(Editor’s note: So happy to see my friend’s rescue group making the national news! Read on.)
Los Angeles-based Beagle Freedom Project, a non-profit that finds homes for sweet animals who miraculously survive medical research, are suing researchers at the University of Missouri, Columbia, alleging they purposely blinded six beagles and then killed them after the project failed.
Kevin Chase, Beagle Freedom Project’s vice president, says his group looked through the universities published animal research and found a very “disturbing” study published in 2016’s Journal of Veterinary Ophthalmology. It appeared that university researchers killed six beagles- after PURPOSEFULLY damaging their corneas by pouring an experimental acid into them. When the experiment failed, they killed the dogs.
The “test” was supposed to treat corneal ulcers. It’s the most troubling experiment I’ve come across in the four years I’ve been with the organization, Chase said. He continued, “This research was flawed before even one dog was procured, blinded or killed.”
From the article:
“The university sent a statement saying in part, “All studies were performed in accordance with the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and were approved by the MU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.” The statement also says the animals were treated humanely and “every effort was made to ensure dogs were as comfortable as possible during the tests to study the effectiveness of the new drug treatment.”
Beagle Freedom is working to find common ground between people who see animal research as a terrible necessity, and those who are morally outraged.
We congratulate our friends at Beagle Freedom for their work and look forward to the day when animal testing will no longer be done. To support companies that DO NOT test on animals, click here.
Source: CBS News
