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Dr. Elizabeth GoldentyerJHU Researchers Harmed Dogs, Animal Rights Group
From
Ashley Yeager, The-Scientist.com, August 15, 2019
An animal rights group called Stop Animal Exploitation Now has filed a federal complaint with the US Department of Agriculture against Johns Hopkins scientists for failed surgeries that led to euthanasia of nine dogs, the Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday (August 13).
The Ohio-based group refers to a letter that Hopkins researchers sent to the National Institutes of Health about the termination of federally funded research on spinal cord stimulation as a treatment for a gastrointestinal disorder called gastroparesis. In 2017 and 2018, the researchers had planned surgeries on 19 dogs. Nine experienced complications, which resulted in euthanizing them for humane reasons, according to the Sun.
It is not the first complaint the group has filed against the university.
In February, it sent a complaint to the USDA about a marmoset that was
crushed in a cage door. After an inspection by the USDA, the agency cited
the lab for “unqualified personnel.”
“It is quite clear that something is rotten at Johns Hopkins University,”
Michael Budkie, cofounder of the animal rights group, tells the Sun.
“Causing paralysis in dogs and crushing a marmoset monkey in a cage door are
not only immensely cruel, but these incidents also clearly demonstrate that
bungling JHU staff is unqualified.”
In the federal complaint, the animal rights group says Hopkins researchers
violated the Animal Welfare Act, and it seeks $10,000—the maximum
penalty—for each harmed dog.
“The care of animals involved in our research is incredibly important to
us,” Kim Hoppe, a spokeswoman for Hopkins, says in a statement, according to
the Sun. “We rigorously adhere to all state and federal animal welfare
requirements and guidelines, including closely monitoring all animal
research and providing regular reports to government agencies that oversee
such research.”
She notes that the university obeys USDA regulations and other government
and institutional guidelines and policies and that it reported the incident
to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare.
After the study ended, she adds, the remaining dogs were adopted.