Slaughter House Earth and the Evolution of Veterinarians

Charles Darwin called our lovely planet "Slaughter House Earth" back in his hay day around the 1850's. He called it this because he noticed that life was so brutal. From insects vomiting up digestive acids on their prey, while they're still alive, to the cruel and vicious deaths brought upon prey by their predators. My own experience is that mankind isn't much nicer, even a hundred and fifty years later.

Veterinarians have been around since man began to domesticate animals thousand of years ago. The profession didn't evolve to a doctorate program though until about a century ago. Harvard had one of the most prestigious veterinary programs, but it dropped this curriculum with the advent of the horseless carriage, thinking erroneously, that veterinary medicine would go away with horses. Surprisingly, their are more horses around now than there were a hundred years ago. Harvard should have kept the Vet Med curriculum and kept turning out top notch vets.

When I entered the profession thirty years ago. The big controversy was between vets who hunted and those who didn't. Today, the debate is between vegan vets and those that still eat meat. Even my best friend from vet school, Dr. Richard Thoresen, who was a hunter, evolved (most probably from the influence of his wife) to become a vegan veterinarian, and he doesn't hunt any more too.

Before the hunting controversy, there was an arrogance among veterinarians that treating cats and dogs was a waste of time and below the dignity of a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Most vets today just treat dogs and cats. I am personally glad the issue now is whether or not we should be eating animals for food. It is a brutal industry that raises and slaughters millions of animals each day. That figure is correct. Millions Of Animals Each Day. Billions each year, worldwide.

A little known fact about one veterinarian, Dr. Dunlop, is that he invented air filled rubber tires that we all drive on now in our cars. He thought the cobble stones were too rough for his son to ride his tricycle on, so he made air filled rubber tires for his son's trike. Dr. Dunlop went on to expand his product line for car tires, that many of us drive on still today. You should know the tire brand, Dunlop, pretty well.

There is a little kindness on the horizon as slaughterhouse techniques are becoming less brutal and more people are eating less meat. I was beef raised and we even said with disappointment to my mother,"oh, steak again" when I was a child, because we ate so much of it. The starving children of Africa might think I was a little spoiled, even back then.

The future is bright though, as organizations like PETA, who are unfortunately too far ahead of their time, will bring about more changes to improve the lives of people and animals. The change is needed, and will surprise you. One day we will even look at keeping animals as pets as cruel too. For the luxury lifestyle that my two cats live though, that day is far away. They happily hog my bed and cover the furniture with cat hair. I feed them twice daily and clean their litter box twice daily too. I think if we asked my two cats if keeping them as pets is cruel, they would answer with a resounding, "No." I know this to be true as Moe got out and was lost for over a month last summer and he couldn't have been happier to have me find him and bring him back home after he had lost half his weight. He ate constantly and purred for a week straight! Me and Bunny are glad to have him back!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/