Almost 800,000 animals were used in research facilities in fiscal 2017 according to the USDA, that included dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, pigs and primates, among other animals.
MEREDITH COHN: ‘An animal rights group has filed a complaint against Johns Hopkins University for what it describes as botched surgeries on nine dogs that led to their paralysis and euthanasia. This is the second complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture against Hopkins this year by Stop Animal Exploitation Now (SAEN), though the Ohio-based group has filed complaints in recent years against multiple research labs that still use hundreds of thousands of animals in scientific experiments to test medical treatments and conduct other research.
The group’s previous complaint against Hopkins came in February and was related to the accidental crushing death of a marmoset. The USDA inspected Hopkins and cited the lab for “unqualified personnel.” In the case of the dogs, the group cited a letter Hopkins wrote to the National Institutes of Health stating that the federally funded experiment was stopped.
The letter said researchers had been exploring the use of spinal cord stimulation for the gastrointestinal disorder gastroparesis, which the scientists said has no effective treatment. Surgeries were planned on 19 dogs in 2017 and 2018 and nine dogs had “unexpected complications that led to dogs being euthanized for humane reasons”… The complaint seeks the maximum penalty of $10,000 for each animal.
“It is quite clear that something is rotten at Johns Hopkins University,” said Michael A. Budkie, co-founder of the animal rights group, which is the leading lab animal watchdog group. “Causing paralysis in dogs and crushing a marmoset monkey in a cage door are not only immensely cruel, but these incidents also clearly demonstrate that bungling JHU staff is unqualified”…
Almost 800,000 animals were used in research facilities in fiscal 2017, according to the latest data available from the USDA. That includes dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, pigs and primates, among other animals. It does not include mice or rats, the most common animals used in experiments.
There were more than 41,000 animals used in Maryland facilities that year, including 856 dogs… The use of animals in research has gained attention in recent years, and use of dogs has been especially controversial because they are so closely associated with humans, animals right activists say’. SOURCE…
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