Over the more than 15 years I have been writing this blog, I have tried to call attention to some individuals who consistently and egregiously disdain science and offer unfounded, potentially dangerous products or advice. This effort, more than any other aspect of the blog, has generated vehement and voluminous hostile response from the individuals themselves and their supporters.
Nearly all of these people have, of course, carried on quite happily with their unscientific practices regardless of my criticism and that of others. Some, however, have run afoul of the weak and generally ineffectual system of legal and regulatory oversight that is meant to protect the public from dangerous and ineffective veterinary practice.
This system is under-resourced and subject to the whims of politics, and it rarely seems to care about whether vets provide treatment that is safe and effective. Most actions taken by veterinary medical boards or the legal system concern administrative or procedural violations, malfeasance involving money or controlled drugs, or other transgressions that are not related to whether the practices an individual sells or advocates actually work. The legal system is notoriously unable to impose any basic standard of care that relies on science, leaving the public at the mercy of the judgement of individuals vets.
While this may seem appropriate (vets should be, after all, better able to judge the legitimacy of medical therapies than judges and lawyers), it provides not even the most basic guardrails against pseudoscience and nonsense. I often find myself wondering what the point is of licensing veterinarians and having a government-sanctioned monopoly on the practice of veterinary medicine if the government is effectively going to let any quack sell nearly any nonsense they like as “medicine.” How does this protect the public?
In this context, it requires some pretty extreme behavior to draw legal or regulatory sanction, and even then such sanction is rarely focused on the unreasonable practice itself but some technical violation of the laws or regulations. And when such sanctions are applied, they seem to rarely hinder the individual from continuing to practice whatever nonsense they favor.
In the past, I have pointed out that, for example, Gloria Dodd was warned and sanctioned for illegal pseudoscientific practices, yet she continued to offer them until her death, and her company continued to do so for some time after that. Jonathan Nyce defrauded people with a fake cancer cure for pets (along with plenty of other sketchy activities) for many years before finally being sentenced to prison. Eric Weisman has been sanctioned by the boards for medicine, veterinary medicine, and chiropractic in his state over decades, yet he is still offering claims and services on his web site that seem inconsistent with the law.
My point in discussing these individuals and their interactions with the legal and regulatory system, then, is clearly not to stop their activities, since I have no power to do so. I simply want the public to understand how extreme these people are. Contrary to the myth they peddle of malign and well-funded Big Pharma or other entrenched interests persecuting these noble folks, who are just trying to help people and their pets, the reality is that it takes a lot for work for a veterinarian to get even a slap on the wrist in the current regulatory environment. These people flout even the minimal standards that exist, and while they undoubtedly believe they are brave to do so, they are really just reckless and a danger to the public.
The latest examples include one vet I have written about in the past, Jean Dodds, and another I have been aware of but really not written much about, Margo Roman (apart from a short callout in 2010 when she was selling a nude calendar featuring holistic” veterinarians as a way to raise funds for a series of propaganda videos about alternative veterinary medicine).
Margo Roman
Dr. Roman is a proponent of many of the standards of alternative medicine- acupuncture, herbs, homeopathy, etc. She has extreme views on vaccines, diet, and plenty of other subjects. Her particular passions seem to be microbiome-based therapies (derived, of course, from her raw-fed, minimally vaccinated, “chemical-free” dogs) and ozone therapy. It is the latter that most recently got her in trouble with the authorities.
Dr. Roman received a two-year suspension of her veterinary license for recommending to her clients the unscientific and illegal use of ozone to prevent or cure COVID-19. A court decision upheld that sanction. This may seem a drastic action relative to the violation, though it did constitute practicing human medicine without a license, which the government tends to take a bit ore seriously than violations concerning animal patients. However, some investigative reporting has identified a pattern of blatant and egregious behavior that may explain the suspension in this case.
According to this report, has repeatedly been found to have practiced unscientific and ineffective medicine leading to serious patient harm and suffering. A Golden retriever named Lily, who was dying of cancer, was left to suffer after she talked the owners out of euthanasia and employed homeopathy, acupuncture, ozone, and other worthless interventions that clearly had no effect. Another dog was put through a painful dental procedure, with Dr. Roman reportedly filing down many of its teeth and providing no pain control or antibiotics.
She has also been involved in legal action with Tufts University after taking her horse to the veterinary hospital and then refusing to pay for services because the staff was honest about the fact that her alternative therapies were not helping the horse and that the it was suffering. Later she was barred from attending an educational event at the school, which she apparently wanted to attend to challenge the stance of the talk opposing raw diets, since she had refused to pay her bill. The court found her lawsuit in response to be without merit.
Of course, Dr. Roman and her supporters are portraying her as a victim, harassed by entrenched interests that are threatened by her alternative methods. The real victims, however, are the patients she has treated with these methods and their human families, whether they know it or not.
Jean Dodds
The other veterinarian recently sanctioned will be much more familiar to readers. Jean Dodds has consistently refused to accept the scientific reality that much of what she advocates is unproven or worthless, such as her Nutriscan allergy testing. She also repeatedly refuses to accept that the government has an authority over what she does as a vet. Despite not having a license to practice veterinary medicine, she offers diagnostic and treatment advice based on the Nutriscan test, and as a result she was cited by the California Veterinary Medical Board for unlicensed practice in 2021. She has continued to do so anyway, and last month she was again cited for unlicensed practice.
The arrogance of not only inventing and selling pseudoscientific tests and treatments but of ignoring the fact that doing so is clearly illegal is really quite stunning. Sadly, when reporting on her 2021 citation I said,
I am not sanguine that there will be any significant consequences for Dr. Dodds stemming from this action…I will not be at all surprised if Dr. Dodds manages to evade responsibility and continue her practices regardless of this action.
Looks like I was right then, and I see little hope that the lates slap on the wrist will change Dr. Dodds’ behavior or shake the confidence of her followers.
If you wander why it’s hard to pull their license I just signed up for the county veterinary association lecture on acupuncture and adequan required by law ce. When quaks quack off what they usually are doing is promoting unproven medical care in the market place. Its difficult to draw a line between quackery and the stuff that gets promoted at required by law CE. People are now traveling out of the country to get veterinary care do to cost to avoid pts. Original Article by Ross Kelly appeared on VIN, March 19, 2025
In brief
* Pet owners in wealthier countries are going abroad for cheaper veterinary care. Popular destinations include places that already have large medical tourism offerings for humans, such as Mexico and Turkey.
* Demand is augmented by courier services that take pets across borders, whether by road or air.
* Price savings can be significant. Practices in Tijuana, for instance, offer popular procedures, such as treating torn ligaments, for around a third of the cost in the United States, according to business owners there.