Are Veterinarians Real Doctors?

Hard at work improving animal lives

 As a veterinarian, the worst question that I get is not “How do you deal with euthanasia?” or “Don’t you ever get tired of blood and guts?” or “How about those student loans?”  Honestly, the worst question I get is far worse, and actually all too common.  I can’t tell you the number of times that people have asked me “Why didn’t you just become a real doctor?” 

That question really just makes my blood boil.  I will tell you, I automatically have a problem with any person who asks me that question.  Why?  Because by asking that question, “Why didn’t you just become a real doctor?” that person has automatically devalued my degree, my livelihood, and most importantly, my passion.  I want to be a medical doctor for animals—I do not want to be a medical doctor for humans.  I don’t really understand why someone would want to ask me that question.  Frankly, it gets me pretty riled up.  I get angry, I get defensive, and I shut that person out. 

 The SAME thing happens when people who have never been on a farm, have never experienced the rewards of growing their own food, and have never realized the value that they receive at the grocery store, ask farmers why they choose to raise their crops or their livestock the way that they do, using the technologies that they have available.  It happens when they accuse farmers of raising crops that are “tainted” with GMOs, or when they accuse cattle, pork, or poultry producers of raising animals “inhumanely.”  When people cry out about the “florid, inhumane” conditions that farm animals live in, or the “unnatural, corrupted” crops that are grown, it makes those farmers’ blood boil as well.  When farmers hear such falsities, and such questions, they tend to react like any other person whose livelihood and passion are being questioned and put down—they get angry, they get defensive, and they shut down.  Sound familiar?

Being a farmer’s daughter from Kansas, I’ve lived my whole life answering questions like “Do you actually have running water in your house?” or “Do you still go to church in a horse and buggy?”  My family gets it--most of the time those questions are in jest, but we do get a bit defensive about things like that.  But when we really get defensive is when people are angered about our use of some of the most innovative technologies in the world (ahem, GMOs), but are still asking whether we have some of the same technologies that the ancient Romans had!  It’s a bit mind-boggling, to tell you the truth.

Any good farmer will be the first to tell you that the crops and animals they raise are safe, nutritious, and produced in a responsible manner.  They will tell you that they feed those products to their own children, and would be happy if you fed them to yours, as well.  However, they will not tell you these things if they feel like their whole lives are being threatened.  And that’s how many farmers feel right now.

Again, with this anger and defensiveness comes that urge to shut people out.  I will be the first to tell you, farmers can be some of the most defensive people out there.  It’s hard not to be when you feel your livelihood is being threatened.  However, if I’ve learned anything from my experience in being asked the “real doctor” question, it’s how to be gracious and accepting of it, and provide an answer that gives the inquirer the reply that they’re looking for, but also gives me the chance to enlighten them on important aspects of my job and maybe, for the future, let them know that the question is not necessarily appropriate when asked in that way.  Believe me, it’s taken a while for me to become accepting and gracious, but I believe that farmers are much more graceful and accepting than I will ever be, so it doesn’t take them long to come around. 

What I ask of the majority of consumers is that you take a step back before making accusations and asking some possibly offensive questions, and ask yourself, “If someone had no idea what I did in my job, and asked me why I was doing it wrong, what would I say?”  I think you would find that you’d be a little put-out and defensive, too.  But I think you would want to help that person see that you ARE doing a good job, and that you are proud of what you do, just like farmers are.  Consumers have a right to ask all the questions they want—they’re part of the food production process as well—however, I think if we all took a step back and thought about our approach, these conversations just might become a whole lot easier.

Family Physician vs. Veterinarian

People today are more concerned than ever about the quality of their food, where it comes from, and how it’s raised.  The world population is growing, and those people need PROTEIN! 

Animal protein is a very economical and efficient way to meet people’s needs for quality nutrition, and American livestock producers are  better at meeting this rising need than ever before.  One of the tools we as producers have to promote the health of our animals is judicious antibiotic use. 

