All my life, I've felt a strong connection with all animals and had an intense interest in them. I grew up in a small town about an hour north of Chicago in an area surrounded by forest preserves and nature trails. In both of my childhood homes, my backyard transitioned into a beautiful wooded conservation area, which I delighted in exploring. It was full of ravines, fields, and thickets, all of which I was intimately familiar with. A creek ran along the edge of the preserve that was full of minnows, toads and crayfish, and we routinely spotted deer and red foxes in our yard. I was thrilled anytime I was lucky enough to come in close contact with a wild animal. Catching snakes and toads was a common pastime of mine- I would always release them, but by tracking and examining them, I learned firsthand about their anatomy and behavior. I earned the derisive nickname "Creek Thing" from some of the older kids in the neighborhood who found it weird that I spent so much time in and around the creek.
My mom is an avid birdwatcher and botanist, and from her I gained a deeper appreciation for the bountiful and vibrant ecosystem surrounding us. She encouraged my interest in animals by getting me subscriptions to Zoobooks, Ranger Rick, and Your Big Backyard that I read and reread, and tolerating my collection of animal skulls and snake skins that I would find on my adventures and store behind the counter in our basement. Stray cats would routinely visit our backyard on account of the catnip plants growing along the side of our house, and I fondly remember my mom and I bringing them into the garage and feeding them. Once, we were even able to reunite a lost cat with his owners when my mother saw a newspaper classified ad looking for an orange Persian that fit the description of one of our frequent visitors. She also set a great example of how to properly care for companion animals. When I got a pet hamster for my kindergarten graduation, she researched the proper care and feeding, and made sure that I took care of my little friend and all the ones who came after him. When I came home from college with a 20-gallon fish tank and got lazy about cleaning it, my mom didn't complain about helping me out. A couple years later, I brought home my pet rabbit Charlie without my parents' permission. Despite my disobedience, my mother made sure that I got my bunny spayed and fed her a proper diet with lots of timothy hay.
I became a vegetarian at 16 out of concern for animal welfare, and because of that transition, I started educating myself on all the hardships that animals face in our society at the hands of human beings. I excelled at Biology and Zoology in high school, and dreamed of being a marine biologist. I knew that I wanted to work with animals, but I thought that my career options were limited because I wasn't very good at math. I explored the arts in college instead, taking classes in graphic design, photography, and fine arts, ultimately graduating with a degree in Fiction Writing. Even though I wasn't in an animal-related field, I started volunteering at animal shelters and became active in animal welfare causes. After graduating college, I was unable to find a job in my chosen field, and I soon found myself working administrative jobs that frustrated me and drained my energy. When I was laid off from my job in 2009, I took it as an opportunity. I had heard of the veterinary technician field from a friend who had worked as a vet tech for several years, and I thought it sounded like a perfect career for me. I enrolled in the Veterinary Technology program at a local college in March of 2010, and graduated with an Associate's degree in August of 2011.
The program was intensive- I attended five days a week of full-time classes where we learned about animal handling and treatment, anatomy, venipuncture, laboratory sciences, radiology, emergency care, nutrition, behavior, pharmacology, and anesthesia, among other things. In addition, each student worked a certain number of animal care duty shifts per term. These shifts took place before or after classes and on the weekends and involved exercising, feeding and medicating the school's resident animals and cleaning their cages or runs. With sometimes upwards of 30 dogs and 30 cats plus an assortment of rabbits, gerbils, mice and rats, this could take a team of students upwards of 3 hours to finish. We were also required to complete observation hours each term at a veterinary clinic or other facility that employs vet techs, and the last two months of the program were spent at an off-site externship at a hospital or facility of our choice. A term of learning about exotics, an in-house surgical assisting rotation and a week on a children's farm were also included. The school was about an hour and a half commute each way for me, and I was walking dogs part-time for income. Needless to say, it was exhausting, but it was worth every minute. I gained experience in so many different areas of veterinary medicine, and I passed the Veterinary Technician National Exam in November of 2011. I am working in a field I love, and I get to use my knowledge to help animals every day.
