Archive for category Social Commentary
Traditional Hunting
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Animal Welfare, Conservation, Social Commentary on 07/05/2013
Why Japan, the country with the world’s third largest economy, wants to persist in killing whales is beyond me. The activity attracts an enormous amount of negative publicity and cannot make much of a contribution to its national economy. Still, other developed countries such as Norway and Iceland, are going down the same route. Do they just not want other countries telling them what to do or are they really that keen to preserve their ancient traditions? If that is the case then I would rather they came right out and said it, instead of continuing under this guise of “scientific whaling”. While not a marine mammal veterinarian I do spend an inordinate amount of time perusing wildlife/veterinary/conservation journal articles and cannot remember ever coming across a single “scientific whaling” article. When I was in Norway I noticed whale on a restaurant menu. Perhaps they were conducting a scientific taste test?
Tradition is often invoked as an inviolable reason for doing something (in a similar way to religion being given to justify reprehensible acts such as female genital mutilation) that common sense, morality or scientific data would prevent. This is blatant hypocrisy as it is only used to justify specific activities rather than an entire lifestyle. I would be much happier about the Japanese invoking their traditional right to kill whales or the Inuit their right to kill polar bears if they also invoked their traditional right to walk rather than use snowmobiles, hunt with bows, arrows and spears rather than rifles, and whale in small boats with harpoons rather than large ships with cannons and exploding harpoons.
Nowadays whale and polar bear products have all been replaced by alternatives and the true significance of tradition falls a little flat when local people in Canada sell their culturally important polar bear quotas to sport hunters.
While much of the hunting debate focuses on potentially dwindling population numbers, which is very important, as a veterinarian I feel that at least some emphasis should be placed on the humaneness of the activity. In this way I have less of an issue with killing polar bears than with killing whales because, ironically, the advent of more advanced weapons makes it more likely to kill a polar bear humanely. However, it remains impossible to kill a whale humanely.
“Tradition” is really just another in a long line of excuses, along with provision of food, challenge, thrill, pride, profit and just plain fun, to justify hunting and killing. It is time to admit that we are evolutionarily hard wired to hunt. As Rick Ridgeway says about hunting in his book, “The Shadow of Kilimanjaro”, “you were doing what you were designed to do, and that is the ineffable attraction.” We have become just like the domestic cat who no longer needs to hunt to eat, but retains an innate need to stalk and chase and kill.
Dr. F. Bunny
Flying Kangaroo
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 30/04/2013
I must confess to being disappointed by my latest Qantas adventure. The food on our flight to Tokyo really was barely edible. Even my daughter who, for some odd reason, normally likes airplane food had trouble getting through it. Fortunately the food on the flight back to Sydney was considerably better. Unfortunately pre-dinner drinks seem to have fallen by the wayside.
More concerning, however, was the small plastic bottle of water we were handed after our departure from Narita. It was a bottle of Volvic, imported from France. Considering both Australia and Japan produce perfectly drinkable tap water why Qantas is importing water from France is totally beyond me. My dismay was exacerbated by the fact that we received a bottle of home grown Mt Franklin on our domestic flight back to Melbourne. And for some reason recycling, via a bag for our plastic cups, was encouraged on domestic flights but not international ones.
To cap off a disappointing experience the baggage handlers managed to destroy the waist strap on my new rucksack and the entertainment console failed to do more than deliver a very jerky version of Skyfall. This forced me to actually try and sleep on the flight. If only planes had as much leg room as Japanese bullet trains.
Despite all this my next flying escapade will quite likely be with Qantas because, as Dustin Hoffman said in Rain Man, “Qantas never crashed”, and that has to be worth more than the bad food, large environmental footprint, lack of leg room, no entertainment and destructive baggage handlers, doesn’t it?
Dr. F. Bunny
Turning Japanese II
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 23/04/2013
I am not necessarily a fan of everything Japanese, although I did enjoy their concept of punctuality as a mark of respect. I was told that the Japanese consider the other person’s time as valuable as their own, so it is only natural that they would not want to waste it by turning up late. Considering the dearth of rubbish bins it was also impressive how much cleaner their cities were compared with Melbourne.
