Grand Cypress Ranch, Inc.

RR1, Box 97B, Jacksonville, Illinois  62650

(217) 243-7683, e-mail gcr@fgi.net

Ethics Committee

AVMA

Fax:  847 925 1329

January 31, 1997

Dear Dr. Little,

I feel compelled to express my disgust and dismay at the veterinarians I have met and interacted with in the last few years.  Society affords you and your colleagues respect, yet it appears the ostrich veterinarians use this deference to cover their misdeeds and promote personal, commercial, self-serving interests at the emotional and financial expense of the people that trusted them. 

Last August, I was outraged and disgusted at yet another example of scientific fraud and self-justification using the podium and professional circumstance to further their otherwise unjustified superior view of the ostrich at the expense of the other ratites.  By controlling the podium, the ostrich veterinarians control the direction and focus of research and university ratite programs.  I faxed the AVMA regarding the biased program at the AAV conference and the answer I received was inane.  Obviously, either the AVMA is naïve of the situation where individuals such as myself invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into animals which were supposed to reproduce and mature into highly marketable products or has chosen to ignore this in spite of your highly touted ethics rules.  These myths were perpetrated by the American Ostrich Association, its research committee, and its governing members with veterinarians consistently holding very prominent offices. 

The first myth concerns chick survivability.  I had boarded my very expensive breeder birds on a veterinarian’s farm, recognizing I needed time to learn and understand these animals.  What I wasn’t told almost bankrupted me:  the veterinarians didn’t know how to raise them either.  It is immoral to promote the sale of animals to an unsuspecting public knowing that the chick mortality can be 100%.  This is cruelty to animals and to the individuals who invested and committed tremendous time, money, and energy only to watch helplessly as their babies died.  The AOA never directed one research project to solving the problem.

Since late 1993 I have been engaged in studying and researching the factors involved in chick mortality because I could not deal with the suffering and death on such a grand scale.  As chairman of research for the North American Rhea Association in 1994-1995 I was the person of last resort when the chicks where dying.  At the end of the summer 10-15 people were calling daily about chicks their dying.  In the process of solving the riddle of the ratite chick mortality I discovered exploitable therapeutic agents in the rhea and the ostrich.  Yet my voice is drowned out by libel, slander, ridicule, and stupidity.  I have tried several times over the past year to get any response from the American Ostrich Association Research Committee which has many veterinarians on the committee.  It is appalling when a member, such as I, devotes as much time and money into solving such a vexing problem only to experience constant rebuke by individuals who have taken an oath to help animals.  I can only conclude that the veterinarians never intended to solve the problem.  Enclosed is the letter, accompanied by over a pound of documentation, I sent to my congressman.  We are awaiting an update from Attorney General Reno.

I asked for help with this situation from the U of I College of Veterinary Medicine last year.  I never got a response.  This is taken from my Jan 3, 1996 letter (unanswered) to Fred Troutt, VMD at U of I.

This is not the first instance of misuse of the podium or the pen by the ostrich vets (in reference to the August, 1995 letter to Texas A & M which you have):

• On page 1285 of Avian Medicine (Harrison and Ritchie 1995), in the chapter incongruously titled “Ratites”, the Rhea is described as “bearing only a superficial resemblance to the ostrich”.  This is an absurd statement for which I can find no basis. 
• The organizers of the Big Bird Conference, supposedly a non-partisan program supported by 5 state universities including U of I, has, by the admission of its organizer Dick Adams, succumbed to the pressure of the ostrich interests and now serves only their needs, evidenced by their last program. 
• You will find no published journal article describing Fading Chick Syndrome, as if it doesn’t exist.
• At the 1994 AAV conference a prominent speaker and owner of a large Ostrich production facility denounced the Rhea as a worthless animal.  I would have filed an ethics violation against him, but he was of the opinion that since it was at a luncheon he had the right to make such a statement.  Since I was not there I had no case and could not pursue it, even though I was left to clean up the aftermath when Rhea owners were subsequently informed by their vets that their birds had no value.

My personal veterinarian was told something very negative about me causing him to refuse to treat my animals.   Judging by his reaction, it appears to have been slanderous, and I would like to know how the situation is going to be rectified.  I want to know what he was told.  We are a prominent family in a small town and I should be able to defend myself against these allegations. Even when I tried to explain how I was the abused victim he was unwilling to believe me.  This is not professionalism;  this is collusion.

As an ironic note, one of my patents covers the muscle protein of the ratites as a therapeutic agent.  I predicted in the patent application it would provide relief for hip dysplasia victims.  A vet tech requested some ostrich extract to try on her dog as a last resort before she destroyed the dog.  I have enclosed her diary.  She requested more extract (which I supplied), and the dog still lives.  Please note that the AOA research committee missed this in their own bird.  Here is a product that could be sold as a dietary supplement through veterinarians, augmenting their income, and I cannot even get one of you to talk to me.  I study to solve the problem, I don’t care about grades or degrees, so I free of the constraints of strict memorization.  I have been financially and emotionally bankrupted by this situation, so this product will probably never be developed.

Rhea extract, basically a dried meat dietary supplement, is producing symptomatic relief in many autoimmune conditions.  Yet, several ostrich vets have used the podium to pan the rhea as worthless.  Not only is it medically important, it is a natural predator for fire ants and can cohabit with other livestock while it rids pastures of these dangerous insects.  And yet, not one university has included rhea in their ratite program.  Not one veterinarian specializes in the rhea in this country.  It is just me.  This is pathetic.

Teaching oneself is not a crime, it is the way science was done in the past.  Advanced degrees were never meant to be used as weapons of cruelty or shields from moral behavior. Medical school education gives you and your colleagues the right to practice medicine on animals, not to exploit, defraud, bankrupt, ostracize, and ridicule people, manipulate science, or believe oneself above accountability.  Where would any of you be today if you were kicked and ridiculed all the time?

I am not naïve enough to expect anything positive to happen.  I just wanted to express my disgust that this has been allowed to continue unchecked for so long while I, the victim who has so much to offer, continue to be pummeled.

Most sincerely,

Mrs. Donna Fezler

President

enc.