Dog experiments don’t improve human health...
“Heart failure experiments on dogs have failed to find treatments for
patients. It’s time to halt the dead-end dog experiments and switch to
research that will benefit people.”
- John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Director of Academic Affairs, Physicians
Committee
After more than two decades of heart failure experiments on dogs, Wayne
State University in Detroit has made no medical advances to help the
millions of Americans suffering from heart disease.
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, and
force them to run on treadmills. 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.
Rogue, a hound, was used in experiments at Wayne State. Her chest and
abdomen were opened and nine devices were implanted. She was forced to run
on a treadmill just four days after major surgery. Within months she died.
Rogue’s short life didn’t lead to treatments for people suffering from heart
disease. Yet dogs are still used in these experiments. Since 2001, more than
$5.4 million in taxpayer funding—doled out by the National Institutes of
Health—have gone to these experiments.
The Physicians Committee has worked with doctors and scientists—through
legal complaints, billboards, extensive media coverage, and protests—to put
an end to the experiments. The experiments have even draw criticism from one
of the university’s own faculty members, cardiologist and clinical professor
of medicine Joel Kahn, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Epidemiological studies, such as the Framingham Study and Methodist Study,
continue to give researchers insight into the causes of heart failure, while
human clinical trials provide treatment and prevention options.
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