Not breaking news but I wanted to invite you to listen in on my interview with Animal Tails Radio this Friday out of WGNU in St Louis. The air time is 11:15-11:45am Central Time but you can click here to listen via streaming audio.
Today in the New England Journal of Medicine is a story of Oscar the cat. Oscar, dubbed by the media as a furry grim reaper, resides at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 25 cases, since the facility has been taking notice, he has “predicted” the impending death of the patients residing at the facility. Oscar joins the patients usually about 4 hours before they depart.
Dr. David M Dosa shares his anecdotal account which has been pooh-poohed by at least one veterinary behaviorist, Dr. Nicolas Dodman director of Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine .
Without hard scientific data, most academics dismiss anecdotal behavior observations. However, it doesn’t keep others from noticing it and reporting it–and taking it seriously.
Working therapy animals have the same sixth sense and service dogs detect and warn owners about impending seizures and other medical issues before onset.
Many of us who work with animals don’t dismiss anecdotal behavior, we consider a variety of factors in assessing conditions or circumstances in addition to anecdotal observations–but it would be a mistake to totally dismiss it.
Once the world was supposed to be flat…and those who claimed otherwise were under harsh scrutiny. Opposite findings appear regularly in studies years after an initial discovery has been reported with a different finding. Is there really a final word?
Oscar seems to have a knack for identifying impending death and alerts staff to the process. Studies have shown that animals do have a positive physiological impact on humans and this may be another area humans have missed considering.
Oscar’s benefit to the person transitioning, his solace to the family in the room, and to the staff who work in a stress filled environment filled with illness and death is something that probably can’t truly be measured.
Hospice workers perform valuable services–and whether or not they are a valued furry staff member or not shouldn’t matter–and Oscar the furry hospice aid is surely valued by staff and the family members of the patients housed where he works.
I’ve been busy with some other projects and have not commented on the most recent tiger attack at a zoo in San Antonio. It sounds to me that it was a keeper error and after doing a search–that is what was revealed.
Jeff Tierney, a zoo keeper who has worked at the San Antonio Zoo for five years, was attacked by Berani a male Sumatran tiger a week ago. Reports were that he was critically injured and flown to University Hospital, where he remained in intensive care Sunday but now is stable…and as of this writing has been released.
Tierney was in the outside enclosure when the tiger attacked him. Most captive animal attacks are due to human error. Sumatran tigers are small, dark, and aggressive when compared to some of the other species.
In general, the smaller the animal, the more aggressive. Although many professional animal keepers are instructed in safety protocols there are ample opportunities for errors–which can sometimes be deadly.
Tierney was released July 21, 2007. Zoo statements about the tiger attack in San Antonio in this video said it was a “simple mistake” which I don’t agree with. It could have been a deadly mistake but at least the keeper had pepper spray on hand.
You can find my additional comments on animal attacks at http://www.arkanimals.com
Tiger Attacks & Human Errors
Texas Zoo Keeper Recovers, Errors Made
USDA Investigate San Antonio Zoo Tiger Attack
