– by Dr. Shelley Breadner –
Have you ever stopped to think how being ‘green’ applies to practicing veterinary medicine? Living green is a way of life, wherever that path may go. Sometimes we can do more, sometimes we are limited by how much we can do, but keeping that intention in the foreground helps us do the best that we can in each situation.
Within our own practice we encourage green through serious recycling, reducing waste, and responsibly handling and sorting all safe medical wastes. This brings recycling incentives to the forefront for all of our employees, helping to teach them the amazing options we can choose for managing our wastes. We are constantly seeking new ways to reduce our environmental footprint.
Now how do animals see green? Well, birds have a great range of colour vision, many species being able to see ultraviolet light. So when we see green, a bird may see additional colours beyond our colour range. These are used for foraging, attracting mates, following chemical trails, etc. Some colours may signal danger, triggering undesired or stress related responses in birds. Birds of prey can readily react to using a red towel, the colour of meat. For this reason, we generally select white towels when handling all birds in our practice, to restrict colour exposure and minimize their stress.
Despite what you think, dogs are not colour blind. They see many colours, but these are often muted. Their colour vision is similar to a person’s with colour blindness. Their prominent colours are black, white, red as brown, yellows, greens, and purple as blue. Just because they cannot see as many colours, does not mean they have poorer vision than we do. They are good at discerning differences, movement and they have the added benefit of being able to see ultraviolet light. This gives them a different visible spectrum, and enhances their night vision.
Cats are able to see muted colours in the blue and grey zone, although greens and yellows may also be visible. Cats have a great ability to see ultraviolet light, enabling them to see in total darkness. This may allow them to see as well as smell other cats’ urine if it fluoresces with ultraviolet light. Cats also have much greater peripheral vision than we humans, thus cats can see the most remarkable things out of the corner of their eye.
The BIG question is whether cats see anything at all, or if they are simply imagining things to explain all their crazy antics. My advice to you is wear RED and lay back in the beautiful green grass of spring. Best plan to hide from a crazy cat pounce. But just hope the eagles don’t spot you lying there!
