DEAR DR. FOX: While walking with my grandchildren in one of our local parks, they wanted to pet the squirrels. They both asked me why the squirrels always run away because they wanted to be friends with them.

I did not know quite what to tell them, other than that the animals were afraid of them, which made them feel bad. How would you have replied? -- B.K., Washington, D.C.

DEAR B.K.: Children may wonder and ask why most wild animals flee when they see us and are obviously fearful. We should be honest and tell them that it is an instinctual reaction because we humans, and our humanlike ancestors before us, have been killing animals or driving them away for close to 3 million years. Children should never be encouraged to try to pet wild animals -- or unfamiliar domestic animals -- because of the potential risks of injury and disease such as rabies.

Also, explain to children that many wild animals flee because they are prey/food for other animals called predators, such as foxes that kill rabbits and hawks that kill squirrels. This is all part of what is called the balance of nature, as predators are fewer in number than their prey, whose numbers they help regulate. Humans upset this balance because there are too many of us to continue to live as predators.

Many animal species, when taken in by humans soon after being born, will become emotionally attached to us, dependent and trusting. Such trust enabled our ancestors to begin to domesticate them for various purposes, beginning about 10,000 years ago with dogs, sheep, cattle and horses. In many instances and relationships, we betrayed that trust. Animals captured from the wild, such as wild horses and elephants, have their spirits broken before they will serve us.

All these purposes and our relationships with other animals, including wildlife being "harvested" by hunters, trappers and fishers, need to be examined by all who feel affection and concern for animals. Fortunately, there are individuals and organizations dedicated to improving the care and welfare of animals domesticated and wild, and advocating for their rights, protection and conservation. The belief held by many that "God created animals for man's use" needs to be put to rest since it is the essence of speciesism -- ultimately part of the same currency as racism and sexism.

Loving concern is the antithesis of the common sentimental attitude toward animals. Many people who keep animals as pets will not think twice about eating other animals, or even wearing fur. Yet they will still claim to have a sentimental attachment to wildlife. As Black American writer James Baldwin wrote, "Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty, the inability to feel -- the signal of secret and violent inhumanity, the mask of cruelty."

Gratitude and loving concern toward all creatures great and small will help us break away from our ancestral past as animal exploiters and killers. This will enable the blossoming of our humanity -- of compassion, empathy and respect for all living beings.

Children need help to grow up in a culture of violence toward nature and other species. They must learn how they can make a difference and not become desensitized and accepting of the cultural norms of inhumanity, speciesism and racism. Several universities are now offering courses in humane education. One of these programs -- offered by Antioch University in partnership with the Institute for Humane Education -- includes online degree and graduate certificate options. The creator of these programs, Zoe Weil, is also the author of "The World Becomes What We Teach." (Details: antioch.edu/academics/education/humane-education-ma.)

To realize that we are all part of the cosmic miracle of life and consciousness puts the significance of our individual existence in the broader dimension of awakening our sense of kinship with all life necessary to transcend self-centeredness and anthropocentrism. Empathic sensitivity and ethical sensibility may then arise spontaneously, reducing the need for moral instruction and law enforcement.

(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 USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service proposed a rule earlier this year that would require anyone involved in the handling of wild and exotic animals for exhibition to undergo training. The rule would also set standards for environmental enrichment of all animals covered under the Animal Welfare Act. APHIS is accepting comments by mail and online through March 10. (Full story: AVMA News, Feb. 14)

I am more encouraged by the British Veterinary Association, of which I am a member, publishing their policy position on the importation, captive-breeding and ownership of "exotic" pets: bva.co.uk/exotic pets. This position statement includes an end to the import of wild-caught reptiles and amphibians for non-conservation reasons. I am calling for the AVMA to take a similar position. But so long as some veterinarians see exotic pets as a generator of income, this may not be soon forthcoming.

Veterinarians with expertise in dealing with "exotic" animal health issues are nevertheless engaging in wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, release and conservation. We do need veterinary expertise in dealing with these pets, whose owners too often do not know how to care for them properly, until their keeping becomes something of the past. The less contact we have with exotic animals, whether wild-caught or captive-bred, the lower the possibilities of people contracting various diseases from such animals -- a significant public health issue today.

For additional details, see my post: drfoxonehealth.com/post/saying-no-to-wild-and-exotic-animals-sold-as-pets.

DEAR DR. FOX: There are flea and tick preventatives on the market today that are safer and more effective than what was available 10 years ago. Alzoo has all-natural repellents, from collars, to spot-on treatments to sprays, to keep your pets safe.

I wanted to send you some information on these natural, plant-based products for any stories you are working on. -- J.K.

DEAR J.K.: In my opinion, the natural ingredient-based products that you offer to repel fleas, ticks and biting insects from dogs and cats would be effective, as well as safer for animals and the environment than the various pesticides being widely marketed -- and even sold -- by veterinarians.

However, I would never put a collar impregnated with essential oils of cedar and peppermint on a cat or dog since this could interfere with their sense of smell, tracking, orienting and processing olfactory information. I would limit application to the backs of cats, since they could otherwise ingest these substances while self-grooming, and I would stop animals who have been sprayed or powdered with your products from grooming each other.