I now work full-time at a private day practice on Chicago's North Side, and I also work relief at a low-cost spay and neuter clinic affiliated with a large no-kill shelter on the Southwest side of the city. I am dedicated to helping animals through education, preventative care, and quality treatment, and I support animal rescue and no-kill sheltering. I have found amazing fulfillment through working with animals, and it saddens me that people often misunderstand and abuse the amazing creatures we share our world with. I started this blog to give animals a voice through using my own, and to do as much as I can to give back to the animals who have enriched my life so greatly.
Oh, and I still walk dogs on the side. :)
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The Question of Consciousness
I have been debating with myself on what my first official, substantive post in this blog should be about. Should I do a standard "getting to know you" introduction, or perhaps tell a story about daily life in a veterinary practice? No, maybe a piece on shelter animals would be a good opener. I was thoroughly torn- that is, until I stumbled across this:
Scientists Conclude That Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings
I knew that I had to write about the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness for my first post, because this breakthrough in the scientific community embodies the premise of my blog: animals do have an inner life. They do possess emotions, thoughts and feelings, just as much you and I. Although this may seem obvious to most anyone who has worked closely with animals or shared their lives with them, this topic that has been the center of hot debate for decades. Many people, both in the scientific community and society as a whole, have the smug tendency to think of animals as nothing more than biological machines, even when anecdotal and researched evidence has suggested otherwise. Even people who I have known to be fond of animals have openly scoffed at me when I relayed my experience that some of the abused animals that I have worked with have showed great gratitude, calling my assertion ridiculous since animals could not possibly be capable of such a complex emotion.
The various respected neuroscientists at the first annual Francis Crick Memorial Conference seem to agree with my observations, however. The subject of the 2012 conference was "Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals," and the key speakers included renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the psychologist who amazed the world with her study of Alex the African Grey parrot. The findings put forth by the presenters all boil down to this: many complexities that were once thought to be the sole product of the human neocortex have been shown to exist and operate in the less developed brains of nonhuman animals. The same neural patterns that produce phenomena such as self-recognition and REM patterns during sleep have been shown to exist in subcortical neural pathways in both human and nonhuman animals. Behaviors and abilities that show a parallel evolution of consciousness with humans have been demonstrated not only in mammals, but in birds, mollusks and even insects.
The attendees of the conference signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness which declares:
So, what does this all mean? At the very least, these unequivocal findings mean that we need to develop a deeper respect for the animals we share this planet with and start developing better ways to co-exist with them. For many people, the antiquated idea of animals as unthinking, unfeeling automatons is the only thing that allows them to eat meat, or on the scientific end, to use animals for experimentation. We need to start examining ourselves and pinpointing how we can afford to be kinder to animals and eliminate their abuse from our everyday lives. I encourage everyone not only to read the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, but to visit the Francis Crick Memorial Conference website and view the material that was presented on animal consciousness. Having knowledge of facts such as these and discussing their ethical implications is the only way that anything is going to change for our animal friends.
Scientists Conclude That Nonhuman Animals Are Conscious Beings
I knew that I had to write about the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness for my first post, because this breakthrough in the scientific community embodies the premise of my blog: animals do have an inner life. They do possess emotions, thoughts and feelings, just as much you and I. Although this may seem obvious to most anyone who has worked closely with animals or shared their lives with them, this topic that has been the center of hot debate for decades. Many people, both in the scientific community and society as a whole, have the smug tendency to think of animals as nothing more than biological machines, even when anecdotal and researched evidence has suggested otherwise. Even people who I have known to be fond of animals have openly scoffed at me when I relayed my experience that some of the abused animals that I have worked with have showed great gratitude, calling my assertion ridiculous since animals could not possibly be capable of such a complex emotion.