In some areas, however, they do tend to lag behind. The concept of eating is one such example. Why persist in using two thin pieces of wood to handle your food when much of the rest of the world has moved on to metal cutlery? Admittedly chopsticks are quite useful for picking up sashimi or sushi but try eating meat or the okonomiyaki omelettes with them. As I have a tendency to inhale my food they did have the beneficial effect of slowing my food consumption down to the speed of the other diners, which probably helped my digestion. Being wood, chopsticks are not reused resulting in 24 billion pairs being discarded by the Japanese each year. A lot of trees could be saved by using washable metal implements. Depending on your source, Japan is either the most heavily forested country in the world or it falls second behind Finland, with over 60% of its land still covered in trees. They are good at preserving these forests too, importing most of their chopsticks from China. I do suspect, however, that chopsticks may cause some Japanese as much frustration as us, as I saw a shop selling magic chopsticks. To my untrained eye these looked amazingly like forks.
Much has been written about Japanese toilets, and deservedly so. They are true masterpieces of engineering. Beside the actual toilet are a bewildering array of buttons that, when pressed, will deliver a jet or spray of water with uncanny accuracy at your bottom. It took a while to find the off button, as there are also dials to adjust the intensity and temperature of the water as well as one to heat the seat. Even more impressive, however, were some of the urinals, which had video screens above them and contained a small target to aim at. If your aim was successful the video screen came to life and an animated gentleman raced across the screen carrying a can. The more you peed the more the can filled up. I managed to fill two and a half cans. Not bad for a first attempt. While this may sound absurd the floor was not awash with the litres of stale urine I usually stand in at public urinals. Anything that improves men’s aims must be applauded.
The Japanese are, on the whole, extremely well dressed, sporting a wide assortment of new, clean, designer clothes. Unfortunately they don’t appear to get it quite right. Parisians are the other group of people I’ve seen who take great pride in their appearance. However, while the Parisians are also co-ordinated in what they wear, the Japanese appear to have thrown a completely random assortment of clothes together, some of which are downright weird. I saw quite a few girls wearing stockings with some sort of writing on them, either in French or English, running up and down their legs. And those legendary shirts sporting complete nonsense in English are not hard to spot either. It makes me wonder if the people who have Japanese or Chinese characters tattooed on their bodies really know what they mean. In an episode of the Big Bang Theory Sheldon asks Penny why she has the Chinese symbol for soup tattooed on her buttock. Outraged, she tells him it is the symbol for courage. Presumably the shirt people believe they are sporting similarly edgy, insightful or humorous (certainly humorous) messages.
It would also seem prudent to employ a native English speaker to check their sign translations. That way the sign at our sake tasting would not tell us to “Please take grass home.” I did also wonder why a blue platypus was chosen my Japan Rail to tell people not to smoke.
Dr. F. Bunny
Turning Japanese
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Religion, Social Commentary on 16/04/2013
I have just returned from two fantastic weeks in the Land of the Rising Sun. This being my first trip I was struck by the country’s unique ability to embrace both the old and the new. The people were all incredibly friendly, polite, law abiding and helpful. Compared with Australia, Japanese society seemed very structured with a long list of social conventions that regulate people’s daily lives. While this may appear restrictive once I had deciphered the system I found knowing what was expected in various situations to be oddly relaxing. It was probably just my German background enjoying the predictability of it all. The old joke about why the German crossed the road (The little man is green now. It’s allowed) is equally applicable to the Japanese. People formed orderly queues on railway platforms to board the trains, the doors of which always lined up with the carriage numbers marked on the ground. The trains were insanely punctual and reliable. People did not eat in public. Shoes were removed before entering temples, restaurants, homes, castles and sumo rings, which is a very common sense way of not tracking dirt everywhere. If you do decide to visit Japan do not, under any circumstances, wear a pair of lace up hiking boots.
