User:MaynardClark/Draft:Armaiti May, DVM

Armaiti May, DVM, CVA, is a mobile vet who practices holistic veterinary medicine in West Los Angeles. She researches and speaks about philosophical perspectives on animals and advocates for the evidence base for optimizing safe, health-supporting vegan diets for dogs and cats and is organizing and advocating for addition research relevant to vegan companion animals. Currently she is publicizing and soliciting money for a study comparing 25 breed-match dogs on vegan diets with 25 other dogs on conventional, nonvegetarian diets. The animals will be compared with data from blood samples, stools, and clinical/physical exams done over 4+ months. She practices evidence-based ethical veganism. She also founded the nonprofit Veterinary Association for the Protection of Animals (VAPA), to educate the veterinary profession about the benefits of veganism and to encourage veterinary schools to offer humane surgical teaching methods to students.

Education

 * Samohi, 1997, Santa Monica, California
 * University of California, Berkeley, College of Natural Resources, B.S. in Bioresource Sciences, 2001, Berkeley, California
 * University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, DVM, June 2005, Davis, California. She was the youngest veterinary student in her class of 122 students.  She finished while she was 24 years old.
 * Dr. May worked at VCA McClave Veterinary Hospital, an emergency dog and cat hospital in Reseda, California, and then trained in veterinary acupuncture through the Chi Institute of Chinese Medicine.
 * Certification in animal chiropractic, Options for Animals, 2015

Career
Childhood

Armaiti May was born into a Gandhian family. She is the granddaughter of a freedom fighter for social justice in India.

Early career

Armaiti May was reared as a vegetarian by her Zoroastrian parents from India. She was a vegan and animal advocate before college and before her study in veterinary school. On earth, some of the strongest mammals and other animals are vegetarian: giraffes, elephants, oxen, bulls, moose, silverback gorillas.

For two years (2005-2007) following her 2005 vet school graduation, Dr. May worked at McClave Veterinary Hospital in Reseda, California, an emergency dog and cat hospital, and then trained in veterinary acupuncture through the Chi Institute of Chinese Medicine, 'to integrate Eastern and Western veterinary medicine' for her animal patients.

Advocacy

Dr. May attended her first animal rights conference in 2001. Today she translates her vegan ethical moral compass through her veterinary profession and her scientific understanding and practice. She travels at her own expense to speak as an invited guest or participant in free vegan and animal advocacy events.

Pet cancers and other diseases

About 40% of all cats are diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes. A higher percentage of dogs are diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes. These cancers are largely traceable to the commercial pet foods these companion animals are being fed. How an older animal responds to the introduction of plant-based foods is a significant factor in how well that specific animal could fare with such a plant-based diet. Such diets need to be carefully monitored by veterinary professionals to adjust their food for their well-being.

"85% of pets over age 3 years of age have periodontal disease." citing Dr. Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, DipABVP.

Veterinary medicine

Her speaking and writing as a veterinary concerns how to care optimally for animals, how nutrition plays into proper and optimal care for animals, and how vegan values can inform animal-optimizing vegan nutrition as part of optimizing care and health outcomes for animals under stewardship-level care.

Her issues concerning vegan dogs can be itemized in this way:
 * Feeding meat-based diets to dogs causes unnecessary slaughter of farmed animals, and is both unhealthful for the dogs and unsustainable for our ecosystem.
 * Scientific studies show that meat-based diets for either humans or companion animals have dangerously high levels of cancer-causing heavy metals including arsenic in chicken, mercury in fish, and a vast array of other harmful chemicals. The concentration of these carcinogens and other hazardous substances are much higher in meat-based foods due to bioaccumulation of the toxins up the food chain. Cancer is on the rise in dogs, with approximately 50% of dogs dying from cancer.
 * Dogs are omnivores and can digest carbohydrates more effectively than their wolf ancestors. Dogs have no nutritional requirement for meat. In fact, dogs can thrive - and do thrive - when fed exclusively plant-based diets.
 * Most of the human-generated greenhouse gas emissions originate from the livestock industry. Switching dogs from meat to plants will help preserve our planet’s natural resources and significantly reduce animal suffering.

Her clinical veterinary business, "Armaiti May, DVM", is incorporated as an LLC in Santa Monica, California.

Research
Plant-Based Dog Health Study

In Los Angeles County, a ballot measure would require shelter dogs to be fed on exclusively plant-based diets. This is expected to save money for taxpayers, reduce risk of preventable food-related degenerative conditions in shelter animals, save the lives of other animals designated as 'food animals' in factory farming, reduce money spent in the oppression of 'feed animals', and reduce greenhouse gases produced by the production of meat and animal products. Many if not most of the animals in shelter are not placed through adoption, and thus most of them are slated for euthanasia.

If this Los Angeles initiative passes, the plant-based dog food provided at the second largest shelter system in the United States could dramatically reduce direct harms to animals and indirect harms to the ecosystem.

