This website came to my notice, yesterday: astorwilliam.tripod.com.

It contains reports of fascinating observations on finches, who appear to be able to self-medicate. Why not?

Zoopharmacognosy is the term coined to cover instinctive self-selection of medically-active substances by animals. I have long believed it to be an accepted phenomenon but came across surprisingly stubborn refusal to accept it in a court of law, about 18 months ago. It appears that the writer of this website has also encountered rooted disbelief.

Why anyone would disbelieve it is beyond me. It seems so much more likley to be the case than the alternative, that medicinal properties of herbs are found out by random coincidence.

One only has to look at the interesting observations of chimpanzees in Africa, whose 'medicinal practices' are followed by tribal peoples:

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/botany_map/articles/article_04.html

http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/8_1%20Chimpanzee%20Medicine%20Chest.htm

I once had a dog patient who used to pick at Pellitory-of-the-Wall, on regular visits to my clinic, but only on hot days. This is a 'cooling herb'!

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

So there is to be a compromise on the Human-Animal Hybrid issue, when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill comes to the Commons. Ministers and MPs whose consciences move them to oppose the Bill are to be allowed to melt away from the House, when it's time to vote. Some concession!

It appears that those who have voiced concern are men and women of conscience and this is unlikely to impress them. Pontius Pilate 'washed his hands' and hoped, thereby, to absolve himself of complicity. It didn't work and these men and women of conscience will be acutely aware of that, at this Eastertide.

I take my hat off to the Roman Catholic leaders of this country for speaking out, knowing the storm of protest and criticism that would follow. They have been led by their consciences.

Party Politics and Religion are not matters for my blog and I intend it to stay that way. Why has this issue been made a matter of party politics and the three-line whip? There's surely more to it than meets the eye.

I came across this item, this morning:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/09/do0907.xml

It argues that scientists have no wish to create hybrid monsters, in their research. I am sure that the scientists who split the atom (nuclear fission) likewise had no intention of annihilating Nagasaki and Hiroshima or of making nuclear war part of reality.

Pandora's Box* has been mentioned before, in my blogs. Here's another classic example. When scientists play with the substance of life and create part-human or mostly-human creatures, simply to perform experiments on them, they are unleashing forces they do not understand.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article3602832.ece

Sweeping generalisation, I know, but scientists appear to have a poor record when it comes to matters of conscience, decency, ethics and morality. They appear to consider themselves above such things, their 'scientific' motivation absolving them of any need to practice care or restraint. Pursuit of career and kudos are high on their agenda.

My motivation in writing this blog is fear of the forces that will be unleashed and distaste for governmental heavy tactics on issues that are not of political importance, yet are likely to affect us all, like it or not. Government is notoriously ignorant of true science.

*According to Ancient Greek mythology, Pandora opened a jar ('pithos', which has been later referred to as 'Pandora's Box'), releasing all the evils of mankind, leaving only hope inside once she had closed it again.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

I have 'blogged' on this before (http://chris-day.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/9) - the subject really fires me up.

Now Cardinal Keith O'Brien has waded in:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3597851.ece

He will speak strongly against The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in his sermon on Easter Sunday, in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh.

Good on him, I say. While I believe religion should never be a rallying point for warlike activities, I do think it should be used to flag up matters of conscience. It is a form of 'checks and balances', much needed in today's materialistic world. Anyway, he is entitled to his opinion and to air it publicly. He also has a duty of leadership.

Since when was science granted the right to ignore issues of conscience, respect, decency, morality and ethics? Those who support the Bill on 'scientific' grounds may not have been given the true scientific picture.

His intervention has really angered the government, who would of course like to see the prestige and financial rewards come to the UK.

There is a real danger that this very deep matter will be rushed through parliament in an unseemly fashion. A three-line whip has been used on previous hearings.

To quote page 2 of the above link:

"Normally, three-line whips are used only on key issues, such as when the Government faces a vote of no-confidence or a vital loss of tax revenue if a Bill is overturned. A free vote is traditionally allowed on issues of conscience.

There will also be attempts in the House of Commons – where the Bill will arrive any time after Monday - to use the legislation to liberalise the abortion law. The bill will provide the first opportunity for amendments to the 1967 Abortion Act in 18 years."

Other links on this topic:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7309191.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/06/nembryo106.xml

http://www.nysun.com/

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSL2159767320080321

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVCm1IKRz1TW5WM5XgEjwro6NRZA

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/health-minister-backs-controversial-embryo-research-bill-$1214647.htm

http://www.secularism.org.uk/92534.html

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idarticle=14787

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

As the grass starts to grow, non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) and non-protein nitrogen (NPN) compounds increase, especially in grass fertilised with artificial nitrogen. The risk to ponies and, more rarely, larger horses, is about to increase, particularly if we experience some warm weather.

Advice and help is offered at:

http://www.alternativevet.org/horse_diseases.htm#laminitis

http://www.alternativevet.org/WS130-07.pdf

http://www.alternativevet.org/Laminitis%20WS059-07.pdf

The season is almost upon us, again, when 'hunters' go out onto the ice to 'cull' young harp seals and to do so in a questionable manner. The arguments on both sides rage. Welfare groups lobby that the 'hunt' is cruel and inhumane and certainly the gruesome videos they show appear to support this. They also lobby that it is unsustainable and unjustifiable. The Canadian Government and vested-interest groups claim that it is 'for the most part' humane and certainly sustainable. New rules (which will, of course, be difficult to enforce) attempt to tighten up the welfare issues but the whole business still appears very grisly, when reports are read and videos are viewed. The conditions themselves make true humane killing a pretty remote prospect.

It is claimed that the local communities need the trade to support themselves but others argue that it is not justifiable in terms of what it brings in. It is even claimed that the Canadian Government actually subsidises the activity.

I am unable to go to the ice floes to see for myself (I deeply respect those who do) and I'm not sure I could stand the spectacle, anyway.  However it's dressed up, it looks horrendous and I certainly couldn't describe it as 'hunting'.

Sites with information are listed below. WARNINGS: the fourth item is PETA's video, which is most definitely not for the fainthearted. The fifth link reports eye-witness 'confessions' and makes extremely gruesome reading.

It certainly pays to try to be informed, as a potential trade war between Canada and Europe is looming, involving the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy have declared their opposition to the trade. The EU itself may soon legislate against trade in Canadian seal goods. Canada is likley to react. Like it or not, the ramifications of this issue are likely to spread well beyond the Arctic Circle.

Personally, I have to come down against the 'hunt' on the basis of the information I have to hand and knowing how difficult it is to be humane, even under so-say 'perfect' conditions. The conditions out there in perilous waters and on the ice are clearly far from perfect.

However, I do think it's time welfare groups dropped the emotive use of 'white' baby seals ('whitecoats') in their campaigns, to 'sell' their appeals, as the killing of such young babies is now illegal (and was banned in 1987).

Nonetheless, baby seals are still considered 'fair game' at the tender age of two weeks, after the white coat is shed. Coat colour is a distraction from the main issue. We should not be influenced by how cute a seal looks but by the facts, as well as we can determine them.

Mankind is not always remarkable for the respect he shows to animals. Respect, decency and humanity should be by-words of civilised society.

If you wish to add your voice to protests, there is an on-line petition to sign in the third link below.

1. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/sealhunt/

2. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=364221

3. http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/seal_08_dev?rk=m1djqL9qjUSkE (on-line petition)

4. http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=seal07

5. http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=84960

6. http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html

7. http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=21446

8. http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=82078

9. http://www.stopthesealhunt.ca/site/c.jhKSIZPzEmE/b.2607991/k.B25F/Stop_the_Seal_Hunt__300000_Actions_for_300000_Seals.htm

10. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/seal-phoque/myth_e.htm

11. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392217.stm

12. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0324_060324_seal_hunt.html?fs=www3.nationalgeographic.com&fs=plasma.nationalgeographic.com

Methods of killing include rifles and the 'hakapik'.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

How hard it is for the man-in-the-street to get his mind around the biofuels issue. Sadly, it's not helped by people like the U.S. President backing biofuels (with lashings of GM, high-energy processing, agrochemicals etc.) without giving the whole picture.

