Like a silent-film villain twisting his mustache, the Trump administration continues to do things once thought comically archaic. Earlier it was forcing out programs connecting veterans with service dogs. Now it’s rubber-stamping morally and ethically murky medical experimentation on dogs: The Trump administration has all the rings of hell covered. USA Today has followed the story of once-bipartisan legislation to defund the VA’s long-standing practice of scientific experimentation on dogs. In 2017, an investigation found that there was reason to believe the practice was considerably more barbaric than had been promoted, and with little or no meaningful scientific successes in recent memory.
Nationwide, invasive experiments at three VA facilities are slated to include roughly 300 dogs, including 6-month-old Beagle puppies, and involve surgeries on their brains, spines and hearts by researchers seeking treatments for heart disease and other ailments. All the dogs will be killed when the research is complete.
The investigation showed that facilities could not produce adequate documentation that the animals were treated “properly,” amongst other things. Animal advocates have fought against the VA’s assertion that these medical experiments result in breakthroughs in treating veterans suffering from a variety of combat-produced injuries. And when asked to give examples of such scientific breakthroughs, the VA pointed to the results of experiments conducted well over a half-century ago.
Before he was fired by
Trump, VA head David Shulkin—who had fought congressional pushback and convinced a handful of veterans groups to support the experiments—is said to have changed his mind and put a moratorium on new experiments beginning without his permission. The studies being performed by the VA were then internally reviewed, leading to a reported nine experiments being considered ethically and medically sound. Now Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin says that a new decision has been made.
USA Today went back to veterans groups like Paralyzed Veterans of America that had originally supported the VA’s medical experiments on dogs, and they do not seem to have the stomach for this fight anymore.
“We no longer oppose efforts to end VA fatal medical research on dogs,” spokeswoman Liz Deakin said.
The group’s former executive director, a Marine veteran who was paralyzed in a vehicle accident as he prepared to deploy to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, also has rescinded his support.
Sherman Gillums Jr., who is now chief strategy officer at American Veterans, said after reviewing the science and speaking to experts at the VA and elsewhere, he concluded the dog experiments haven’t translated to human medical advances for decades.
The VA has argued that dogs are used in less than one percent of the animal medical research performed and funded by them; and advocates for animal research, like Cindy Buckmaster, the chair of Americans for Medical Progress, argue that this is animal rights gone too far.
The public, Buckmaster said, is "being manipulated into feeling a certain way about things, because they have these horrible images in their mind that aren't accurate reflections of what's actually happening, and they're being duped into robbing themselves and everyone they love, including their pets, of biological progress."
Buckmaster and others say that dogs have very similar heart “pacing” as humans, considerably larger hearts than mice, and can be more easily trained to do the physical activities that some of the experimentation requires. However, since there has not been much in the way of breakthroughs over the past few decades, it seems that this argument comes more out of the fear of losing ground in medical science research.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.