Full Description
This collection of reflective, critical, philosophical, and practical chapters represents the author's 60 years as a veterinarian, ethologist, and bioethicist. The rising incidence of zoonotic diseases from farmed animals and wildlife in the expanding human population and so-called reverse zoonoses where humans are infecting other species are existential concerns. These concerns are linked with anthropogenic climate change and our impact on ecosystems which threaten biodiversity and the health and future of Homo sapiens and many other species.
These interconnected issues are examined in this book, broadening the scope and agenda of what is currently more narrowly practiced as preventive medicine. The author calls for greater emphasis on holistic preventive health-care maintenance in response to the escalating costs of human and companion animal health problems, the welfare of factory farmed animals, and endangered status of many wild species.
Our species now faces a complex existential crisis that must be addressed in an interdisciplinary way, because there are multiple contributing factors; factors that call for the insights of science and bioethics. Fearlessly tackling contentious issues and 'wicked problems,' Dr Michael W. Fox offers an integrated perspective of what One Health looks like on the ground.
Contents
1. Recognizing Sentience to Better Protect Living Beings 2. Determining Animals' Quality of Life: Criteria and Assessment 3. The Importance of Natural Biodiversity for Health and Well-Being 4. A Beef About Beef: Reforms Long Overdue? 5. Wolves and Human Well-Being: Ecological and Public Health Connections 6. One Health: Incorporating Animal Rights and Conservation 7. Changing Our Diets for Our Health and Earth's Sakes 8. Preventing Pandemics Like COVID-19 and Other Zoonoses 9. Veterinary Bioethics and Planetary Health 10. The Challenges and Future of the Veterinary Profession 11. The Veterinary and Allied Professions: Leading the Way to One Health 12. Humane and Environmental Education: No Child Uninformed 13. Postscript: For all our Relations: A Brief Autobiography
