Oct. 25, 2014: Boston Vegetarian Food Festival (Boston, MA)
Animal Protection is Human Protection, Too!
Bill Ferguson
Ebola has happened in the U.S. and it could happen again if we don’t address the root causes
With the largest Ebola epidemic ever recorded raging across West Africa and as two Americans who were infected in Liberia have entered the U.S. for treatment, the question has been raised: will Ebola happen in the U.S? Actually, an Ebola […]
Dr. Akhtar featured in Nick News
Dr. Akhtar featured in Nick News with Linda Ellerbee discussing animal experimentation and the need to use more effective human-based testing methods: [arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlqQE4ADJ3M” /]
It’s official: Animal protection IS human protection
“Animal protection is now mainstream.” This was announced at the 5th annual Classy Awards held in San Diego this weekend. The Classy Awards Ceremony honors outstanding nonprofit programs in eight major social sectors, including animal protection, education advancement, poverty and […]
Who are the animals in animal experiments?
I once attended a neuroscience conference featuring a talk about spinal cord injury. The presenter showed a brief video clip that haunts me still to this day. The presenter showed a clip of his experiment in which he had crushed […]
Dr. Akhtar’s interview on Our Hen House
I’m excited to have been interviewed by the wonderful folks at Our Hen House. EPISODE 208: “THE FURTHER A SOCIETY DRIFTS FROM THE TRUTH, THE MORE IT WILL HATE THOSE THAT SPEAK IT.” “Joining us today is Dr. Aysha Akhtar, […]
Chapter 1. The Welfare of Animals and It’s Relevance to Our Health
Alvin Tarlov, Director of the Texas Institute for Society and Health, explained that ‘there are five major categories of influence on health: genes and associated biology; health behaviors, such as dietary habits, tobacco, alcohol and drug use, and physical fitness; […]
Chapter 2. Victims of Abuse: Making the Connection
The following is a typical case illustrating the linkage between child abuse and animal abuse. One morning, an Atlanta contractor pulled up to a house where he was to perform some work. As he got out of his truck, he […]
Chapter 3. Lions, Tigers and Bears: The Global Trade in Animals
On 20 August 1994, an international uproar was caused by an incident involving a female African elephant who went on a rampage in Honolulu, Hawaii. The animal, Tyke, was ‘performing’ during an event for Circus International when, before hundreds of […]
Chapter 4. Foul Farms: The State of Animal Agriculture
As disturbing as the wildlife trade is in fostering the development of new infectious diseases, recent events suggest that the biggest and most imminent threat may lie much closer to home. Between 2007 and 2008, farmers in the Philippines noticed […]
Chapter 5. Animal Agriculture: Our Health and Our Environment
Even if we could, no matter how unlikely, contain the pathogens running amok among factory farms, we are still faced with a much larger problem. This is because there are just too many animals being produced for food: animals grown […]
Chapter 6. The Costs of Animal Experiments
The false-positive and false-negative results of the animal bioassay can be considerable. Ennever and Lave analyzed the data on known human carcinogens with the animal data for cancer predictability. They found a disturbingly large proportion of incorrect predictions, ‘potentially allowing […]
Chapter 7. The New Public Health
We now have a choice before us. Do we use our knowledge to continue to condemn animals to incalculable harm, in turn jeopardizing our own health, or do we use that knowledge to evolve the practice of public health and […]
Why our health depends on treating animals better
An international group of scientists recently ended a year-long moratorium on controversial research on potentially deadly strains of the H5N1 avian flu virus. The purpose of the research was to engineer strains of H5N1 in order to understand how it might […]
Why the NFL needs to have its head examined
Recently, PBS’s Frontline aired a disturbing documentary chronicling the National Football League’s history of downplaying and distorting the evidence that football-related head injuries cause long-term brain damage. The film included footage from a 2009 Congressional hearing in which lawmakers compared […]
How protecting animals benefits us, too
Do we need to make a choice to either protect animals or humans? This is certainly what those who profit from hurting animals would like everyone to believe. Advocates of animal experimentation especially employ the fallacy of a false dilemma: […]
Why animal experimentation doesn’t work. Reason 3: Animals aren’t little humans
Your child, my father, and all of our loved ones who may be suffering from illnesses are not rats or dogs or monkeys. So why do animal experimenters keep treating them as though they are? Suppose you are an experimenter […]
Why animal experimentation doesn’t work — Reason 2: Animals don’t get human diseases
My father suffers from diabetic peripheral neuropathy. His diabetes led to nerve damage that causes him severe, constant pain. I want the best medical treatments possible for him and, as a neurologist, I am always on the lookout for good, […]
Why animal experimentation doesn’t work — Reason 1: Stressed animals yield poor data
Imagine you are a monkey in a laboratory and a person dressed in a white coat walks into the room with a catching net. How do you think you would react? You would probably not be surprised to learn that […]
Dr. Akhtar’s article headlined in Science Blog by former director of the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health
Dr. Anthony Robbins, Co-Editor of the Journal of Public Health Policy and former director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and of the National Vaccine Program headline my article in his latest post on Science Blog’s The […]