Given that the majority of Japanese claim no personal religion they have presumably decided on their social conventions all by themselves, producing a set of guidelines that work for them. Considering their extremely low crime rate, compared with many devoutly religious countries, it certainly seems to be working for them. Japan does, however, have two major religions and, interestingly, most people profess to follow both.
Shintoism is Japan’s own home grown religion. It has no major prophet and no all-consuming deity. In fact there are eight million deities or spirits as all animate and inanimate objects contain a kami or spiritual essence. It is not necessary to swear allegiance and forsake all others to be Shinto. Anyone who practices Shinto rituals is counted as belonging to the religion. The Japanese have also imported Buddhism and see no contradiction in following both this religion and Shintoism, picking the best bits from each. It is refreshing to see religion working for the people instead of the other way round. Most people celebrate birth events according to the Shinto way but use Buddhist rituals for funeral arrangements. According to what one Japanese person told me the Shinto afterlife is not as appealing as the Buddhist nirvana. There are no Shinto cemeteries. Cremation is a Buddhist ritual. I was told that Shintoists believe the spirit returns to the earth and bodies were either thrown in the river or left on a hillside, presumably for scavengers to dispose of. I can feel myself becoming more Shinto all the time.
As a member of one of the world’s fattest countries it struck me how few overweight Japanese there are. This should come as no surprise as the Japanese consume virtually no bread products and no chocolate. In fact almost none of the places we ate at featured a dessert menu. Dairy products were also all but absent from the diet, which is probably sensible too as we appear to be the only species that drinks the milk of another well into adulthood (apart from my wife’s border collie who used to zip into the milking shed of any farm she visited, in order to clean up the spilled milk). Foods are minimally processed with a strong emphasis on raw foods including fish. I did enjoy my sashimi but I will be worming myself as soon as I get the chance. We cooked many of our restaurant meals ourselves much to my son’s indignation who felt that, as we were having a night out, the least the restaurant staff could do was to cook it for us. We made our own sukiyaki, which featured melt in the mouth Hida beef, that I’m sure was not particularly healthy given the reason for the meat’s flavour and tenderness was its intense marbling. We also concocted our own chankonabe, a stew containing seafood, chicken, vegetables, rice and egg designed to bulk up the sumos, and our own okonomiyaki, a type of savoury pancake filled with whatever takes your fancy. It was also good to see the Japanese making the most of local produce consuming a wide variety of unrecognisable mountain vegetables, as they called them. I found the fern to be quite tasty but I don’t think I will miss the lotus root. Our diet does not seem to be nearly as varied as theirs. All of this no doubt contributes to the fact that the Japanese now have the highest life expectancy in the world.
And the best part? Tips are neither given nor expected. Politeness and good service are an expected part of the culture.
Dr. F. Bunny
Microlivestock
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Medicine, Social Commentary on 27/03/2013
Each day your average well-nourished adult human being consumes approximately 70 grams of protein. For a large part of the world’s population obtaining this much protein can be quite problematic with protein deficiency or kwashiorkor affecting significant parts of the developing world. Perhaps microlivestock are the answer?
Invertebrates are already consumed by large numbers of people. Interestingly we are quite happy to eat aquatic invertebrates such as crabs, octopuses, squid, lobsters, mussels and oysters but recoil in horror (unless we are Bear Grylls) at the prospect of consuming terrestrial invertebrates. Some people don’t have this luxury.
More than 2000 species of invertebrates are used as food by humans worldwide. Their consumption can provide significant amounts of animal protein, especially during difficult periods of the year when fish and game are scarce. Invertebrates provide 60% of the animal protein consumed during the rainy season by the Guajivos Amerindians of Venezuela. Among the Tukanoan Indians of Colombia, insects and other small invertebrates provide up to 12% of the animal protein in men’s diets and 26% in women’s diets during the early months of the rainy season.
Over 50 different species of caterpillars are known to be eaten in Africa. The caterpillars are highly sought after to supplement the traditional cereal-based diet. Nutrient analysis of caterpillars in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) revealed 63–65 g protein, and 457 kilocalories per 100 g of dried caterpillars. Most species are an excellent source of iron, with 100 g providing on average 335% of the recommended daily requirement.