Judicious.  Webster’s defines this as “having or showing good judgment.” Farmers and ranchers must be extremely careful about what drugs are used, which animals they’re used on, and what they are used to treat.  Not only does it makes good sense and is economical, it’s mandated legally. 

The FDA has set forth guidelines as to the tolerances of drug residue that can be left in an animal when it’s harvested for food.  This means if livestock producers and veterinarians don’t follow the rules, they can be reprimanded, fined, and lose their jobs.  The next time you hear someone talking about all the antibiotics being used in animals, just remember: your family physician has fewer qualms prescribing you an antibiotic than your veterinarian does prescribing antibiotics for animals.

Best,
John Dwyer 

Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act

Veterinarians play a crucial role in the health and management of farm animals.
Photo credit/source

 

As a 3^rd year veterinary student, animal care is of top importance to me.  I believe it’s a great day when veterinarians, ranchers, and the government can join together and pass a law that not only benefits veterinarians and ranchers, but ultimately benefits the animals we strive to care for.

 

On August 1^st, the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act was signed into law allowing veterinarians to carry controlled drugs outside of their clinics and across state lines.  This becomes extremely important in providing pain management, anesthesia, or humane euthanasia to patients that are unable to be brought into a clinic. 

 

The president of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), Clark Fobian, DVM, says, “To be a veterinarian, you must be willing to go to your patients when they cannot come to you, and this means being able to bring all of the vital medications you need in your medical bag.”

Check out more information about the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act at the AVMA website: https://www.avma.org/Advocacy/National/Congress/Pages/VMMA-Campaign.aspx.

 

Best,

Alex Grieves

Almond Farming

I am sending you to one of my favorite blogs to read today for a post about an almond farmer. Check it out and browse the other posts The Farm Vet has! My favorites are the Face of a Farmer series.

Face of a Farmer: Almond Farming

What'd you think? Comment below!

Tera

Turkey Talk

A couple of days ago, turkey was the talk of the town. It was the center of millions of dinner tables. It was the star of the show. I don't know a whole lot about raising turkeys on a commercial level, but I did raise 4 birds one year for my 4-H project. You know who knows quite a bit about raising turkeys?

This guy!

http://cjonline.com/news/2011-11-23/kansan-does-more-just-talk-turkey#.TtKtZbIr27s


Enjoy!

Tera Rooney

UNDERCOVER: Dairy Farms Exposed!!!

From a friend:

http://www.holsteinworld.com/story.php?id=4964


Best,

Tera Rooney

Woo Pig Sooie: City Girl turned Pig Vet

A professor of mine at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine passed this video along to me and I wanted to share it with you.

Check out this video to find out why this city girl enjoys practicing production medicine in swine farms that produce our pork. She is passionate about her job and her clients' role in producing safe and wholesome food in a humane manner for consumers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/veterinariansoncall

Enjoy!

Tera Rooney

Dr. Upson Honored

Dr. Dan Upson, the namesake of the FFT Upson Lecture Series has been named to the inaugural Cattle Production Veterinarian Hall of Fame. Congratulations Dr. Upson!

For more information, read the full article.

The next FFT Upson Lecture Series speaker will be announced tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Best,

Chelsea

Why Vegetarians are Crazy: Part 2

This is part two in a two-part series of posts about my conversations with a vegetarian. If you did not catch the first post, please go check it out here. 

By now you have probably figured out that I am not a vegetarian. Nor do I think vegetarians are crazy. I had a conversation with a vegetarian friend of mine and wanted to share it with you. It enlightened me and I hope you will find the same thing, no matter what's in your diet!

How long have you been a vegetarian?

I have been a vegetarian since I was 14 (over 20 years). The summer before my freshmen year, I went to a camp sponsored by the Kansas Association of Teachers of Science, where the food was disgusting and many of the counselors were vegetarian environmentalist KU students. I didn’t eat any meat that week and just never started eating it again.

What are the main reasons you choose to maintain a vegetarian diet?

Meat just really doesn’t seem like food to me. You would never want to eat your mittens or the newspaper; meat is the same way for me. I also think my body functions best on a diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and not many “heavy” foods. Although I haven’t eaten meat (intentionally) in 20 years, I just can’t imagine that my body would like it.

