Georgia: "Hey, torturing beagles is never OK!"

This is really outrageous. As many of you know, I despise the fact that rabies vaccinations are required for dogs every three years and even annually in some states. I've read about all the adverse reactions and the belief of many holistic vets that rabies vaccinations confer immunity for a lifetime. Nobody would like to see the laws changed to allow dogs to be vaccinated for rabies less frequently more than I would. However, I draw the line at torturing animals in order to accomplish that.

Apparently, some people have no such scruples, such as two people whom I admired and respected up until recently, when I read the "Rabies Challenge Fund Charitable Trust Research Study" for which one of them is fundraising and the other is the principal investigator. In this study, two rather large groups of beagles (each with at least 35 members―it's not known exactly how many) will be isolated for five years or seven years, depending on the group; at least 25 of them will be vaccinated; and then they will all be injected with rabies virus to see who dies and who doesn't. The man doing the experiment is Ronald Schultz, D.V.M., chair of pathobiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and an outspoken critic of the laws regarding rabies vaccinations, and the person raising the funds for the experiment is none other than W. Jean Dodds, D.V.M., a veteran of the holistic veterinary medical community. I find this terribly disturbing and hypocritical.

Death by rabies is ugly indeed. The virus infects the brain, causing encephalitis, and can also attack the spinal cord. There can be everything from fever and flu-like symptoms to anxiety, confusion, erratic behavior, aggression, disorientation, seizures, partial paralysis, coma, and death from respiratory arrest. One of the horrible aspects of the disease is that the jaw and throat become paralyzed, making it impossible to drink or even swallow one's own saliva, causing the characteristic drooling.

Of course, none of this is mentioned in Dodds' fundraising. I doubt that she would get a dime if it were. She is soliciting funds from dog lovers of all kinds, preying on their fears for their own dogs' health while totally misleading them. Her Web site and her flier contain not a single word about the negative aspects and gruesome details of the actual experiment. This is deceitful at best. The idea of torturing upwards of 70 dogs in order to improve the health of the rest of the dog population is no different from deciding to torture 70 children in order to improve the health of other children. Those 70 dogs matter! Each one matters! None of them wants to die a horrible death, be killed prematurely, or spend their entire life in a kennel.

We all want our own dogs to be healthy, but people with true compassion don't want that to be at the expense of any other dogs. I'm sorry to have to say it, but in this experiment, the ends, as laudable as they are, do not justify the means.

A better way to spend the $1.25 million being raised for these experiments would be to develop an acceptable serological method to test for rabies antibodies and immunity to the rabies virus.

If you agree, why not shoot Dr. Dodds an e-mail at
hemopet@hotmail.com and let her know how you feel?

Tiffany (center) outlived her DCM prognosis by more than three years.

A while back, I met a woman on the beach who clued me in to the presence of foxes there—they had managed to survive in spite of a massive assault on their forest habitat by the construction industry. She was able to solve the mystery of the stinky stuff in the sand that Sunny kept rolling in: fox urine! (And just a few days ago, I finally saw one of those gorgeous creatures in the moonlight for about five seconds.)

Anyway, I digress. I ran into the same woman again last weekend, but this time she was near tears as she told me that her Springer spaniel had just been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and only had a few months to live. My ears perked up because that rang a bell for me big-time.

In the early '90s, I was doing some research on that very topic, and I picked up some useful, even life-saving information that, unfortunately, your average vet will not share with you. However, I was lucky enough to meet the late veterinary cardiologist Eugene Musselman, who confirmed all the information that I had learned on this topic.

When dogs get dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), their heart muscle becomes weak and flabby and can no longer pump blood at a sufficient rate. The onset of this disease can be quite sudden. Some dogs even die of it before showing any noticeable symptoms. Sometimes you do get a little bit of warning in the form of a cough, exercise intolerance, and listlessness, but you have very little time to intervene if the disease has already progressed that far. Luckily, only a small number of dogs (about 2 percent) get this disease—mostly cocker spaniels, Springer spaniels, Dobermans, boxers, large-breed dogs such as Great Danes, and a few others. But if your dog gets it, it will break your heart because it's so unexpected and primarily affects middle-aged dogs or even younger.

