NEW YORK (RPRN) 04/22/09- Dog #3017, a sweet and friendly brown hound dog with a white face, was given a number rather than a name when she arrived at the laboratory of Ohio State University (OSU) experimenter George Billman. She soon underwent invasive surgery in which an artery was constricted—killing a section of her heart tissue—and a cuff was placed around another blood vessel. Only a short time later, that cuff was used to induce a heart attack in her while she ran on a treadmill.

Two days after her second round of strenuous testing—and despite records indicating that she needed to be monitored—dog #3017 was found dead in her cage.

Dog #3017 did not die alone. She was only one of more than 700 individual dogs killed in OSU’s lethal experiments about “sudden cardiac death.”

For what purpose, you might ask, did all these dogs die—each and every one of them no different than those we may share our homes with? After 28 years of cruel experimentation on dogs, Billman has only been able to produce data from these experiments that is either already known or of extremely limited value to humans!

Horrific and pointless experiments like these can be stopped, but only with your help. By making a tax-deductible donation today, you can help our work to prevent the suffering of animals like dog #3017, who right now face needless agony behind the closed doors of laboratories and other hideous places.

The disturbing experiments on dogs at Ohio State University are only a small part of the cruel experiments at universities and other facilities that PETA has helped uncover. The following are a few examples of other experiments:

• At Vanderbilt University, experimenters withheld water from monkeys to force them to cooperate during experiments. One monkey, named Lil’ Wayne, died after seven days without anything to drink. The USDA investigation in response to PETA’s complaint led to citations for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
• At Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, healthy dogs and donkeys were needlessly operated on again and again and then killed. PETA’s hard work put an end to the surgeries on the dogs, and we continue to pressure Ross to stop tests on all animals.
• At the Oregon National Primate Research Center, monkeys pace their tiny cages ceaselessly, traumatized by imprisonment, neglect, and abuse. PETA’s investigations have led to citations against the institution from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Pointless experiments on animals like these only benefit those who profit from testing on animals. But with your help today, we can save animals from the nightmare of abuse that is all too commonplace in laboratories, even ones run by prestigious universities and others operated and funded by government agencies.

Your support of PETA’s groundbreaking work to save the lives of animals destined to suffer and die in laboratories is already helping to bring huge change to the terrible practice of vivisection. Our research, including invaluable information collected by our undercover investigators has led to federal investigations and unprecedented fines of experimenters, who must be held accountable for their actions.

Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ordered that grant money be returned from two major universities, the University of Washington and the University of Connecticut, following persistent patterns of abuse that our investigative work revealed. These incidents are the first two times in history—that we know of—that such drastic federal action was taken as a result of complaints filed by an animal welfare organization.

Your donation today will help us continue to expose—and stop—needless and cruel experiments on animals like those on Dog #3017 at Ohio State and other places where animals are suffering behind locked laboratory doors.

Please make as generous a gift as you can right now. We’re fighting 24/7 to end vivisection wherever it occurs and to save the lives of animals doomed to a nightmarish life and death in these prisons. And our vital work to end their abuse will not stop as long as even one animal like Dog #3017 or any other suffers in a laboratory cage.

Thank you for your important support.
Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk
President

P.S. The government’s decision to force two major universities to return grant money used to fund cruel animal tests is a significant step forward and a sign to experimenters everywhere that their gravy train can be brought to an abrupt halt. Please help us stop the terrible abuse and suffering of animals and save the lives of animals just like Dog #3017. Your donation today can help us do that. Thank you for giving what you can.