Dr. Richard Pitcairn

DVM, Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy

Dr. Richard Pitcairn attended veterinary school in California graduating in 1965. First practicing with with a variety of animals — livestock, farm animals, circus animals, and pets — after two years he took a position on the faculty of the veterinary school at Washington State University. After teaching and operating the large animal clinic for a year, he entered graduate school full time in the department of microbiology. After a seven year period of study and research, with a major in immunology, he again joined the faculty to teach and do research during which time an interest in nutrition developed and led him to re-enter practice to put nutritional therapy to a practical test. In 1978, Dr. Pitcairn began the study of homeopathy and in 1985 established a clinic in Eugene, Oregon which, for over 20 years, offered only nutritional therapy and homeopathic medicine. With time he began teaching others in this method, establishing a year long post-graduate training program for veterinarians which is still ongoing and has graduated 500 veterinarians trained in homeopathic practice. In the 1990s he was one of the founders of the Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy, the first veterinary homeopathy professional organization in the United States. In 1982 Dr. Pitcairn, with his wife Susan, published a book on natural animal care that is still in print, as the fourth edition, having sold over 500,000 copies. Now retired from practice, Dr. Pitcairn focuses on writing, teaching and research in the area of homeopathy.

"I am an advocate for emphasizing a plant-based diet for dogs and cats for reasons of health, ethics and resource concern. Many of the chronic health problems in both dogs and cats are effects of eating other animals which have accumulated many environmental toxins, or that have been given drugs or other substances. As well, the accelerated development of “factory farming” has resulted in billions of animals, intended to be killed and eaten, to suffer very miserable lives. This is not acceptable to those of us that care about all animals. Lastly, it has become clear that our earth cannot support the demand of having diets regularly including animal products as the resources are now being depleted and will soon be exhausted. For these reasons, it is the most intelligent move for us, culturally, to learn to depend on plant sources for our basic nutrition. We can include our companion in this move as we are learning they can do quite well with this change and, in many cases, actually have improved health."