Harvesting and marketing of caterpillars is a viable enterprise for rural communities. A study in Malawi showed that caterpillar collection generated a higher income than maize, bean and groundnut production, and did not directly compete for labour with these existing agricultural enterprises. Similarly, in northern Zambia incomes from caterpillar harvesting are higher than incomes from the sale of agricultural crops.
At present, invertebrates are mostly gathered from the wild, rather than farmed. This strategy takes advantage of a highly abundant and renewable resource. Wild invertebrates are available to all sections of the population, particularly the rural poor, and collecting them for consumption or sale in local markets involves minimal inputs.
Insects are generally more efficient than vertebrates at converting food to body mass. They do not need to use food to keep warm (being poikilothermic, or cold blooded), reproduce much more rapidly, occupy less space, use less water and produce less greenhouse gas. As an example, mealworms produce between ten and a hundred times less greenhouse gas per kilogram than pigs. Furthermore, compared to cattle or pigs, insects produce significantly less ammonia, which can cause acidification and eutrophication of water.
See: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/022/mb390e.pdf, which contained much of the information used in this post.
For those who want to take this further check out the recipes at http://edibug.wordpress.com/. You will find oatmealworm cookies, cabbage, peas ‘n’ crickets, bee-lt sandwich, waxworm tacos, deep fried scorpion, and caterpillars with groundnut sauce. Personally, I have always been partial to the odd wichity grub. And before you ask, “No, they don’t taste like chicken. More like boiled egg really”.
Dr. F. Bunny
What’s Up Doc?
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 14/03/2013
I pity us poor veterinarians. It seems every other profession has managed to come up with some sort of scam designed solely to increase business and profits. The accountants invented GST and quarterly BAS statements to keep themselves busy four times a year, instead of just at tax time. Electricians came up with test and tag. What a waste of time and money that is! I had one test and tag my desk lamp at work. It passed his inspection and was awarded its little tag, even though the lamp was completely non-functional! Veterinarians, on the other hand, invent ways to put themselves out of business. After recommending for years that dogs and cats be vaccinated annually researchers have now discovered that the vaccines are so effective that they only need to be given once every three years.
You won’t find the medicos making that sort of mistake. They obviously subscribe to the “no man gets left behind” philosophy because, no matter what the problem is, the GP must be involved. My daughter fell off her horse and injured her wrist. Instead of seeing the appropriate specialist we had to attend the GP, who gave us a “note” which allowed us to then see the specialist. When I broke my nose I also wasn’t allowed to see the ear, nose and throat (ENT) guy without first getting my “note”. Interestingly the “note” was only valid for 12 months. So, after a year I had to get another referral from the GP, even though I was an ongoing ENT patient. The GP, who is actually a marvellous fellow, was concerned about my cholesterol, so I had it checked. It came back a touch high and he suggested a repeat in four months. Four months later I tried to book it in, but still had to get my “note” from the GP first, before they would consent to take my blood.
It seems to me that GPs spend more time these days writing referrals than they do actual medical work, and they are virtually impossible to contact. When was the last time you rang up the doctor’s surgery and actually spoke to the doctor? Not so the veterinary clinic where you will always be able to speak to the veterinarian, unless he has his arm up a cow somewhere. And I can take my little Fluffy-wuffykins straight to the veterinary ophthalmologist to get the grass seed taken out of his eye, without first getting my “note” from the regular veterinarian.
Dr. F. Bunny
Speaking In Tongues
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 06/03/2013
I have a friend who is a truly prodigious linguist. I have no natural flair for languages, while he picks them up like the morning paper. He has a knack for detecting common threads that run through different languages, similarities in grammar, vocabulary, etc. that seem to make it relatively straightforward for him to gain at least a rudimentary working knowledge of almost any language. Even more importantly, he seems to enjoy it. Years ago I gave him a dictionary that translated Norwegian into Sami (the local language spoken by the indigenous people of northern Norway) and back again. He absolutely loved it even though he could not speak either language at the time. Now he is very likely proficient in both.
