Animal Care: A Petition Calls for an End to the Use of homeopathy to Treat Serious Illnesses

In the United Kingdom, a petition* has been launched against the use of homeopathy to treat pets with cancer or illnesses that require medical or surgical treatment. It has already garnered the support of some 3,300 signatories. About 1,000 British veterinary surgeons have signed it, along with hundreds of veterinary technicians and students. Posted online by Danny Chambers, an equine veterinarian in Tavistock, the petition is addressed to the RCVS—the equivalent of the Veterinary Council—calling on it to prohibit veterinarians from prescribing homeopathic treatments, which are particularly inappropriate for potentially serious conditions.   About 50 of the 22,000 veterinarians in the United Kingdom are authorized by the RCVS to practice homeopathy on animals. However, according to Danny Chambers, this alternative medicine has not proven its effectiveness, is based on misleading claims, and may even be dangerous. While conventional medicine cannot cure everything, he criticizes homeopathy for giving animal owners false hope and denies its effectiveness in the absence of evidence-based results. At best, its effects do not go beyond the placebo effect, which is, moreover, debatable when it comes to animals. At worst, inadequate care can cause unnecessary suffering, worsen the animal’s health and prognosis, and in some cases leave no option but euthanasia. For this veterinarian, the greatest danger of homeopathy is not so much its lack of therapeutic effect as the belief—shared by some British homeopaths—that this therapy can serve as a substitute for proper medical or surgical treatment. This is also the view of the British Veterinary Association (BVA), which cannot endorse the use of these treatments—which lack scientific basis and proven efficacy—due to their potentially serious consequences for animal health and animal welfare. For its part, the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons claims that homeopathy can even be used to treat cancer in dogs or hyperthyroidism in cats and dismisses the arguments put forward in the petition as misinformation. For the association, this is yet another attempt to eliminate a vital part of veterinary medicine that offers relief to animals when other therapies have reached their limits. Even if it is insufficient—or even reduced to a placebo effect—its effect is not zero, and, above all, why not use it?, ask some supporters of this practice. Even Prince Charles, on his organic farm, says he successfully uses homeopathy—as a complement to conventional medicine—to treat his cattle and sheep, and believes it is part of the solution to reducing the overuse of antibiotics. For Danny Chambers, it is the RCVS’s duty to promote the ethical and clinical standards that govern the veterinary profession in the United Kingdom, which are clearly incompatible with the use of treatments that are demonstrably ineffective, even if prescribed with the best of intentions. Only the practice of evidence-based medicine can provide effective, appropriate treatment and uphold the trust of the public. In his view, the RCVS’s failure to condemn the use of homeopathy amounts to implicitly endorsing it. He believes that veterinary homeopaths should not be allowed to take advantage of their professional status to legitimize this therapy, which has no scientific or rational basis and is ultimately contrary to the interests of animal health and public health. Although the RCVS has not yet officially responded to the petition, its position on homeopathy is that it should be used alongside conventional treatment, rather than as an alternativ e solution . Currently well accepted by society and recognized under UK drug legislation, this alternative medicine has not been shown to cause any recognized adverse effects in animals. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to justify banning it on the grounds that a small number of veterinary surgeons are misusing it.   * https://www.change.org/p/the-royal-college-of-veterinary-surgeons-a-call-to-ban-veterinary-surgeons-from-prescribing-homeopathy-as-a-treatment-for-animals