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Via Complaint to be filed against Hershey Med for using live pigs in training program by staff reporter Merriell Moyer, Lebanon (PA) Daily News, December 18, 2018:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research and medical training.

Via A Tiff with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a September 21, 2011 archived blog item by junk science debunker Joseph A."Dr. Joe" Schwarcz PhD, Director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society:   

(The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) identifies itself as a “Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research.” I disagree with that description. I consider PCRM to be a fanatical animal rights group with a clear cut agenda of promoting a vegan lifestyle and eliminating all animal experimentation.

Based on PCRM's unprincipled 30-year relationship with my father, I'm with Dr. Joe.

For journalists and others who need credible citations to accurately identify the organization, I made a compilation of published mainstream sources that tag PCRM as an "animal rights" group. (See below the images of a couple of PCRM billboards used to gin up media attention.)

I'd welcome other examples. Please feel free to send via e-mail and I may add them to the list.

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'Interesting' Juxtaposition by Sharon M. Russell, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, The Scientist (letter to the editor), March 1994

The juxtaposition in the Nov. 15, 1993, issue of The Scientist -- Nobel laureate David Hubel's thoughtful essay regarding the threat to medical progress posed by the animal rights movement ("Animal Rights Movement Threatens Progress Of U.S. Medical Research," page 11) and the letter by antivivisectionist Neal Barnard (page 12) -- was interesting, to say the least.

In his article, Hubel pointed out the ties between the terrorist Animal Liberation Front and the above-ground People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A January 1992 publication of the Office of Technology Assessment (Technology Against Terrorism: Structuring Security) links these groups with Barnard's own organization, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, whose views, the OTA report notes, appear "to have little support within the medical community" (page 27).

Defending the Use Of Animal Research, Ralph Dell MD Chairman, Board of Directors, Fred Quimby VMD, PhD, Vice Chairman, Frank Jones Secretary, Stanley P. Liebenberg DVM Treasurer, Marianne O'Boyle Koch Executive Director, The Health, Safety and Research Alliance of New York State, Goshen, NY, New York Times (letter to the editor), May 5, 1996:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is an animal-rights organization posing as part of the establishment.

Dietary Guidelines Need Cultural Diversity, Group Says by V. Dion Haynes, Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1999:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a vegetarian and animal-rights group, wants the USDA to make meats and dairy products optional, offering green leafy vegetables and fruits in their places, particularly for some minorities.

The PETA Connection by Jacqueline Calnan, President, Americans for Medical Progress, (letter to the editor, Washington Post, January 19, 2002:

As can be seen on PCRM's own Web site, despite its name, fewer than 5 percent of PCRM's members have medical degrees. The group has a long history of opposing important research programs funded by respected health charities such as the American Heart Association, the March of Dimes, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

PCRM opposes any use of laboratory animals in biomedical research, regardless of benefit. It was created in 1984 to provide a false patina of scientific credibilty to the extreme animal rights agenda espoused by PETA and other groups. Its involvement in animal rights activism remains strong.

PCRM's president, Neal Barnard, is also president of the Foundation to Support Animal Protection, which is housed in PETA's headquarters in Norfolk. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk is the foundation's vice president. According to IRS records, in 2000, the sole grant awarded by the foundation was to PCRM, in the amount of $432,524, nearly a fifth of PCRM's budget.

It is unfortunate that your paper failed to give its readers the information they need to assess the credibility and motives of PCRM.

Profile: Neal Barnard by Meredith Wadman, Nature, June 1, 2006:

Descended from a long line of cattle ranchers, Neal Barnard seems an unlikely advocate for animal rights.

Beware deception in diabetes book by Bradley J. Fikes, staff writer, San Diego Union Tribune, January 21, 2007:

(Dr. Neal) Barnard is president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which wants to eliminate consumption of animal foods and end all animal research. He and the PCRM itself are closely aligned with the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. Barnard was president of the PETA Foundation until recently. His books are advertised on PETA's Web site.

The Animal Research Wars, P. Michael Cohn, James V. Parker, Palgrave McMillan Books, May 2008:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, led by Neal Barnard, MD, sounds like a bona fide independent and professional medical group. It turns out that less than 10 percent of PCRM member ship consists of physicians and that it receives funding from The Foundation to Support Animal Protection, an organization that evidently funds various charitable, educational, and scientific groups including PeTA and PCRM (Carmichael).

