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2007
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Viagra is Beneficial for Threatened Animal Species
October 10, 2005
Impotency drugs like Viagra
may be doing more than improving men's sex lives - they appear to
be indirectly benefiting threatened animals as well according to
a study.
Australian and American researchers surveyed more than 250 men,
aged 50 to 76, at a Chinese medicine clinic in Hong Kong. They found
that the Chinese men were more likely to be taking western drugs
like Viagra for erectile dysfunction than traditional therapies
such as seal genitalia, sea horses, geckos, green turtles and tiger
bone.
The results points towards the possibility that Viagra is reducing
trade in threatened animal species used to treat erectile dysfunction.
The specific research received funding from the developer of Viagra,
Pfizer Inc.
University of New South Wales psychologist Bill von Hippel was the
lead investigator of the research with his brother Frank, a biologist
at the University of Alaska. The findings are consistent with their
previous research showing evidence of a sharp decline in prices
for seal genitalia from up to $100 Canadian to around $20 Canadian
after Viagra was introduced in 1998.
Seal penises currently have little use outside of the animal potency
trade, and thus their trade provides a relatively clear picture
of the impact of Viagra and other new erectile dysfunction drugs
on the consumption of traditional Chinese medicine sexual potency
products.
This depressed trade in seal penises, in combination with the survey
of traditional Chinese medicine consumers, indicates that Viagra
and other new erectile dysfunction
drugs may be having a conservation benefit, at least with regard
to certain animal species.
To read more visit:
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16869441%255E401,00.html |