The good news is that dogs with DCM are usually deficient in L-carnitine and taurine and can benefit enormously from supplementation with these amino acids. These amino acids can be given preventively, just to be on the safe side (500 mg L-carnitine and 250 mg taurine per day for a 50-lb. dog), but once your dog has DCM, the dosage is much higher and can be expensive: 1 gram of L-carnitine per 10 lbs. of bodyweight per day and 500 mg of taurine per 10 lbs. of bodyweight per day (both divided into a morning and evening dose). The cheapest is to buy it in loose-powder form online. The point is to flood the blood plasma with these amino acids in an effort to push more of them into the heart muscle, since the deficiency seems to stem from an inability to transport the amino acids from the blood into the heart muscle tissue.

While I was doing this research, the middle-aged Springer spaniel of some friends of mine, Tiffany, got the dreaded diagnosis of DCM. She was given less than a year to live. My friends had already endured the sudden death of their large white German shepherd from the same illness. So to avoid additional tragedy, I advised them to give Tiffany 5 grams of L-carnitine and 2.5 grams of taurine per day. Well, the effect was astonishing. Within 24 hours, she was outside chasing squirrels again! And she went on to live for four more active years.

For even better results, I recommend adding coenzyme Q10 and the herb hawthorne to the regimen. Coenzyme Q10 is extremely beneficial to both the heart and the liver (as well as the gums). In fact, a friend of my parents was diagnosed with DCM years ago, and he cured it primarily with coenzyme Q10. And I heard that a similar story aired on Dateline once, but I can't claim to have seen it. Hawthorne has been a folk-medicine heart tonic for ages. Expert ethnobotanist James Duke strongly recommends it too.

So I conveyed all this information to my beach friend and her husband, and they attempted to memorize it all since none of us had any paper to write on. As we parted, she hugged me and said, "I was praying for a miracle, and I got one!" I fully expect her Springer spaniel to be bounding through the waves for years to come.

My lovely Koro suffered because of my ignorant recklessness.

Sometimes it can really be cathartic to get something off your chest and admit that what you did was wrong. It can also be instructive to others who may be engaging in the same type of behavior without really thinking about it. Maybe they need a swift kick in the pants, and your confession is just the thing to jolt them out of their complacency.

I'll start things off. When I adopted my first dog, Koro, in 1980, I knew nothing whatsoever about dog care. I was in college, and puppy Koro was roaming around on a street corner. Someone scooped her up and said that she was going to try to find out where Koro lived, and I said, well, if you can't find out where she lives, bring her to me. It was that casual.

One day, when she was 6 months old, a friend said that he was going on an errand and asked if he could take Koro along. Without a thought, I said sure. And out the door they went, with the leash in his hand but not attached to Koro. Moments later, she had been struck by a van. She ran back to my apartment in terror, but the next day it came to light that she had actually broken her back. Literally smashed a vertebra.

What followed were two surgeries and, I'm sure, a lot of pain for my innocent little puppy. And then arthritis at age 5 and occasional flare-ups of joint inflammation throughout the remaining 12 years of her life. All because of my ignorant negligence!

I'm so sorry, Koro.

For the rest of her life, I tried to make it up to her. Thankfully, I discovered holistic medicine a few years later and was able to keep her mostly pain-free and limber through the use of nutritional supplements in spite of the arthritis that resulted from the trauma to her backbone.

But I'm still trying to make it up to her. Why do you think I write this dog blog?

If you have a confession to make about the way that you treated an animal, please visit PETA's new "I Confess" Web feature, where you can tell the whole world how sorry you are. Why don't you leave us a comment here, too, just for good measure?

