A $35 million penalty, the largest ever levied in an animal-welfare case, put an end to Envigo, one of the nation's largest breeders of dogs used for experimentation. But two other major facilities continue to operate in a "betrayal of man's best friend," ethologist Jane Goodall and renowned dog expert Marc Bekoff write at the Washington Post, calling for "an immediate moratorium on federal funding for experiments on dogs, and ultimately a ban on dog experiments" in the US. They describe ample evidence of "deficient housing, untreated injuries and unsanitary conditions" and "dogs suffering extreme psychological distress" at Wisconsin's Ridglan Farms, which houses some 3,000 beagles at one time. Another 18,000 dogs are kept at New York's Marshall Farms.
Under the Animal Welfare Act, dogs used in experimentation can be held in cages barely bigger than their own bodies and "doubling this space eliminates the requirement to ever allow the dogs outside the cage," write Goodall and Bekoff. There are only "minimal" laws to protect the more than 40,000 dogs, mostly beagles, used in research in the US each year, and these are "inadequately enforced," the pair write. Meanwhile, dogs are "routinely mutilated." They may have their vocal cords cut to prevent barking or have an overgrown gland "crudely cut off the dog's eye, with little—and often no—anesthesia, pain relief, bleeding control or aftercare," according to Goodall and Bekoff.
They add "some are specially bred to have diseases or operated on to give them the symptoms of diseases." Once transferred to a lab, death is almost certain. Dogs have been "subjected to hour-long strokes"; "injured to simulate a rotator cuff injury"; and "sickened with a high-potency sweetener," the pair note. "It does not have to be this way," they add. "We can end this situation and begin to provide those dogs with the loving homes they deserve." Read the full piece here. (More dogs stories.)
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