Richard Branson's achievement today (flying a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 to Amsterdam from London on biofuels fed to one engine) has shown that the oils will perform at 30,000 feet, which was not known before (or at least a 20% mixture will).

"Virgin said the fuel to be used for Sunday's flight -- a 20 percent biofuel mix of coconut and babassu oil in one of the plane's four main fuel tanks -- was of a type that wouldn't compete with food and fresh water resources amid mounting concerns among green campaigners about the environmental impact of biofuels."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/24/flight.biofuels/

In the first place, it is only 20% non-fossil fuel. In the second place, it is unfortunate that Branson's biofuel oil came from the tropical rainforest, thus heralding massive deforestation if we don't look for other sources. There is then the threat of food acreage being used, leading to starvation in some areas of the world. The requirement of the aviation industry is massive beyond belief.

It is high time we were all given the truth and a full explanation by all concerned, in order to help us to see all the issues. Joined-up thinking is required if we are to break out of the mess into which we've dug ourselves.

Clearly, however, cutting down transport is a very good way to make a start. Sadly, rather than this, we are increasing at a massive and exponential rate.

Until we are given all the facts, things are not clear but, in my current state of understanding, I don't think Mr Branson's airshow is the breakthrough we require. We have to stop salving our consciences with 'easy' solutions, be truthful with ourselves over the issues and start to cut our suit according to our cloth.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

For those who buy into the whole manufactured food thing, it may be nice to know that recent Hill's(TM) publicity announces: "New Improved Hill's(TM) Prescription(TM) Canine r/d(TM) and w/d(TM)". This may seem like good news for dogs.

However, for those more worldly-wise and who like to read further into such announcements, to see what they really mean, this will confirm that the whole concept of 'complete diets' or 'perfectly balanced diets' is seriously flawed.

This is a common publicity stunt in this field, used by other petfood manufacturers, too. The word 'improved' says it all. These diets were supposed to be perfect before. How can you improve what's already touted as scientifically-formulated and providing all you need for your dog? If you can improve it, it wasn't ideal before (yet it was supposed to be your dog's only food). If you can improve it now, how many more improvements will be deemed necessary and be used as an advertising ploy in the future, when really they should show up the whole thing for what it is?

These two diets have even been "changed to a lighter brown colour"! That's nice.

The pet food trade is big business. Marketing follows rules of its own.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

An item in today's news has highlighted an important long-term issue with a pressing immediate matter.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3412666.ece

Also visit:

http://www.buglife.org.uk/News/newsarchive/thurrockmarshes.htm

We may find it more comfortable to consider the issue of a few rare bugs or insects to be relatively unimportant but it really isn't. Biodiversity reflects ecological and environmental health and each loss of biodiversity is a step nearer the brink.

Just as in tennis, in which game it is no good simply fighting the last point (you have to fight EVERY point to win), so it is with biodiversity. Each rung of the biodiversity ladder that disappears takes us a step nearer defeat. Leave it to the last point and it is too late to retrieve the match.

Taken from the above site:

For further information call Jamie Roberts on 01733 201 210 or
07747 715 820.

Buglife-The Invertebrate Conservation Trust is the first organisation in Europe devoted to the conservation of all invertebrates, and is actively engaged in saving Britain's rarest bugs, butterflies, snails, bees, wasps, ants, spiders, beetles and many more fascinating creatures. Set up in 2000, the charity now has eight members of staff working of diverse projects including a national bumblebee survey and riverfly conservation www.buglife.org.uk

Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation:

http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/a2z/content.php?page=service&ID=349

Of course, jobs and infrastructure are important to society but, at some point, they become irrelevant, as society will have no place to live. I wish Buglife well in its High Court fight to save West Thurrock Marshes on behalf of all of us.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

I have to apologise to the SSPCA. I had wrongly identifed them as the 'Scottish RSPCA' - they are in fact the 'Scottish SPCA' (SSPCA). Apparently, they lose valuable donations owing to this type of error.

- SSPCA -

see: http://www.alternativevet.org/rspca.htm

POSTSCRIPT

I received on 18th February a charming e-mail, in response to my corrections on the website and the publication of this blog article:

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

I used to be quite a fan of yours. Your practical, down-to-earth approach to food has been a beacon to many. Your books and your name are a huge success (deservedly).

However, I cannot support your latest outburst (assuming you have been correctly reported):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=514633&in_page_id=1770

We cannot exploit animals, for personal gratification. This has nothing to do with feeding the poor or pensioners. Please don't go for the sympathy vote. Some of the healthiest and happiest people on the planet are vegetarian, for goodness sake!

If you were after the limelight, you've succeeded.

If you were after the support of logical folk, you've blown it.

Chickens cannot continue to be kept in awful factory-farming conditions and never should have been. It is a stain on society. I hope your apron is stain-proof.

Organic food is only more expensive because it doesn't reap the subsidies that other food enjoys. The real price of much of our 'chemical food' is hidden in water-purifying costs, for starters. These are passed on to the consumer in another guise than food price.

In the chef wars, you've just scored 'nul point'!

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

References:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/16/easuper116.xml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7247384.stm

Report entitled: Green, Healthy and Fair

Professor Tim Lang, Commissioner at the SDC, said:

"Government cannot resolve the problems of obesity, waste or climate change alone. Given the enormous influence wielded by supermarkets, working with them effectively is essential.

"There are many areas where the government and retailers are already working together, but government needs to be more ambitious. With public scrutiny of retailers' behaviour increasing, many supermarkets are keen to work with government to develop a green, healthy and fair food system.

"In fact, our research with supermarkets has shown that in areas such as climate change or recycling policy, they are often frustrated by the lack of clarity or long-term strategy on which they can plan for the future."

Ah those lovely supermarkets! Poor misunderstood chaps that they are.

Why is it that government has to do the work? Why cannot morals, ethics, common sense, public conscience and other such standards guide the behaviour of the commercial giants? Why cannot families take some responsibility?

Dream on!

Role Players:

Sustainable Development Commission (SDC): www.sd-commission.org.uk

British Retail Consortium: http://www.brc.org.uk

Competition Commission: http://www.competition-commission.org.uk

Food Climate Research Network: http://www.fcrn.org.uk

Office of Fair Trading: http://www.oft.gov.uk

Issues:

Environment

Carbon Footprint

Greenhouse Emissions (Greenhouse Gases)

Transport

Packaging

Obesity

Health

Advertising

Waste

Climate Change

Global Warming

Supermarkets

Agricultural Methods (Farming)

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

Reference:

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=7553251

The march of GM and the commercial hold that biotechnology has on officialdom are legitimate concerns.

There are serious questions raised by such possible moves:

Many do not want GM, on their back doorstep or elsewhere. What happened to liberty?

Does the Freedom of Information Act not cover this? DEFRA is, after all, a government body.

There is no way to pull back, if GM field research causes a disaster. Once the damage is done, it's done.

Of course, 'legitimate research' should enjoy the freedom of a democratic state but is this 'legitimate research', in view of the uncertainty and the potential (and unknown) dangers?

It may prejudice a neighbouring farm's 'Organic' status, with loss of livelihood.

European law demands disclosure of sites.

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

http://the-shg.org/SHGPressReleases.htm (RSPCA v Annette Nally)

There are many aspects of this legal case that are of importance to a fair-minded society.

Inter alia, this report states that the RSPCA failed to disclose material that was helpful to the defence, asserting that it was a private body, inexperienced in prosecutions. Mmmmmm.

Here is a selection of pages from the SHG website.

http://the-shg.org/download%20index.htm

http://the-shg.org/Statutes.htm

http://the-shg.org/Many%20people%20have%20thought.htm

http://the-shg.org/SHGPressReleases.htm

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have suffered as tornadoes ripped through five U.S. States (Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Arkansas).

