Challenge arises as Illinois chiropractor teaches lay people animal adjustments

Sonya Padgett

Wednesday, June 16, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

Chiropractic treatment of animals is not just for veterinarians anymore and state laws to the contrary be damned.

It's a message that Illinois chiropractor Daniel Kamen wants to spread throughout the country, including at seminars in Nevada. He wants to teach lay people how to perform chiropractic maneuvers on horses and other animals.

But Nevada law says only licensed veterinarians -- once they are certified in this specialty -- can practice animal chiropractic.

In April Kamen received a letter from Nevada Deputy Attorney General Louis Ling warning him not to use any live animals in his seminars here. Because Kamen isn't a veterinarian, he can't legally adjust an animal in Nevada, even though he is certified in animal chiropractic, Ling said.

Kamen is a licensed chiropractor in Illinois and has received a certificate from an animal chiropractic certification program in that state, the only such program in the country.

States that allow nonveterinarians to treat animals require a veterinarian to supervise. But Nevada is even more strict in that it prohibits any treatment of animals by nonveterinarians.

Nevertheless, Kamen's business is traveling the country holding three-day seminars, sharing his knowledge not only with veterinarians and chiropractors, but with lay people who own animals.

He conducted a seminar in Reno in April.

A state investigator sent to Kamen's seminar found that he didn't violate any laws.

"Our concern was that he would come in here, people would bring their animals and he would do a (medical) work-up and treat them. Ultimately, he didn't do anything wrong, but he was pretty close to the line," Ling said.

He didn't break the law because he didn't touch a live animal. The investigator found that Kamen was demonstrating his techniques on stuffed animals.

"The government is really making it difficult for anyone, aside from veterinarians, to practice animal chiropractic," Kamen said from his cellular phone while treating a horse in an Illinois barn.

That's the point, says Debbie Machen, director of the Nevada State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners.

Machen said the situation with Kamen involved three concerns -- veterinary medicine, chiropractic medicine and advertisement.

If Kamen adjusted a live animal, he would be practicing veterinary medicine and chiropractic without a Nevada license, Ling said. Both violations are felonies.

"We had some consumers calling about an ad ... advertising how much money people can make doing this," Machen said.

Machen said the advertisement claimed that anyone could make as much as $40,000 a year doing animal chiropractic, and she said that's "just not true."

It's not true, she said, because the majority of people enrolling in Kamen's seminars are unqualified lay people so they can't legally practice even if they have the knowledge.

Kamen's ad also said that attendees would get hands-on experience.

Because of the claims made in Kamen's ad and what occurred during the seminar, he could be conducting unfair trade practices, which is a felony, Ling said. He's not allowed to advertise that lay people can make money doing something they aren't legally qualified to do.

The attorney general's office, however, can't bring charges against Kamen unless a citizen who enrolled in the seminar complains, Ling said.

Kamen said that he clarifies during his seminars that the only people who can make money from the techniques are veterinarians who want to learn that specialty. For lay people, he says, he tells them that they may use the techniques on their own animals and denies that he advises them to learn the techniques to make money.

Because the law doesn't prohibit individuals from using chiropractic techniques on their own animals, Machen said, Kamen can describe techniques to others using stuffed animals and avoid breaking the law.

But if lay people injure or kill an animal, even their own, in the course of using chiropractic and aren't licensed veterinarians, that could result in charges, Machen said.

"If someone hurts an animal, then you start hinging on animal cruelty," Machen said.

Chiropractors manipulate body joints, particularly the spine, in treating aches, pains and diseases.

Las Vegas veterinarian Gerald Huff said people are having good experiences themselves with chiropractors and want the same for their animals.

"The chiropractic movement in the treatment of animals is gaining a lot of momentum," he said.

But Huff is worried that because its popularity is growing, animal owners eager to have their pets treated will fall victim to unqualified people passing themselves off as animal chiropractors.

Huff, who has been certified as an animal chiropractor for five years, has a problem with lay people adjusting an animal's spine, even their own pet.

"That's not a particularly good idea," he said. "I would never recommend that a lay person do an adjustment on an animal. They don't have a real understanding of anatomy and physiology ... and you can't teach that to a person in one hour, one day or even one month."

Dangerous business

Kamen admits that most of his seminar attendees are people with no special knowledge of animal physiology. He said they are usually horse owners who can't find an animal chiropractor to treat their horse, so they decide to do it themselves.

"There are documented cases of lay people adjusting a horse and fracturing their hips. That's death for a horse," Huff said.

Huff doesn't think Kamen should be allowed to teach lay people anything.

"It's kind of frightening because you're putting the techniques in the hands of people who may not be able to recognize the potential for abuse.

"I wonder how comfortable you would be if you went to your chiropractor and he said, 'Let me show you how to adjust your child.' It disturbs me. It's as though animals are less susceptible to injury or they don't matter as much as people," said Huff.

There's not much the veterinary medical examiner's board can do about Kamen teaching techniques to the public, Machen said, even though the board's code of ethics states, "No member shall give unqualified lay people professional knowledge."

"Because he's not licensed here, we don't have jurisdiction over him unless he were to do something illegal concerning veterinarian medicine," Machen said.

Even if Kamen keeps his seminars within legal boundaries, there is the question of whether Kamen is qualified to teach animal chiropractic to anyone.

Dr. Dennis Eschbach is a chiropractor in the St. Louis area. He teaches at the Options for Animals school in Illinois, the only animal chiropractic certification program in the country. Kamen and Huff both received their certification there.

"People like Kamen hurt rather than help animal chiropractic," Eschbach said.

There's more to animal chiropractic than spinal manipulation, Eschbach said, and Kamen can't teach that in a two-day seminar.

"One of the most difficult things in chiropractic is learning when not to adjust. How does a lay person differentiate from a muscle tear or a broken bone or a tumor?" asked Eschbach.

"I think he saw the money in it, to be quite honest. But it's kind of like a freedom of speech thing. He can say anything he wants as long as he's not using live animals and practicing veterinary medicine."

To be fair, there is some usefulness to what Kamen teaches, Eschbach said.

"He shows things like stretches for people's animals. That's not bad -- it's actually very good. But when it gets to teaching manipulation, that's where you have a problem," Eschbach said.

Challenge issued

All involved hope that Kamen doesn't come back to Nevada, at least until animal chiropractic is better regulated.

But they may not get their wish. Kamen says he is planning to hold a seminar in Las Vegas sometime this summer.

"I am going to challenge the law," Kamen said. "They're stating that I'm breaking the law by practicing veterinary medicine. But I'm not, because I'm not doing any diagnosis or treatment of specific diseases.

"If I do get arrested, I hope they have vegetarian meals in jail."