Theresa: "Ahhh, what a relief! No more pain in the neck!"

Last week got off to a rocky start but ended on a very high note. At breakfast time, I called little foster Chihuahua Theresa to the kitchen, but she didn't come, which was highly unusual, so I went looking for her. My heart nearly stopped when I saw her: She was lying on her side but with her head up and her mouth half open, staring into space like a zombie. I approached her, called her name, and reached out to my normally hyperactive little lady, and got no response. It was horrifying. I thought she was dying right in front of my very eyes. I scooped her up and ran to my car, repeating over and over again, "You're going to be fine!" and off we went to the vet.

The vet did blood work and a chest x-ray, but both were negative. After ruling out a "syncopal episode" (loss of consciousness resulting from insufficient blood flow to the brain), the logical explanation remaining was that she had had a seizure. I learned that many dogs have a single seizure and then never have another one again. So I thought, "Well, that's the case here, I'm sure―a fluke. No worries!" But 12 hours later, when I came back from taking my big dogs out to the beach, I could see that it had happened again because Theresa didn't greet us at the door in her usual excited manner. Instead, she looked very subdued, and the other two Chihuahua girls were licking her and hovering over her as if to protect her. My heart sank.

I remembered that back in the mid-90s, my cocker spaniel, Rogan, had had several petit mal seizures, and a holistic veterinarian had figured out that they were being caused by whipworms. We got rid of the whipworms and he never had another seizure again. So the next day, I got a stool sample from Theresa and took it in to the vet to check for every conceivable intestinal parasite, but it was negative. Drat!

I began to do some Internet research (I found this site particularly helpful) and learned that there are an awful lot of conditions and environmental factors that can cause seizures. Epilepsy is only one of many, many possible causes. But how to get to the root of the problem? I recalled learning a few years ago that a misaligned neck could cause seizures and that chiropractic could be very useful in that regard. So I set up an appointment with my local veterinary chiropractor at Animal Chiropractic.

As soon as Dr. Rowan got his hands on little Theresa's neck, his face registered surprise. He said that the joint between her skull and her first vertebra (C-1) was completely frozen and inflexible. Eureka! He adjusted her neck and loosened it up, and, given the fact that the brain stem runs right through that area, we both felt pretty confident that her seizure days were over. There's no way to prove it, except just to wait and see if she remains seizure-free. She's got another chiropractic appointment next week, but so far, so good. I didn't realize it until after the chiropractic adjustment, but between the time when she had the first seizure and her appointment with Dr. Rowan, her behavior had been off and she had even had an unfamiliar look on her face. Now, however, she's back to her old self, frisky and mischievous as ever!

This whole episode got me thinking about all the dogs who have been put on powerful, anti-seizure medication, complete with all their deleterious side effects (especially for the liver), when what they may actually need is a good chiropractic adjustment. I think it would be worth exploring alternatives such as this for any dog having seizures, even one who has been on anti-seizure medication for a long time. Besides, a misaligned vertebra is undoubtedly a royal pain in the neck!

What kind of an evil mind would purposely do this to an animal?

If you look at steel-jaw leghold and Conibear (body-gripping) traps objectively instead of through the filter of "rugged individualism" or "Western frontier tradition" and you have even an ounce of empathy in your soul, you have to wonder what kind of evil mind would purposely set one of these pain-inflicting contraptions, much less invent one. They remind me of something out of a torture museum that I visited once in Europe. Truly, the depth of cruelty that lies in the hearts of some people is absolutely mind-boggling. And as a race, we humans can't seem to rid ourselves of this character flaw. According to an article in The New York Times on Wednesday, called "Montana Dog Owners Find Wild-Animal Traps Put Pets in Harm's Way," Montana issued more than 4,000 trapping licenses last year, so this sadistic mentality is still very much alive and well.

