Canine Heart Failure Research at Wayne State University: Concerns about Scientific Merit and Cruelty to Animals
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
September 2014

After two decades of heart failure experiments on dogs, Wayne State University in Detroit has made no medical advances that help the millions of Americans suffering from heart disease. So for the past several years, the Physicians Committee has worked with doctors and scientists—through legal complaints, billboards, extensive media coverage, and protests—to put an end to the scientifically flawed experiments.

Read a scientific analysis of the experiments -
Canine Heart Failure Research at Wayne State University: Concerns about Scientific Merit and Cruelty to Animals - PDF

• Despite evidence that the dog experiments don’t help human health, Wayne State experimenters collect almost $400,000 in funding every year to put dogs through multiple surgeries, artificially create heart failure in the dogs, and force them to run on treadmills.
• The surgeries are so invasive and dangerous that as many as 25 percent of the dogs die during or after surgery, before the experiments are completed. All of the dogs who make it through the experiments are then killed. Read a description of the experimental methods.

In 2014, the Physicians Committee and dozens of local advocates let attendees at the university’s graduation ceremonies know that that the millions of dollars that have been spent on Wayne State’s dog experiments could be better used on public education and prevention research. The experiments are even drawing criticism from one of the university’s own faculty members, cardiologist and clinical professor of medicine Joel Kahn, M.D., F.A.C.C.

PCRM's Wayne State Campaign Records

Penny Marshall Speaks Out Against Dog Experiments, August 27, 2014:

Penny Marshall, star of Laverne & Shirley, speaks out after discovering that Laverne, a dog named after her character, was used in heart experiments at Wayne State University.

Doctors and Advocates Urge Wayne State to End Dog Expeiments, Summer 2014:

The Physicians Committee let attendees at Wayne States' graduation ceremony knmow that Wayne State is letting down the people of Michigan when it comes to addressing heart disease - the state's No. 1 killer.

Wayne State: Experts Call for Halt to Dead-End Dog Experiments, Spring 2014:

Three medical experts have called on Wayne State University to end its controversial series of dog heart-failure experiments.

 Court Orders Wayne State to Provide Records of Heart Failure Experiments, Summer 2013:

A Michigan court has rejected a Wayne State University lawsuit that attempted to stop the Physicians Committee from accessing public records showing the details of its heart failure experiments on dogs. 

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