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IAVH Newsletter
President’s Letter
Dear Friends,
No matter where you are on the globe, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals are about to begin, [ok, we’re a bit late with this issue Ed.] and looking at the schedule I wondered how many of the partici- pants’ countries are represented by IAVH. I counted 16 out of the 32 teams – so not a bad proportion but I look forward to the time when every team is ‘one of ours’. The World cup of course is the biggest single sporting event, which is open to every country in the world – it crosses cultural, racial and political boundaries and while such issues are not completely for- gotten in the competitive atmosphere of ‘the beautiful game’ it is the game, which is impor- tant. Sadly it seems the organisation as a whole has become increasingly corrupt and it remains to be seen what comes of the investigation of the decision to award the 2022 finals to Qatar. Let’s hope there will be no political issues hanging over the 2018 finals in Russia, but if there are, we can be sure that football will tran- scend them. All of this has parallels for home- opathy, for I believe the ability of our ‘beautiful medicine’ similarly transcends boundaries and differences, so we can all communicate as friends and colleagues; this is a powerful force for good in today’s troubled world. I can prom- ise you all there will never be any need for investigations into the motives of the officers!
It was in one of the World Cup countries we held our 2014 annual Board meeting, Edward
de Beukelaer did a wonderful job of liaising with Marc Brunson and the hospitality shown to us by Marc and his colleagues was wonderful. I was unable to make it for the first day of our presence there, but I attended the case report the following day and learnt a lot about Marc’s methods and about some of the remedies pre- sented. I am very grateful to Marc for being so helpful.
Our Board meeting was attended by delegates from near and far, and I am grateful to those members, who gave up their time to take part, in particular Minako Kuroda from Japan and Marcela Munoz from Colombia whose partici- pation required such a long journey. One of the important parts of the agenda for me was for memberships discussion of a statement regarding the use of animal experimentation.
The input from National representatives was overwhelming in its opposition towards such procedures and we spent some time dis- cussing the wording. There was some discus- sion about the issue of using a placebo control in a clinical trial, but we decided that accepting the need for such should not lie in the way of a general statement of intent by the Association. We therefore intend to add the following phrase to our website. I personally feel this is an impor- tant issue and I am pleased so many of our members agree.
Returning to global issues, we have received representation from a group of veterinarians in Cuba to discuss membership of the Association. As you may realise this is one of the last remaining Communist regimes in the world, and as such the financial situation is complex; suffice it to say that by Western stan- dards wages are incredibly low. In order to help with this situation we intend to set up a fund, so we can subsidise membership from such coun- tries. It would take very little per member to allow such members to join, and this could be available to facilitate other such very poor countries to join us. Negotiations continue on this matter and Helene and Marcela will hope- fully have more information in due course.
So for those like me who have football running in the veins, I hope you enjoy the forthcoming tournament and I hope your team gives you something to cheer; for those to whom ‘soccer’ is ‘just a game’ I hope you enjoy the peace and quiet, while the rest of us are glued to the tele- vision screen!
But most of all may our beautiful medicine of homeopathy bring us closer together and bring us, our clients and patients peace.
Peter
For this reason the Association will not support any homeopathic research which involves animal suffering, whether from neglect or by study design’.
‘The IAVH takes the view that, as veteri- narians our primary responsibility is to alleviate and prevent suffering in animals.
Participation of IAVH in the IMPRO-Project as a sub- contractor of the University of Kassel
Impact matrix analysis and cost-benefit calculations to improve management practices regarding health status in organic dairy farming: www-impro-diary.eu
• Development of protocols of using homeopathy as a lege artis standard for mastitis and fertility in cattle stocks
• Contribution and discussion to a report on research proj-
ects in the field of homeopathy/phytotherapy
• Visit and examination of 60 farms in france, germany and
spain
• Investigating legal and factual conditions for the use of
homeopathy in Europe
More information office@iavh.org
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