That's the thing about these trappers―since they couldn’t care less about inflicting pain, if a "nontarget" animal, like a dog, cat, or bird, is caught in one of their traps―oh, well!―they just call them "trash animals" and throw them away because they can't make money off them. It's not tragic to them―it's more of a nuisance. My view is that catching a beaver or a muskrat or a fox in a trap is just as tragic as catching a dog. The only difference is that hopefully, the dog will have someone who cares enough about him or her to make a fuss about it and do something to try to stop this horror.

That's exactly what’s happening in Montana right now. Enough dogs have been killed or maimed in these hideous traps that a group has formed called Footloose Montana to try to get the traps banned. The group is running a heart-wrenching ad campaign, keeping records of people's encounters with traps, distributing graphic images of dogs caught in traps, and generally spreading the word about how pervasive the traps are, where they have been spotted, and how destructive they are. Please join them! You don't have to live in Montana to help. These torturous traps are being set all over our lovely country.

Another thing that Footloose Montana is doing is teaching people how to spring Conibear traps, which clamp down on an animal’s body, suffocating him or her. Again and again, we hear terrible stories of people whose dogs got caught in Conibear traps and who couldn't free them in time to save them. The dogs suffocated before they could figure it out. So why don't we all prepare ourselves for this hideous situation, just in case, heaven forbid, it should ever happen to us? Ironically, a hunting enthusiast has posted explicit instructions on his Web site, The Checkcord, describing how to spring a Conibear trap. For that, I'm extremely grateful, and I doubt if I'm the only one. Take a look and follow his advice: "Go to a trapper, borrow a Conibear from him in the summer for a week or two and PRACTICE your technique!!"

Louie: "You lead and I'll follow!"

The following is a guest post by that fount of creative ideas, Amanda.

I liked Cesar Millan instantly when the Dog Whisperer premiered, because he was the only dog expert willing to state something as painfully obvious as, "Be the pack leader." Unfortunately, I was immediately disappointed with his reliance on choke chains and other methods of punishment. Although I do think his leash corrections (in conjunction with other important tools, such as exercise) have been effective in handling some of his more serious "red-zone" aggression cases, I knew right away that if the show caught on, every idiot with digital cable would be out jerking their poor dogs around by their necks each time a bird or a squirrel caught their attention, all because of a TV show with a gimmick, good editors, and a flimsy disclaimer.

Luckily, for those of us who wish to provide our companion animals with the leadership they crave and, yes, require in order to be happy and stable, there is a nonviolent way. What Cesar understands and what those who take their dogs out for walk-and-jerks fail to realize is that if you want to be the pack leader, you actually have to, you know, lead. It seems simple and obvious enough, but there are plenty of people out there who expect to be treated like a pack leader without ever bothering to earn the necessary respect. I'm sure most of this blog's readers are aware that dogs need enrichment and exercise, but are you phoning it in? Fido and Fluffy need your encouragement and undivided attention just as much as they need you to buy them toys and harness them up. Playing alone while you check e-mail or walking the same boring path day in and day out simply isn't good enough. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to be a proactive leader. Here are just a few that I use frequently:

•Next time you offer to take Fluffy for a walk, let her choose the direction that interests her most, or ask her to lead the way home. Don't bark orders like "Let's go!" if she wants to stop and smell the roses—it's her walk, and her love and respect for you will only grow if you encourage her to explore.

•Organize a treasure hunt that will appeal to every dog's inner scavenger. Hide toys or cookies anywhere you like—a sandbox, your backyard, or even the living room, and take Fido to find them. If you're short on time, you can even sprinkle a handful of bread crumbs outside and cheer Fido on as he happily snorts up every last bit.

•Initiate play—wolves within family packs in the wild rarely struggle with one another for dominance. Their often evolving hierarchy is established through play and mock battle. High-ranking animals initiate play with their subordinates, keep the peace, and have a good time while they're at it. If Fluffy brings you a toy and drops it at your feet, you've waited too long. Next time, make sure it's your idea to play, and Fluffy might start to get the idea that you aren't so slow and stupid after all.

