------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Listening to Prozac: `Bow-Wow! I Really Love the Mailman!' Some Are Pushing the Drug To Treat Pet Ailments; Scientologists Are Yelping By CARRIE DOLAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Prozac has greatly improved life for Emily Elliot. She had tried massage ther- apy, hormone treatments, everything; but she couldn't relieve the anxiety, the fear, the painful shyness. Or the chronic barking. So, after three years Ms. Elliot recently put Sparky, her dog, on Prozac. Sparky (not her real name) suffered from "profound anxiety" of strangers as well as "inter-dog aggression," says Ms. Elliot, a veterinary student at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. The pooch "has a problem thinking through solutions to what is bothering her," she adds. So, in March, along with other therapies, doctors at the animal-behavior clinic where Ms. Elliot works prescribed Prozac. Sparky, a show dog, quickly lost that hang-dog attitude. "It's been a big relief," says Ms. Elliot, who asked that Sparky's real name not be used because her Prozac use might influence dog judges. Ruff Therapy Among American humans, of course, Prozac has become fashionable as a treat- ment for depression and obsessive/com- pulsive disorders. "It's the designer drug of the '90s," says Bonnie Beaver, chief of medicine at Texas A&M University's de- partment of small-animal medicine. "Peo- ple think, 'Gee, if I can have Prozac, why can't my dog?'" The field is still new, but the growing potential for using Prozac and other hu- man psychiatric drugs to treat destructive or antisocial animal disorders will be discussed at next month's meeting of the 52,000-member American Veterinary Med- ical Association. Prozac proponents say the drug, particularly for dogs, may repre- sent the last chance to keep a maladjusted canine off of death row. Unruly behavior, which leads owners to abandon pets to shelters, is "the leading cause of canine and feline deaths" in the U.S., says Karen Overall, a University of Pennsylvania vet- erinarian. "These vets are dedicated to finding ways to help pets stay with their owners," says an AVMA spokeswoman. "It's impor- tant to use all the avenues they can." Happy Tails The University of Pennsylvania ani- mal-behavior clinic has put depressed pup- pies on Prozac, feather-picking parakeets on antidepressants and floor-wetting cats on Valium (Prozac, for reasons not comple- tely understood, has proved toxic and ineffective for cats, some veterinarians say). The clinic has also treated emotion- ally troubled ferrets, skunks and rabbits. Some dogs on Prozac will be weaned off the medication, while others may be listen- ing to Prozac for the rest of their lives, says Dr. Overall, who heads the clinic. "It's a great drug for some animals," she adds- though she stresses that owners and pets should never take each other's medica- tion. The number of animals, including some birds, on Prozac is currently small, but anecdotal evidence as to its effectiveness is encouraging. In a letter to be published in the upcoming issue of DVM Newsmaga- zine, a veterinary journal, Steven Melman of Potomac, Md., describes a five-year-old dog suffering from "tail-chasing mutila- tion disorder." Conventional treatment failed and one vet suggested amputating the tail. After five days on Prozac, though, the pooch was a "much more mellow, less restless patient," he writes. After five weeks on the drug, the dog's disorder was cured. Dr. Melman writes: "I had literally saved my patient's tail." Using human drugs to treat certain animal conditions is "not at all controver- sial in mainstream medicine," says Dr. Melman. But Prozac has long been dogged by controversy. Thus, when Dr. Melman published a paper in the April edition of DVM describing Prozac use for dogs' skin problems caused by obsessive/compulsive urges, the fur began to fly. "I mentioned Prozac and people went nuts," he says. Biting Criticism The Church of Scientology, for exam- ple, responded with warnings that pets on Prozac could "go psycho." Since Prozac's launch six years ago, the Scientologists, who oppose the use of mind-altering drugs, have called it a "killer drug" linked to murder and suicide - a charge roundly derided by the medical community. If owners put pets on Prozac, "you may be forced to de-fang your dachshund or put Tabby in a straitjacket," warns a recent press release from the Citizens Commis- sion on Human Rights, a group founded by the Church of Scientology. Yet, when reached for comment, the commission con- ceded it hadn't received any reports of injuries from Prozac-deranged pets. Other groups are concerned as well. "There's a lot of room for fear and wor- ries," says Bob Hillman, vice president of the Animal Protection Institute, a Sacra- mento, Calif., animal-rights organization. "Giving a Rottweiler or a Doberman Prozac could be dangerous for the neigh- bors" should the drug have an unintended effect. The Food and Drug Administration and Eli Lilly & Co., Prozac's maker, have denied any link between Prozac and acts of violence or suicide. But "our clinical data support use of Prozac in treating only humans," says a spokeswoman for Eli Lilly. "We're not actively pursuing the study of Prozac for veterinary use." Pet Theories Some animal advocates argue that, instead of turning to wonder drugs, people need to look for "gentle, noninvasive ways" of getting along with their pets, says Ken White, vice president for com- panion animals at the Humane Society of the U.S. in Washington. Ellen Corrigan, director of education for In Defense of Animals, another animal-rights group, suggests "a more holistic approach" that might include alternative treatments like accupressure and herbal remedies. Indeed, doctors to humans often coun- sel patients to first try conventional ther- apy or behavior modification before they turn to Prozac. Pro-Prozac vets agree. With the appropriate diagnosis and dos- age, drugs like Prozac can help pets, says Texas A&M's Dr. Beaver, but owners and doctors must find the real root of a pet's distress. "If you don't remove the stress, you don't fix the problem," she says. Pennsylvania's Dr. Overall, who has plumbed the minds of pooches, notes: "If you pet them while they're moping, it just reinforces sad behavior." Instead, she recommends trying to get them to "take an interest in something they enjoy: Play with a ball, go for a car ride, sit on the sofa and watch TV. When they look happy, relaxed, or outgoing, then give them a treat." But determining a pet's neurosis takes time, and even Sigmund Freud wouldn't have gotten far with Fido on his couch. "We can't go up and say, 'Tell me about your traumatic puppyhood,'" says Dr. Overall. Still, she points out that depressed dogs exhibit many of the same signs that down-in-the-dumps people do: They don't eat, they don't sleep and they don't make eye contact. Many problems occur when the animal reaches social maturity, notes Dr. Overall. "The teen years are when we see a lot of social disorders in humans; gang involvements, schizophrenia. It's the same thing with cats and dogs." Dr. Overall knows there are some peo- ple opposed to pet drug use of any sort. But she has put one of her three dogs on human antianxiety medicalion (though not Pro- zac) and is high on the idea. "I go home to normal dogs," she says. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. 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F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: BOWWOW.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: BOWOW.TIF ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: SECURITY CODE: DISTRIBUTION CODE: DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: Prozac for pets: Scientologists are yelping. New York Times, June 24, 1994 SORT TO: Media CONTRIBUTOR: aw LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: FACTNet NOTES: For additional verification see the image files contained in the file with same name and .ZIP extension or contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: June 26, 1994 UPDATED BY: bp =================================================================