Campaign update

Thanks to your support, our investigation has led to the discovery that the shocking practice of using stray dogs for teaching purposes at universities is still taking place in Thailand. Our investigators were told that a government run dog pound in Bangkok has even supplied stray dogs, who belong in loving homes, to a university.

Students are being given live dogs to deliberately cut open and stitch back up, in order to practice their surgical skills. This could involve incisions, exploring the abdomen, tying off blood vessels and bleeding control. The dogs are then left to recover from surgery, and if they survive are sometimes adopted by the same students.

There are many viable alternatives to using dogs in teaching, and thankfully many schools around the world are successfully using a combination of simulations, models and actual animal patients instead.

These dogs in Thailand should be waiting to go to a loving home. Sadly, they may end up in a university.

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It’s every dog lover’s worst nightmare.

 

Lost, stray and abandoned dogs who’ve ended up in government-run shelters in Brazil are being handed over to universities for use in experiments. Many of these poor animals are also being supplied to veterinary schools for student teaching classes.

And it isn’t just happening in Brazil. We’ve found evidence that stray and shelter dogs, or those labelled as ‘random source’, can still be used in experiments in the USA, Canada and Australia.

We also know that around the world, stray dogs are deliberately harmed or killed for education purposes, including for students to develop and practice their surgical skills at human and veterinary medical schools.

It’s an appalling thought.

Treating dogs as disposable commodities and viewing them as teaching tools with no regard for their lives is morally wrong. And we believe it’s also scientifically and educationally unnecessary.  There are many viable alternatives to using dogs in teaching, and many schools around the world are successfully using a combination of simulations, models and actual animal patients instead.

With your help, we can end this global scandal.

The European Union has all but banned the use of stray dogs in experiments, and our work has helped to ensure this cruel practice is a thing of the past in many countries.  If enough of us raise our voices for dogs, together we can persuade Australia, Brazil, Canada, the USA and other countries to follow their lead.

Please sign the petition now and help us send out a strong message that shelter dogs belong in loving homes – not laboratories.