For some reason my post on veterinary students dissecting live dogs is one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written. I’m not entirely sure why — the horrific truth is that veterinary medicine is based on animal sacrifice. All the drugs and surgeries your veterinarian gives your pet when you go in to an animal hospital were first tested out on numerous healthy laboratory rats and rabbits (and dogs and cats) who suffered and died for them. Heck, human medicine is based on animal sacrifice as well — eventually all those wonder drugs and surgeries prove effective on dogs and cats in laboratories or on the operating table, and they’re eventually allowed to be practiced upon us. You and your pets have better health today because of the routine torture of numerous laboratory animals. Do you take antidepressants, blood pressure medications, painkillers, etc.? Have you had any complex surgeries? Do you think they tested those out on people first? No — they tested them out on perfectly healthy animals first. Approximately 12.1 million healthy animals were tortured and killed in Europe alone in the last year for medical and/or toxicological purposes. (My pet peeve here is that there is NO REASON to continue torturing and killing so many animals — many brilliant scientists have come up with numerous sophisticated alternatives to animal testing that have already obviated the need to kill any animals to test many types of toxicity, and if we can convince people to donate more money to find more alternative methods, and convince people to buy products that have been created using these alternative methods, eventually I believe we’ll find even more alternatives to animal testing and that number of 12.1 million animals a year will drop down to 6 million and, it is to be hoped, eventually 0.)
So I figure I should mention that there is, in fact, an organization that works to promote ending vivisection AND promoting veterinary medicine. It’s the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR). The 3,500 veterinarians who are members of it both promote veterinary medicine AND alternatives to animal testing.
AVAR’s Mission Statement
The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights actively works toward the acquisition of rights for all nonhuman animals by educating the public and the veterinary profession about a variety of issues concerning nonhuman animal use. The AVAR is actively seeking reformation of the way society treats all nonhumans and an increase in environmental awareness, as well.
AVAR operates under the premise that all nonhuman animals have value and interests independent of the values and interests of other animals, including humans. As physicians protect the interests and needs of their patients, so should veterinarians.
The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights was founded in 1981 by Neil C. Wolff, D.V.M., and Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D. They were both concerned that the animals they were caring for and treating at their veterinary school were being abused by the veterinary school (no kidding! A lot of experimental surgeries are done at veterinary schools). They also realized that the veterinary profession, “under the banner of ‘adequate veterinary care,’ often supported practices which were completely contrary to the well-being of the animals.” Thus, they formed AVAR to make the public and the veterinary profession more humane.
The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights focuses on reducing the “harmful and fatal use of animals in veterinary training; outreach to veterinarians, veterinary technicians and veterinary students; advocacy for companion animals and farm animals; and public education on other animal protection and veterinary issues.” It publishes two newsletters — one on “alternatives to harmful or fatal animal use in veterinary education, which is distributed three times annually to veterinary medical students in North America veterinary schools, and the other is a general newsletter sent out to veterinarians, veterinary students, and supporters.”
The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights’ has a very useful contribution to the veterinary world in its database of alternative-to-using-live-animals-for-dissection database. It accumulates all the known alternatives to using live animals in veterinary education — there are thousands listed. (I think it’s wonderful that these alternatives are publicized — all the veterinarians who contributed these procedures/methods are saving countless dogs, cats, and other animals from being mutilated and killed, and promoting training veterinary students to become skilled at performing important veterinary surgeries/procedures.)
AVAR also has some interesting sections on its website — there’s a section that compares the inhumanity of various veterinary schools — so if you’re thinking of going into veterinary medicine but don’t want to mutilate and kill live animals, this should be a great resource for you. (Please say there are some of you out there!) There is also a section on how AVAR is a strong advocate for humane farming methods such as providing a more natural environment for animals, and allowing them to enjoy their short lives before they are killed. Not surprisingly, AVAR is also a supporter of the petition to ban confining calves, pigs, and hens to ludicrously tiny crates in California.
Interestingly enough, AVAR describes itself as different from other veterinary organizations in that it maintains that while there are benefits from using animals in research, testing, and education, the ends do not justify the means, and since adequate alternatives exist for many research, testing, and educational uses of nonhuman animals, we should focus on using some of those instead. This is in direct contrast to the largest association of veterinarians, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), which has been quoted as saying that it “cannot endorse the philosophical views and personal values of animal rights advocates when they are incompatible with the responsible use of animals for human purposes.” (By “responsible” the American Veterinary Medical Association means horrifically abusing thousands of animals. I find that a little hard to swallow. I mean — let’s tell the truth here — animal experimentation can never be called responsible — it’s horrific, abusive, inhumane and appalling. If you want to say animal experimentation is awful but it’s been incredibly beneficial to advancing society’s knowledge of medicine, say so.) The American Veterinary Medical Association may be an organization devoted to improving animal health — but it’s clearly on the side of torturing animals to promote human health without really making any effort to find less painful methods of doing so. Which I feel is irresponsible for an institution dedicated to animals.
Fascinatingly enough, it turns out that AVAR and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are joining forces to launch a competitor to the American Veterinary Medical Association, since the American Veterinary Medical Association so steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the extreme animal suffering that occurs in the wake of scientific progress and making battery farmers wealthy. It will be called the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA). (Isn’t that amazing? I love this!) This joining with the HSUS will give AVAR access to more resources and more policy/advocacy clout. AVAR hopes that this will organize many more thousands of veterinarians to use alternatives to vivisection. (Veterinarians, veterinary technicians, students, and other professionals associated with the veterinary field are encouraged to visit www.humanesociety.org/vets to sign up to receive announcements about HSVMA.)
It’s really interesting for me to note that of the 80,000 veterinarians in the US, 11,000 of them are already supporters of the HSUS. To me, this suggests that those 11,000 are different from your usual veterinarian in the sense that they don’t like abusing and sacrificing live animals for educational purposes or to create more wonder drugs and surgeries. I’d love to meet these people! Seriously. I’ve always been interested in science yet opposed to animal torture, so I feel like these people are bridging the gap between the two. I hope they will become the future of veterinary medicine . . .
This week is 
I’m very sad about that.
