Should dogs be used in medical experiments? Surprising Answer

When is it essential to use dogs in biomedical research?

For a new drug to reach clinical trials in humans, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Agency (FDA) usually require tests to assess toxicity in both a rodent and a non-rodent mammal to give comparative safety data. The rodent will often be a rat; the other mammal will usually be a dog (although pigs and monkeys are also used).

Many of the procedures are repeat dose toxicity testing, where dogs are used to determine the ‘maximum tolerated dose’, which helps to determine the size of doses for trials in humans.

A small number of dogs are also used for basic research and translational/applied research procedures.

Dogs are used in research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), which is the most common fatal human genetic disorder diagnosed in childhood – DMD also occurs naturally and is fatal in dogs.

Dogs are especially suitable for cardiovascular studies due to the resemblance in heart connectivity and size to the human heart.

Experiments on dogs led to the discovery of insulin to treat diabetic patients, the development of blood transfusion procedures and the creation of the electrical defibrillator to restore normal heart rhythm.

The efficiency of some new cancer drugs are tested in dogs with the same cancers as humans, as they can have a benefit for both humans and dogs.

See the Animal Research News section below for recent research examples:

As dogs have been involved in the development process of drugs, it is often a relatively small step to understand where human drugs might help dogs and to adapt them for veterinary medicine.

Dogs suffer from cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, joint disease and many other conditions. Research involving dogs and other species of animal enables the development of new safe and effective veterinary medicines that improve the health and welfare of animals worldwide.

What is being done to replace and reduce the use of dogs?

EU Directive 2010/63, on the protection of animals used in scientific procedures, took effect in Member States on 1 January 2013. Since then the Directive has enhanced animal welfare standards and mandated the application of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (‘3Rs’) of research animals, across the EU. The Directive supports research involving animals only when there are no alternative methods, where the potential benefits are compelling, when it is scientifically, legally and ethically justified, and welfare standards are met.

A method has been introduced for keeping muscle cells healthy for two weeks instead of 24 hours, meaning many more compounds can be tested on cells supplied from a single dog.

In educational and training settings dogs have been replaced with a life-like models to learn the surgical procedures and techniques of neutering. These models have realistic organs including a urinary bladder, ovaries, simulated blood and fat tissue.

The effective management of breeding colonies to reduce surplus is a critical area of focus.

Nevertheless, the testing requirements outside Europe often require animal use. Therefore some tests not performed for the European market are required for other markets.

Although it’s hard to imagine, dogs have long been used as research and testing subjects. In fact, in 1883, AAVS was founded specifically to protect dogs from being stolen or otherwise collected off the streets so they could be used in research, often suffering in agony with no analgesic or pain relief. This continued through the first half of the 20th century without regulatory oversight, until 1966 when the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was enacted, spurred in part by the death of Pepper, a Dalmatian who was stolen from her family in Pennsylvania, transported to New York, sold to a lab by an animal dealer, and then killed during an experiment. Although animal research and testing are now regulated, the AWA does not restrict the use of certain types of animals, including pets, and dogs are still used in experiments today.

The most common breed of dog used for experiments are beagles, but not because scientists view them as the best model for human disease. Rather, beagles are convenient to use because they are docile and small, allowing for more animals to be housed and cared for using less space and money.

Dogs are often used in biomedical research investigating heart and lung disease, cancer, and orthopedics. They are also used in toxicity studies to test the safety of drugs and industrial chemicals, but are rarely used to assess the safety of personal care and household products. Most dogs used in research are purpose-bred in laboratories or by private companies that sell strictly to labs. Dogs can be bred to be pathogen-free or genetically manipulated to be a model of human disease.

Several years ago, facilities could purchase dogs from random source Class B dealers, who acquire animals from pounds and shelters and then sell them for use in research. Random source dealers have had a long sordid history of violating the AWA. So, Congress directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine the importance of dogs and cats purchased from random source Class B dealers in biomedical research. The resulting 2009 report from the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research concluded that “it is not necessary to obtain random source dogs and cats for NIH research from Class B dealers.” In 2011, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would start to phase out funding for research using dogs and cats obtained from random source Class B dealers. This policy came into full effect for dogs in October 2014, and for cats in October 2012.

To acquire dogs with specific traits who are not readily available from breeders, some research facilities obtain dogs directly from pounds and shelters, a practice called pound seizure. These labs may want older dogs to use in age related research or large dogs to study heart disease. Also, medical and veterinary schools have traditionally used dogs from shelters for student training, particularly for surgery. Now the trend is to utilize alternatives that do not harm animals and allow veterinarians to gain experience through beneficial shelter medicine programs.

Dogs in medical research