At least 55 people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured in what was the deadliest barrage of tornadoes for almost 23 years. The terror, suffering and destruction can only be imagined.

Nature is our origin and our succour. Nature's forces can also be terrible in their power, ferocity and inexorability.

Qui me alit, me extinguit (Shakespeare sums up the paradox: Pericles - Prince of Tyre).

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

News has broken today of ten human embryos having been ‘created’ by researchers at Newcastle, containing material from three 'parents'.

The claim for this ‘breakthrough is that medicine will be able to ‘engineer’ mitochondrial defects out of human offspring and generations, in the future.

Many ‘inherited’ metabolic and other diseases are the result of faulty mitochondrial DNA, which is only inherited via the mother. Examples include some inherited forms of diabetes, deafness, blindness and epilepsy. The stakes are high.

Mitochondrial DNA is in the cell but not in its nucleus. It resides in organelles within the cytoplasm, called mitochondria. Therefore, workers have transferred the nucleus from a fertilised embryo within a ‘faulty’ human egg (i.e. formed from the gametes of the two natural parents) into an enucleated ‘healthy’ human egg (ovum) from a female third party.

Moral and ethical arguments are, of course, already being voiced both 'for' and 'against'.

We shall see but it would seem to me, thinking logically, that one possibility with this work is that we could thereby be ‘creating’ embryos that are analogous to running software in a computer with a mismatched operating system. It may run OK for a while, until it hits an incompatibility snag.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/02/05/sciparent205.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/05/sciparent105.xml

As a corollary to this item, our observation that it takes three generations for vaccine-related faults to be eliminated from a colony could be down to this mitochondrial DNA being altered by vaccination and taking time (generations) to work its way out or to be ‘repaired’ out of the system.

 [Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

Is that Britney Spears person really strangling a chicken on her new hit single "Piece of Me"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89oS4SN4mNg

Maybe someone should tell Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall!

[Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?]

There has been an outcry in the press about the delays in dealing with the animal welfare situation in Hyde Heath near Amersham (horses, ponies and donkeys).

The Buckinghamshire/Beaconsfield Advertiser and Buckinghamshire/Amersham Examiner have published, on their 'Newsdesk' page, an item by Sarika Sharma (17th January 2008):

Tim Was, a regional superintendent at the RSPCA, said: "We did not have the power to remove animals earlier"

But ......

Is the RSPCA only concerned with 'powers' and with 'removal of animals'. Is there a danger of preoccupation with prosecution?

Could nothing have been done in situ? If all the media coverage is to be believed (and I'm sure that arguments will be put up to the contrary and there will almost certainly be a court case to establish the rights and wrongs), a great deal of suffering could have been avoided by more timely intervention and help for the animals. Anyway, we are told that tests confirm that the dead horses died of emaciation (i.e. starvation). Such a death is not a rapid process. Should animal welfare not be the proper emphasis and the ultimate aim?

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

At a time when homeopathy is being edged out of the medical establishment in the NHS, owing to lack of 'scientific proof', it is amazing to find the establishment lauding a different anecdotal discovery. The Independent today carries this item:

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Wednesday, 30 January 2008

This is exciting stuff indeed but it shows:

a) yet another 'accidental' medical breakthrough - I constantly maintain that all important medical discoveries have been accidental and serendipitous (www.alternativevet.org/animal_experiemnts.htm) - we should be doing away with the scandalous waste of animal experimentation that is costing us a fortune, achieving nothing but animal suffering and is, in fact, holding back medical advance.

b) that the medical establishment can accept anecdote, when it is convenient to do so - here they responded to a single anecdote - what is wrong with looking at the massive weight of anecdotal evidence supporting the enormous value of homeopathy?

Homeopathy is fast disappearing from the NHS map, as a result of a co-ordinated and energetic campaign. If you don't defend it, you'll lose it! Your freedom of choice is being eroded. Write to your MP.

By James.LeFanu, Sunday Telegraph 27.07.07

'Homeopathy is to medicine what astrology is to astronomy," observes Emeritus professor of surgery Michael Baum. "It is witchcraft, totally barmy, totally refuted."

Professor Baum is particularly incensed at its availability on the NHS, and together with several other distinguished professors is campaigning, with considerable success, to close down the Royal Homeopathic Hospital by encouraging primary care trusts to "review" their arrangements for funding treatments "unsupported by evidence".

So far eight trusts in London have stopped or severely restricted referrals to the Royal Homeopathic and no doubt this number will rise after a further open letter, last week, from Professor Baum to senior health service administrators. - - - - - -

- - - - - There is in all this a strong feel of biblical "motes and beams". Professor Baum might be more usefully occupied campaigning to curtail the massive over-prescription, "unsupported by evidence", of unnecessary medicines whose devastating consequences on people's lives have recently featured in this column.

AND:

A study found only 37 per cent of 132 primary care trusts still had contracts for homeopathic services. More than a quarter had stopped or reduced funding for the therapies over the past two years. Telegraph 30.01.08

Only 18% of modern medical intervention is evidence based! What is their problem with homeopathy? They bleat about funding when homeopathy is more cost-effective. One cannot help feeling that there's vested interest rather than science and dogma rather than patient welfare behind this campaign.

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

Sign seen in flooded Upton on Severn, on 23rd January:

What a load of old killjoys these councillors must be!

Other pics of flooded Upton:

Rugby would be interesting, too!

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

The horse, pony and donkey welfare disaster in Hyde Heath, Buckinghamshire, during last week, seems to have been a tragedy of massive proportions. That animals could suffer in this way and be exploited, as is alleged, is a terrible indictment of our human disrespect for animals. One assumes the full truth will emerge during legal proceedings. Meanwhile, we can only look on from the outside.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=507061&in_page_id=1770

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7179105.stm

While we all struggle to come to terms with the apparent enormity of it and while the horses, ponies and donkeys that have survived are brought back to health and are hopefully given some reason to respect humankind, there are some questions that should be asked.

Without in any way wishing to take away highly-deserved credit from those heroes and heroines in the field, who are now fighting for these unfortunate animals and who have laboured hard for hours and days to bring the situation under control, we have to ask how the central RSPCA machine is so willing to whip up this media circus and claim credit for a job well done, without also airing the other side of the story.

Why is it that good folk in the tiny village of Hyde Heath had to report suspected problems over several years, before the RSPCA finally acted? Local frustration and anger is running high and clients of the AVMC have given us unsolicited clear accounts of inactivity by the RSPCA, in response to numerous local pleas for help, over the years. This is confirmed in media reports. Accounts of dead horses left lying in fields and horses in very poor condition are recurring themes.

Why is it that the RSPCA can bask in glory, revel in the news coverage and attract a massive, emotionally-driven funding boost, without admitting or explaining their inactivity on many previous occasions? This ‘economy with the truth’ sits very uncomfortably with the image that the RSPCA would like to project. If reports are to be believed, how much obscene suffering could have been prevented, had the Society acted on the first report? One cannot help but feel that the 31 dead animals found there and the rescued animals may have represented but the tip of a ghastly iceberg.

The RSPCA is an extraordinarily wealthy charity, with powers that sometimes exceed those of the police. It has the right to take a statement under oath. It has the right to read people their rights and the right to prosecute. Its staff can be given police-type ranks and wear police-type uniforms. It has new powers vested in it, in the wake of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/act/index.htm).

Despite all these powers and privileges, it may come as a surprise to learn that there appear to be no controls in place, to oversee the activities of this massive and powerful organisation. It appears that no one puts vital checks and balances in place, to ensure constitutional propriety in the Society’s activities. It appears that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the Society’s transactions, as the RSPCA is not listed in Schedule 1 of that Act (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000036_en_10).

It is not apparent that anyone has the power to ensure proportionality in the way the Society operates. Furthermore, there appears to be no one to ensure that the Society properly takes up animal welfare challenges that are brought to its notice (as in this latest seemingly terrible case).

