Animals in Labs Article from All-Creatures.org

Former Vivisector: This is my confession letter

From WCW White Coat Waste Project
November 2023

I participated in taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs. But before you hate me or judge me, let me explain myself. My name is Dr. Larry Hansen.... It has never been the case that doctors could better serve our patients if we had killed more dogs. In my specialty, Alzheimer’s disease, the drug failure rate is actually 99.6 percent, and the use of animals has recently been referred to as 'a cliff over which people push bales of money.'

I participated in taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs. t's an ethical failure I can't undo. You probably wouldn't wish it on the worst human criminal… But before you hate me or judge me, let me explain myself. My name is Dr. Larry Hansen.

I'm a physician and board-certified pathologist. I'm involved with treating patients suffering from brain tumors, Parkinson's, and severe neurologic diseases.

I'm also ranked as one of the top 100 Alzheimer's disease researchers worldwide with over 160 publications in the last 30 years.

Back in medical school, I was instructed to vivisect (from the Latin, "vivi" - meaning, alive, and "scare" - i.e. to cut) and then kill friendly dogs, including a Golden Retriever and a black Labrador Retriever.

The Golden was the "lucky” one. We only cut her open, observed some basic physiologic functions, and killed her.

The black Labrador Retriever had it FAR worse... Week after week, we performed inept and painful procedures on her (bungled mutilations, really)—over and over and over again.

Then we stuck a needle in her, killed her, and dumped her body in a garbage bag—like trash. I did it, qualms of conscience notwithstanding, because I was told it was “necessary.”

Well, it turns out this wasn’t true. It has never been the case that doctors could better serve our patients if we had killed more dogs.

In my specialty, Alzheimer’s disease, the drug failure rate is actually 99.6 percent, and the use of animals has recently been referred to as “a cliff over which people push bales of money.”

Dogs aren't trash. Although I wish more than anything that I could, it is not possible to change the past. But I can do something now... and that’s exactly why I’ve written you this urgent note.

I've teamed up with the White Coat Waste Project to put the final nail in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) painful dog testing program. The victims of my ethical failings were a Labrador and a Golden Retriever. That is unusual.

The canine of choice for the animal experimentation industry is usually the beagle. Have you ever held a beagle puppy in your arms? I have. They are sweet, trusting, docile, and so eager to please. They look at you with those big brown eyes, and all they want you to do is love them.

And that’s exactly why experimenters take advantage of beagles. These qualities make it quite easy for professors and bureaucrats in white lab coats to torture them.

It's a shameful betrayal of a 10,000-year-old bond built upon mutual love and loyalty!

The WCW team has done more for dogs in labs than just about any other group out there. We have close ties to Republican and Democratic members of Congress. We work with both sides to cut wasteful spending on NIH’s dog experiments.

It’s compassionate. It's savvy. It's effective.

It’s how we ended ALL painful dog testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs. That's the first time in American history that dog testing has been shuttered across an entire federal agency.

It's how we de-funded ALL NIH experiments in Russia. Not just Putin’s infamous kitten experiments. But every red cent for every single animal test… across the entire country.

It's how we stopped ALL five of Dr. Fauci's cruel and wasteful hay fever drug experiments on dogs… and saved the lives of six-month-old beagle puppies.

With your support, we've successfully exposed and closed every other in-house NIH dog laboratory, achieving a remarkable 95% reduction in such experiments!

Ninety-five percent!

Please support the work of WCW White Coat Waste Project!

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