Guardians and Their Canines Howling Mad Over UCSF’s Dog Experiments
Hundreds of Dogs to be Tormented in Experiments in City of Saint Francis

San Francisco, Calif. — Members of In Defense of Animals (IDA), concerned citizens and their unconditionally loving canine companions will expose the heartless, cruel and useless heart experiments planned on up to 800 gentle, trusting dogs at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

When: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 10:30 a.m.
Where: UCSF Parnassus campus, in front of the Chancellor’s office, 513 Parnassus Ave.

Hundreds of concerned citizens have appealed to UCSF’s Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, to terminate the experiments during which UCSF researcher Dr. Jeffrey Olgin will implant pacemakers into dogs to cause their hearts to beat rapidly to induce heart failure. The procedure will cause the dogs to suffer tremendous pain for as long as six months before they die, depending on the degree of problems and injuries inflicted.

"As a veterinarian I am saddened that so many people who are so aware of the gentleness, the loving nature, and the loyalty of dogs could be so apathetic to the plight of the hundreds of dogs that are being tortured at UCSF," says IDA President Elliot M. Katz, DVM. "The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the gentlest, most loving dogs are experimented on because they are so trusting. These dogs should be in caring homes. Instead they are being tortured and terrorized in cruel artificial heart attack experiments."

Ample evidence supports that animal models to be used in these studies are poorly representative of the human pathologies they propose to study. A dog’s heart—both anatomically and at the cellular level—is very different from a human’s heart.

Cardiologist John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., has called the experiments "contrived" and "futile." States Pippin, "Better information is available from clinical and epidemiological observations, surgical and procedural results, autopsies, and human studies involving cardiac imaging and electrophysiological tests."

Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a complaint against UCSF for 75 counts of animal welfare violations between 2001 and 2003. Among the violations were failure to provide the basic requirements of a federally compliant animal care program—adequate research oversight and veterinary care—and failed to handle animals in a humane manner in accordance with federal law.

For more information please visit http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/ucsf/index.html