Having such a love of languages he is also understandably passionate about the dwindling ones, of which there are many (See UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangered-languages/atlas-of-languages-in-danger/). Here, unfortunately, our opinions differ. Certainly one of the most difficult things about travel is the fact that there are so many different languages and communication can at times be extremely challenging. Having said that, one of the most exciting and interesting things about travel is the fact that there are so many different languages and communication can at times be extremely challenging. Many of my after dinner stories contained the Florentine waitress doing chicken impersonations over the restaurant menu, or my own choo choo noises in Croatia to help me find the railway station. And how much fun was the restaurant in Costa Rica where we pointed at random items on the menu and marvelled at the fact that each dish seemed to contain some form of seafood? We found out later that it was, in fact, a seafood restaurant.
So, I will admit to a small twinge of disappointment at the thought of a language disappearing forever. But surely language was created to facilitate communication between people? If that language no longer performs that function because far more people speak English than Taushiro (a language spoken in Peru by only one person, which must make conversation exceedingly difficult), then who are we to try and stop its extinction? If the native speakers themselves have no more use for it then why keep it alive for its own sake? I am sure it was a pity when the last gong farmer (someone who dug human faeces out of cesspits for disposal) and pinsetter (someone who set the pins back up in bowling alleys after they had been knocked over) disappeared, but we no longer have need of their particular skills. Even English itself has changed radically over the years, but who wants to go back to “thee”, “thou” and “hast”?
As the world becomes increasingly more homogenised it seems inevitable that the number of actively spoken languages will decline, until we are left with a few, or possibly even just the one language. While that will certainly facilitate trade and commerce it will also make the world just a little duller and greyer. Never again will I be able to buy a Greek phrase book telling me that my “handbags are in the net” or sit in a Thai airplane informing me that there is a “live vest under the seat.”
Dr. F. Bunny
Be A Sport
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 01/03/2013
Imagine being paid a six figure sum each year to roll around in the mud and chase a piece of leather. This is how former AFL footballer Justin Madden described his career. Never mind six figures. What about all those guys being paid millions to chase bits of rubber and leather about? This madness reaches its pinnacle with Cristiano Ronaldo, who is paid twelve million euros per year to follow a ball around and occasionally kick it into a net. Have these people spent years studying at university? Do they hold the lives of millions, or even one person, in their hands every time they perform their jobs? They are paid more than orthopaedic surgeons, politicians and nuclear physicists to do what the rest of us do for fun and for free. And why? Because we love to watch them do it.
Why do we even care if one arbitrarily chosen team scores more points or goals or whatever than another arbitrarily chosen team? Why do our moods and sometimes our entire lives hinge on these sporting results which, if they go the wrong way, can provoke us into immediate and insane violence? There is absolutely nothing depending on the outcome of these contests or even if these contests occur (we all seemed to survive the recent NHL lockout). And yet, even I am not immune. One of the greatest days of my life (falling just behind the birth of my children) came many years ago when my football team scored an upset one point victory against a rival much more highly fancied team. I lost my voice and nearly exploded with excitement when the siren went. Why? As Bear Grylls said, “If you have to ask, you will never understand” (Mud, Sweat and Tears).
When I think about it objectively I really can’t explain it. I know, deep down, that it doesn’t matter but I still can’t help feeling devastated when things go wrong and gloat mercilessly when they go right. I assume it is some kind of tribalism, some kind of group bonding pitting my group against your group. I felt the same thing while playing. Suddenly guys you wouldn’t give the time of day to if you met them on the street were your best mates, to be defended and supported to the death. Bizarre, but it generated an incredible sense of camaraderie, in supporters as well as players, which just wouldn’t exist if you didn’t have a common enemy.
Many people denigrate sport because it generates a primitive tribal aggression amongst its adherents. And they would be right. Most sports are, after all, played by males. However, isn’t this kind of ritual aggression better than the real thing? In this day and age when, thankfully, fewer and fewer of us are called upon to go to war to defend our tribe all those evolutionarily hard wired traits are still there, and they need some kind of outlet. If men cannot indulge in the whimsy of sport then all that testosterone will spill onto the streets outside pubs after closing time.