What major resource did you use when converting to make nutritionally sound decisions?

When I first stopped eating meat, my mother bought me a copy of Diet for a Small Planet and The Vegetarian Times cookbook. She also got me a subscription to the Vegetarian Times (which I’ve maintained). Because my father has high cholesterol and high blood pressure, my mother had previously purchased a Dean Ornish book and a cookbook called The Vegetarian Gourmet, which both contained nutritional information. Finally, my mother made me meet with a registered dietician to learn about balancing nutrients. (Unfortunately, the nutritionist didn’t really know much more than I did.) Today I have a large collection of vegetarian cookbooks, and I follow a number of healthy eating (but not necessarily vegetarian) blogs, including Kath Eats Real Food, Apple Crumbles, Runner’s Kitchen, and The Daily Garnish.

I have always thought that the food and agriculture industry failed you (and others who choose not to consume meat) as a consumer, where do you think that happened or what is the problem?

I really don’t think the food or agriculture industry has failed me. I certainly spend enough on groceries!

Is your point of view respected often? At home? At work? On travel?

I am surprised by the extent to which my point of view is respected and tolerated in the middle of beef country. Most people go out of their way to make sure that I have something to eat, and I really haven’t been teased about my eating habits since high school. My mother-in-law (who is from a ranching family) keeps veggie burgers in her freezer for me and has stopped adding bacon to her green beans so I can eat them. My friends keep vegetable broth in their pantries so I can eat their soup. The biggest problem I encounter is lack of understanding, particularly in restaurants. For example, the people who run the Chinese restaurant in Hugoton don’t understand why I don’t want to eat fish sauce and people who run Mexican restaurants around here are confused when I ask about lard. Even my mother sometimes forgets to read labels and tries to feed me something with meat in it.  I do find it refreshing in places like California where food is labeled vegetarian or vegan, and I actually have more than one choice on a menu. That doesn’t really happen around here.

What could the animal agriculture industry do a better job of in order to reach out to consumers who choose to maintain diets that include animal products?

I suppose focus on health benefits of animal products?

The population is growing exponentially, how can food producers  accommodate the extra growth?

I am particularly concerned about the lack of availability of whole foods, particularly in areas of poverty. I think it’s important that people everywhere have access to fresh, healthy, unprocessed foods and are given the tools and education needed to prepare that food.

Let me know your thoughts!

Tera Rooney 

Hormone Casserole

I've seen some prevalent advocacy being done by a veterinarian from my home county, Haskell County, Kansas, lately. Dave Sjeklocha (pronounced like "so close ya" almost missed it!) is a DVM at the Haskell County Animal Hospital and I have seen his response to hormone usage in food production to many articles on the internet. This is his response, as a licensed veterinarian, and it has been posted on several parenting sites, the Wall Street Journal, among others.

He breaks down a response to the hormone debate in a way that consumers, like myself, can easily understand! I also trust his break down because he is the veterinarian working with cattle producers to regulate the use of growth-promoting hormones in production. Great job Doc Sjeklocha!!!

• Hormones: Growth-promoting hormones used in beef production include estrogens, trenbolone acetate (TBA) and melengestrol acetate (MGA, progestin). Estrogens are the most commonly used.

• Safety: Growth promoting hormones in cattle production have been declared safe by several scientific organizations worldwide. These would include the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization, the European Commission Agriculture Division and the Codex Committee on Veterinary Residues.