While rejoicing in the fact that this alleged animal atrocity has been brought to an end, let us resolve to ask what is being done to bring this Society under more normal and constitutionally-sound controls.

It is not easy, at first sight, to see to whom to turn with such questions. However, a good place to start may be your MP. Write to your MP now (find your MP: http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/) and ask what is being done to rein in this charitable body, which appears to be operating beyond control with animal lovers’ money, under current legislation. Another point of contact would be the Charity Commission (http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/), who should be able to advise whether each and all of the activities of the RSPCA are of a truly ‘charitable’ nature, under charity legislation. See also: http://www.alternativevet.org/rspca.htm.

Wider than this, one has to ask how this man was able to conduct his trade without being found out before. Are there not supposed to be checks on animals in transit in the UK and for export? Is DEFRA content that it has carried out its animal welfare duties correctly? This may be a catalyst finally to close down the iniquitous live export for slaughter trade (http://www.alternativevet.org/live_exports.htm).

Furthermore, those who sell animals into this trade cannot be held blameless (unless of course, it should turn out that all were stolen, which seems unlikely from the news accounts). How did this man acquire his unfortunate animals?

It is not sufficient to treat this catastrophe as a 'one-off' and to take a bow to a grateful British Public. Lessons must be learned and steps taken to smarten up the act.

Of course, we must also remember that the true facts have yet to emerge, after due legal process.

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV campaign to get chickens out of factory farms is setting the media alight. Good on him! This is long overdue exposure of the ghastly conditions chickens suffer for human satisfaction (see http://www.rivercottage.net/ & http://www.chickenout.tv/).

However, when seeking to buy ethically, please be careful to realise that not all 'free range' is what it's cracked up to be. You really need to see the farm in question, to know what its 'free range' designation really means. Some free range farms exploit the law and are just as disastrous as 'factory' barn systems (see http://www.alternativevet.org/farm_assurance.htm).

Furthermore, not all 'organic' meets the high standards and enforcement of the Soil Association (see http://www.alternativevet.org/organic_agriculture.htm ).

RSPCA 'Freedom Food' farms are not listed for public information. Their names and locations are kept secret. Transparency is sadly lacking. The so-called 'standards' are not enforced standards but appear merely to be aspirations (i.e. they hope for better welfare!). While some Freedom Food farms may be wonderful ( I do not know, because of the secrecy), others seem to be guilty of 'factory farming' (see www.hillside.org.uk & http://www.alternativevet.org/rspca.htm).

To hear people on Jeremy Vine, yesterday (BBC Radio 2), pleading poverty as a salve to their consciences, over eating cheap chicken, is not only showing total disrespect for animal life, disregard of animal welfare and failure to be honest with oneself but it is also symptomatic of our culture, which demands that we should have cheap food to release our income to spend on possessions and recreation. If such cheap food did not exist (and it really shouldn't), then the option would not be there. Meat is NOT a dietary requirement. For those who like to eat meat and choose to eat meat, it should be regarded as a privilege and should demand respect for the animal whose life is sacrificed.

While supporting the 'chicken out' campaign in general, I cannot support the creation of a 'factory farm', for demonstration and research purposes. The welfare on such units is described by the RSPCA as being well below acceptable standards; how can we create such conditions, for whatever well-meaning purpose?

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

The news this morning carries an item on the risks from mercury in energy-saving light bulbs and the extra hazards presented by handling broken bulbs.

It is right of the government's Environment Agency to draw attention to such risks. I, for one, am grateful for the reminder of the hazards of the mercury vapour and shall spread the word. However, without losing the message, I would also value proportionality.

How great a risk is this, compared to mercury wilfully injected into children and adults in government-funded vaccination programmes (e.g. influenza)? How great a risk is it compared to a lifetime of government-funded exposure to mercury from mercury amalgum fillings in our teeth, still the only type of dental filling funded by the NHS? How does it relate to the amount of mercury put into the atmosphere by power stations, as they generate the extra electricity required for conventional incandescent light bulbs?

Joined-up thinking is required but where is the information we all need, to help us to make informed decisions? Where is the government's inclusive, balanced and holistic comment on the whole mercury issue? Where are the government health warnings on vaccinations and mercury fillings?

Come on, government, this is research you should have commissioned, to help you make the decisions you make. Let us all have the information, please.

Meanwhile, for info., here's a collection of varying 'takes' on the light bulb issue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7172662.stm 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=506082&in_page_id=1774

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=505571&in_page_id=1965&ito=1490

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=506082&in_page_id=1774&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=picbox&ct=5

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4922496.stm

http://www.newstarget.com/022279.html

http://www.reportage.uts.edu.au/stories/2007/society/lightbulbs.html

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/lamp-mercury.html

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/ehs/chemwaste/mercury.htm

http://www.epa.gov/hg/spills/index.htm

http://h2e-online.org/docs/h2e10stepfluorescent121802.pdf

http://www.lamprecycle.org/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/18/nbulb118.xml

http://www.newswithviews.com/Peterson/rosalind1.htm

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

The RSPCA has called for increased welfare for chickens reared for meat.

The RSPCA quite rightly states that the welfare of many chickens being reared for cheap food is very much below acceptable levels.

http://www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RSPCA/RSPCARedirect&pg=chickens

It is to be hoped that the RSPCA's own house is in order on their 'Freedom Food' chicken farms. However, no one can check, as the location of their farms is secret. I say to the RSPCA: tell us where all your farms are and let us all see how you lead the farming world in welfare standards.

It is an uncomfortable situation when our key animal welfare organisation is itself in the intensive farming business. There is always a danger that vested interest can blind one to the obvious.

www.alternativevet.org/rspca.htm

Cheap food policies engender corner-cutting, cost-cutting, lack of respect for the animals involved and massive welfare risks.

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

The news that two new mothers have died, soon after giving birth is deeply tragic. No words can improve this terrible situation for the families but we can offer our prayers and express our sympathy, love and support. The enormity of their loss is unimaginable.

As far as the medical establishment is concerned, if this infection proves to have come from the hospital concerned, lessons must be learned.

Whatever the cause, I make a plea that homeopathic care in hospitals should be considered, alongside the current methods, whether in A & E, Maternity, Surgical Wards or elsewhere, in an effort to improve the level of care offered and to try to reduce the risk of such appalling tragedies. Who can tell when the risk might come closer to home and which of us may personally be at risk in the future, from hospital-borne infections.

"Teachers Amy Kimmance, 39, and Jasmine Pickett, 29, both became mums on December 21.

They died days later of complications from group A streptococcal infections."

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article653939.ece

information also at:

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=7158121

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23430688-details/Two%20new%20mothers%20die%20of%20identical%20bug%20after%20giving%20birth%20at%20SAME%20hospital%20on%20SAME%20day/article.do

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=505949&in_page_id=1774

http://itn.co.uk/news/f2f4def06f1fe6599d59f4e30f2194ed.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7170464.stm

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here?

With Norovirus gastroenteritis threatening schools at the start of a new term and already causing the closure of hospital facilities (98 wards in 44 hospitals so far), with an estimated cost to the NHS of £100 million and an estimated cost to UK business of £80 million in the last two days alone, why does no one ask if homeopathy could help? In the absence of a conventional weapon to fight this predictable annual infection, what possible objections could there be to trying homeopathy and homeoprophylaxis (preventive by nosodes e.g.)?

It appears that the establishment would prefer to lose these huge sums and suffer massive disruption to hospital services, operations, school time and industry losses, let alone all the human suffering and potential risk to life, than give homeopathy a chance to show its mettle.

Couldn't even one hospital break the mould and strike out into new territory, by consulting homeopathic doctors for a possible treatment and preventive? What can we lose? I suppose that the big danger would be that it might work!

Why has the pharmaceutical industry not leapt on this annual epidemic to cash in on a huge bonanza from vaccine production and sales? I suppose we can rest assured there will be something in the pipeline so that these rich pickings can be harvested in the future.

Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org , while you're here? (e.g. www.alternativevet.org/nosodes.htm : www.alternativevet.org/homeopathy.htm

Here's hoping for a great 2008 for all visitors to my blog and websites.

Thought for the year: "We are rarely limited by others - most of our limitations are self-imposed."

To all who read this, I wish all the very best for the holiday period, with hopes for a healthy, happy and fulfilling New Year 2008.

The Red Squirrel is a declining species in the UK, mainly owing to the spread of the Grey Squirrel. Now there's a further threat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4093856.stm

"Squirrel pox is said to have been carried over the border by grey squirrels migrating north from Cumbria.

Red squirrels with the virus will suffer skin ulcers, lesions and scabs, with swelling and discharge around the eyes, mouth, feet and genitals.

Grey squirrels are seldom harmed by the virus, but red squirrels have no immunity and usually die within 15 days.

Scientists say it is the first evidence of squirrel pox virus in southern Scotland and has serious implications for the endangered red squirrel population."

This is an obvious field for homeopathic medication for prevention (homeoprophylaxis), if a way could be found of administering it reliably.

http://www.alternativevet.org/nosodes.htm

We are willing to discuss this with any interested party and are willing to offer free veterinary treatment to try to prevent the spread of this disease. If successful, such a programme would enable the indigenous population to develop resistance / immunity. While it is not a clear relationship, for simplicity of explanation, the methodology could be likened to vaccination.

AVMC, Chinham House, Stanford in the Vale, Oxon SN7 8NQ (tel. 01367 710324 : fax 01367 718243 : e-mail cday-avmc@hotmail.co.uk)

Why not also visit:  http://www.alternativevet.org ?

Christmastime in York is a magical experience. We visited on the weekend of the Festival of Angels. The ancient city, the museums and galleries, the unique shops, the Christmas markets and that lovely Minster - what a treat! The ice sculptures are a rare delight and they adorn the streets. AND, York is blessed with excellent veggie restaurants!

The opportunity came with a teaching commitment - a homeopathic veterinary course, for the HPTG. Good to meet up with folks again, too.

[Why not also visit the AVMC web site: www.alternativevet.org?]

Figures released by the Home Office in July 2007 show that the UK exceeded 3 million animal experiments during 2006. That includes only experiments that might cause distress, pain, suffering or lasting harm. This is a 15-year high and makes the UK the biggest perpetrator in Europe. This included over four thousand primates, thirty-six thousand sheep and seven-and-a-half thousand dogs.

When will this senseless, unscientific and barbaric practice end?

The legislative control that is in place is the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. However, the Home Office is failing to enforce basic provisions of that Act, resulting in lack of control and lack of will to control.

Inspectors are vets who are usually ex-vivisectors and they are anyway too few on the ground. The Government is failing in its duty of care.

Uncaged (www.uncaged.co.uk) has a campaign to bring the failure to enforce current legislation before Parliament.

Visit http://www.vote4animals.org.uk/lobby.htm for help with lobbying your MP.

Where's the RSPCA (and its £ millions) when its needed?

The AVMC has information on animal experimentation, vivisection and associated topics:

www.alternativevet.org/animal_experiments.htm

Also visit www.alternativevet.org

We have assembled a small but punchy web site, to explain the role of chiropractic for animals and how it is done. It is suitable for all species in which such a procedure is practical but is mostly requested for dogs, cats, horses, ponies, donkeys and goats and it is a potent positive influence on welfare. It is particularly valuable preceding acupuncture.

Visit: www.chiropractic-vet.co.uk

Veterinary chiropractic is important to the well-being of animals and, if properly integrated, can form an essential component of holistic care and healing.

Also visit the AVMC web site: www.alternativevet.org

Foot and Mouth virus

Quote from: http://www.defra.gov.uk/FootandMouth/latest-situation/index.htm

"On 12 September a Protection Zone and Surveillance Zone was placed around a farm in Surrey. A further 7 cases of the disease were later confirmed in Surrey and Windsor & Maidenhead. The last infected premises in the outbreak was confirmed on the 30th September. There have been no further confirmed cases of foot and mouth disease since this date."

.            .            .           .           .           .          .           .           .           .

This may mean that the second wave of infection has now died out but, in view of the novel mode of spread (supposedly the flood waters of the summer) and in view of the novel source (research laboratories at Pirbright), there is no precedent for confirming this. DEFRA has not been compelled to consider either vaccination or homeopathy, this time around.

For news of movement controls for cloven-hoofed animals, i.e. cattle, sheep, pigs, llamas, alpacas, buffalo, deer, reindeer and goats, visit:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/fmd/movements/index.htm

Also visit the AVMC web site: www.alternativevet.org

The UK now has Bluetongue. This had been, until September this year, an 'exotic' disease but had been marching across Europe. It is a midge-borne viral disease.

The disease affects ruminant animals (cattle, sheep, llamas, alpacas, buffalo, deer, reindeer, goats etc.). I have been in contact with European colleagues and they report that they have successfully treated cases with homeopathy. However, as yet, this is a 'notifiable disease' in the UK, which means that we are not allowed to treat cases.

If a request for treatment is received, the AVMC will contact DEFRA, to seek permission to treat. It would appear that progress of the disease may be unstoppable, by conventional means. We shall write to offer homeopathic help and help with clinical research, as we did for Foot & Mouth (FMD) and for Avian Influenza (Bird Flu). Because of the way this virus spreads (via midges), it is impossible to stop spread by the same means as for Foot and Mouth. This would make it an obvious area for homeoprophylaxis (prevention using nosodes etc.).

As at 16.30pm on 14 December 2007 there were 66 confirmed premises affected by Bluetongue. This figure will normally be updated by DEFRA weekly on a Friday where necessary.

Visit: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/latest/index.htm

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/movements/index.htm

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/bluetongue/pdf/declaration-btv-pzsz071114.pdf

Also visit the AVMC web site: www.alternativevet.org

Until modern medicine breaks its links with the antedeluvian practice of laboratory animal experimentation, it will continue to cause untold suffering, maiming and death in the human population at large, with as yet undiscovered side-effects of drugs. This applies in the veterinary world, too, where chronic disease and cancer are constantly rising in our animals. Welfare is not well-served in this way.

Animal experiments are bad science, quite apart from any moral or ethical questions they raise.

Until vivisection is recognised as the bad science that it is, conventional drug medicine will be a house of straw, erected on a foundation of shifting sand. We have a 'head-in-the-sand' culture about this medical tragedy.

http://www.alternativevet.org/animal_experiments.htm

http://www.alternativevet.org/iatrogenic.htm

Canine Health Concern (CHC) has released a new DVD, which discusses in depth some of the health issues that affect our dogs, including the massive issues of vaccination and diet. I play a small part in it.

It is called 'In Search of the Truth about our Dogs'.

http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/

Please quote this source, if you contact CHC.

This is a subject that should be of vital interest to dog owners and vets alike.

Influenza Vaccination

How much damage has been done over the years, during this seemingly useless campaign? How much money has been made? Why is the advice still to have the influenza vaccine?

Taken from:

http://www.pir-interims.com/news_menu/detail.html?news_id=57

Influenza vaccine benefits exaggerated in elderly

Pharmatimes – 26 September 2007

The benefits of vaccinating the elderly against influenza have been greatly exaggerated, according to a major review of the literature published in the latest issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Health policy in most Western countries aims to cuts flu deaths by targeting people aged at least 65 years for vaccination. However, the authors from George Washington University, Washington DC, point out that although placebo-controlled randomised trials show the influenza vaccine is effective in younger adults, few trials have included elderly people, and especially those aged at least 70 years. This age group is supposed to account for three-quarters of all influenza-related deaths. They add that recent excess mortality studies have been unable to confirm a decline in influenza-related mortality since 1980, even though vaccination coverage increased from 15% to 65% during this period.

