Recently, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released a video showing the heartbreaking, painful lives of dogs held in research labs at Texas A&M University. For 30 years now, researchers have bred dogs such as Golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers and beagles to develop muscular dystrophy (MD).
The dogs which develop MD experience muscle wasting, weakness and deterioration. Due to weakness in the jaw and esophagus, they begin to drool excessively. Eventually they cannot eat solid food and must lap at a thin, gruel-like food with permanently swollen tongues. Some end up having to be fed by a tube because they can't eat at all. They can't walk normally, they lose their balance, and hey end up profoundly crippled. To determine how deteriorated their muscles are, they are stretched on a with a motorized level to cause muscle tears.
It's a terrible, painful, often short life.
Please sign this petition to tell Texas A&M that it's past time to stop this heinous cruelty. They need to find more humane ways to conduct their research. They also need to stop intentionally breeding dogs so they will be born with the deficiencies that cause MD to develop. Finally, they need to allow animal rescue organizations like the Beagle Freedom Project and others to re-home as many of these dogs as reasonably. Ending this kind of animal-based research is inevitable -- Texas A&M needs to find more modern methods now.
Dear Dr. Green:
Those who have signed this petition, like many other members of the public, were distressed and saddened to see the undercover video released recently by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). It shows the devastating lives some dogs live within the laboratories at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University.
Attempting to cure muscular dystrophy is important, vitally necessary work. However, doing it at the expense of innocent, trusting dogs goes too far -- especially in the 21st century, and especially when we know that after 30 years, no cure and no effective treatment has resulted from all this cruelty.
Don't continue to breed and experiment on innocent dogs because that's the way you've always done it. More and more, we are recognizing that treatments that work on animals won't work on humans. Please begin moving toward non-animal research efforts. Allow experienced animal rescue groups like the Beagle Freedom Project and others to assist in finding homes medically able to care for any of the dogs that could be re-homed outside a laboratory setting.
Finding a new way after 30 years of experimenting on dogs is the right thing to do. There's no good reason not to move forward. These dogs deserve better than to live out their lives in cages, suffering from a painful and debilitating disease that your institution purposely bred them to suffer. Please find another, better way.
Thank you for giving this issue the attention it deserves.
