Cat Stories and Blind Cannibals

My favorite animal is cats. During my twenty two years of veterinary practice, so far, I have spent sixteen of those years just seeing cats. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? It is. Except maybe for someone who doesn't like cats. If you don't like cats, then you don't know them very well or there is something terribly wrong with you. I have seen the biggest of toughest men turn into marshmellows when they are with their kitty. I have seen the deepest of sobs when a feline friend is lost too. We love our cats. They become the best of friends and the most loyal companions in our lives. It's the unconditional love we get from them that is so wonderful too. I have never had a cat criticize me about anything. My clothes, my hair that day, nothing is ever wrong with you for your kitty. Happiness can be learned from a cat too. My cat Bunny sits on the furniture the same way a person does, on his back, with his legs pointing forward. He is such a character and full of happiness. He lounges around looking as happy as happy can be. No cares, no worries, just living in the moment and loving life. We could all learn a great deal about happiness from our animals. I have had the priviledge of seeing animals from a unique vantage point. As a veterinarian and physician, I studied both animals and people at the medical level. Guess what? They are exactly the same! Animals are our distant cousins and we are closely related. Knowing this upsets me though because I see the harm and abuse we pour on animals everyday. Clients often asked me if declawing a cat was cruel. I answered yes and added that most everything we do to animals is cruel. Spaying and neutering is cruel too. How would you like your reproductive organs removed? Or how would you like to be eaten for lunch? This is what we do to animals everyday, and on a scale that makes the holocaust of World War Two seem to be happening every few minutes for them. I read the book The Naked Ape when I was in high school. It gave a fascinating perspective on us as relatives to the apes. We are their relatives and now I think we should see ourselves in another description. I would call us Blind Cannibals. We eat our relatives and we don't even see that this is wrong. A few do and they are called vegetarians. The new breed of veterinarians are vegetarian veterinarians. When I entered the veterinary industry some thirty years ago the issue was wether or not veterinarians should hunt. Time moves us forward in our comcerns. At least the vegetarian veterinarians are leading the forefront in this new paradigm in thinking.
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Dr. Doug Ikeler