Other source: www.thelancet.com

All this is not new. This item appeared on the BMJ website in October 2006:

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7574/912

Summary Points:

1. Public policy worldwide recommends the use of inactivated influenza vaccines to prevent seasonal outbreaks

Bird Flu (Avian Influenza) H5N1 strain has been found at a second premises, which had already been designated a Dangerous Contact premises.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/071119b.htm

As if more evidence were needed that 'science' and commerce have become so inextricably linked as to be dangerous and UNSCIENTIFIC, here's yet another banned drug, joining the long list of those that passed scientific scrutiny before being marketed, only to maim or kill in the name of medicine.

I am sick and tired of hearing the complaint that homeopathy is not evidence-based, when the current medical system allows such infringements of safety, liberty and decency.

Animal experiments (vivisection), laboratory vagaries, less than scrupulous methodology and greed may be factors that allow the marketing of dangerous (even deadly) chemicals under the guise of 'medicine'. I don't suppose the multi-billion profits could have anything at all to do with such things?

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/health/arthritis+drug+withdrawn/1071257

http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=51178830380524

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/27092007/323/novartis-painkiller-prexige-rejected-fda-continues-talks-regulator.html

http://www.newstin.co.uk/sim/uk/20077386/en-004-003958414

http://www.pharmaceutical-int.com/news/2007/08/21/new-zealand-follows-australia-in-banning-arthritis-drug.asp

Prexige has caused serious liver problems and possibly killed several patients. Yet, in the UK, those already on the medicine have been told to 'keep taking the tablets' until their medication has been reviewed by their doctor! That makes sense?

Watch out for Charity Christmas Cards that support the scientifically useless and inhumane practice of animal experiments (vivisection). We can unwittingly pour money into the bottomless pit of pseudoscience and animal suffering, unless we have access to the facts.

Don't unwittingly support BAD SCIENCE!

Don't unwittingly support BAD WELFARE!

For a list of UK charities that perform experiments on animals or fund same and those that don't, visit:

http://www.peta.org.uk/cmp/viv-charlist.asp

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/experiments/ALL/281/

PETA publish the following list, information and advice on their website:

"What types of charities are on the “DO TEST” list? Health charities that conduct or fund experiments on animals are included on the “DO TEST” list. These organisations deal with human health issues ranging from lung cancer to drug addiction to blindness. While some do have relevant and effective projects that help improve lives, all of them drain money away from these projects and into cruel experiments on animals. They starve, cripple, burn, poison and slice open animals to study human diseases and disabilities. Such experiments have no practical benefit to anyone. They are unnecessary, unreliable and sometimes dangerously misleading. “Enormous variations exist among rats, rabbits, dogs, pigs and human beings, and meaningful scientific conclusions cannot be drawn about one species by studying another,” says Dr Neal Barnard, “Non-animal methods provide a more accurate method of testing and can be interpreted more objectively.”

What can be done to stop charities from experimenting on animals?
Many charities know that we can improve treatments through modern, non-animal methods, and they fund only non-animal research, leading to real progress in the prevention and treatment of disease. The next time you receive a donation request from a health charity, ask if it funds animal tests. Let charities know that you only give to organisations that alleviate suffering, not contribute to it.

Please note that most colleges and universities have laboratories that conduct animal experiments for health and other purposes. If you would like to know whether a specific school has an animal laboratory, please contact PETA. For information on the experiments being conducted and to voice your opinion, please contact the school. The following health charities and service organisations DO conduct or fund animal experiments.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University have created for the first time cloned embryos of monkeys from which they extracted stem cells. Despite the apparent success, the technique has a very high rate of failure: of 304 eggs from 14 rhesus macaque monkeys, only two stem cell lines resulted.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Scientists_Have_Created_First_Primate_Cloned_Embryos_10647.html

It is only a matter of time until we are routinely doing this with human embryos. The technique has already been demonstrated. Does no one feel fear?

It appears, thank goodness, that someone does and that there are some ethical and sensible individuals out there, in policy-making:

"A global ban on cloning humans must be introduced "urgently" to prevent rogue scientists creating cloned babies, a United Nations report warns.

The report, published by law experts at the UN University's Institute of Advanced Studies, which advises the organisation, warns that it is just a matter of time before a human is cloned.

The authors say that although 50 countries have legislation that outlaws human reproductive cloning, another 140 members of the UN have no such laws, providing loopholes for unscrupulous scientists."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/11/sciclone111.xml

As usual, all this would appear to have more to do with money and kudos than with medical advances.

File On 4 has discovered thousands of studies have been invalidated.

It found some scientists have failed to carry out simple and inexpensive checks to ensure they are working with the right forms of human tumour cells.

Cancer Research UK said it used robust procedures to check the cell-lines used in research.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/7098882.stm

Of course Cancer Research says it uses 'robust procedures'. Not robust enough, apparently.

Cancer research benefactors may be justifiably extremely angry - however, they can take consolation in the assurance that even more millions are squandered and wasted on useless animal-based research (vivisection) by Cancer Research and others.

This 'science' is the same whose results and papers we are supposed to revere and which is used as a benchmark by which to find homeopathy wanting in effectiveness. The more you look, the more cracks appear in the facade.

The new outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) has today been confirmed as the H5N1 strain, which has already killed several hundred humans throughout the world. We are told it is only a risk to those who are in close contact with infected birds.

This may be right but it appears that it's only a matter of time before this virus mutates to take on the ability for human-human transmission.

The 5,000 birds in Diss will be 'culled' but that is only like a pinhead to the slaughter that is planned again, for this Christmas. While we continue to keep birds as intensively as we do, in the UK, we are putting animal welfare and our own health and safety at risk.

Last year, 17.14 million turkey poults were placed on UK farms. This is compared with 40.21 in 1997. Numbers are falling, because of cheap imports. Could it be the cheap imports that have brought in this new infection? Rest assured, the Bernard Matthews turkey meat shuttle will be very active, right now, betwen the UK and Eastern Europe.

We must now await DEFRA's assessment of the source of infection, before we know any more.

Roaccutane, an acne drug that has been used for 25 years, has been blamed for depression and suicides.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5358858.stm

"University of Bath scientists tested Roaccutane after claims it has caused depression and suicide in patients since its introduction in 1982."

"Their work, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, is the first to back up these reports with firm scientific evidence."

The news is followed by a cry to rally the wavering troops - keep taking the tablets lads:

"Dr Bailey said teenagers should not stop taking the drug, but seek medical advice if they started to feel depressed. Parents should also watch out for any mood changes in their children."

However, it must be said that these 'scientific' findings are so far only a result of experiments on mice. Nonetheless, I thought we were supposed to be 'protected' by all that animal experiment stuff BEFORE a drug hit the market. Is it me?

To make things even more difficult to understand, Roche (the manufacturers) have always claimed that it is the acne itself that causes the depression and suicide. How come? I thought the drug was supposed to get rid of the acne? They may find themselves digging deep into their pockets to repay just a little of their massive profits in compensation.

Need anyone be in doubt about the true motivation of drug manufacture and marketing? The real tragedy comes when the medical and veterinary professions join in.

Our thoughts go out to those who have suffered and to those families tragically affected by the scores of deaths that have been reported. It shouldn't have to happen.

Here are some more links:

http://www.injurywatch.co.uk/news-and-groups/news/medical-health/acne-drug-roaccutane-linked-to-depression-1996803

http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/blog/2006/09/19/acne-drug-linked-to-depression/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article568868.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/13/ndrugs213.xml

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/316/7133/723/a

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=16152900&method=full&siteid=50061&headline=acne-drug-drove-our-boy-to-suicide-name_page.html

http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=1794692007

The good old turkey industry has done it again. H5 strain avian influenza virus has been found in a large flock of ducks, geese and turkeys, near Diss, on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

Tests are ongoing to see if it's H5N1, the strain that has killed humans.

Apparently, it's not Bernard Matthews this time but farming methods have not been altered in the light of previous lessons. How much will it take for us to realise that we cannot keep birds as intensively as we do? It is inhumane. It is sordid and obscene. It is also dangerous.

