Dogs in Desperate Situation at UCSF [from First, Do No Harm, August, 2006, Part One]

[Guest guest]

Dear Advocates for Animals: Since I am not currently able to create and send an electronic rendition of "First, Do No Harm," the newsletter of Vigil for Animals, I am sending out articles from the newsletter one at a time. Thus please see August newsletter's article "Dogs in Desperate Situation at UCSF" below. I hope you find it informative - and enjoyable. ___________ Dogs in Desperate Situation at UCSF Somewhere between one hundred and three hundred dogs will have been incarcerated and exploited by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in a variety of experiments during the fiscal year

ending September, 2006. Research protocols released by UCSF in December, 2005, documented the planned use of a total of 985 dogs over the next one to three years. The protocols showed plans to exploit dogs in various experiments regarding cardiovascular, bladder and spinal diseases. Sadly, the dogs to be used in these projects will suffer significant surgical mutilation and possible death due to the severity of their injuries - or, if they survive to the projects' end points, they will likely be euthanized. Letters of concern about experiments on dogs, as well as the care and use of other animals at UCSF, have been addressed to state legislators, San Francisco supervisors, members of UCSF's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop. Yet there has been no response from any supervisor, IACUC member nor Chancellor

Bishop. However, Vigil for Animals (the small grassroots group of animal advocates who produce this newsletter) did receive one positive response and some help from the office of State Senator Carole Migden. Through her office, a 3-page list of questions and concerns regarding UCSF's care and use of animals was submitted (in February, 2006) to the university for response. As this goes to print (8/23/06), word was just received from Senator Migden's office that UCSF has finally replied, and a copy of their response is in the mail. One of the most alarming of all UCSF projects exploiting dogs is Project #A43109-22783, devised by Dr. Jeffrey Olgin, Principal Investigator, whose protocol cited plans to use up to 548 dogs over a three-year period in a study on atrial fibrillation and its relation to congestive heart failure (CHF). Despite many letters of complaint to the university

about the project, UCSF began to acquire dogs for it in early 2005. Subsequently, the project has caused the suffering and deaths of at least 40 dogs - many of whom experienced any number of researcher-induced symptoms of CHF, such as labored breathing, abdominal bloating, and acute heart failure. Strangely, amid all of the complaints addressed to UCSF from community advocates for dogs, UCSF officials told the SF BAY GUARDIAN (in October, 2005) that researchers had found a way to use mice in Project #A43109-22783 and thus would use fewer than 75 dogs. However, when further questioned, the university could provide no documentation to lend evidence to the claim to use mice and fewer dogs than originally planned. Two cardiologists - John J. Pippin, M.D., Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (F.A.C.C.), and Moneim A. Fadali, M.D., F.A.C.C. -

have severely criticized the use of dogs in experiments regarding congestive heart failure. According to Dr. Pippin, "The mechanical methods for artificially producing heart failure, valve avulsion and atrial fibrillation are truly sadistic and non-physiological. They have no relation to causes of the human conditions, and the resulting disorders are not surrogates for human diseases." And in a letter to Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, Dr. Fadali stated: "The sad part of the story is ignoring that there are so many versatile, available, better, more reliable and scientific alternatives to know what we need to know. At its very core, animal experimentation is merely a front and a facade....Vivisectors may try drugs, gadgets or procedures on animals a thousand and one times, but the moment they move on to the human condition they will be experimenting on humans." NOTE:

Project #A16440-00961, another UCSF study regarding congestive heart failure, devised by Dr. Michael Dae, Principal Investigator, has been terminated. The project caused the deaths of 50 to 70 German shepherd and mixed-breed dogs, the exact death toll still yet to be confirmed by the university. _____________ For a hard copy of "First, Do No Harm" (August 2006), please send a stamped self-addressed envelope to me (Bob O'Brien) at 311 - 11th Avenue, #15, San Francisco, CA 94118. BOB O'BRIEN PS: If you do NOT want to continue to receive updates from Vigil for Animals, please send me a return message saying "cancel."

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