Holistic veterinarians in Connecticut breathed a sigh of relief as a new policy discouraging the use of homeopathy by U.S. veterinarians was given the thumbs down during a vote in mid-January at the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) House of Delegates’ Regular Winter Session meeting in Chicago. Resolution 3-2013, which had been making the necessary rounds through several AVMA boards and committees, asked the organization and its members to discourage use of homeopathy and identify the approach as unsafe or ineffective. The resolution, submitted by the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) and officially endorsed by the Evidence-Based Veterinary Medical Association, stated “there is strong, widely accepted scientific evidence that the theoretical foundations of homeopathy are inconsistent with established principles of chemistry, physics, biology and physiology. Further, extensive clinical trial evidence has shown the practice of homeopathy has been ineffective in treating or preventing any disease. While homeopathic remedies are not inherently unsafe, the use of ineffective therapy to the exclusion of established treatment may endanger patients.”

 

In November 2013, the AVMA Executive Board decided the organization already had guidelines for complementary/alternative medicine and would not single out individual therapies for judgment. It recognized that evidence-based research for many conventional and alternative therapies is inadequate and stressed the importance of needing to gather more evidence on individual modalities. During the board and committee rounds of discussions, Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy (AVH) and American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association (AHVMA) representatives actively engaged in educating AVMA delegates about homeopathy. On January 11, 2014, Resolution 3-2013 was not adopted as a policy with 90.1% of the AVMA delegates voting against it.

 

“I am absolutely thrilled for the wonderful opportunity this gives me and the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy (AVH) to help educate other veterinarians about the fantastic effectiveness of veterinary homeopathic treatment,.” said Dr. Jeff Feinman, VMD, CVH, owner of Weston-based HomeVet and past President of the AVH. “The overwhelming support from our AVMA delegate colleagues is already being shared by other conventional veterinarians who want to learn more. The AVH has received requests from state veterinary associations for continuing education programs in vet homeopathy. As education chair of the AVH, I see the outcome of the one year of careful study of this resolution and deliberation by our colleagues as a very good thing.”

 

In addition, the AVMA House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favor of admitting the American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture into the AVMA House of Delegates as a constituent allied veterinary organization with 96.6% voting in favor. The AHVMA was recently admitted in July 2013.

 

For more information, visit TheAVH.org/AVMA or visit Dr. Jeff Feinman’s integrative pet care website at: HomeVet.com.

 

Ariana Rawls Fine is Assistant Editor of Natural Awakenings Fairfield County. She resides in Stratford with her family.