http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5093572.stm
Vets protest over homeopathy plan

A group of vets has said they are concerned by European Commission
proposals to legitimise the use of homeopathic remedies for animals.
In an open letter to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the
group says there is no clinical evidence that homeopathy works.

The vets have signed the letter to the RCVS, calling for it to
increase support for conventional medicine.

The RCVS has said it does not take a stance either way on homeopathy.

Professor Derek Knottenbelt, from the University of Liverpool, is
spokesman for the group of forty concerned vets, professors and veterinary
nurses.

He told BBC Radio Four's Farming Today programme that homeopathic
treatments had not gone through the rigorous clinical trials of conventional
medicines.

"Homeopathic medicine, in the broadest sense of the word, is unproven,
unscientific, and unvalidated," he said.

"In any sense of the word it is an unjustified approach to an ill
animal."

Alternative treatment

The RCVS says it only registers qualified vets and it is up to them
whether or not they practise homeopathic medicine alongside their
conventional treatments.

Its president, Lynn Hill said: "At the present time the Royal College
does believe very strongly in clinical choice both for the veterinary
surgeon and also the client."

Homeopathy is the treatment of 'like with like', its supporters say.
Minute doses of substances that can cause signs of illness in a healthy
person are used to treat the same symptoms in a sick patient.

Some homeopathic practitioners dilute the dose so much that no
molecules remain of the substance being diluted - believing that the
solution retains a "memory" or imprint" of the substance.

The vets who are objecting to homeopathic treatment say none of the
remedies have gone through the rigorous clinical trials that usual medicines
have to.

Animal welfare risk

Dr Simon Baker, a vet from Essex who signed the letter told the BBC:
"Our main concern is that homeopathy is unlikely to benefit animals.

"Very little work has been done with homeopathy and animals at all.
The main risk is that if anything does not go well their welfare has
suffered.

"There is the potential for things to get worse and worse and
homeopathy has the potential to provide explanations for all outcomes,
whether things get better or worse.

"If an animal does get worse then it's not had the opportunity to have
treatment that might have made them better.

"As vets, it's not our obligation to take regard of the owner's choice
if that choice is not for the benefit of the animal's welfare."

'Great strength'

But vet John Saxton, president of the faculty of homeopathy at the
Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, told BBC News homeopathy was only used,
where appropriate, as an "additional tool" in conjunction with conventional
medicine.

It was backed up by "basic research, evidence and scientific
theories," he added.

But its "great strength" was the ability to approach medical problems
from "an entirely different point of view".

Carl Barton, farm manager for the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, told
Farming Today that homeopathy works.

"What one's got to remember is that these beasts we rely on for our
livelihood," he said.

"So we're not going to do anything lightly. So we treat them with
homeopathy, and it works very well. My herd is case proven."



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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
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