PET TOPICS
Letting nature take the blame
When people say, "Let Nature take its course", I shudder. With one shrug of their shoulder, they simply make Nature accountable for their pets - all the bad and good that happens to us and to the animals we bring into our household.
People usually bring Nature into the equation when they think their pet is at the end of its life and they believe it's better to let it fade into death rather than seek treatment to prolong a life of suffering. There are other instances, though. Tua-Poo, that untrained and unfriendly chow, spent his life threatening anyone he wished because his owners felt that training him was against Nature. Perhaps they didn't know how to train the dog, thinking that Nature was the best guide. For them, it was Nature's work that the dog turned out to be dangerously aggressive. Even in this country, so much information is available on basic dog training, in English and in Thai. UBC Channel 61 has "Dog Whisperer" every Saturday, 8am and 8pm and Sunday, 8am and 8pm, in which an experienced trainer shows how to help dogs learn how to live in society. He emphasises, though, that it takes work. The owner has to be willing to put time and energy into the exercise. People rely on Nature in lots of other ways. Some refuse to neuter their animals because they believe the operation is against Nature. They may be right. If you look at populations of unneutered dogs over an extended time, you'll see that when numbers grow overwhelming, diseases like distemper strike, reducing population size. Here is Nature's very own neutering programme. Given the choice between healthy, neutered animals and the corpses of puppies on the road, I'd go for neutering any time. People also apparently believe that if you feed your pet and give it a clean bed, that benign Nature will smile on you. Life is not that simple, however. Just look at my boy Pan-Pan. This cat arrived as a gift, a charming Siamese kitten with a gentle temperament. He came from a breeder, someone who apparently believed in Nature taking its course. Even though he was only three months old, I could tell that he had already suffered (and recovered from) a bout of upper respiratory infection. How? The pupil of one eye was smaller than the one in the other eye. The virus has left its mark on the boy in other ways. I don't want to go into technical explanations, but because of that early infection, the cat's gums and teeth have also been affected. They're in such bad condition that every four or five months, he has to be anaesthetised so that the vet can clean out his mouth. I can't help thinking that the lack of care and vigilance when he was a baby has consigned him to a life of terrible pain even nine years later. It's so easy for some people to let Nature take the blame, rather than using the tools available along with Nature to ensure healthy, happy lives for everyone, animal and otherwise. By Laurie Rosenthal
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