We do not yet know the circumstances of this farm or how the virus arrived. However, there is no doubt that the more birds we have per square mile and the more in any given premises, the more likely any infection can take hold and spread quickly.

5,000 turkeys, 500 geese and 1,000 ducks will be snuffed out, on this farm alone, which will perhaps make everyone feel better .....................

Here we go again. See-saw science.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/nov/12/uknews.health?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Ritalin was given to 55,000 UK children last year, costing you and me around £28million, via the NHS.

Firstly, it was thought to be beneficial, now it is thought not to be beneficial (but it does apparently, stunt growth!) (see also Blog: Reliable Science & Evidence Based Medicine - 8th November).

If this is science, I don't want any. My idea of proper science is a much higher standard of accuracy, care and ethics.

Despite all these obvious 'scientific' calamities, we still hear bleating calls for homeopathy to be banned because it doesn't share the 'scientific' pedigree of conventional drug medicine! From the way things have been going, in the 'scientific' world, I would think that not conforming to such standards would be to homeopathy's eternal credit. What do I know, though?

Jack & Jill went up the hill

To get a dose of Ritalin

Where's the common sense in science?

It could do with just a little in.

R. I. P.

Today we rightly paid respects to those that have fallen in the service of their country. This year, we are officially allowed to remember some put to death by their own comrades, supposedly for cowardice in the face of the enemy but now officially pardoned.

The service at the Cenotaph was dignified and moving. Last night's Royal Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall was truly moving. 109 year-old westcountryman Harry Patch was amazing.

While remembering all those of both 'sides' who died in two terrible world wars and in the countless conflicts since (including our two current 'theatres' of war), we should contemplate how we humans can learn to resolve our differences in some other way. We must avoid glorifying war.

War is obscene. It appears to bring out the best and the worst in mankind. The best shows in personal courage, nobility, comradeship, loyalty and sacrifice and in the unification of society. The worst is seen in man's inhumanity to man and his incredible inventiveness when it comes to finding new, more efficient and more terrible ways to do the business of killing.

War tears families apart, it ravages societies, it destroys cultures, it pollutes our already troubled world and it dismembers and maims individuals caught up in its horrendous fury.

Let us pray for all the souls torn from their bodies by war, for all those whose lives or bodies have been damaged by war and for a better mankind that ceases to do war.

This is the item that prompted the previous blog:

Now doctors say it's good to be fat

After years of anti-obesity public health advice, a major new study causes an outcry by concluding that the overweight live longer

By David Usborne in New York

Published: 08 November 2007

Certain scientific criteria are used in assessing the evidence base of medicine. They seem to be taken as the 'gold standard' for scientific assessment.

Would those criteria in any way resemble the criteria that allow madly conflicting scientific reports to flutter onto our door mats, on an almost daily basis?

A few memorable examples:

It's healthy to eat eggs - It's not healthy to eat eggs.

It's healthy to drink milk - It's not healthy to drink milk.

It's good to drink wine - It's not good to drink wine.

Sun brings on ageing - Sun delays ageing.

Global warming is a myth - Global warming is reality.

It's bad to be fat - It's good to be fat.

Organic food is not better - Organic food is better.

Vegetarians are not healthier - Vegetarians are healthier.

Is it the science that's bad or those who use (abuse?) it or those who interpret it? Either way, how reliable is all this stuff?

When we went to Spain, we had been told that it was hopeless for vegetarian food.

We have to put the record straight. As long as you go carefully through the menu, there is plenty there - very tasty, very wholesome and very nutritious. The mistake is to ask them if they cater for veggie. They look surprised and just say no!

We ate wonderfully well. We even found organic veggie in both Sevilla and Tarifa!

While I was away in Spain, the following story broke. It means that the scare is still active and will almost certainly be followed by an offer of vaccination, at some point in the future. I shall place my hopes in homeopathy, should this ever turn into the threatened pandemic!

"Friday, October 05, 2007

Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form

NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.

The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans,” said Kawaoka, who led the study.

“The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus,” Kawaoka said.

Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation, Kawaoka and colleagues report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

“I don’t like to scare the public, because they cannot do very much. But at the same time it is important to the scientific community to understand what is happening,” Kawaoka said in a telephone interview.

The H5N1 avian flu virus, which mostly infects birds, has since 2003 infected 329 people in 12 countries, killing 201 of them. It very rarely passes from one person to another, but if it acquires the ability to do so easily, it likely will cause a global epidemic.

All flu viruses evolve constantly and scientists have some ideas about what mutations are needed to change a virus from one that infects birds easily to one more comfortable in humans.

Birds usually have a body temperature of 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees F), and humans are 37 degrees C (98.6 degrees F) usually. The human nose and throat, where flu viruses usually enter, is usually around 33 degrees C (91.4 degrees F).

“So usually the bird flu doesn’t grow well in the nose or throat of humans,” Kawaoka said. This particular mutation allows H5N1 to live well in the cooler temperatures of the human upper respiratory tract.

H5N1 caused its first mass die-off among wild waterfowl in 2005 at Qinghai Lake in central China, where hundreds of thousands of migratory birds congregate.

That strain of the virus was carried across Asia to Africa and Europe by migrating birds. Its descendants carry the mutation, Kawaoka said.

“So the viruses circulating in Europe and Africa, they all have this mutation. So they are the ones that are closer to human-like flu,” Kawaoka said.

Luckily, they do not carry other mutations, he said.

“Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don’t know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains.”

Bird flu story source: Reuters"

I had no idea this was happening, let alone being condoned.

I add the text, without comment:

"ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2007) — The future sustainability of  fishermen who declaw edible sea crabs has been questioned by a Queen’s academic.

Professor Bob Elwood, from the School of Biological Sciences studied crabs’ reaction to declawing. Crabs felt increased stress and had a lower survival rate after the removal of one claw.

He said: “Should a crab survive declawing it will not be able to feed effectively and may subsequently die of starvation.”

Under current UK laws, fishermen can legally remove both claws and then put the animal back into the sea. According to Professor Elwood, this can result in stress and a high mortality rate for crabs.

Professor Elwood said: “We found a strong stress response within ten minutes of taking off one claw and this stress remained after 24 hours. The stress response was greater if the crab was declawed rather than being induced to cast off a claw. So, the stress is not due specifically to claw loss but to the manner of the claw loss.

“In the past, declawing has been defended because it has been likened to claws being naturally cast off, but this study shows clearly the two are very different.

“Of particular concern was that claw removal resulted in a substantial mortality within 24 hours that appeared to occur when the wound size was large. The typical fishery practice of removing two claws is likely to result in a much higher mortality than that observed in these experiments and so will have marked implications for the sustainability of crab claw fisheries.”

Looking at the declawing process around the world he concluded: “A fishery in the USA only allows removal of one claw. This is difficult to regulate because it cannot easily be determined if two claws are from the same crab or different crabs. In most other places the whole crab is used for food not just the claws.”

“In our experiments we were aware of ethical concerns about repeating the practice of claw removal in a scientific investigation. We believe though that the small number of animals is justified as it gives important data that might save very large numbers of crabs from this experience.”

Adapted from materials provided by Queen's University, Belfast."

"About 6,000 cases of cancer each year in women in their 50s and early 60s are attributed to them being obese, Oxford University researchers have found.

The result of being overweight was particularly striking when it came to women who had gone on to develop womb cancer and a certain type of throat cancer — as half of all cases were linked to weight.

The study of more than a million women also found that being overweight significantly increased the risk of kidney cancer, leukaemia, multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, ovarian cancer and, in some age-groups, breast and bowel cancer.

The study comes after a report suggested that a third of all cancers are linked to diet and weight. Researchers have warned that the obesity epidemic is set to worsen with over half of adults and a quarter of children predicted to be overweight by 2050."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/07/ncancer107.xml

Are we being entirely logical and scientific here? Surely, it is possible that obesity may not be the 'cause' of the cancer but may share a common cause? Unsuitable foods in our diets can cause all sorts of health problems, including obesity and cancer. The nature of the food, its processing, its additives and its pollutants are surely very powerful likely causes of the cancer and of the obesity.

