Christine McFadden: Veterinarians’ global effort of caring

Compassion. By definition the sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. Veterinarians are in a “service profession,” where we spend our lives committed to improving the quality of life directly for the pets we minister to.

We spend our days with dogs and cats or maybe dairy cows or working quarter horses. No matter which animal species we care for, we are there to monitor and safeguard against zoonotic diseases (serious infection, sometimes fatal diseases shared from animals to people). Veterinarians are found all over the world. We share in the lives of generations of families.

Veterinarians are there to safeguard the milk and meat that you eat. Veterinarians in public health positions oversee food safety and processing. When our armed forces go overseas, food safety is again specifically closely monitored by military veterinary officers, as not all countries maintain the same food safety standards as the United States. Veterinarians care for the bomb squad dogs and other para-military working canine corps.

Veterinarians volunteer through programs such as the Peace Corps to work in Third World countries, teaching animal husbandry and disease prevention. Successful multiplication of a herd of goats or a flock of chickens can mean the difference between subsistence living and a good life.

An oxen can pull a plow, raising a larger crop than a man can alone, then transport the crop to market by pulling the wagon, where the crop can be sold and other necessary commodities purchased. That same oxen can transport an entire family by wagon across vast distances. Sometimes they transport someone to the hospital in time.

Sheep, goats, and cattle have the ability to take something we cannot eat – grass – and turn it into meat and milk for our food, our survival. Their wool and leather may provide clothing or shelter.

Veterinarians work in research. They work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and NASA. Did you know that much of the early work on the human immunodeficiency virus (precursor to AIDS) was done on the feline immunodeficiency virus, FIV? Absolutely not contagious to people, but in many important ways very similar to HIV, this research helped unravel information about the AIDS virus without “experimenting” on someone’s family member.

From Guide Dogs for the Blind to the Olympics equestrian events, veterinarians are involved. Many veterinarians are in private practice, which might mean we work with dogs and cats or see only dairy and beef cattle, or horses, or a “mixed” practice of a little of everything. Some specialize in eyeballs (ophthalmologists), skin diseases (dermatologists) or heart conditions (cardiologists). It is an enriching, varied, interesting vocation.

Veterinarians are very much a part of stewardship over our earth. It is an inevitable side effect from taking a vow to minister to every creature living. Veterinarians volunteer to care for injured sea birds and sea mammals when an oil spill occurs. They volunteer at wildlife rescue centers, humane societies and rescue organizations.

Veterinarians fight to preserve endangered species of animals. It’s easy to fight to protect a beautiful parrot from South America or the awe-inspiring komodo dragon or a panda. Can you imagine what it would be like to live where these animals occur naturally, to wake up and have one of them lazing in your backyard on an average day, like we have sparrows or blue jays? Wow, worth fighting for.

What about the ugly animals, the insignificant? Remember how we almost didn’t have UC Merced because of some stupid little fairy shrimp? A shrimp that didn’t even exist most of the year, just magically, microscopically popped up in vernal pools (fancy name for mud puddle, right?) after the winter rains. And people said we couldn’t build our university there, because these were endangered. Ultimately a win-win solution was reached. The fairy shrimp and habitat are safeguarded.

My point to ask you: who gets to decide what is important to our world? Which life is worth saving? What impact does this life have on another, and then another – our earth? Who chooses if your children will ever get to see a condor or a koala bear or even a fairy shrimp? If YOU don’t take the time to find out, who will?

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Christine McFadden: Veterinarians’ global effort of caring."