!

Getting out of our usual home, office and urban environments -- and away from the related exposure to harmful nonionizing radiation, electromagnetic fields and “electro-smog” from computers, traffic-monitoring systems and smartphone telecommunications -- may prove very therapeutic indeed for our ailing population. Conserving, protecting and restoring green spaces in and around our communities is probably as important to our physical and mental health as it is to reducing the global climate and extinction crises.

DEAR DR. FOX: I need advice on my almost 10-year-old cat, who has recently started having seizures. Maybe her diet isn’t good. She eats Whiskas dry food, plus one pouch of wet food. As a vegetarian because of my love for animals, I don’t like cooking meat, but if it is better for her, I will.

After the seizures, she is very disoriented, which lasts quite some time. She walked up to my barking dogs, who are used to her but who are not friendly (and who were also agitated at the time after witnessing her seizure). Once, she tried putting her nose in the open gas flame of the stove.

I hope you can advise me. I am in India. My cat has had a blood test that showed slightly low levels of platelets, but nothing else wrong. She has been prescribed tonics and something to increase platelets. -- R.D., Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

DEAR R.D.: There are many causes for cats’ seizures that may not be revealed by routine blood tests, which typically only rule out acute infections, diabetes or other endocrine diseases. Among these other causes are trauma, migrated parasites, stroke and cancer.

Any application of (or exposure to) anti-flea insecticide could cause seizures in cats. A friend of mine told me her cat started to have seizures after being given a cat treat (Temptations); eventually, even the rustle of the package triggered a seizure. One of the ingredients listed on the treat package is “natural flavors,” which could mean monosodium glutamate -- a neuro-excitatory chemical! (So is aspartame, the artificial sweetener.)

I am sending you my home-prepared diet for your cat which may help improve her condition over the dry kibble and moist cat food you are feeding her, as well as instructions on safe flea control. Ideally, your cat should always be kept safely indoors.

(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.)