Rating: 
Summary: A truely eye-opening book
Review: I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I read this book while trying to determine if animal research was ethical or not. This book did not even address the ethical dilemna, but rather proved to me that animal research is scientifically unsound, delays medical progress, and wastes billions of dollars. I have never been so mad about where my tax dollars are spent.After reading this book I have determined I am against animal research for the harm it causes to humans. This book is a must read for anyone who receives medical treatment in the United States.
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Summary: Solid expose of the money-based medical research machine
Review: I worked for a biotech company for several years and can attest that what the Greeks are saying is true - it's all about the money, not the medicine. This book is not the easiest read, but it does methodically reveal both the faulty logic in play as well as the very powerful economic motives that really drive medical research. I recommend this to anyone considering donating money to any charity or organization for the purposes of "finding a cure" for any disease. Our tax dollars are mostly funding useless ego-enhancing science projects for which many animals are being tortured and killed. Whether you care about animal suffering or care more about where your tax dollar go, you will find reason to question the status quo in this book. Lazy science, easy money, none of it advances the cause of relieving human suffering via medical treatment.
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Summary: Drs. Greek have the courage to speak out on healthcare fraud
Review: It is rare that established physicians and veterinarians have the courage to speak out against the entrenched majority in their fields, even when that majority is wrong and responsible for fraud, waste and deceipt in our health care system. The Greeks responsibly spell out in well-referenced chapters why animal research is responsible for our lagging quality of health care despite massive research spending. Animal research seldoms translates into useful clinical data; instead it contributes only to animal-husbandry profits and academic advancement of pseudo-scientists entrenched in an ancient and disproven system. As a former animal researcher and current clinician, I applaud the efforts of Drs. Greek in educating the lay public around this sensitive issue. Hopefully the establishment scientific community will awaken to the massive waste of research dollars, and concentrate instead on dis-ease prevention and healthy lifestyles. The current state of Americans' poor health is a direct result of what we eat, smoke, and absorb from our polluted environment. Lets clean it up and leave the animals alone!
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Summary: Thinking people will appreciate this book
Review: The authors make a strong case for ending animal research, based simply on the wasted money and as the title says "sacred cows." I have long been aware of the fact that many professors who get national awards do little teaching in the college classroom. What makes me so angry as a taxpayer is how many University boards use the research grant monies for non-research programs and how much reasrch money gets funneled into programs that have been proven to be nothing more that an established program and nothing else of value. The book also points out that the money could actually be going to research that not only does not involve animals but would actually benefit humans. How many humans (after reading the book) died because some rearch department was run on ego and not on ethics? (After reading the book ask yourself this. Rather than test cigerettes etc on dogs why not simply study the dogs of smokers?) The authors also show how using animals for research actually delayed "cures". The Polio vaccine being a case in point. The authors also show how as a nation we have poor stats for life expectancy, infant mortality and other issues that basic medical care could tackle. Billions of dollars being wasted using animals when it could be used to prevent health problems. In fact that is one issue the authors make that I think cannot be stressed enough. To me this is like closing the barn door after the horse got away rather than "preventing" the problem to begin with. Yes I know that insulin from pork/beef saved my young sons life. But I also know that he uses humulin insulin and that animals need not be used. Why is it that even after they find something better, they still stick with the OLD ways? Money!!!!!!!!!!!! Yours and my TAX dollars!
Rating:
Summary: Thinking people will appreciate this book
Review: The authors make a strong case for ending animal research, based simply on the wasted money and as the title says "sacred cows." I have long been aware of the fact that many professors who get national awards do little teaching in the college classroom. What makes me so angry as a taxpayer is how many University boards use the research grant monies for non-research programs and how much reasrch money gets funneled into programs that have been proven to be nothing more that an established program and nothing else of value. The book also points out that the money could actually be going to research that not only does not involve animals but would actually benefit humans. How many humans (after reading the book) died because some rearch department was run on ego and not on ethics? (After reading the book ask yourself this. Rather than test cigerettes etc on dogs why not simply study the dogs of smokers?) The authors also show how using animals for research actually delayed "cures". The Polio vaccine being a case in point. The authors also show how as a nation we have poor stats for life expectancy, infant mortality and other issues that basic medical care could tackle. Billions of dollars being wasted using animals when it could be used to prevent health problems. In fact that is one issue the authors make that I think cannot be stressed enough. To me this is like closing the barn door after the horse got away rather than "preventing" the problem to begin with. Yes I know that insulin from pork/beef saved my young sons life. But I also know that he uses humulin insulin and that animals need not be used. Why is it that even after they find something better, they still stick with the OLD ways? Money!!!!!!!!!!!! Yours and my TAX dollars!
Rating:
Summary: Animal research: An unnecessary evil
Review: The authors uncover a troubling reality: that truly effective methods of medical research - such as autopsies, epidemiological studies, and clinical observation - don't pay. Whereas experimenting on animals generates not only lots of useless data, but lots and lots of money. The book is extremely readable and will take its place among other classic exposés which have blown the lid off of institutionalized deceit. Armed with this information, the American public can - and must - rightfully demand reform.
Rating: 
Summary: The Greeks should hit the Lab!
Review: The Greeks believe computer models and in-vitro work with isolated cells can solve our health problems. Perhaps they are right. But then, I suggest they hit the Lab and show this line of research is feasible. If they can do so, GREAT! I am pretty sure they will then get the attention of Washington to shift funding to such models. Until then, let Science work of us and wait patiently for the Greeks to cure cancer on their PC, or by drawing on the back of their napkin. Regarding their qualifications: I quick search on www.pubmed.gov shows that "Anesthesiologist Ray Greek and veterinarian Jean Swingle Greek" (as they present their credentials) have produced a total of 0 (yes, that's a ZERO) pieces of research and 8 opinion letters sent to various scientific journals arguing against animal research. It seems weird that someone without any research experience can write such a book...
