Dogs

Every day in the U.S., dogs just like those who share our homes and sleep in our beds are used in harmful and deadly experiments, treated as expendable ‘tools’ or ‘models’ in laboratories. In the U.S. alone, over 87,000 dogs were used for research in 2006, a sharp rise from previous years in which 65,000-70,000 dogs were used annually.

Many dogs are still obtained from shelters, animal control facilities, and/or other random sources, including ‘free to a good home’ ads, auctions, and greyhound racetracks. Many other dogs are bred either in laboratories (to be born either healthy or with a specific genetic deficit) or by private companies that sell strictly to laboratories.

Dogs are routinely used by medical schools and laboratories in heart and lung research, transplantation experiments, cancer research, microbiology, genetics, orthopedics, surgery, and veterinary medicine. Dogs are also commonly used in toxicity studies to test the safety of human drugs, food additives, industrial chemicals, and other products.

Puppies, or dogs under one year of age, are frequently used in these experiments. The most common dogs used in laboratories are beagles, but not because scientists view them as the best ‘models’ for humans. 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.

Read More about Dogs Used in Research

“Broken Bonds: The use of dogs in laboratory experiments in the U.S.,” AV Magazine Spring 2004.
An in-depth look at the utilization of dogs in experimentation, including the numbers of canines used and the corporations, government agencies, and universities using them.

“Dogs and Us: A story of betrayal,” AV Magazine Spring 2006.
Although considered ‘man’s best friend,’ tens of thousands of dogs languish in laboratories, enduring enormous suffering as they are used in a variety of experiments.

Additional Information

Number of dogs used in research from 1973-2006

Ban Pound Seizure campaign

Beagle Patent challenge