Ok, this is ridiculous
While listening to The World in the car yesterday I heard a report about the FDA approving an obesity drug for dogs. Nothing like hearing this news that fat Americans are passing on the fatness to their innocent pets delivered over the radio in a tight, British accent. "This is a welcome addition to animal therapies, because dog obesity appears to be increasing," says some veterinarian.
Dog obesity is increasing? You mean people are feeding our pets too much, exercising them too little and generally treating them in the same irresponsible manner as we've been treating ourselves and our children? So glad we've got an agency of the federal government dedicating resources to making sure our doggies can have weight loss drugs. That totally sounds like a good expenditure of resources. I mean, without drugs Fido might have to resort to doggie liposuction!
Of course, this is why Pfizer is the largest and among the most profitable drug companies in the world. (Pfizer makes such common household names as Lipitor, Listerine, Ludens, Neosporin, Sudafed, Viagra, and Zoloft and many, many more. I guess they're running out of drugs to make for people.) I hope Slentrol is better for Fido than Vioxx worked for humans!
Dog obesity is increasing? You mean people are feeding our pets too much, exercising them too little and generally treating them in the same irresponsible manner as we've been treating ourselves and our children? So glad we've got an agency of the federal government dedicating resources to making sure our doggies can have weight loss drugs. That totally sounds like a good expenditure of resources. I mean, without drugs Fido might have to resort to doggie liposuction!
Of course, this is why Pfizer is the largest and among the most profitable drug companies in the world. (Pfizer makes such common household names as Lipitor, Listerine, Ludens, Neosporin, Sudafed, Viagra, and Zoloft and many, many more. I guess they're running out of drugs to make for people.) I hope Slentrol is better for Fido than Vioxx worked for humans!
Grr. This connects brutally with a terrific essay by A.A. Gill I just read (called "I Don't Know What Makes You Angry . . .", which originally appeared in Britain's Sunday Times) about killer diseases and drug manufacturers and money in Africa. Gill points out that "there is more money spent researching a cure for baldness than all tropical diseases." And the tropical diseases that are the subject of his essay are gruesome ones, that kill millions of people, often slowly and often with a great deal of suffering.
"Of the 1,223 mediciines developed between 1975 and 1997," he says, "just thirteen were for tropical diseases. Only four sprang from the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to cure humans. None was found on purpose."
I wonder if the dog-obesity drug was found on purpose.
Jenny