Author: Erin Elizabeth

(Note from the Editor: We’ve said it a thousand times before but it bears repeating: We love animals. And the very idea that this is happening, still happening, in a polite and educated society, is disgusting.) It seems that the new secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie, has rejected loud calls from some veterans’ advocates to “suspend invasive and ultimately fatal experiments on dogs because he says they could potentially advance medical research and lead to breakthroughs that could help veterans.”1 Why? Because thousands of dogs are euthanized every day all over this country and the VA only has 92 dogs they want to torture before they give them a lethal injection. Unbelievable. “In Milwaukee, the experiments call for researchers to remove sections of dogs’ brains to test neurons that control breathing before the animals are killed by lethal injection, research records show. In Cleveland, tests involve using electrodes on dogs’ spinal cords to measure cough reflexes before and after severing the cords. In Richmond, Virginia, experiments include implanting pacemakers in dogs, then inducing abnormal heart rhythms and running the animals on treadmills to test cardiac function before euthanizing them by injection or draining their blood.”1 And this is only 3 of the active experiments being done. According to records reviewed by USA TODAY, “there are nine active experiments at four VA facilities, and more are likely in the...