• Hormone levels: Hormone levels are measured units called nanograms. A nanogram is one billionth of a gram. Three ounces of beef from a steer that was raised with growth promoting hormones contains 1.9 ng of estrogen. Three ounces of beef from a steer that was not raised with growth promoting hormones contains 1.3 ng of estrogen. Three ounce servings of other foods would contain the following levels of estrogen:
• Soybean oil 168,000,000 ng
• Milk 11 ng
• Potatoes 225 ng
• Ice cream 520 ng
• The human body naturally produces many hormones. Estrogen is just one of those hormones. Levels of estrogen in the human body would be as follows:
• Non-pregnant woman 480,000 ng
• Pregnant woman 3,415,000 ng
• Man 136,000 ng
• Male child (pre-pubertal) 41,500 ng
• Female child (pre-pubertal) 54,000 ng

• Summary: Growth-promoting hormones used in beef production have been scientifically tested and proven to be safe. When compared to levels in other foods, or to levels naturally occurring in the human body, beef hormone levels are very low. Also, the use of these hormones helps to conserve our natural resources by improving the efficiency of beef production.

I'm making a casserole tonight for dinner that contains: meat, potatoes, corn, green beans, carrots and some milk products. I might just change the name of the recipe because it is clearly a hormone casserole! Now that I have read Doc Sjeklocha's response, I know that it is a naturally occurring hormone in a lot of the foods I eat.

My best,

Tera Rooney

Get into organized agriculture and veterinary medicine

Well, Tera talked me into writing a blog. So here goes my first blog on the Food for Thought website. I speak all around the U.S. and the world on beef cattle welfare and the animal rights movement. One of the most common questions that I get is how can I help be an advocate for animal agriculture. My first response is to join organized agriculture groups. These might be a cattlemen’s organization, this might be a general agriculture organization or a professional organization. I am a member of multiple organizations such as National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the Academy of Veterinary Consultants.

Most people want to get involved and going out on your own is better than nothing. But, we get organized and have synergistic activities within our producer and professional societies. These groups are always looking for volunteers within their organization. They are also organized across the United States and prevent us from duplicating efforts that conserves our human and capital resources. Get on the right bus, be active and help steer us in the right direction. Passionate people that want to serve are needed today in our producer and professional organizations.

Get on board!

Dr. Dan Thomson

Get into organized agriculture and veterinary medicine

Well, Tera talked me into writing a blog. So here goes my first blog on the Food for Thought website. I speak all around the U.S. and the world on beef cattle welfare and the animal rights movement. One of the most common questions that I get is how can I help be an advocate for animal agriculture. My first response is to join organized agriculture groups. These might be a cattlemen’s organization, this might be a general agriculture organization or a professional organization. I am a member of multiple organizations such as National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, American Veterinary Medical Association, American Association of Bovine Practitioners and the Academy of Veterinary Consultants.

Most people want to get involved and going out on your own is better than nothing. But, we get organized and have synergistic activities within our producer and professional societies. These groups are always looking for volunteers within their organization. They are also organized across the United States and prevent us from duplicating efforts that conserves our human and capital resources. Get on the right bus, be active and help steer us in the right direction. Passionate people that want to serve are needed today in our producer and professional organizations.

Get on board!

Dr. Dan Thomson

Extra Extra Read All About It!!!

Hot off the press is the new issue of Lifelines, a publication put out by the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and featured front page is the Upson Lecture Series that our group founded.

The coolest part of the new Lifelines feature is that there is an online video interview about the Temple Grandin Lecture and more information about Food For Thought. Go check it out!!!

http://www.vet.k-state.edu/depts/development/lifelines/1012.htm#Upson

HSUS: a new perspective

The Humane Society of the United States is an organization that uses it's name and emotional commercials to tug at the heartstrings of millions to raise more money to fund lobbying efforts. Their goal? To abolish animal agriculture as a whole. They do not support the local animal shelters that actually do work in our communities to help stray cats and dogs find homes. I have several classmates who are very passionate about doing work in these shelters and see a growing number of veterinary students interested in shelter medicine. They need to be the ones benefiting from the opening of America's pocket books when the commercial with the sad puppy in it comes across the tube.

I could go on, but this article says it perfectly. I encourage you to read the Q&A with Jake Geis. He is a veterinary student and a very bright, passionate person who will make strides in the animal health and welfare field.

PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE AND SEE HOW JAKE VIEWS THE HSUS!

I encourage you to leave your opinions in the comment section below. I'd love to hear your take on things and learn a bit more myself.

My best,

Tera Rooney