In the field of animal wellness, the value of allowing captive animals to self-select their own medicinal remedies is becoming more widely recognised. This approach, known as zoopharmacognosy, enables animals to instinctively select plants, minerals, and other natural materials to improve their health.
It is an ethical approach that encourages autonomy and the freedom of choice. By bringing these much-needed plant materials and compounds to animals in captivity, they can exercise their natural ability to seek out the right remedies for their physical and emotional ailments, just as they would do if they were free to roam.
Allopathic medicine, on the other hand, entails administering prescription medications to animals to treat or prevent sickness. Both approaches to animal wellness have their advantages and can work well when used in combination. Zoopharmacognosy is a more naturalistic approach, and allopathic medication is often a necessary intervention, particularly for emergencies.
Why self-selection is beneficial
Self-selection is an animals’ instinctive ability to select specific plants, minerals, or other natural materials to improve their physical and mental health. Animals in the wild have long relied on this instinct to treat various imbalances and keep themselves healthy and contented.
However, in the case of confined animals, self-selection is limited to what is available in their immediate environment. These animals don’t often have the freedom to choose natural materials and minerals, so our help is very much needed.
The Captive Animal Enrichment Project (CAEP) helps animals in captivity by providing a diverse variety of high-quality plant materials, soils, clays and natural materials to animals in captivity. This gives them the freedom to choose their own remedies, an instinctive behaviour animals express when exposed to the remedies in their environment that they need.
One of the primary advantages of self-selection is that it gives animals a sense of autonomy and control over their health. Captive animals can use their innate knowledge to determine what their bodies require by being exposed to a wide range of natural substances. This strategy can promote general health and wellbeing and is not a thought process as it is for us humans, but an automatic and innate behaviour.
Animals have used the intelligence of their own experience and evolution to guide them to seek out the elements in their natural environment that support their healing, and now that we are aware of their ability and understand their ‘medicine cabinet’ to a degree, we should be offering these to them for the sake of the improved care, kindness and compassion we are able to extend them.
How it differs from allopathic medication
Allopathic medication involves the administration of veterinary prescribed man-made medicines to animals by a qualified person. This includes various treatments, such as antibiotics, antiparasitics, painkillers, and vaccines. Veterinary medication plays a crucial role in diagnosing and treating illnesses, preventing the spread of diseases, and alleviating pain or discomfort in animals.
Veterinary care and allopathic medicine are often crucial, beneficial and relevant. They can be used to facilitate great healing. However, some animal guardians in South Africa tend to overuse pharmaceutical drugs on their livestock. This can have negative consequences, especially when it comes to antibiotics. Viruses can mutate and develop resistance to antibiotics when these drugs are overused, which can create superstrains that are resistant to medications, and put entire populations at risk. The presence of antibiotics in animal food products does not affect the consumer positively.
Nevertheless, the benefits of veterinary medication are crucial in many instances, especially emergency situations where surgery is required to save an animal’s life. For animals with severe or life-threatening illnesses, veterinary medication is usually the best solution. Facilitating zoopharmacognosy sessions, or offering plant materials should not be a substitute for veterinary care, and a visit to the vet should always be an animal guardian’s first call when seeking help with an issue.
However, when an animal is ill or is suffering from mental/emotional trauma, providing an opportunity for the animal to self-select non-invasive, inexpensive natural materials is an ethical alternative with no negative side effects, and is complimentary to other healing modalities.
Comparing the two approaches
When it comes to animal health, both self-selection and veterinary treatment have their valid and appropriate place. The efficacy and safety of each approach is determined by the exact conditions in individual enclosures and the needs of each individual animal. Self-selection is frequently useful for captive animals since it allows them to rely on their natural instincts to determine what their bodies require, using hard wiring that has evolved over millions of years to be able to choose their remedy, their dosage and their application.
However, self-selection may not always be sufficient to address severe or complex illnesses that necessitate specialised medical care. It is crucial to strike a balance between the two wellness practices and not rely entirely on veterinary medication, which can have unintended consequences and negative side effects .
Allopathic medicine is often used in the resolution of physiological symptoms, which may be easier to observe without a thorough understanding of animals. Zoopharmacognosy will often express its effect through subtler behavioural changes and the root psychological states expressed through an animal’s behaviour.
There simply is no blanket healing modality or type of medicine that is appropriate for all individuals. Zoopharmacognosy offers the animal itself the choice to select from what is brought into its enclosure, should these remedies be needed.
In the pursuit of captive animal well-being, it is critical to explore all available options that are known to us, including self-selection. The medicinal plant remedies that we use are often preventative or restorative, whereas allopathic medicine is typically curative.
Wouldn’t it be a major leap if we could give captive animals access to the plant materials they need to slow or prevent the onset of illness, rather than simply medicating the final expression or symptoms of disease?
We can do better for them, and we know how to.
**If an animal is symptomatic, veterinary advice should always be sought first. If an animal has been prescribed veterinary medicine, this will need to be discussed in depth prior to a zoopharmacognosy session as some remedies are not compatible with some conditions and medications, and the timings of sessions in relation to an animals’ ingestion of medicines should be carefully placed. Strictest safety protocols are always adhered to for the maximum benefit of the animal**
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