I was reading a book the other day when I came across some information about the lifespan of dairy cows. On average, a modern (confined) dairy cow lives only 42 months. On the other hand, cows on pastures live about 12 to 15 years. The reasons why confinement dairy cows live so short is because selective breeding and feeding food with added growth hormones forces the cows to produce more milk -- at the cost of lifespan. Another negative factor is standing long hours chained on concrete floors without having freedom to roam around or lie down in the pasture.

The fact that confinement dairy cows live only 3 to 4 years disturbs me. At the same time it reminds me how living environments can affect each animal's physical and emotional health, and ultimately their lifespan.

We, pet owners, can do many things to create good living environments for our precious pets to help them enjoy good health and longevity. It can be nutritionally balanced food, daily exercise, less stressful living condition at home, less chemical use, regular checkups with your trustworthy veterinarian, good grooming, and lots of love and affection, and so on.

Prevention of problems always seems to work better than fixing them. Fixing problems usually consumes lots of time, money and energy. On the other hand, all prevention needs is a little bit of public education. Reading a brochure article on managing the black bear population in Great Smoky Mountains National Park reinforces to me how important prevention and education is.

For years, bears conditioned to humans and human-related food have been a chronic problem in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It has caused thousands of dollars in property damage and injured dozens of visitors. Food-conditioned bears themselves were also in great danger.

Park wildlife biologists have tried a variety of strategies to deal with bears who are conditioned to human foods. In the past, they tried to trap and relocate the bears so that these animals wouldn't show up in developed areas where garbage was found. But this strategy didn't work well. Many bears returned to their original locations, using their keen sense of smell and homing ability. Many traveling bears trying to go back home were hit by cars and killed by poachers (and even other bears).

The wildlife biologists changed their strategies recently. They decided to focus on "prevention" rather than "relocation". More attention is given to keeping picnic areas and camping grounds completely free of food scraps and garbage, especially at night. Public education has become a priority. In case bears frequent developed areas, biologists use "aversive conditioning" techniques such as rubber buckshot (basically telling bears that humans are not worth approaching).

These new strategies have been successful and the number of bears requiring relocation and euthanasia has decreased significantly, according to the information.

Whether it is your body or that of your pet, keeping the immune system strong is vital if you want to maintain good health for you or your pets.

I learned this through my own experience many years ago.

The company I used to work for had a party one evening. There were about 30 people at the restaurant. The main dish was sea foods. Although I didn't want to eat raw sea foods, my boss insisted on my trying raw oysters, so I had a piece, which was a big mistake.

Within the next couple of days, my body started to show various symptoms of food poisoning. Meanwhile, record snowfall that year had numbed the traffic throughout the entire city -- by the time I was taken to an ER, more than twelve hours had passed. I was immediately hospitalized.

Later I was told by one of my coworkers that many others at the party also had food poisoning symptoms (but not as severe enough to be hospitalized). Eating just one piece of raw oyster almost killed me, while others were relatively okay eating more pieces.

After this experience, I often asked this question - why some people become sick while others are fine, after eating the same foods? (By the way, about 200,000 people get sick each day in the United States due to food-borne illness; 900 are hospitalized, about 14 die. Over a quarter of all Americans come down with food poisoning each year.)

It's worth noting that more health professionals and health-conscious people have been shifting their focus to building a strong immune system these days. I myself became more aware of the importance of keeping a healthy immune system after I went through my own experience.

Healthy immune systems can be built on superb nutrition. Diet is always the first line of defense. A healthy body won't happen in a day. It's something you can achieve through daily living, something you integrate into your lifestyle - a healthy lifestyle that is.

By now, you may have heard (through news and articles) about the deaths of dogs as a result of chewing and eating "Greenies" - internationally recognized chewable treats that are claimed to clean dogs' and cats' teeth and freshen their breath.

For information on this, visit the following web articles and news:
Be careful with all dog treats, not just Greenies
Warning About Potentially Dangerous Dog Treats
Owners: Dog treats killed our pets
Greenies official site - FAQs page


It's not for me to judge the safety of the product here. All I can say is that for any product designed for your dogs and cats to chew or play with - toys, rawhides, bones, etc. - it's important to always "supervise" our pets. Accidents can happen, and you never know what difficulties our pets may encounter. Dogs can choke on a chunk of rawhide. Cats can be wrapped up by stringy toys. If we monitor our pets, we may be able to avoid problems, and even if accidents happen, we can take a prompt action before it becomes too late.

So, please watch your pets carefully when you give them chewable treats. And always keep an emergency animal hospital's phone number handy!