ABOVE: © ISTOCK.COM, MATTIAATH
Following news stories last week reporting that Veterans Affairs researchers continue to run invasive and controversial experiments on dogs, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie defended the practice.
“I love canines,” Wilkie tells The Washington Post. “But we have an opportunity to change the lives of men and women who have been terribly hurt. And until somebody tells me that that research does not help in that outcome, then I’ll continue.” Specifically, he says studies using dogs have led to decades-old innovations such as the cardiac pacemaker and a treatment for deadly cardiac arrhythmias, the newspaper reports.
Wilkie says he will reauthorize experiments on canine subjects, including nine active projects involving 92 dogs that focus on spinal cord injuries. According to USA Today, some of the research involves removing parts of the dogs’ brains before euthanizing the animals; others involve placing electrodes on their spinal cords.
Lawmakers have ...
