Let’s bash Oz some more


It’s fun! He is such a bad doctor and a dishonest candidate. He also tortures and kills puppies. That’s almost comically villainous.

In 2004, complaints about Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dog experiments were cited in a report from an internal investigation into allegations of poor animal care made by Dr. Catherine Dell’Orto, a post-doctoral veterinarian. See also individual reports of Dr. Oz’s dog experiments. According to the report, “highly invasive and stressful experiments” on dogs were performed without a “humane end point.” AWA violations included a litter of whelped puppies killed by painful cardiac injection:

“The screams of these puppies could be heard through closed doors. All of these puppies, lying in a plastic garbage bag, were killed in the presence of their litter mates.”

Subsequent applications for grants to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by Dr. Oz have been denied. In 2004, Columbia paid $2,000 in fines to the USDA.

I have to make a significant caveat to that accusation, though. Almost all the sources are from PETA, and PETA is not trustworthy. I haven’t been able to find a source outside PETA for the claims (there is an NYT article from that time, buried deep behind a paywall), but that NIH cut his support is a more significant fact…but on the other hand, a $2000 fine is kind of insignificant. I also have no idea what the purpose of the experiments was — why was a TV doctor doing that?

True confession: I’ve euthanized puppies in the past (not in over 40 years, though!), and why would you do it with cardiac injection, and why would you do it en masse? Something is wrong there. Ask a vet who has to put animals to sleep — you do it quietly, respectfully, and with a sedative injection that lets them die peacefully. Screaming animals means you’re doing it wrong.

But then, Oz has always been an ethical nightmare. He has been featured in the AMA Journal of Ethics, and not positively.

Columbia’s affiliation with Oz had been under fire long before he launched a surprise Senate run in late November. In 2015, when Oz testified before the Senate about his endorsement of shady “miracle” cures, a group of some of the country’s top medical professionals sent Columbia a blistering letter demanding the renowned medical school fire the Oprah-blessed daytime star.

“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops,” the physicians wrote. “Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.”

Columbia University has also severed all ties with him (rather murkily, unfortunately).

After years of criticism, Columbia University Medical Center has finally—quietly—cut public ties with celebrity doctor turned Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz.

The acclaimed teaching hospital, where Oz held senior positions like vice chair of surgery and director of integrated medicine for years, stripped his personal pages from their website in mid-January.

I had no idea Columbia was in Pennsylvania, though.

Can we all forget Oz after the November elections? I look forward to that.

Comments

  1. keithb says

    Yeah, this sounds like the case (a decade ago?) where there was a researcher humanely using cats. PETA found out and wrote some articles. An office worker that worked in the same building as the researcher got wind of it and complained about the non-existent screaming coming from the researcher’s lab.

  2. StevoR says

    He also tortures and kills puppies. That’s almost comically villainous.

    What the fuck!? Seriously? Fucking hell!

    Ok, PETA. so not that credible a source but still what the.. ? I hope they are lying but..

    PS. Damn, I still call Australia .. Oz..*

    (To the tune of I still call Australia home – Quantas ad version but still . )

    Yeah, let’s forget this vile grifter with that name ASAP please! Hopefully this will end his political & media career permanently and have serious consequences mayeb even jail please if it is true. Altho’.. well, given current & recent politico-legal history in the USA…

  3. raven says

    hollywoodreporter.com
    BY ALEX WEPRIN APRIL 7, 2022 1:26PM

    Political candidates are required to file financial disclosure forms, and Oz is no exception. His form, filed Wednesday night, reveals just how complex — and lucrative — his daytime talk show was. Oz’s net worth is over $100 million, according to the disclosure, and could be as high as $500 million (the Senate disclosure forms allow fairly broad value ranges for assets).

    Dr. Oz is good at one thing at least.

    Making money.
    His net worth is between $100 million and $500 million.

    Dr. Oz Owns 10 Houses, and He’s Lying About It – Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-news

    Aug 17, 2022 — Dr. Mehmet Oz told voters he owns two houses, but public data reveals the GOP Senate candidate owns a total of 10 properties.

    He is also good at spending it, although most of his real estate is probably for investment purposes.

  4. muttpupdad says

    Always amazed by the healthy people in PETA groups picketing research facilities. Never see any handicapped people out there with them. I wonder why?s/

  5. lanir says

    Most of us can probably forget about him. To be honest I had until he stopped being a pretend doctor so he could be a pretend politician. And yes, I know he seems to have been a real doctor at some point but he gave up doing real work to cosplay as a doctor instead. I guess it pays better.

    But there is one group that’s likely to remember him: campaign strategists. You just know that for years to come anyone in that position who isn’t working for a republican is going to be asking themselves “How do I get my candidate’s opponent to pull a Dr. Oz..?”

  6. chris61 says

    Not a fan of Dr Oz but I very much doubt he was torturing puppies ( or dogs of any age). Having spent a couple of summers working in a surgical research department, the actual animal care was undertaken by the technicians and students. (Surgeons’ time is far too valuable to be spent on animal care.)

  7. call me mark says

    PETA are vile. They have no real regard for animal welfare at all. With their record of euthanizing healthy animals, they have no business at all criticizing other people for killing puppies.

    And of course that’s making the rather huge assumption that these claims against Oz are even true. Frankly if PETA claimed that the sky was blue, I’d go outside to check.

  8. Carol Czapik says

    These charges are Bull!
    Here’s the difference. The videos being shown with Oz were from years ago when drugs were tested on animals before they could be used on humans.

    Fauci sedated beagle puppies and cut their vocal cords so they didn’t cry as they were being eaten alive by parasites. THAT was torture. Those puppies were literally in pain.

    I guess you prefer a man who looks like Satan who is going to murder babies instead, who wants to empty the prisons of murders and rapists and put them back on the street, a man who wants to allow heroin users to shoot up on the streets and who lived with mommy and daddy until they were 49 and then he did not want to pay his taxes. You people are killing our country!