•Is Fido an extrovert? Do his eyes light up when you mention a trip to the pet supply store or your best friend's house? Take him more often, and don't be afraid to make a fuss—you'll get all the credit and he'll eagerly anticipate your next bright idea.

•ALWAYS set Fluffy up for success. If you know she gets grouchy when she's tired but take her to the dog park anyway, you are dooming her to failure. Wait until she's feeling a bit more social instead. If she can't stop bouncing off the walls long enough to learn a sit-stay, give her a chance to burn off some of her excess energy before you try. Instead of drilling with various commands, try using games like Hide 'n' Seek to make learning fun.

•Fido should always be able to count on you to have his back. Step in and speak up if you notice that someone (human or nonhuman) is doing something that makes him uncomfortable.

•Pay attention. What does Fluffy enjoy? What does she respond to? Every dog has unique, individual interests. If you find ways to cater to them on your terms, you will become the source of oodles of unimaginable fun. Your BFF should be paying attention to you and following you because she knows that you are the source of all of the wonderful things in her life, not because she has no other choice. Look at the world through your dog's eyes—then take the initiative to show her more of it.

•Take a beginning acting or singing class. What does performance have to do with interacting with your dog? The first thing you will learn from any coach worth his or her salt will be correct posture, movement, breathing, and vocal techniques that will help you to project the confidence you need to be the fun, fearless leader every dog deserves.

Now, take the lead!

Today I saw a photo of the men of Rescue Ink in an article in New York’s Newsday. Rescue Ink is made up of a bunch of big strong, scary-looking tattooed biker guys but with a twist―they all have a big heart for animals. I don’t know about you, but to me, there is nothing on the planet more appealing than a big strong guy rescuing or caring for a helpless animal.

These Long Island-based men are relentless and determined. They’ll do anything to help animals, and their range of good works is expanding. They work with the police to uncover dogfighters, deliver doghouses to dogs without shelter, investigate cruelty cases, and take dogs and cats in for spaying and neutering. They work closely with animal shelters, trying to help alleviate the pervasive and enormous problems of neglect and cruelty to animals. According to their Web site, “We will stop at nothing within the bounds of the law to protect animals at risk. We will intercede without hesitation when we are informed of a situation that needs to be addressed, and we will address it. If we need to convince people to do the right thing ... we can be very convincing …”

“Rescue Ink is all about zero tolerance when it comes to animal abuse and neglect. Our ranks are growing every day, as Americans from coast to coast are reaching out to join in our efforts. If you know something we should know, give us a call … NOW!”

PETA was so impressed with them that we actually gave them our “Compassionate Action Award.”

New York City residents who suspect cases of animal abuse, find abandoned animals, or have an animal they can no longer care for are urged to call the Rescue Ink hotline at 631-737-2834. Anyone interested in volunteering to help further Rescue Ink's lifesaving work can fill out a sign-up form on the group's Web site, Rescue Ink.org.

I wish every city had a Rescue Ink branch!

Precious: "If only I could move to Switzerland!"

Just when I thought that Sweden was the best place on the planet to live if you're a dog (read all about it here), along comes Switzerland with the most amazing new dog-friendly law. This is really a dream come true. According to the Tribune de Genève, a Swiss paper with an English-language section, in an article called "Bern Leashes Animal Owners" anyone wishing to have a dog after September 2008 will have to take a course on dog care and pass a test! The law also includes provisions for other animals. Guinea pigs and parakeets will have to be housed in pairs or larger groups in order to provide them with the companionship that they need, and farmers who have a specified number of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs, and horses will have to take a course in caring for them too.

Am I dreaming? I hope not. I have long said that adopting an animal should be a privilege on a par with driving a car, for which you have to take a test and obey all related laws, at the very least. This dog-care test would probably screen out people with anger-management issues and plain incompetence, but it would also bring up to speed people who mean well but simply don't know how ignorant they are about dogs and their care.