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Summary: An Expose' Long Overdue
Review: This book is a FIRST. Backed by facts, not perpetuated by myth, Dr. Greek, et al have finally addressed a subject that has been concealed for too long. His "Just show me the data" approach has illuminated (not favorably) many research misdirections. Medical science has been hindered because of ignorance and greed. Money that could have gone to meaningful research has lined the pockets of pseudo-scientists. I am a medical doctor who was formerly involved in research, and I know that what Dr. Greek says is true. Progress can only be made through awareness, and now it is here. If you want to keep your head in the sand and believe the lies and subterfuge surrounding medical research, do NOT read this book. The first book I have read non-stop since Hunt for Red October. A MUST!
Rating:
Summary: Readable and Valuable
Review: This book may just provide the impetus that finally topples the animal model in disease research. Leaving aside passion, the Greeks present hard facts to support the ever-widening realization that animals make poor surrogates for humans, and that animal testing is at best poor science, and at worst, dangerous. This is information the public needs. Given that the costs of prescription drugs are accelerating with the momentum of a runaway train, anyone who pays taxes or makes charitable contributions to disease research organizations should be asking whether trillions of dollars have been wasted on pseudoscience just to win grant money and hide from lawsuits.
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Summary: best book on the subject--clear, cold-blooded logic
Review: This book stands virtually alone as a well-reasoned defense against vivisection (a.k.a. animal research). The authors make no appeals to emotion. They do not deny that animal research is sometimes cruel. However, compassion and cruelty have nothing to do with their argument. Greek and Greek-a medical doctor/ veterinary team-argue that animal research hurts people. They point out the countless ways in which animals differ from humans. Veterinarians know that, although the same drugs are used in multiple species, these drugs behave differently and achieve different results in different kinds of animals. Mammals are alike only on the level of gross anatomy. Biochemically, even rats and mice differ enormously, to say nothing of humans and mice. Tracing the history of western medicine, Greek and Greek show how animal models for disease became part of the expected protocol. They show how these models have hindered doctors and scientists far more than they have helped. They point out that nearly all major breakthroughs in medicine have been initiated not by study in animal models, but by autopsy and clinical studies. Careful observation of human beings by doctors and caretakers has, time and again, led to medical breakthroughs which are later "confirmed" or "substantiated" by animals research. The vivisectionists then claim the laurels for these discoveries when the animals were, in fact, superfluous. Greek and Greek also point out the tremendous harm that animal models have caused. Such models lead to a sense of false confidence that drugs will not be harmful or that the risk is low. In fact, the recall rate for drugs is 50%. Fifty percent have adverse, unexpected side affects after they are loosed on a population that has trusted in animal models. 50% is the toss of a coin! Millions upon millions of dollars are poured into animal tests yearly. In addition, animal models have slowed the recall of harmful drugs. Thalidomide is one of many examples. This drug causes hideous birth defects in humans, but no birth defects in rats, mice, most rabbits, guinea pigs, and other animals. Doctors realized that the drug was causing birth defects and warned the company, but thalidomide could not be recalled until an animal model was found in which the drug caused birth defects! So thalidomide remained on the market, causing children to be born with flippers, until an obscure species of rabbit was found who also produced deformed kits when given the drug. Only then could thalidomide be recalled! Greek and Greek show how the idea of the animal model is based on greed and bureaucracy, not good science. They explain that, while scientists of the past were primarily wealthy people doing a hobby they enjoyed, today's scientists are required to continually produce statistically significant results in order to keep their jobs. Just to graduate with a PhD requires a candidate to perform meaningful research. Under these conditions, the temptation to reach for something quick, easy, and difficult-to-disprove are enormous. Rats and mice fit the bill. They breed rapidly, are easy to house, and it takes a long time to show that the result of research in rats does not actually have any useful application for human beings. Clinical students in human beings, on the other hand, can take decades. In addition, human beings are far less corporative than rats, and there are limits to what you can legally do to them and what they will allow you to do. The catch, of course, is that clinical studies in human beings actually produce useful results, whereas animal models very often lead nowhere. Yet university professors anxious to keep their jobs and young students desperate to get their degrees continue to reach again and again for cheap and easy research models. In addition, huge companies manufacture expensive equipment for miniature surgeries on rats, dogs, cats, birds, mice, monkeys, goats, guinea pigs, rats, and all manner of other beasts. These creatures require all manner of housing, some of it vary expensive, and human-type surgeries on them require very specialized and expensive instruments. Animal models are a multimillion dollar industry. With today's technology, even many clinical studies could be circumvented by using invetro methods. Human cells can be cultivated on a Petri dish or in a test tube and then exposed to various drugs. There is no reason to keep using the clumsy and inaccurate barometer of four-legged creatures. Greek and Greek fill much of their book with one example after another. Their research is superb. I began the book as a skeptic and ended it as a believer. I have a degree in biology, and I could find nothing wrong with their research. I passed the book on to one of my college biology professors. He was impressed and decided to start including the material in his ethics course. Whether you are a member of the medical community or merely a consumer, I strongly recommend this book. Whether you agree with all of the Greeks' conclusions or not, they certainly make some valid points and have taken pains with their research. Read the book.
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