Of course, GM foods may also be a risk, as might the single cell cultures in vaccinations, drug medications, vaccination itself and environmental pollution.

For other articles on this subject, put a search word (e.g. obesity) in the search box.

"Astronomers in the US say they have found a new planet in orbit around a star 41 light years from Earth."  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7082257.stm

This news broke just today. There's all sorts of conjecture that this very large 'planet', probably a 'gas giant' and the fifth to be found orbiting the sun '55 Cancri', may have moons that could hold water pools and therefore the pre-conditions for life. This 'solar system' has similarities to our own.

Is there intelligent life out there? Well, I hope so, because there's not much sign of it down here!

In the USA:

"Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) result in more than 2.1 million injuries each year and the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 100,000 Americans die annually of adverse reactions to prescription drugs"

"The FDA's Office of Drug Risk Assessment calculates only 1% of ADEs are reported."

http://www.centerfordrugsafety.org/PAT_ADEStat.asp

In the UK:

The BMJ's Clinical Evidence website recently stated that only 15% of the 2,404 orthodox medical treatments reviewed were effective and 47% were of unkown effectiveness. www.clinicalevidence.com

Personally, I'd be keeping quiet about the evidence base of medicine, if I were promoting conventional medicine. I'd be keeping still quieter about the evidence base of other disciplines!

What does the NHS establishment fear about homeopathy? Why should anyone, purporting to have patient welfare at heart, fear a system of medicine that has been bringing massive patient satisfaction for more than 200 years?

Might it be that homeopathy is the mirror that tells the ghastly truth first thing in the morning? Is it the window on the uncomfortable reality of the modern medical health care system (I would not have chosen those words to describe a system which appears to enshrine ill health) in the UK?

Quite why our present times have brought an unprecedented and systematic attack on a system of medicine that has lived peacefully alongside, with the single ambition of helping patients, is a total mystery to me.

Whatever, medical and veterinary homeopaths go about their daily business of delivering real health care.

This from 1998:

http://www.the7thfire.com/health_and_nutrition/Prescription_drugs_deaths.htm

"Study confirms how dangerous prescription drugs are:
Drug side effects make 2 million sick
Properly prescribed medicine kills 106,000 each year

Drugs that cause worst reactions: heart medications. blood thinners and chemotherapeutic agents for cancer. Most common cause of death: liver or kidney failure, heart rhythm problems and bone marrow destruction.

More than 2 million Americans become seriously ill every year because of toxic reactions to correctly prescribed medicines taken properly and 106,000 die from those reactions, a new study concludes. That surprisingly high number makes drug side effects at least the sixth and perhaps even the fourth, most common cause of death in this country. The analysis, the largest and most complete of its kind, suggests that one in 15 hospital patients in the United States can expect a serious reaction to prescription or over-the-counter medicine and about 5 percent of those will die from it.

If the findings are accurate, then the number of people dying each year from drug side effects may be exceeded only by the numbers of people dying from heart disease, cancer and stroke and may be greater than the number dying from lung disease, pneumonia or diabetes. Experts said the study, which appears in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, is stronger than previous ones because it looks only at cases in which drugs were taken correctly. Previous hints of similarly high side effect rates had been attributed in large part to people getting the wrong medicines or taking them in the wrong doses.

Only one quarter of the reactions were due to patients being allergic to the drug in question. In theory, those reactions could be avoided by more carefully asking patients about known allergies. The rest of the side effects were classified as essentially inevitable, bound to affect a certain percentage of the population for unknown reasons.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug regulators and the researchers themselves warned against over-reacting to the numbers, noting that the study made no effort to measure the benefits of the same medicines-an equally important part of the cost-benefit calculation that determines the usefulness of a drug."

Can you imagine the comfort a dying patient would feel, from the knowledge that someone thinks others have benefited from the same drug?

Let's face the facts. When profit is the motive, common sense, science, reason, safety, ethics and decency tend to take flight.

The NHS, which can hardly keep its head above the financial surface, partly because of spiralling drug costs, currently appears to be hell-bent on putting homeopathy behind it, once and for all. Never mind reason. Never mind logic. If the punter doesn't fight for the freedom of choice, it could be flushed down the toilet of vested interest. Homeopathy would then be the prerogative of those who can afford private treatment.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005 by: Jessica Fraser

Here's the evidence base:

"Prescription drug deaths double in a decade

Deaths from adverse reactions to prescription drugs have more than doubled in 10 years, new figures show. Statistics from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reveal 973 people died from suspected serious side-effects last year, compared to 382 in 1996. The MHRA figures also show there were 9,801 cases between May and December last year of patients having a serious, suspected adverse reaction to the drugs they were prescribed."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/22/nhs222.xml

These are only the recorded cases! In the U.S., the situation is also desperate.

Another estimate:

"Prescription drugs linked to 15,000 deaths each year

By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

DRUGS prescribed to patients for a range of conditions may be responsible for as many as 1,200 sudden deaths a year in Britain. Antibiotics, antipsychotic drugs and those used to treat nausea and vomiting may all be involved because they have the ability to interfere with the electrical activity that controls the heartbeat.

The alarm was sounded by a study in the Netherlands that found that patients taking these drugs had nearly three times the risk of sudden cardiac death. The authors estimate that the drugs cause 320 deaths a year in the Netherlands. By extrapolation, that equates to 1,200 deaths a year in Britain and 15,000 deaths in Europe and the US as a whole.

The Dutch study, published in European Heart Journal, looked at all deaths between 1995 and 2003 in a population of half a million people from 150 general practices nationally for whom complete medical records are kept. "

The vociferous and powerful minority lobby that wants to ban homeopathy should perhaps turn its energy and attentions to rather more urgent matters. In their saner moments, they might concede that homeopathy cannot ever wreak such havoc and mayhem. They might even open their minds to the massive scale of positive outcomes after homeopathic treament. There again, we live in a far-from-perfect world.

"Understanding how environment, crop management, and other factors, particularly soil fertility, influence the composition and quality of food crops is necessary for the production of high-quality nutritious foods. The flavonoid aglycones quercetin and kaempferol were measured in dried tomato samples (Lycopersicon esculentum L. cv. Halley 3155) that had been archived over the period from 1994 to 2004 from the Long-Term Research on Agricultural Systems project (LTRAS) at the University of California-Davis, which began in 1993. Conventional and organic processing tomato production systems are part of the set of systems compared at LTRAS. Comparisons of analyses of archived samples from conventional and organic production systems demonstrated statistically higher levels (P < 0.05) of quercetin and kaempferol aglycones in organic tomatoes. Ten-year mean levels of quercetin and kaempferol in organic tomatoes [115.5 and 63.3 mg g^-1 of dry matter (DM)] were 79 and 97% higher than those in conventional tomatoes (64.6 and 32.06 mg g^-1 of DM), respectively. The levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments, whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional treatments. This increase corresponds not only with increasing amounts of soil organic matter accumulating in organic plots but also with reduced manure application rates once soils in the organic systems had reached equilibrium levels of organic matter. Well-quantified changes in tomato nutrients over years in organic farming systems have not been reported previously."

University of California - Davis (June 2007)

And what does the FSA say?:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6272634.stm (July 2007)

Flavonoids have also been linked with reduced rates of some types of cancer and dementia.

The Food Standards Agency says there is some evidence that flavonoids can help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and they are currently carrying out a study to look at the health benefits in more detail.

However, a spokesperson said there was no evidence that organic food was healthier.

"Our long-standing advice on organic food is there can be some nutrient differences but it doesn't mean it's necessarily better for you."

Rock on! Will these stalwarts be given the honour and recognition they deserve, by the world of vested interest - I doubt it.

Research evidence to confirm what we already believed is mounting:

http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/Living/nutrition_research.html

No comment necessary - sorted innit?

(visit: http://www.alternativevet.org)