Doctor vows to ignore ban on teaching animal chiropratics in Nevada

Tom Gardner

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 4:24 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - An Illinois chiropractor who gives seminars on how to perform his medical specialty on animals says he will defy a court order forbidding him to conduct any sessions in Nevada.

"I fully intend on giving seminars there, so screw them. I'm just not going to abide by it and that's all there is to it," Daniel Kamen said on Thursday.

"That's his option and I can do nothing about that," replied Louis Ling, the senior deputy attorney general who sought the order.

"If he does, you can be sure I am going to ask the judge to enter a contempt order. That's not a threat. That's just the way the system works."

Kamen, who practices in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, has spent 18 years developing techniques of treating animals with chiropractic methods and traveling around the country to instruct animal owners in the practice.

The Nevada Attorney General's office got involved when the Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners objected, saying Kamen is neither a veterinarian nor licensed to practice chiropractic in Nevada.

Ling filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Kamen in Washoe District Court in April and the motion was granted on Tuesday by Judge Janet Berry after Kamen failed to respond.

"I think Judge Berry's order is actually the minimum to make sure he doesn't come into this state and violate the law again," Ling said.

"They're trying to handcuff me from making a living," Kamen said on Thursday. "If they even so much as serve me with a subpoena, I will file a $10 million lawsuit against them."

He said he planned to return to both Las Vegas and Reno to give his seminars, although he gave no date.

He charges $289 for a two-day training session. The first day consists of lectures and videotapes on techniques. The second involves hands-on instruction with live animals, almost exclusively horses.

Kamen denies that he actually treats the horses to relieve pain, but demonstrates the procedure to attendees.

"I show them how to place their hands and the technique impulse, but I don't apply any pressure," he said.

Ling said undercover investigator Melissa Watson attended a seminar in Las Vegas July 31 and reported that Kamen both diagnosed conditions in horses and applied chiropractic techniques to treat them.

Ling said Kamen would be within the law if he stuck with videos and models, but crosses the line when he uses live animals.

And while Kamen claims his First Amendment right is being violated, Ling said he is very sensitive to free speech issues.

"He has every right to teach that he wants to teach. He doesn't have the right to practic veterinary medicine," he said.