The latest spark stems from a Wall Street Journal editorial relating an account of an alleged conversation between panelists Michael DeBakey, the Houston heart surgeon, and Christine Stevens, president of the Animal Welfare Institute. The June 16 editorial recounts a story told by DeBakey, who is lobbying in the media against a House bill that would ban the use of pound dogs in research, about a meeting several years ago with Stevens at a congressional hearing on lab animals.
According to DeBakey, Stevens thanked him for the role his pionnering efforts had played in the health of her husband, who has had coronary bypass surgery. DeBakey said that Stevens, whom the editorial mistakenly called Helen, "became flustered and ended the conversation" when told that much of his work was based on research with animals.
Stevens wrote to the newspaper June 20 demanding "a full retraction of the false and defamatory ...
