This article appeared in the plain dealer today."A dog was killed at the Cleveland Clinic this week in the name of medical salesmanship.
A neurosurgeon on Wednesday caused an aneurysm in the brain of the large, mixed-breed dog so that a medical device could be used to treat the condition.
About two-dozen salespeople from the device's manufacturer watched the demonstration, and at least some participated in some sort of hands-on exercise, a Clinic spokeswoman said.
The dog was placed under anesthesia for the procedure and then killed afterward.
The incident took place without permission of the hospital's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which is supposed to review any request to work with animals.
The doctor, whom the Clinic did not identify, had submitted an application to the committee, but its members never had the opportunity to review it. They would have rejected it, the spokeswoman said, because the Clinic does not allow doctors to use animals for the sole purpose of sales training.
"The date of the event was coming up and [the doctor] hadn't heard there was a problem, so he wrongly assumed it was OK to proceed," the spokeswoman said.
The Clinic on Thursday was reporting the incident to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates animal welfare.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also got involved.
Shalin Gala, a research associate at PETA, said the organization received a tip Wednesday that salespeople from California-based Micrus Endovascular Corp. were training in the use of the MicroCoil system so they would be knowledgeable when making sales pitches. The system allows for a less-invasive means than surgery to treat a brain aneurysm, a weak spot on a blood vessel that balloons out and fills with blood. The technique requires a doctor to thread coils through a catheter to the site of the aneurysm, trying to pack the aneurysm with enough coils to prevent blood flow.
Brain aneurysms can occur in anyone but are more common in adults than in children and slightly more common in women than in men, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. About 27,000 people suffer ruptured aneurysms each year in the United States.
Gala, of PETA, sent a letter to the president of Micrus Endovascular, asking him to stop Wednesday's training program and establish a "formal policy prohibiting the use of animals for training purposes."
A Micrus official said Thursday that he had no knowledge of the incident, adding, "Are you sure you have the right company?"
"I can't comment on what a doctor did," he said at another point. "I would assume this is a Cleveland Clinic internal matter."
Hospital leaders are beginning an internal investigation.
F. Barbara Orlans, a faculty affiliate at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics, said the Clinic and its animal care committee are responsible for disciplining the doctor, who she said was "absolutely in error in terms of not knowing what his constraints are" at both the institutional and federal levels.
Martin Stephens, vice president for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States, had a harsher assessment.
"Not following internal procedure on something as sensitive as this was reckless," he said. "This guy was incredibly naive about the system or just didn't care."
Stephens said using dogs for demonstrations "does not pass muster these days," even though dogs are still tagged as research subjects.
According to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, which supports humane animal research, dogs and cats together represent less than one-half of 1 percent of all lab animals needed in the United States.
The Ohio Revised Code allows for impounded dogs that end up unclaimed to be sold for $3 to nonprofit organizations engaged in teaching or research concerning the prevention and treatment of diseases. But none of the Northeast Ohio kennels contacted by The Plain Dealer said they would allow animals to be sold for such experimentation.
The statute has sections dating to 1953. Greg Willey, volunteer coordinator and adoption supervisor at the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter, said that, although the law remains on the books, he would be surprised if any Cleveland area shelter sold dogs for research.
"No, no, we don't do it and haven't done it for years and years," he said. "Most shelters are so ahead of the game, trying to provide humane services for dogs, get them homes and give animals medical treatment that it would not even be considered. I know of no agency that does it."
The dog used in Wednesday's demonstration at the Clinic was purchased from a licensed vendor.
The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science says animal dealers who provide dogs and cats to research laboratories must be licensed by the USDA and adhere to the Animal Welfare Act. "
I just don't understand this licensing of living, breathing, feeling creatures in the name of medical research. In this day and age isn't there another way? I just refuse to believe that innocent life must be taken for the betterment of the world. I am so saddened by this article, and that a doctor would be so careless and unkind. I find it hypocritical that doctors work to save lives, yet they are willing to take an innocent animals life in the name of a sales pitch. If you don't have respect for defenseless and "lower-percieved" life, than what is the difference to you in saving the life of a poor homeless man who own nothing and has nothing of value? It seems to me that life has value only when the living have something value to give them worth. I'm very saddened by the way people justify taking life. A doctor does something like this, which happens everyday, it just doesn't make the news everyday, and the most that happens is someone blinks and reacts, but then it's forgotten. Everything seems to be alright as long as it's approved by a "committee" or covered under some sort of "Act." Has anyone ever thought that maybe the "Acts" and the "committees" are condoning unneccessary and bad things? I don't know a worst way to die than in the name of research. A usually slow and painfull death for the betterment of the world. I just don't buy it. People may be playing God with animals now, but if they don't feel it adequate to use animals anymore, what is to stop them from using people who are discarded and down on their luck? Homeless animals who are in need of a home and waiting only for a loving owner who will care about them end up in these situations on a regular basis, so where does it end? What is the limit of human power? How much more cruelty and abuse is acceptable? Animals are mistreated as a whole; in factory farms, research labs, the fur industry, etc. If we have no respect for the life of the smallest and most helpless of life, than how can we expect to be shown any mercy in our time of need? Small cruelties will manifest and build into bigger ones. If we allow people to take life in the name of a sales pitch, or a steak dinner, or a fur coat, or countless other animal-harming luxuries which are NOT necessities, then how can we ever stop people from doing the same things to other people. The Bible says we have dominion over the animals that walk the earth, but is there not a responsibility to use them only where it's necessary at least? A fur coat is not necessary for keeping warm, steak/beef/chicken/lamb/veal/etc are not necessary for survival, killing animals to make a sales pitch is not necessary. These are all choices we make. Chosing compassion and respect for life by not depriving the animals of their lives for our meals is a choice. I refuse to believe that animals were put on this earth for us to feast on, conduct experiemtns and research on, skin for coats, and use for entertainment. If there is a God, I just don't believe this is what his plan for us was...This defenseless dog will never bark, play with a toy, run in happiness, cuddle up to an owner, or fall asleep next to a loyal human companion again...all for a sales pitch...
If I was a color, I would be blue.
Don't be afraid to be who you are.