"Responsible medicine" is code for an agenda promoting diets and medical practices not dependent on animals.

Animal rights group complains about use of pigs in class, Associated Press, July 2, 2008:

An animal rights group is calling for a federal investigation of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's use of pigs.

...(The) Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says the use of the animals - which are put under anesthetized during the procedures and later killed - violates the Animal Welfare Act.

Animal rights activists target Brookhaven Lab workers by Delthia Ricks, Newsday, September 16, 2010:

Brookhaven National Laboratory employees were targets of a "robo call" campaign Thursday, sponsored by the animal-rights organization Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is protesting a proposed squirrel monkey experiment at the lab.

Wayne State research triggers accusations of animal cruelty by Dustin Blitchok, The Oakland (MI) Press, December 11, 2017:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a petition for enforcement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in October that accused the university and Donal O'Leary, Ph.D., of Animal Welfare Act violations.

...In the letter to the prosecutor's office, the animal rights group's director of academic affairs, Dr. John Pippin, and its associate general counsel, Mark Kennedy, allege that the university has violated the state law by "cruelly working hundreds of dogs, by forcing them to endure lengthy treadmill tests after multiple major surgeries."

Exploiting Men’s Insecurity About Their Penises Is a Terrible Way to Promote Vegetarianism by L.V. Anderson, Slate, January 29, 2014:

Enter the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine -- a nonprofit whose apolitical-sounding name belies the fact that it’s an animal rights group.

Animal rights group criticizes Vanderbilt’s use of sheep by Tom Wilemon, Nashville Tennessean, November 18, 2014:

An animal rights organization plans to report Vanderbilt University to a federal agency for needlessly using live sheep to train doctors, but a spokesman for its medical center said the complaint is inaccurate.

...The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Tuesday released a copy of a letter that it planned to send Wednesday to a U.S. Department of Agriculture official responsible for regulating animal welfare.

Animal-rights physicians’ group blasts UTMC; 3 billboards go up over use of pigs by Nolan Rosenkrans, Toledo Blade, January 28, 2015:

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington-based physician group that focuses on animal rights, claims the former Medical College of Ohio’s use of pigs is unnecessary because other methods are available that don’t involve animals.

Johns Hopkins medical students will no longer train on live animals by Meredith Cohn, Baltimore Sun, May 18, 2016:

The move leaves the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine in Chattanooga as the last holdout among medical schools in the United States and Canada, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal rights group that has waged a decade-long battle to stop the use of animals in training.

Top medical school ends training on live animals, CBS News/AP, May 19, 2016:

Johns Hopkins is one of two accredited medical schools in North America that use animals in medical education, according to animal rights group the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Ad blasts animal medical experiments at Wayne State, The Detroit News, June 16, 2016:

An animal rights group plans to show an advertisement in a Detroit theater this week to highlight the plight of a dog they claim died after medical experiments at Wayne State University.

The 15-second spot is slated to appear before each movie on all 10 screens of the Bel Air Luxury Cinema starting Friday -- the release date for the animated film “Finding Dory,” said officials with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Animal-rights group wants investigation of USC medical school’s use of live pigs by Avery G. Wilks, The State, Columbia SC, August 25, 2016:

An animal-rights group on Thursday called for a federal investigation into the University of South Carolina’s use of live pigs in emergency medicine training.

The Washington, D.C.,-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says the emergency medicine residency program, run by USC School of Medicine and Palmetto Health, violates the Animal Welfare Act by operating on pigs when alternatives are available.

Just who is the group protesting live animal training in Fargo? by Bradford Arick, Valley News Live, Fargo ND, April 6, 2017:

"How does someone look at I’ll say an event like this demonstration and not say well you're not actually a physician's organization, you're just an animal rights advocacy group?” asked Arick.

Billboards take aim at HCMC's animal testing practices; Animal rights group advocates switching to simulators instead by Tim Harlow, MN Star Tribune, June 8, 2017:

(The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) is using billboards to call out Hennepin County Medical Center for using live animals to teach and train physicians in emergency medical procedural skills.

The animal-rights group says the hospital should instead use simulators.

