A naturopath in Victoria, British Columbia, is facing massive criticism online, after boasting that she treated a four-year-old boy’s aggression and behavioral problems with a remedy made from rabid dog saliva.

Dr. Anke Zimmermann recently wrote about this “interesting” case on her website. Apparently, when she first 4-year-old Jonah, he had trouble sleeping, partly because he was afraid of werewolves, and would “hide under tables and growl at people” at school. After talking to his parents, Zimmermann also learned that he liked meat, particularly hamburgers, hot dogs and meatballs, and didn’t like to be cuddled, but instead would someone sniff, nuzzle and lick his mother, like a dog. Armed with this information, the naturopath asked Jonah’s mother a critical question:

Unrelated photo: Jan Tik/Flickr

“At this point I asked his mother if Jonah had ever been bitten by a dog. Indeed, the answer was yes, he was bitten when he was two years old by a dog on a beach. The dog bit his hand because he wanted the food Jonah had. The bite broke the skin,” the naturopath wrote on her website. “Jonah was obviously in a dog state, slightly rabies-flavoured dog state to be more precise.”

“I decided to give a homeopathic remedy made from rabies,” Dr. Zimmermann added. “The dog who bit him may have recently been vaccinated with the rabies vaccine or the dog bite in and of itself may have affected the boy with the rabies miasm. Either is possible and the phenomenon is welll-known in homeopathy.”

Jonah was treated with the unusual cure, called “Lyssinum 200CH” several times over a few months, and this allegedly improved his condition dramatically. According to the article posted by Dr. Zimmermann, he slept better, as he was no longer afraid of werewolves, and didn’t hide or growl at people anymore.

“The way I see it, he is coming back into a more human state from a slightly rabid dog state,” the naturopath concluded.

The reaction to this case has not been as positive as Dr. Zimmermann had hoped. Soon after posting a link to the controversial article on her Facebook page, with the caption “”Why are some kids so aggressive? Maybe they were bitten by a dog! This four-year-old boy with sleep and behavioural problems, including aggression and violence towards school mates as well as hiding under tables and growling, improved dramatically with a remedy made from a rabid dog’s saliva,” negative comments started pouring in.

“May God help us all. What’s next, injecting with tuberculosis for anorexia, leprosy for eczema?” Andrej Spec, MD, tweeted.

“What living parent would allow this. What nonsense,” another Twitter user wrote.

Things weren’t much better in the comment section of the actual article, with some people asking really interesting questions, like how does someone get their hands on rabid dog saliva, or how does someone bit by a rabid dog not get rabies (i.e. Jonah’s case)

“How is this even real? What sane adult thinks that werewolves and vampires exist? How does one obtain the saliva from a rabid dog?” one person wrote.

“How does someone bitten by said rabid dog not get rabies? You do know that rabies is mostly not going to end well for either dog nor human? One doesn’t simply get over rabies. What utter drivel,” another person commented.

Interestingly, despite all the criticism, the College of Naturopathic Physicians of British Columbia stands by Dr. Zimmerman and her unusual treatment.

“Dr. Anke Zimmermann is licensed to practise naturopathic medicine in B.C.,” Phillipa Stanaway, Deputy Registrar, College of Naturopathic Physicians of British Columbia, told HuffPost Canada. “Lyssinum is not excluded from the pharmacopoeia for naturopathic doctors in B.C. Homeopathy, which includes the use of substances such as lyssinum, is a traditional modality with a long history in the naturopathic scope of practice; it is still used by some naturopathic doctors today.”