WHY YOU DON’T GO TO AMERICANS FOR THE VET WHEN YOU ADVANCEMENT www.AFMA-curedisease.org
Performing research on animals in hopes of
predicting what happens in humans when they
Science is on the verge of offering personalized medicine. This is
are exposed to drugs and disease is tantamount
medical treatment tailor made for you personally. Not for
your mother or father or even your twin. This is in stark
to going to the veterinarian when you are ill.
contrast to medical treatments based on and tested on
This brochure lists some reasons why physicians
animals. For more information please consider reading:
should not treat animals and why veterinarians
While the following list is very incomplete, it
should give you some idea of why animal-based
research and testing is not everything the vested
interest groups tell you it is. Anytime someone’s
livelihood is threatened, they can find all sorts of
AFMA realizes that the science is complex and that not everyone has the
reasons to keep the enterprise alive, even if
background to fully comprehend all the controversies in science. This brochure is not meant as an all-inclusive examination of the topic but rather as a limited
introduction to the issue. For the more scientifically inclined, we recommend the book Animal Models in Light of Evolution by Shanks and Greek.
WHY TREATING HUMANS AS ANIMALS DOES NOT MAKE SENSE
Acetaminophen also known as Tylenol and Paracetamol is
Many drugs tested safe or effective on animals only to fail in
Chocolate can kill dogs yet humans consume large volumes.
Ibuprofen causes kidney failure in dogs even at very low
Ketamine works well in primates but not so well in guinea
Mibefradil (Posicor) Astemizole (Hismanal)
Baycol (Cerivastatin) Raplon (Rapacuronium)
Morphine works well for humans but some cats get very
phenylpropanolamine Propulsid (Cisapride)
excited when given morphine and it can cause seizures in
Rezulin (Troglitazone) Bromfenac (Xibrom)
Seldane (Terfenadine) Grepafloxacin (Raxar)
Etretinate (Tegison) levomethadyl (Orlaam)
Humans must not eat before surgery and anesthesia but
rabbits and small rodents do not vomit and so can be fed.
Tegaserod (Zelnorm) AN1792 for Alzheimer’s
Penicillin can be toxic to some guinea pigs and hamsters.
Viruses like HIV cause very different conditions and diseases
Vaccines that worked well in monkeys harmed humans.
The antituberculosis drug, isoniazid, has been shown to cause
Animals reacted very differently from humans to smoking and
lung cancer in mice. It does not do so in humans.
Furosemide, also known as Lasix helps millions of humans
Dogs don’t suffer from heart beat abnormalities from
but is toxic to mice, rats and hamsters.
Terfenadine, also known as Seldane (human do) but neither
Aspirin can cause blood abnormalities in cats and they can
do they receive any benefit from the drug (humans do).
only take the medication every third day.
Diphenhydramine also known as Benadryl works great in
Chloramphenicol, an antibiotic, caused life threatening aplastic
humans and dogs but humans must take only one fourth the
anemia in cats. Chloramphenicol is a good example of a drug
dose recommended for your Labrador Retriever.
that varies tremendously from species to species. Dogs do
Genes that cause diseases in humans do not cause disease in
Drugs known to damage the human fetus are found to be safe
HIV among children is a growing problem, particularly in the countries hardest hit by theAIDS epidemic. The overwhelming majority of infected children acquire the infection throughmother-to-child transmission. Prevention of HIV infection in infants and young children isnow a high priority and has been the rallying point for enhanced prevention efforts. HIV/AIDS among children in the year 2