500 Doctors Urge Texas A&M to End Canine Muscular Dystrophy Experiments
100 of These Physicians Treat Human Patients With the Disease; PETA Will Unfurl Banner With Their Names at School’s Board Meeting
For Immediate Release:
November 13, 2018
Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382
Five hundred physicians are urging Texas A&M University (TAMU) to end all muscular dystrophy (MD) experiments on dogs. PETA will display a banner with the names of 100 of them who have experience treating human patients with the disease at the university’s Board of Regents meeting on Thursday. A full-page ad with the 100 names will also be placed in the November 14 issue of TAMU’s student paper, The Battalion.
A letter to Chancellor John Sharp that was signed by all the doctors states, in part, the following:
“As a physician, I am writing to ask that Texas A&M University halt the breeding and use of dogs in muscular dystrophy experiments. As canine research has failed for decades to produce an effective treatment for patients suffering from this fatal disease, now is an opportune time for the board to insist that the university focus its resources on human-relevant research.”
When: Thursday, November 15, 1:30 p.m.
Where: Memorial Student Center, Bethancourt Ballroom 2300 D&E, 275 Joe Routt Blvd, College Station
“Hundreds of physicians have a message for TAMU: These cruel and wasteful tests hurt dogs, do nothing to help humans living with MD, and must end,” says PETA Research Associate Dr. Emily Trunnell. “PETA urges the university to heed their call, close its dog laboratory, release all the dogs for adoption, and refocus resources toward superior, non-animal research methods.”
Video footage obtained by PETA shows dogs suffering from MD who were caged, sometimes alone, in barren metal cells in TAMU’s labs. Their swollen tongues and weakened jaw muscles made it difficult for them to swallow even thin gruel, and strings of drool hung from their mouths. Dogs who didn’t exhibit symptoms of the disease but who carried the gene for it were used to breed more animals who would suffer at the hands of experimenters. The video shows the dogs frantically pacing and gnawing in frustration on the cage bars.
Patients afflicted with MD, scientists, and public figures—including actor Lily Tomlin, director Richard Linklater, Miami Dolphins quarterback and TAMU alumnus Ryan Tannehill, Mötley Crüe founder Nikki Sixx, and commentator Bill Maher—have also spoken out against these cruel experiments.
Photos of PETA’s banner on display will be available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org/TAMU.