Read below for a notable study of the insect-repellant value of tree resins and tars that bears seem to understand!

BROWN BEAR WISDOM: USING TREE RESIN TO REPEL TICKS

In a recent Journal of Zoology article, Polish scientists present evidence that ticks are repelled by the resin that bears will rub on their backs after clawing beech and other resin/tar-secreting trees. (Full story: doi.org/10.1111/jzo.13045)

The high levels of compounds called terpenes in these resins are no doubt the key that makes these trees so beneficial, and why bears select them.

GOOD NEWS FOR LABORATORY ANIMALS

Animal testing is no longer needed in the U.S. now that President Joe Biden has signed the FDA's Modernization Act 2.0. This act amends the federal mandate that has stood since 1938 requiring all medicines in development to undergo animal testing before proceeding to human trials.

I was one of a few scientists raising the ethical questions, as well as the unreliability of laboratory animal tests and the need to develop more reliable alternatives, in my 1986 book "Laboratory Animal Husbandry: Ethology, Welfare and Experimental Variables." I feel a sense of vindication and deep relief for the decades of animal suffering that may soon come to an end -- even though COVID-19 vaccine developers have recently complained about the paucity of monkeys needed for vaccine testing.

(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: A couple of weeks ago, I almost spilled my coconut milk when I saw the Star Tribune article "Feedlot fight raises cries of bullying" by reporter Greg Stanley.

A feedlot dairy operation that seeks to expand -- actually, it seeks to triple in size when it is already larger than the local county allows -- is suing individual members of the nonprofit Land Stewardship Project, with which I have worked in the past. The group opposes the feedlot's expansion.

Beef and dairy feedlot operations are well-documented sources of air contamination, water quality deterioration and water depletion, compounded by the land and water and agrichemicals used to produce the animals' feed. This sector of industrial agriculture is recognized as a major contributing factor to climate change and should be immediately phased out with government support.

As a veterinarian, I was disappointed that the article made no mention of the cows' health problems, overall welfare and quality of life in these factory-scale feedlot operations. Similar CAFOs -- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations -- are used to raise billions of poultry and pigs in the U.S. and around the world, and these facilities are petri dishes for viral and bacterial disease proliferation. This is a public health issue as well as a serious environmental one, which could be easily solved with the adoption of humane, sustainable agricultural practices and new biotechnologies that can produce cultivated meat, dairy and seafood products.

Governments are in lockstep with the powerful agribusiness, livestock and poultry industries and their lobbyists, so the changes needed can only come through what I call the power of the fork and the plate: consumers choosing what they eat. It's not what comes out of our mouths under the "freedom of speech" so much as what we put into them, and it can make a difference!

Nonetheless, we should all be grateful for the generations of good farmers who do their best for their animals and the land to put food on our tables and feed a hungry world. We should support them in adopting long-overdue changes to make agriculture and our food healthful, organic, humane, ecologically sustainable and socially just.

DEAR DR. FOX: I am hoping to get Roundup banned due to the possible link between its use and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in companion animals. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma claimed the life of my Australian cattle dog/mini Australian shepherd. Six months of expensive chemotherapy could not save her.

I hope to find better research into the effects of herbicides on animals. Any help would be appreciated! -- S.T.S., Minneapolis, Minnesota

DEAR S.T.S.: I am saddened to hear about the death of your dog from this cancer of the lymphatic system. Our exposure, and that of our dogs and other animals, comes from many sources.

I have complained in the past to the park service director where I live in Golden Valley, Minnesota, over the spraying of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. I was told they needed it to kill clumps of grass on the park's playing fields because they might be sued if a child tripped and got injured! Then I complained about hired companies spraying glyphosate (Roundup) on corporate lawns and along the banks of waterways to control invasive "weeds," including edible, nutritious sting nettles. This herbicide is very toxic to aquatic life. All of this is insanity, and the nickname "Monsatan" has some validity, since there have been concerns over this herbicide for decades.

When wild herbs and flowers are wiped out with herbicides, insect populations -- including bees and other pollinators -- are decimated, along with the amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals that depend on those insects for food.

For years, I have been raising the issue that contamination of our food and drinking water with herbicides would harm the bacteria in our guts, and that without a healthy gut microbiome, we and our companion animals alike would experience a variety of adverse health consequences. (For details, see these posts on my website: drfoxonehealth.com/post/companion-animals-harmed-by-pesticides and drfoxonehealth.com/post/genetically-modified-gmo-pet-food-ingredients-put-dogs-cats-and-other-consumers-at-risk.)

Below are some additional references on the subject. We must all support efforts to prohibit any further use of such agrichemicals, along with the growing of crops genetically engineered to be herbicide-resistant.

-- "Where is glyphosate banned?" Link: wisnerbaum.com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/where-is-glyphosate-banned

-- "Our Pets (and Other Animals) at Risk From Glyphosate." Link: gmoscience.org/2020/03/04/our_pets_at_risk_from_glyphosate

-- "Glyphosate and Your Companion Pets." Link: hemopet.org/glyphosate-your-companion-pets

(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.)