Nedim Cavit Buyukmihci is an American veterinarian, specializing in veterinary

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

, and founder of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights. A leading figure within the

animal rights movement The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

, he is an outspoken critic of scientific testing on animals. He is a professor emeritus of ophthalmology at the University of California, Davis' School of Veterinary Medicine, having retired in 2003. Buyukmihci founded the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights in 1981 with fellow veterinarian physician Neil Wolff. Buyukmihci joined the staff of the University of California, Davis in 1979, almost immediately conflicting with the School of Veterinary Medicine administration with his opposition to the use of shelter animals as test subjects for surgery practice. He retired from the university in the spring of 2003, retaining his emeritus professorship. In August 2003, he took up a position as director of the

Animal Protection Institute The Animal Protection Institute (API) was a national, nonprofit animal advocacy organization based in Sacramento, California that in 2007, as part of its affiliation with the Born Free Foundation, was renamed Born Free USA. Founded in 1968, API's ...

's primate sanctuary for non-human primates in Dilley,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. He is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists. His sister Nermin founded America's first cruelty-free

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

store, Nermin's Dry Goods, in the late 1970s.
Nermin Rose Buyukmihci, 1952-2010, 2010-06-10. They were the two children of Hope Sawyer Buyukmihci of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, which was frequently featured in Ahimsa, a publication of the

American Vegan Society The American Vegan Society (AVS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes veganism in the United States. It was founded in 1960 by H. Jay Dinshah. The date of the earlier The Vegan Society (UK)'s founding, November 1, is now celebr ...

Notes

American animal rights activists American veterinarians American veganism activists American anti-vivisectionists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{animal-rights-stub

See also

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