Until the last of my testosterone leaks out of my testicles I will continue to convince myself that the support of my football club is essential to the existence of the world and that nothing could be better than to defeat the hated enemy. Go Blues!!
Dr. F. Bunny
All that whingeing about the weather must have worked. We just had an entire month’s rainfall in two days. At least the water tanks are full.
Take More Weather With You
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Social Commentary on 22/02/2013
26 mm of rain! That’s what I call a sensational day!
Dr. F. Bunny
Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball Of Fur
Posted by vetsbeyondreason in Animal Welfare, Medicine, Social Commentary on 19/05/2013
Cat cafes seem to be another peculiarly Japanese phenomenon (although the first one opened in Taiwan). After paying an exorbitant fee I was given what was possibly the worst cup of coffee I have ever had, and then ushered into what was really just a house with several rooms. There were 20 or so cats wandering about with a few more sitting in cages. Apparently they get stressed by too much stroking and need some down time to recover, so cats are rotated through the café.
As soon as I sat down I was pounced upon by a ginger and white feline wearing an Elizabethan collar. It could obviously tell that I was a veterinarian. Not being a cat person, it intrigues me that whenever there are a group of people in a room the cat always heads straight for me. The admission price gave me an hour to interact with our furry friends. According to a number of reports all this stroking is supposed to lower my blood pressure and alleviate stress (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/98432.php). I find that being unable to get up for fear of upsetting the cat in my lap does exactly the opposite.
There was also a dog cafe around the corner but, instead of being a place where you could pat a dog, throw a stick, and get your groin licked, it was actually somewhere you went with your dog where the two of you could enjoy a romantic dinner together.
I assume these sorts of places exist in Japan because of space restrictions that force many people to live in small apartments that do not accommodate pets. This started me thinking about the whole concept of pets. Although no other group of animals has attempted to domesticate another species (unless you count ants farming aphids) I can understand why humans did it. Cats kept vermin out of grain stores, dogs helped with hunting, horses provided transport, cattle gave milk, chickens laid eggs, sheep made wool and they all (depending on the society you lived in) provided a readily accessible source of protein.
What I have trouble grappling with is when the domesticated animal, often a dog or cat, transcends its utilitarian purpose and becomes a surrogate child. At the risk of generalising, this phenomenon seems to be more common among childless middle aged women. Many wildlife carers fall into this bracket and, while they all say they are only looking after the animal or raising it so it can be released back to the wild, in many cases this does not happen because the animal has become that person’s child.
I find this disturbing for a number of reasons. Presumably these people are lacking love and affection of a human kind and so seek it from a different species, a species which apparently never complains or criticises and just gives unconditional love. At least that is what they would have you believe. The reality is, unfortunately, quite different. Animals are held in a human environment and expected to conform to human rules and standards. They are no longer allowed to hunt, mark their territory, or roam free and seldom have the opportunity to socialise with their own species. It is ironic that many of the animals that are taken to veterinarians because of “behaviour problems” are really only attempting to act as nature intended. Because that does not conform to our lifestyle many of them spend their lives on animal versions of antidepressants.
There is also the disease aspect. I remember a carer who brought her eastern grey kangaroo joey to me because it had intractable diarrhoea. We cultured Campylobacter from the joey. Interestingly the carer subsequently developed diarrhoea caused by the same bacteria. On further questioning it transpired that she took the joey to bed with her each night. Recently 15 people in a Canberra nursing home also developed Campylobacter gastroenteritis, this time courtesy of a healthy but infected puppy (http://www.smh.com.au/act-news/puppy-ban-over-aged-care-illness-scare-20130318-2gbkb.html).
The problem is that we are trying to force our animal friends to live human lives, when they wish to live animal lives. It is a shame that the value of an animal always seems to be measured by what it can do for us. Why can we not just enjoy them for who they are and co-exist on this planet without constantly having to touch, fondle and otherwise manipulate them?
Dr. F. Bunny
Campylobacter, Cat Cafe, Dog Cafe, Pets
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