Currently, by their own admission, the plant-based diet for dogs is lacking in scientific research results. Without evidence, shelter veterinarians are vocally opposed to it. Equipoise is a key epistemological issue in any comparison study, and two items need essential funding.


 * 1) Approximately $25,000 is required to do the toxin analysis comparing several different vegan and meat meal formulas. Budgeting this level of research is expected to provide sufficient scientific evidence for better informing future decision making about feeding plant-based diets to dogs in humane shelters and other settings.


 * 2) An ethically-conducted experimental study that has two groups of dogs and provides evidence of the healthier choice in comparing a plant-based diet and a meat-meal-based diet (with an estimated budget of $100,000). Participating dogs would not be subjected to invasive procedures and would be or already are cared for as companions in their current homes managed by human beings stewarding them.  They would not be left to, not left to languish in cages.

The Plant-Based Dog Health Study is being conducted from the newest veterinary school in the United States, Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, which publicly expresses a humane philosophy of animal care in research and practice.

Bringing to fruition the goal of providing plant-based food for Los Angeles shelter dogs, which is calculated to save lives of approximately 33,000 farmed animals each year and possibly to model for other municipalities globally and across North America requires external funding for its project-driven budget.

Clinical veterinary trials would be designed, conducted, and supervised by Professor Tonatiuh Melgarejo, DVM, PhD, Professor of Translational Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California in order to compare and evaluate health outcomes of dogs fed a plant-based diet as their only source of nutrition, compared with those fed standard meat-based commercial diets. Some generous sympathetic donors have offered $50K in matching funds for $75,000 raised from other donors. Dr. Melgarejo was formerly with Kansas State University and the Kansas State University Research Foundation.

As part of her advocacy for developing the strong evidence base for optimizing safe, health-supporting vegan diets for dogs and cats, Dr. May currently is organizing and advocating for addition research relevant to vegan companion animals. She is publicizing and soliciting money for a study comparing 25 breed-match dogs on vegan diets with 25 other dogs on conventional, nonvegetarian diets. The animals will be compared with data from blood samples, stools, and clinical/physical exams done over 4+ months.

Written support from vegan organizations and leaders has been significant:
 * Factory Farming Awareness Coalition (FFAC)
 * Farm Sanctuary
 * Gentle Barn Foundation
 * I Stand With My Pack (ISWMP)
 * In Defense of Animals (IDA)
 * Mercy for Animals
 * Vegan Outreach
 * Veterinary Association for the Protection of Animals (VAPA)
 * World Peace Diet, Dr. Will Tuttle

About 72,000 site visitors to http://www.plantbased.dog/ signed a Care2 petition benefiting Los Angeles Animal Services, the ad hoc nonprofit for this fundraising purpose, drew atures. The effort was designed by vegan practicing veterinarians invested in the development of strong bodies of knowledge on the ethics and science of feeding omnivorous canines with exclusively meatless plant-based diets:
 * Randall Cannon, DVM
 * Armaiti May, DVM
 * Lisa Melling, DVM
 * Marybeth Minter, DVM
 * Andrew Knight, BVMS, PhD
 * Richard Pitcairn, DVM, PhD - reported went vegan with his wife after watching Cowspiracy in 2014
 * Margo Roman, DVM
 * Sherstin Rosenberg, DVM
 * Michael Roth, DVM
 * Erika Sullivan, DVM

Awards and honors

 * President of Vegan Toastmasters, a public speaking organization which empowers vegans to speak effectively on behalf of animals.

Publications
Selected bibliography


 * Vegan diets for dogs: Why & how
 * Plant-based dogs

Online


 * Dr. May contributes topical veterinary postings on vegan dogs and cats, published by an array of vegan organizations and bloggers. Her professional writing advises how to optimize health of companion animals without risking illness, deficiency, and ill health.

Speaking events
Online


 * Dr. Armaiti May, a vegan veterinarian based in the Los Angeles area. February 23, 2011
 * The Vegan Vet Armaiti May, DVM, Wednesday, May 8, 2013
 * Ep 23: Pets with Dr. Armaiti May. 2 May · The ChickPeeps

2011


 * 2011 speaking tour in Florida

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018


 * 2018 Animal Rights National Conference (AR2018) - 28 June 28-01 July 2018, Los Angeles, California
 * 2018 Vegan Summerfest, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Pennsylvania - 3 talks, July 2018
 * Van Nuys, L.A. ReggaeFest, October 7, 2018
 * SoCal VegFest, October 20-21, 2018

2019

2020

External references

 * Dr. Armaiti May's website
 * Dr. May's Veterinary House Calls Website
 * May's non-profit VAPA (the Veterinary Association for the Protection of Animals

Dr. May's Business and non-profit Facebook Pages:
 * https://www.facebook.com/drmayveganvet/
 * https://www.facebook.com/vapavets/