The various respected neuroscientists at the first annual Francis Crick Memorial Conference seem to agree with my observations, however. The subject of the 2012 conference was "Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals," and the key speakers included renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the psychologist who amazed the world with her study of Alex the African Grey parrot. The findings put forth by the presenters all boil down to this: many complexities that were once thought to be the sole product of the human neocortex have been shown to exist and operate in the less developed brains of nonhuman animals. The same neural patterns that produce phenomena such as self-recognition and REM patterns during sleep have been shown to exist in subcortical neural pathways in both human and nonhuman animals. Behaviors and abilities that show a parallel evolution of consciousness with humans have been demonstrated not only in mammals, but in birds, mollusks and even insects.
The attendees of the conference signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness which declares:
“The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”
So, what does this all mean? At the very least, these unequivocal findings mean that we need to develop a deeper respect for the animals we share this planet with and start developing better ways to co-exist with them. For many people, the antiquated idea of animals as unthinking, unfeeling automatons is the only thing that allows them to eat meat, or on the scientific end, to use animals for experimentation. We need to start examining ourselves and pinpointing how we can afford to be kinder to animals and eliminate their abuse from our everyday lives. I encourage everyone not only to read the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, but to visit the Francis Crick Memorial Conference website and view the material that was presented on animal consciousness. Having knowledge of facts such as these and discussing their ethical implications is the only way that anything is going to change for our animal friends.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Anima
Anima
an·i·ma (ān'ə-mə) n.:
The inner self of an individual; the soul or animating force.
As humans, many of us have been lucky enough to have our lives profoundly touched by a special animal, or perhaps several. It is no wonder to those of us who have had this privilege that our name for their kind is drawn from the Latin word for "soul" or "life force." Rarely, however, do we stop to think about the inner lives of animals, and how our desires and theirs intertwine and often clash. I'm not just talking about the companion animals, the dogs, cats and various other domesticated critters that we have welcomed into our homes and treated like family. I speak also for the livestock raised for our consumption, and the wild creatures whose habitats and lives we encroach upon.
As a Certified Veterinary Technician working both in general veterinary practice and in shelter medicine, I feel that every day I am granted a very unique glimpse into the human-animal relationship. It is a very complicated one, and it is often as brutal as it is beautiful. My goal in writing this blog is to be a voice for animals and to give my readers an insight into our tenuous relationship with them. I also want to call attention to issues that affect the animals we love and let people know how they can help. I want to share both joyful tales and heart-wrenching ones, and provide a little provocative thought and discussion along the way. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." In order for us as a species to become great, we have to take that first step and start a dialogue about the treatment of the precious creatures that we share this planet with.
an·i·ma (ān'ə-mə) n.:
The inner self of an individual; the soul or animating force.
As humans, many of us have been lucky enough to have our lives profoundly touched by a special animal, or perhaps several. It is no wonder to those of us who have had this privilege that our name for their kind is drawn from the Latin word for "soul" or "life force." Rarely, however, do we stop to think about the inner lives of animals, and how our desires and theirs intertwine and often clash. I'm not just talking about the companion animals, the dogs, cats and various other domesticated critters that we have welcomed into our homes and treated like family. I speak also for the livestock raised for our consumption, and the wild creatures whose habitats and lives we encroach upon.
As a Certified Veterinary Technician working both in general veterinary practice and in shelter medicine, I feel that every day I am granted a very unique glimpse into the human-animal relationship. It is a very complicated one, and it is often as brutal as it is beautiful. My goal in writing this blog is to be a voice for animals and to give my readers an insight into our tenuous relationship with them. I also want to call attention to issues that affect the animals we love and let people know how they can help. I want to share both joyful tales and heart-wrenching ones, and provide a little provocative thought and discussion along the way. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated." In order for us as a species to become great, we have to take that first step and start a dialogue about the treatment of the precious creatures that we share this planet with.
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