Take my neighbor, for example. I know he loves his dogs (well, in his own way), but he's a big drinker and, when he's hung over in his kitchen and his dogs are outside barking, his method for making them be quiet is to throw a lit firecracker out the window. Or my other neighbors who thought that they just had to take their dog to the vet one time, right after adopting him, and then no more, ever again. (I'm not making this up.) Another neighbor tied up his dog with a rope that was long enough for the dog to jump the fence, which, of course, put him in danger of strangling himself. One of my neighbors in my former neighborhood insisted on bathing her dog every single time he came into the house because she had white furniture, which of course caused the dog to develop an extreme aversion to indoor living. I've seen dogs provided with no shelter whatsoever, dogs forced to wear extremely heavy collars, and dogs with the tips of their ears bitten off by flies. I've seen dogs whose collars were embedded into their necks because the owners didn't realize that puppies grow, while collars do not. There is no end to the ignorance out there surrounding our dear, vulnerable canine friends. Sometimes that ignorance causes even more pain and suffering than blatant cruelty does.

So this law is desperately needed and sets a wonderful precedent for countries all over the world. The United States should be next in line to pass a law like this. No one should ever be allowed to adopt a dog on a whim. It should only be permitted if undertaken in all seriousness after due consideration and study―otherwise, it shouldn't be allowed at all. This would go a long, long way toward preventing cruelty, neglect, and stupid, tragic mistakes that hurt dogs.

Countless purebred puppies come from places like this.

There is this thing called "cosmic justice," a.k.a. "karma": When you perform an action that harms another, you will reap harm in return. So if you support the canine overpopulation crisis by buying a purebred dog from a breeder or a pet store instead of going to your local animal shelter or breed rescue group to adopt a dog, karma might come back to bite you with a gigantic vet bill.

This seems to be happening a lot. Basically, people are spending big bucks (in the thousands!) to purchase purebred puppies from breeders and pet stores (read: puppy mills), only to discover that they got a "lemon" with a congenital defect such as bad knees or hips, which ends up costing even more to correct than the original purchase price.

I would say, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!" if it weren't for (a) the pain and suffering that these inbred puppies have to endure because of their poor health and the surgeries to correct it, including operations like triple pelvic osteotomies, which involve purposely breaking the pelvis, (b) the pain and suffering endured by the shelter puppies who lost their chance to be adopted because of the existence of these purebreds, and (c) the greasing of breeders' greedy palms through these unholy sales, which enables them to continue their dirty work.

On Sunday, April 20, the Los Angeles Times published an article about California's "Puppy Lemon Law" (what an offensive concept!), which seems to be getting quite the workout. Californians who discover that their purebred puppy is "defective" (i.e., has a congenital defect) within one year of purchase have the option of returning the little cutie back to the pet store or breeder for a full refund of the purchase price, plus vet bills. But who, other than the most heartless of the heartless, could do that―especially if children are in the equation? So the only option is to bite the bullet and pay those vet bills. But if you live in California, the Puppy Lemon Law will allow you to get reimbursed for your expenses. However, if you live in California but you sent away for a purebred puppy from a breeder in another state, you get nada. Dare I say, "Serves you right!"? What are people THINKING who place orders for puppies from far away (or who buy puppies, period, for that matter)? I'll tell you what they're thinking. They're thinking (albeit perhaps subconsciously), "I couldn't care less about the welfare of living beings―I just want a cute purebred trophy puppy to show off to everyone I meet so that I will look cool and everyone will envy me."

I just have one question: Who is going to compensate all those "defective" puppies for all their pain and suffering?

"Eddie, listen. My name is Eddie too. From one Eddie to another—you've been brainwashed! The EWG doesn't care about dogs. Get out of there before they start experimenting on you!"

