Update

DADL Update January 2008

To start off with good news, our recent survey of all U.S. medical schools shows a continuing dramatic decline in the use of live animals, especially dogs, in medical education. This study was published in the Nov. 2002 issue of Academic Medicine, volume 77, pp. 1147-9. We found that 95% of pharmacology courses and 92% of physiology courses killed no animals in 2001, compared to 90% and 61%, respectively, in 1994. For the first time since surveys of animal use were reported, a majority of U.S. medical schools (68%) kill no dogs--or any other animals-- in physiology, pharmacology or surgery. Even where vivisection labs persist, as at UCSD, they are now usually optional rather than required.

It seems that good news must always be balanced by bad news, and the bad news is that UCSD physiology and pharmacology continue vivisecting and killing purpose-bred dogs. We don’t know yet how many first year medical students will be opting out of this unnecessary vivisection. Our annual information luncheon with the first year students ran into an incredible stroke of “bad luck.” In what had to be an amazing coincidence, the physiology department offered an (impromptu?) review session which just happened to conflict with our long-scheduled luncheon. Naturally most students availed themselves of the review session, and only a few made it to our luncheon. We had several UCSD physician faculty and a trauma surgeon give anti-dog lab presentations. But, as Yogi Berra once said, “If people don’t want to come to the ballpark, you can’t stop them.”

We also pursued an inside-the-system effort to end dog labs by appealing to the UCSD Animal Subjects Committee (aka the IACUC). According to the national guidelines for such committees, all use of animals in teaching is now subject to the three R’s of reducing, refining, and replacing with non-lethal alternatives wherever possible. Since 95% of pharmacology courses nationwide have already replaced vivisection, we argued that the UCSD programs had failed to make a “good faith” effort to eliminate dog labs. In an astonishing display of Orwellian newspeak, the UCSD Animal Subjects Committee informed us that “no animal welfare issues” were involved in pharmacology dog labs.

So the struggle continues. We recently placed ads in the UCSD student newspaper appealing to first year students and the UCSD community at large. We urge the medical students to show compassion and have mercy on the dogs by opting out of the labs. We also urge any compassionate members of the UCSD faculty, student body, and staff to email our Animal Subjects Committee at iacuc@ucsd.edu , condemning this abuse of dogs. More pubic protests, press conferences, etc. are in the offing. So stay tuned.