In college (UMD), I was initially pre-vet (2 yrs) and then had been working in the vet industry for 6 years. There were many things in practice, that I had contentions with. I kept saying to myself “are we here to help or hurt?!” & “there’s got to be a better way”
I’d heard of homeopathy, dabbled a bit with no working knowledge of it, but like every person ignorant to its benefits, scoffed at it. I decided that I’d find another way, other than vet-med then, to truly help animals. I changed my major to wildlife biology- which had almost the same program as pre-vet-med. it added a few really cool ecology classes, land use & management classes, & some botany classes.
So after 5 years of college + 2 summers of classes, I graduated with a major in wildlife bio, + a minor in animal behavior. I wanted to best prepare myself- for some “unknown career.” Maybe field work- maybe lab work…
Tried lab work first- as D.C. is a mecca-center for research. My first job was working on a study of chemical pollution (PCB’S), in our environment. In the study, we FED PCB’S, in escalating concentrations (from trace amounts to a large, almost lethal concentrations) to a controlled population of Bobwhite Quail.
The negative effects of the PCB’S were determined then, by collecting eggs: first measuring eggshell thickness, and it’s thinning with each incremental increase of the PCB’S. The second part of the lab-work, involved removing partially developed chicks, putting them in a blender, and evaluating & rating a host of maladies, again increasing with higher concentrations of PCB’S.
I finished the study. We published our findings in the Ag journal (I was the 11th name mentioned -my only published work) and the study directly banned PCB’s from many applications, including jet-fuel, the largest producer of PCB pollution. But this work, of putting chicks in a blender, and feeding poison to Quail, was NOT FOR ME!
In looking for other research jobs, the listings in my field included :
•subjecting dogs to whiplash injuries
•giving Reece monkeys cancer
•giving rats diabetes
•and a host of cruel things to mice
I couldn’t take any job available in lab work.
So I tried fieldwork, on a behavioral study next. The study involved a herd of cows at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC). The study showed that cows recognize family members, and won’t breed incestuously.
While that may be helpful to some cow farmer somewhere to know (and likely not important, as cows are predominantly bred for our consumption) – it didn’t have any satisfaction, as at least the PCB study did. And it was really boring! I sat in the field of cows, and recorded who licked who, who butted who, who mounted who… etc. identifying each by ear tag. I was not allowed to know until studies end, who was related to whom. If I’d known in advance- it may have been more interesting!
So, needing income again, I took a break and went back to my younger life job- of training horses. It was what put me through college. It was a place I was REALLY HAPPY, and felt I was “at my best.” Then to add a sense of satisfaction & CONTRIBUTION, I started to do some rescue work with horses, small animals and wildlife.
I also changed the nature of my horse training business, to rehabbing behaviorally challenged and emotionally unbalanced horses. I did that until I got hit by a car as a pedestrian, about 6-7 years ago. I had some wildlife husbandry jobs, vet-tech jobs and some side dog-training and grooming, and with significant injuries from the accident, had to switch my focus from horses to dogs. This when my dog training, grooming, and wellness business evolved full-fledged.
I also spent a year working part-time for a naturalist, at her herb shop, for an education on the application of herbs and homeopathic for maladies. You could consider her a town doctor. And she was even brought up on charges, for practicing medicine without a license- but won her case.
It was after college- in my eclectic career, that I found homeopathy and natural healing again, predominantly in rescue work, and then in my second go-round with vet tech jobs.
I would also keep all of the horses, cats and dogs, with the most serious ailments and diseases- including a horse with melanoma cancer, two cats with leukemia , a cat with bone marrow disease, a neurological chihuahua, a horse with bleeding ulcers and decreased ability to absorb nutrition, a cat with thyroid disease, etc.
Those animals, in particular, moved me to find better answers, than eastern medicine had to offer. Western medicine – the medical industry in almost all western parts of the globe- is almost EXCLUSIVELY homeopathy, herbs, acupuncture, and other natural modalities, including dietary cures and preventatives. I had to take a deeper look.
Now that I’ve educated myself, there is NO TURNING BACK. I’ve found the “better way” I was searching for. I watched animals suffer for most of my younger life, both from original ailments – through horrific western treatments and drugs (DRUGS – not MEDICINES! *Hypocrites)
These eastern medicines are body CURATIVES- not symptom-inducing, symptom-placaters. With western medicine, you placate the existing symptoms while giving the body a list of new symptoms, in the form of side effects from these drugs! CRAZY – that we Americans almost all sign up for this under free-will!!
Yet we also spend billions annually- on the war against drugs! AND that war includes prosecution for marijuana-related “crimes” – yet marijuana a FANTASTIC natural medicine for 100’s of ailments, ranging from glaucoma, seizures, psoriasis, PTSD, anxiety, schizophrenia, bi-polarism, etc.
The reason for the unfortunate classification of marijuana (now a schedule 1) is because the Department of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco, lost in Supreme Court, to be the Department of its regulation! It would have been the super-power monopoly had it won and is the very reason they lost. (They drove then, the illegalization of marijuana use and possession. They’re ALREADY too powerful in controlling our government! As is the FDA- food and drug administration (drugs being BIG BUSINESS in the USA) & AMA -American Medical Association, the latter, includes pharmaceuticals.
So, I am truly satisfied on many levels, from my use of natural remedies. It includes not contributing to these financially and politically driven monopolies. But the real satisfaction comes from watching wellness occur- in a real way, and in ways IMPOSSIBLE for western medicine to achieve.