What kinds of experiments are dogs used in?
Dogs are used to test the safety of drugs, medical devices and pesticides such as weed killer, insect repellent, and rat poison. This kind of testing tries to determine how a substance, ingredient or device will affect human health. Dogs used for testing are fed quantities of the test substance—such as a weed killer or a new medicine under development—on a daily basis for months and observed for harmful effects. These substances can be given to the dogs in their food, as pills or through force-feeding. They are sometimes injected with substances or forced to inhale them. Most dogs used in these kinds of tests are eventually killed so that their tissues and organs can be examined. In order to test medical devices or other products, dogs are implanted with items such as pacemakers and typically killed after the test is over.
Dogs are also used in many types of biomedical experiments, including cardiac, neurological, respiratory and dental experiments. Dogs may be specially bred to have a fatal disease, such as muscular dystrophy. In other cases, healthy dogs will be operated on to give them symptoms of serious conditions like heart disease or to remove or damage some of their organs and then further experimented upon. They are also typically killed after the experiment is over.
What kinds of institutions use dogs in experiments?
More than 250 institutions in the U.S. report using dogs in experiments each year, including chemical, pesticide and drug companies (and the contract laboratories that carry out dog tests for these companies), public and private universities, community and technical schools, government-owned facilities, Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities and hospitals.
Frequently asked questions about lab testing on dogs.
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