Via media reports last week, PCRM is posting this billboard in College Station, TX

As Sidebar readers know, for years I've been growling about the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) because of the group's perverse relationship with my father.

The deep-pockets, celebrity driven Washington, D.C. nonprofit has also been criticized for failing to disclose its agenda.

Per junk science debunker Joe "Dr. Joe" Schwarcz PhD, Director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society:

This organization identifies itself as a “Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research.” I disagree with that description. I consider PCRM to be a fanatical animal rights group with a clear cut agenda of promoting a vegan lifestyle and eliminating all animal experimentation.

I'll leave it to others to determine if PCRM has been playing "hide the agenda."

But in this quickie video posted on the group's YouTube site a few days ago, PCRM executive Colin Schwartz, pretty much echoes Dr. Joe's description (sans the "fanatical").

About 20 seconds in, he describes PCRM's mission as "increasing plant-based nutrition and ending the use of animals in research, training, and testing."

That sounds like an "animal rights group" to me.



Via PCRM's biography of Schwartz:

He is personally invested in the organization – the Physicians Committee’s work on plant-based nutrition helped Colin adopt a vegan diet.

Speaking of investing in a vegan diet, check out my recent item about what Schwartz's boss, the somewhat gaunt Neal Barnard MD, considers healthy eating.

PCRM founder/president Neal Barnard MD, who has devoted much of his career to ending the use of animals in medical research, recently told a Cincinnati reporter he considers my father to be "a role model." But my father used beagles to develop "the Heimlich" and a few years ago my father's Heimlich Institute donated $615,000 to fund cancer research using mice.

Dr. Barnard and his organization never respond to my inquiries, but if any reporters are reading this, next time you're doing a story about PCRM, why not ask if he considers his organization to be an animal rights group?

Here's another fair question to ask Dr. Barnard and crew.

Do they think any medical research using animal models -- for example, the development of the Heimlich maneuver -- has been beneficial?

Via a September 21, 2011 column by Joe Schwarcz PhD, Director, McGill University's Office for Science and Society:

(The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) identifies itself as a “Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research.” I disagree with that description. I consider PCRM to be a fanatical animal rights group with a clear cut agenda of promoting a vegan lifestyle and eliminating all animal experimentation.

Sidebar readers know about my beef (sorry) with vegan-centric PCRM.

Presumably to keep my famous father on their "advisory board," the deep-pockets nonprofit and its founder/president, Neal Barnard MD -- a non-practicing psychiatrist who dresses to impress by donning a white lab coat -- turn a blind eye to the Heimlich Institute's notorious "malariotherapy" experiments and put the public at risk by promoting the use of the Heimlich maneuver for drowning rescue.

For example, this clip from Brian Ross's ABC 20/20 report about my father's dangerous claims and my efforts to bring the information to public attention:



And when my father needs a gushing squib for his forthcoming memoir?


I can only pray that he's right and that no one else has ever lived a life remotely like my father's "journey," including his relationships with narco doctors who lost their licenses and went to prison.

Since my father turns 94 this week, is living in a retirement home, and hasn't held a medical license since 2002, it's unclear what his duties consist of as an advisory board member for PCRM.

I only hope he didn't participate in their latest campaign.



Hat tip to L.V. Anderson at Slate!

From his McGill bio:

Joe Schwarcz (PhD McGill 1973) is Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society, a unique enterprise with a mandate of demystifying science for the public, the media and students..."Dr. Joe" has appeared hundreds of times on the Canadian Discovery Channel, TV Ontario, Global Television, CBC-TV, CTV-TV and various radio stations. He hosts the "Dr. Joe Show" on Montreal's CJAD every Sunday from 3-4 PM.



seg. 1: The disclosure of a family secret leads me into researching my father's career

seg. 2: Coming to grips with my father's dangerous medical claims; the "Patrick maneuver"

seg. 3: Failure of the medical profession to police itself; bogus drowning case reports involving the use of the Heimlich maneuver; my criticism of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

seg. 4: My decision to blow the whistle on my father's frauds; reactions of family members; my father won't defend his work

seg. 5: My father's 1976 firing by Cincinnati's Jewish Hospital; more PCRM critique; my father used beagles to develop the Heimlich maneuver