I'm studying pharmacy and this is what I worry about too.
I've had to learn about the testing process and it just makes me sad listening to it.
Of course, there is no way that I would get myself into drug development because I know all these methods and I would have to deal with it directly.
But I still want to be a voice for the animals. They do need to find other ways of testing these medicines.
I want to be a Community Pharmacist, so I would be dealing with the public. If people have issues with their medication due to their lifestyle choice, I would be there to listen to their concerns and help them with it. While some medication have no options to change to suit the patient, some do and I think everyone has the right to have a medication that suits them. More money needs to go into developing medications that would suit veg*ns.
I also plan to have my own pharmacy one day and I would really like to stock some cruelty free products, because we all know they can be very difficult to get your hands on.
I know that probably no one will every see this, but I thought I would post my choice anyway.
I went back to pharmacy, I am doing some research projects at the end of the year - lab based - no animals involved. Hoping to do a PhD in animal testing alternatives, and I talked to a lecturer about it and my concerns with having to perform tests on animals myself. She said that I wouldn't have to - I could just design my experimentation so I compared my data from non-animal experiments with a study that had already been conducted on animals.
That way no more animals would be harmed and if my results were better than those that the animal studies presented... Well I might just be onto something
I work in a community pharmacy at the moment, and I am the 'go-to-girl' when someone asks about nutrition, animal testing or animal-free alternatives... I fill a niche market in my pharmacy
one of the things i have always wanted to study is nutrition and become a dietician.. i would have done the course if i didn't feel so awkward about it.. the only thing that put me off is having to learn about animal products meeting a nutritionally balanced diet and then telling clients to eat those products.. where would i find employment as a veg dietician? i don't want to complete 4 years of study and then find it really difficult to find employment.. any opinions or experience with this field? i dislike moral dilemmas..
I actually met a 'vegetarian' dietician once. I use the inverted commas because she was vegetarian when she lived in the city, but her family lived in rural Australia. Anytime she went home, they only ever ate their own sheep that they raised and killed. So she ate them because she knew exactly where she came from and she said she could trust her father to make the death as quick and painless as possible...
I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. I had never thought of that before...
But that is beside the point.
I think a vegetarian/vegan specialised dietician would be amazing! I think a lot of people would agree. I went to a dietician once and 'eat meat' was basically the response. I think you could certainly study it and give a lot of your assignments a vegetarian/vegan focus. That way you could direct your degree in more of a direction you were interested in! Of course you would probably still have to attend the 'meat is good for you' lecture... but there are always ways around these things.
I actually met a 'vegetarian' dietician once. I use the inverted commas because she was vegetarian when she lived in the city, but her family lived in rural Australia. Anytime she went home, they only ever ate their own sheep that they raised and killed. So she ate them because she knew exactly where she came from and she said she could trust her father to make the death as quick and painless as possible...
I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. I had never thought of that before...
But that is beside the point.
I think a vegetarian/vegan specialised dietician would be amazing! I think a lot of people would agree. I went to a dietician once and 'eat meat' was basically the response. I think you could certainly study it and give a lot of your assignments a vegetarian/vegan focus. That way you could direct your degree in more of a direction you were interested in! Of course you would probably still have to attend the 'meat is good for you' lecture... but there are always ways around these things.
NICHE MARKET!!
well maybe it's worth me approaching a course coordinator about it.. my concern is that my values come before anything else and i'm not willing to sacrifice them.. i love niche markets but i'm just assuming that dieticians aren't in high demand..
Im studying nutrition and dietetics and I wont lie its a challenge, sitting there listening to lecturers preaching about how great dairy and meat are...its like dude, read the china study. I'm only in my first year but there are a lot of tough science subjects included, and I dont know how I will go if it comes to animal experiments. So far we've used horse blood...which i have a problem with, but have done the experiments. I dont think there will be any vivisection, but if there is dissection I really dont think ill be able to do it. I try to keep in mind the end goal (spreading the vegan love with people not being able to discredit the information by saying oh she's just some crazy vegan - crazy vegan with a BS Nutrition and Dietetics thank you very much), but sometimes it is hard, cause you're up against it all the time. Its really interesting though, and Id recommend at least giving it a go