No, I'm not referring to those ubiquitous green chew treats for dogs, although I've had a problem with them in the past too. I'm referring to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), the organization that put out the report on environmental toxins in dogs and cats last week. It was all over the news. Our animal companions are getting contaminated by many household chemicals, such as flame retardants in furniture and perfluorinated chemicals in stain-resistant coatings. This is definitely a matter of concern and makes me want to advise everyone with animals to shop for furniture at thrift stores, where older items will be less likely to be covered with such poisonous coatings.

However, there is more to this story—much more. The EWG's cutesy e-mail message on this topic is supposedly authored by a dog named Eddie. He says, "Did you know that the humans' government doesn't make companies test our toys, furniture, or even our food for safety? That's why I'm launching Pets for the Environment with the help of Environmental Working Group." Poor Eddie must not realize that when the EWG says "test," the group is talking about conducting mean, nasty, painful experiments on dogs and other animals, like rabbits and guinea pigs—the same species that share so many homes in America. Yes, the EWG is one of the biggest promoters of animal experiments in the United States.

According to Jane Houlihan of the EWG, the results of the group's latest study are of concern because "there's a 20-year body of scientific literature showing that pets can be sentinels for human problems." Hmmm, so we should only care about this because it's a sign that humans might also be accumulating chemicals in our bodies—not because we love our animals and don't want them to be poisoned, especially since most of them are so much smaller than us and have such short life spans? That doesn't sound like someone who cares about animals at all. I guess Eddie's real job is just to make the EWG seem animal-friendly. That's a hard sell, though, once you've seen the EWG's true colors.

PETA first wrote to the EWG in March 2001 because of its involvement in chemical-testing issues and its calls for increased testing on animals. High-ranking officials in the organization did meet with PETA representatives to discuss the issues and committed to reconsidering the EWG's position on animal testing. But unfortunately, since that time, the EWG has become more and more involved in calling for animal-based toxicity testing and less and less responsive to animal protection concerns.

For example, the EWG is the driving force behind the "Campaign for Safe Cosmetics." This campaign calls on cosmetics manufacturers to test their products for effects such as cancer-causing potential, hormone disruption, skin allergy, genetic and nervous system toxicity, and birth defects—which, if conducted according to standard protocols, could spell suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of animals in laboratories. The EWG's report Skin Deep claims that such innocuous substances as salt, aloe vera gel, and chamomile are "unstudied chemicals" that should be tested, as well as substances such as phosphoric acid!

The EWG is also trying to enact legislation, misleadingly named the "Kids Safe Act," that will result in another massive animal-testing program. This plan will require chemicals to be tested using the most animal-intensive studies known under the guise of protecting children. PETA and other animal and health protection groups went to the EWG with a proposal to alter the wording of the bill to include the development and use of non-animal methods. After much work and compromise on the part of the animal groups, the EWG inexplicably pulled out of the discussions.

PETA and others have repeatedly explained to EWG officials that simply calling for more animal tests will do nothing to protect public health or the environment. The animal tests currently used are based on science that is decades old. Not only are they expensive and time-consuming, they also give ambiguous results with questionable relevance to human health. Non-animal tests that are based on our current understanding of biology can give much more reliable and relevant results.

We have explained repeatedly that a switch to a modern, non-animal-based scheme, as was proposed in July 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences, is critical. Our attempts to encourage the EWG to adopt this approach have been rebuffed. Unfortunately, if the EWG's current approach is successful, it will not protect public health and will result in immense animal suffering.

It's time to embrace effective non-animal tests and stop deliberately poisoning dogs in laboratory experiments with the false excuse that it will somehow protect dogs who are lucky enough to be called "pets."

If you'd like to share your opinion with the EWG, please write to:

Ken Cook, President
Environmental Working Group
1436 U St. N.W., Ste. 100
Washington, DC 20009
202-667-6982
202-232-2592 (fax)
ken@ewg.org

For more information on the EWG and for points that you can include in your letter, click here.