The people in charge of the San Diego Zoo might care about their animals in some pathological way, but they do not act in their best interests. You see, when it comes to animal welfare, the people at San Diego Zoo (such as Lead Mammal Keeper Robbie Clark) “always think out of the box” and when the animals are in pain – like elephants suffering from arthritis – they call on their local witch doctor, Beth Bicknese, to subject said animals to various forms of quackery, such as acupuncture. Acupuncture is, of course, theatrical placebo, and doesn’t really work for humans either, except for whatever effect being dazzled by the theatrics of it might have; but animals don’t really succumb to the theatrics. Then again, the people looking out for the animals remain susceptible to the theatrics, and given confirmation bias, they will often claim to observe a positive effect. So it goes.
Bicknese, or “Dr. Beth”, is apparently “certified in animal acupuncture” and has been using woo on animals in the San Diego Zoo for a while, adjusting her techniques to ensure what she describes as her goal: not to hit the “pain fibers” but the “non-pain” fibers with her needles, in order to “try to remind the nervous system that there are other impulses other than pain.” No, it makes absolutely no medical or anatomical sense, but medical and anatomical sense is presumably inside the box and Dr. Beth and the zoo people are far, far outside of it.
Dr. Beth’s quackery is of course not limited to acupuncture. She also uses thermography, even on e.g. elephants. Thermography is utter quackery, not remotely validated on humans, but Dr. Beth, with the San Diego Zoo’s Director of Reproductive Physiology Barbara Durrant, who evidently should be allowed nowhere near animals, nevertheless employed it, with Durrant happily describing how the red areas (higher temperature/heat) are where the animal is feeling pain due to inflammation based on absolutely nothing but whatever reason she can pull out of her own ass.
Diagnosis: Yes, it is probably harmless, but it is utter tripe. And yes, Bicknese probably thinks she acts in the animals’ interest, but good intentions don’t suffice to exempt you from blameworthiness. Yes, utter tripe.
Hat-tip: Sciencebased Medicine