Fact sheet for Wednesday, May 25th UCSF demo at 10 AM

FACT SHEET

One of many examples of UCSF’s dark-age animal cruelty:

750 DOGS TO SUFFER & DIE AT THE HANDS OF ONE UCSF RESEARCHER

UCSF’s Dr. Jeffrey Olgin is currently conducting two extremely cruel dog heart experiments over a three-year period that will utilize 750 dogs. The first year is already over, with two more years to follow until 2007.

Claiming to study atrial fibrillation and atrial fibrosis during various stages of human congestive heart failure, Dr. Olgin is artificially speeding up the heartbeat of dogs to high speeds and ripping up an area of their heart to cause the blood to regurgitate in the opposite direction. The dogs may suffer from a few weeks to several months depending on the level of injuries inflicted. Finally their hearts will be cut out and evaluated just before they could die from the problems inflicted. Some of the dogs are likely to die from the problems before they are “euthanized.” A small fraction of the 750 dogs are used as controls, meaning nothing will be done to them, but they will be killed to compare their hearts with the ones experimented on. (Pleas e see the protocol summaries enclosed for more specific details.)

Dr. Olgin and UCSF receive well over two million dollars of federal tax-payer-financed grant money from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his two latest three-year dog projects. He also receives additional funding from private industry. UCSF records show the following grants for Dr. Olgin:

Federal grants:

NIH grant R01 HL72854 9/1/03 to 9/1/07 $1,512,000

NIH grant R01 HL66362 7/1/03 to 6/30/05 $365,196 (Likely to be renewed.)

Private grant:

EP Technologies grant 1/5/04 to 1/1/05 $106,750 (May have been renewed.)

Roughly 50% of tax-payer grant money awarded to researchers is allocated to the University to maintain its buildings and infrastructure. Therefore, both the researcher and the university benefit financially from conducting useless, cruel, but lucrative experiments.

The dogs will be moved from the 5th floor of the Medical Research I/II building to the Parnassus Services Building when it is ready for occupancy in June 2005

The dogs Dr. Olgin uses are mongrel hound dogs purchased from Marshall Farms USA, Inc. in New York and Covance Research Products, Inc. in Michigan, both of which breed and supply animals specifically for experiments.

It is already known that a dog heart is very different from a human heart both anatomically and physiologically even at the cellular level. It is already known that the heart cells of a dog have different receptors and respond differently to basic substances compared to humans.

Two seasoned cardiologists have publicly spoken out in vehement criticism of the lack of scientific validity of these experiments, in addition to their extreme cruelty. They are cardiologists Moneim A. Fadali, MD, President of Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine, and cardiologist John J. Pippin, MD, member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. A significant and growing percentage of medical doctors are speaking out in opposition to animal experiments, stating they are not just cruel, but also inapplicable, contradictory and misleading to humans. Resources should be spent on existing humane human-based research methods that lead to real medical progress for humans. These methods include non-invasive, technologically advanced cardiac imaging and electro-physiological tests, clinical and epidemiological studies, in-vitro studies using human cells and tissues, surgical and procedural results, and autopsies.

UCSF continues to defend its outdated practices by perpetrating lies to the public that all of their animals are treated humanely and that what they do is necessary for the benefit of humans. They even go as far as stating to the media that only "a few" animals are used, contrary to official public records. Public awareness and outcry is much needed.
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Detailed summaries:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/1727680.php