DETROIT – A responsible medicine advocacy group is asking for the state’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to investigate dogs that are being experimented on at Wayne State University.
“Wayne State’s been trying to keep this a secret for a very long time. The dogs are held in a windowless basement in cages in an underground facility on the medical campus,” said Ryan Merkley, the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine’s director of research advocacy in Washington, DC.
Merkley says the experiment’s being done to man’s best friend at Wayne State University in the name of researching human heart health, is an outdated method that’s killed hundreds of dogs since 1991.
“They subject dogs to multiple surgeries. The implant devices in and around their heart, around major arteries. They surgically tunnel cables and wires out of their backs. They force them to run on treadmills while they raise their heart rates to two to three times the normal level,” Merkley said.
Public records show that at least 152 dogs have been euthanized or found dead at Wayne State since 2010.
Some would say these dogs are literally being run to death by the university, but when one dog couldn’t run on the treadmill to complete the experiment, that’s when it was no longer seen as of any more use and euthanized.
“We know that the reason they did it was because the dog was useless to them. They say very explicitly, on the last day of the dog’s life, wouldn’t run on the treadmill, meaning he wouldn’t participate in the experiments, these dead-end, deadly heart failure experiments they’ve been conducting for 35 years. Why else do you mention the treadmill, unless that’s part of your reasoning? Wayne State didn’t try to save this dog’s life. They didn’t even try to close the wound on his paw. Instead, they made up excuses and they rushed to kill him,” Merkley said.
In the end, the dog wasn’t even given a name.
“Dog No. 3002 was absolutely adoptable, and an outside veterinarian agrees with us,” Merkley said.
Wayne State University would not comment on the allegations but sent Local 4 a letter explaining why its veterinarian suggested Dog No. 3002 had to be euthanized.
Even still, the physicians committee is saying not getting a second opinion and immediately putting the dog down was a violation of Teddy’s Law, which says labs must adopt out those that are able. That’s exactly why they want the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to look into the matter.
“Last we heard, the agencies are looking into it, and we’re hoping they’ll launch an investigation, and if they do, this will be the first investigation under Teddy’s law, this bill that’s only been on the books for a couple of years now,” Merkley said.
Local 4 is waiting to hear if and when the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will investigate.
Some are wondering if there’s anything being done to end these experiments on dogs altogether?
The simple answer is yes. There’s actually Queenie’s Law. If the law passes, it would actually end these experiments at least on a state level.