To protest and draw media attention to UCSF's dog vivisection program, a Dog March was held Sunday, April 10th at the university's Mission Bay Campus in San Francisco. A large turnout of eighty-four activists plus fifty-two dogs protested the experiments that will make use of 750 dogs. "It's great to see so many people and dogs here to draw attention to this cruel and unnecessary invasive animal research," said demonstrator Nora Kramer, who attended the march with her 15-year-old Black Lab mix Spanky. "The dogs used in these experiments deserve as much compassion and protection from cruelty as the companion dogs we live with." The research, which involves placing pacemakers in otherwise healthy dogs, resulting in heart failure for some of them and the eventual euthanasia of all of them, has been denounced by animal rights activists as not only cruel but also scientifically invalid and unnecessary. Some argue that better scientific results can be achieved using humane human-based research methods. “Better information is available from clinical and epidemiological observations, surgical and procedural results, autopsies and human studies involving cardiac imaging and electro physiological tests,” said cardiologist Dr. John J. Pippin of the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine).

Reports & Photos: 1 | 2 · Previous UCSF Protest Coverage
Details of dog experiments and others at UCSF
In Defense of Animals' Vivisection Information website