Vet School PR needs improvement

For an institution that spent over $3 million expanding its hospital for small animals so that dogs and cats could be kept apart, the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine's failure to explain with some compassion the reasons that forced it to put down five dogs is shocking and upsetting. Students were not reassured that euthanasia was the only method to make the experiment worthwhile. Students were not reassured that the benefits will far outweigh the costs. Students were not even informed of the experiment, but discovered it on their own as if it were an embarrassment being covered up. This failure does not mean that the Veterinary school should stop what it is doing, but that it should reconsider how it deals with experiments that involve euthanizing animal test subjects.

Today PETA is practically a household name, and "Animal Rights" is as familiar a refrain in Davis Square as "Human Rights." However, the value of research that can only be done with animals is undeniable. The discovery of insulin, organ transplant methods, the smallpox vaccine, the tetanus vaccine, and chemotherapy are a few gifts of medical research that used animals as test subjects. As a matter of fact, almost every major medical breakthrough would have been much longer in coming and had a greater toll on humans were it not for animal testing. However, this does not mean that animals can be used indiscriminately as test subjects. The largest victory for animal rights was achieved when Congress passed the Animal Welfare Act in 1966.

Stringent rules limit the use of animals in testing, and the humane treatment of test animals is an almost universally accepted norm. The Alternatives to Animal Testing movement recognizes animal testing as a necessary evil, but still actively pursues the reduction of minimizing testing with animals. The National Library of Medicine publishes a yearly bibliography of papers identifying new processes and procedures that can be referenced by researchers looking for alternatives to animals as test subjects.

The Tufts University Veterinary School is a leading institution filled with people who care about animals and are well informed about the debate surrounding animal testing. As the protesting students stated, Tufts should be guided by the highest ethical standards. The Veterinary School must be proactive and more transparent about any tests that will involve euthanizing animals. As a first step, the objective, duration, number of test animals, and expected benefits should be announced at the beginning of any such experiment.