Veterinarians

Did you know that 80 billion animals are slaughtered every year — cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, and other animals whose meat and milk humans can't live without? Meat is the staple food for most people, and more than 340 million tons of meat are produced every year, yet that's only enough to feed around 2 billion people, while our world's population now exceeds 8 billion. Preserving livestock and growing their numbers is a constant global priority — they're humanity's staple food, and also a massive industry that some countries' economies depend on. The global meat industry was valued at $838 billion in 2020. That's why animal health and safety is always under close watch — animals, just like humans, get sick, and infections and epidemics spread among them and can kill them, sometimes causing famine in some countries. Even more dangerous, they can transmit certain diseases to humans — you probably haven't forgotten what happened to the world when bird flu and swine flu spread in past decades. That's why animals are continuously monitored and examined by specialists responsible for them, chief among them veterinarians. The veterinarian is the primary authority on animal health, responsible for diagnosing and treating their illnesses and preventing infections from spreading among them. Even after slaughter and skinning, it's the veterinarian who's responsible for making sure meat and dairy products are safe at the slaughterhouse before they're sold to the public. And the veterinarian isn't responsible only for the animals that supply humans with food — but for all animals, whether pets, predators, reptiles, or birds of prey. Your beautiful cat, your loyal dog, and even the lion you see at the zoo are all under their care, and they may perform surgery on them if they suffer an injury, a broken bone, a serious illness, or even, in some cases, a cesarean delivery. The working environment of veterinarians can be entirely different from that of doctors who treat humans — they care for creatures unable to speak or express their pain and what they're feeling, and they have to figure out what's wrong without a single word being said.

Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa