Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals [Hardcover]

Ray C. Greek (Author), Jean Swingle, D.V.M. Greek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0826412262 | ISBN-13: 978-0826412263 | Publication Date: July 1, 2000 | Edition: 1st ed

Cancer has long been cured in mice but not in people. Why? Successful laboratory treatments and cures for one species don't necessarily result in cures for humans. But, because practice has become economically entrenched within medical industry, animal experimentation -against all medical evidence- continues.The human benefits of animal experimentation- a bedrock of the scientific age- is a myth perpetuated by an amorphous but insidious network of multibillion-dollar special interests: research facilities, drug companies, universities, scientisits, and even cage manufacturers.C.Ray Greek, MD, and veterniary dermatologist, Jean Swingle Gree, DMV, show how the public has been deliberately misled and blow the lid off the vested-interest groups whose hidden agendas put human health at risk.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this compelling report, anesthesiologist Ray Greek and veterinarian Jean Swingle Greek argue against the use of animals in medical experiments. Although the Greeks believe that animal experiments are immoral and wasteful, they avoid the philosophical arguments used by most animal rights activists to generate sympathy for animals. Instead, they marshal a devastating amount of scientific evidence about the human consequences of animal-based medical research. Because of important differences in animal and human physiology, they contend, animals often have a wildly different response to diseases and medications than do humans--according to the authors, every year roughly 100,000 Americans die of adverse reactions to drugs that proved, in animals, to be perfectly safe. Why then do we continue to support widespread animal testing? They pack their well-written, shocking expos? with horror stories--about the unnecessary expense of animal experiments; about medications that, though animal tests suggested they were safe, caused liver and heart failure, hemorrhages and death in humans; and about the potentially life-saving drugs that have been kept off the market for humans because they cause harmful side effects in animals. Throughout, the authors make a strong case for the adoption of nonanimal research alternatives such as clinical observation, in vitro and epidemiological studies, diagnostic imaging of patients, mandatory postmarketing drug surveillance, autopsies, computer modeling and larger, longer clinical trials. Their powerful, courageous appeal is essential reading for concerned citizens and open-minded physicians, veterinarians and scientists. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Every day we use products, take medications, and benefit from medical procedures that have all been tested on animals. If we think about it at all, we assume that the testing has made the products and procedures safe for human use. The authors, both of whom are medical professionals who have performed experiments on animals, assert that this is not necessarily the case. In fact, they contend that the animal model has harmed and even killed people. Yet animal testing is an institution required by the FDA and relied upon by pharmaceutical companies as they attempt to avoid malpractice litigation. Indeed, the medical research establishment, including higher education, depends upon research dollars to keep this industry operable. Sacred Cows and Golden Geese covers the history of animal experimentation, legislation that promulgates it, the real cost to humans, and alternatives. It is a well-written, if disturbing, book that should serve to awaken us from complacency.
-Peggie Partello, Keene State Coll. Lib., N.H.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Continuum; 1st ed edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826412262
• ISBN-13: 978-0826412263
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,862,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C. Ray Greek received his MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1985 and completed a residency in anesthesiology in 1989 at the University of Wisconsin. He has taught at the medical schools of the University of Wisconsin and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He has performed research with animals and humans. He is the president and co-founder of Americans For Medical Advancement (AFMA). Greek enjoys scuba diving, swimming with pinnipeds and cetaceans, interacting with African wildlife and photographing same. While he enjoys those activities, what he actually does with his time is take care of all the animals Jean (his veterinary wife) brings home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Animals Suffer, April 29, 2000

By 

Tershia d'Elgin (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals (Hardcover)

Finally, voices against animal experimentation that the medical establishment will not successfully derogate! In this book, scientists and science-minded readers will find exhaustive proof that research and testing that uses animals is not only cruel, but also senseless and dangerous. It's high time someone uncovered how often funds allocated to useless animal-modeled research keep people sick, and how often animal-modeled data make people suffer and even die. Written by a doctor and a veterinarian, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese addresses the topic comprehensively, intelligently, and in a style most readers will appreciate. The Greeks' book should upend misinformation perpetrated by the many, many organizations and businesses that profit from this wholly unscientific convention. As the book explains, delirium over dollars perpetuates animal experimentation. The Greeks write that they regularly debate animal experimenters and animal experimentation lobbyists. Maybe this book will put one of those debates on national television so the public can appreciate the scope of danger and deception animal experimentation exposes us to. I look forward to the Greeks' next book, which they say will cover even more medical disciplines. Everyone should read Sacred Cows and Golden Geese.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best book on the subject--clear, cold-blooded logic, July 13, 2003

By 

Morpho menelaus (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals (Hardcover)

This book stands virtually alone as a well-reasoned defense against vivisection (a.k.a. animal research). The authors make no appeals to emotion. They do not deny that animal research is sometimes cruel. However, compassion and cruelty have nothing to do with their argument.

Greek and Greek-a medical doctor/ veterinary team-argue that animal research hurts people. They point out the countless ways in which animals differ from humans. Veterinarians know that, although the same drugs are used in multiple species, these drugs behave differently and achieve different results in different kinds of animals. Mammals are alike only on the level of gross anatomy. Biochemically, even rats and mice differ enormously, to say nothing of humans and mice.

Tracing the history of western medicine, Greek and Greek show how animal models for disease became part of the expected protocol. They show how these models have hindered doctors and scientists far more than they have helped. They point out that nearly all major breakthroughs in medicine have been initiated not by study in animal models, but by autopsy and clinical studies. Careful observation of human beings by doctors and caretakers has, time and again, led to medical breakthroughs which are later "confirmed" or "substantiated" by animals research. The vivisectionists then claim the laurels for these discoveries when the animals were, in fact, superfluous. Greek and Greek also point out the tremendous harm that animal models have caused. Such models lead to a sense of false confidence that drugs will not be harmful or that the risk is low. In fact, the recall rate for drugs is 50%. Fifty percent have adverse, unexpected side affects after they are loosed on a population that has trusted in animal models. 50% is the toss of a coin! Millions upon millions of dollars are poured into animal tests yearly.

In addition, animal models have slowed the recall of harmful drugs. Thalidomide is one of many examples. This drug causes hideous birth defects in humans, but no birth defects in rats, mice, most rabbits, guinea pigs, and other animals. Doctors realized that the drug was causing birth defects and warned the company, but thalidomide could not be recalled until an animal model was found in which the drug caused birth defects! So thalidomide remained on the market, causing children to be born with flippers, until an obscure species of rabbit was found who also produced deformed kits when given the drug. Only then could thalidomide be recalled!

Greek and Greek show how the idea of the animal model is based on greed and bureaucracy, not good science. They explain that, while scientists of the past were primarily wealthy people doing a hobby they enjoyed, today's scientists are required to continually produce statistically significant results in order to keep their jobs. Just to graduate with a PhD requires a candidate to perform meaningful research. Under these conditions, the temptation to reach for something quick, easy, and difficult-to-disprove are enormous. Rats and mice fit the bill. They breed rapidly, are easy to house, and it takes a long time to show that the result of research in rats does not actually have any useful application for human beings. Clinical students in human beings, on the other hand, can take decades. In addition, human beings are far less corporative than rats, and there are limits to what you can legally do to them and what they will allow you to do. The catch, of course, is that clinical studies in human beings actually produce useful results, whereas animal models very often lead nowhere. Yet university professors anxious to keep their jobs and young students desperate to get their degrees continue to reach again and again for cheap and easy research models. In addition, huge companies manufacture expensive equipment for miniature surgeries on rats, dogs, cats, birds, mice, monkeys, goats, guinea pigs, rats, and all manner of other beasts. These creatures require all manner of housing, some of it vary expensive, and human-type surgeries on them require very specialized and expensive instruments. Animal models are a multimillion dollar industry.

With today's technology, even many clinical studies could be circumvented by using invetro methods. Human cells can be cultivated on a Petri dish or in a test tube and then exposed to various drugs. There is no reason to keep using the clumsy and inaccurate barometer of four-legged creatures.

Greek and Greek fill much of their book with one example after another. Their research is superb. I began the book as a skeptic and ended it as a believer. I have a degree in biology, and I could find nothing wrong with their research. I passed the book on to one of my college biology professors. He was impressed and decided to start including the material in his ethics course.

Whether you are a member of the medical community or merely a consumer, I strongly recommend this book. Whether you agree with all of the Greeks' conclusions or not, they certainly make some valid points and have taken pains with their research. Read the book.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Expose' Long Overdue, April 30, 2000

By 

Lawrence Rathbun, M.D. (Mobile, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals (Hardcover)

This book is a FIRST. Backed by facts, not perpetuated by myth, Dr. Greek, et al have finally addressed a subject that has been concealed for too long. His "Just show me the data" approach has illuminated (not favorably) many research misdirections. Medical science has been hindered because of ignorance and greed. Money that could have gone to meaningful research has lined the pockets of pseudo-scientists. I am a medical doctor who was formerly involved in research, and I know that what Dr. Greek says is true. Progress can only be made through awareness, and now it is here. If you want to keep your head in the sand and believe the lies and subterfuge surrounding medical research, do NOT read this book. The first book I have read non-stop since Hunt for Red October. A MUST!