Ontario will ban research testing on dogs and cats, Premier Doug Ford said Monday as he called the practice “cruel.”
“You aren’t going to use pets – dogs or cats – to experiment on any longer,” Ford said at an unrelated news conference in London, Ont.
“Simple as that. We just don’t do that, it’s cruel, and it’s unacceptable.”
Two whistleblowers came forward to Animal Justice earlier this year with concerns about dogs undergoing tests for cardiac research at the Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.
The animal rights’ organization then put the staffers in touch with the University of Toronto’s Investigative Journalism Bureau.
That led to an article published earlier this month that found the dogs – mostly puppies – were used for tests and killed before their internal organs were removed for further examination.
Opinion: The use of dogs in medical research is a tragedy
The research institute decided after speaking with the province earlier this month to stop all research on dogs. The hospital said it conducted the experiments under proper authorities and followed all rules and regulations.
It noted that both Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “require animal-tested protocols as proof-of-principle for efficacy and safety, before new treatments can be used in human patients.”
The hospital also said animal testing is only done when there are “no scientifically valid alternatives.”
St. Joseph said it has since stopped its “groundbreaking research that has resulted in major strides in cardiac care and treatment.”
News of the dog testing kicked off a series of texts between Ford and one of the whistleblowers.
“I got to thank the whistleblower that sent me pictures and texted me and everything else,” Ford said. “That person’s a champion.”
Ford also had a warning for other scientists.
“Now I’m gonna start looking for everyone else,” he said.
“If there’s anyone else out there that’s doing this to animals, come clean, because we’re gonna catch you.”
The whistleblower Ford described as a “champion” said Monday that they were surprised at the strength of the premier’s reaction. The Canadian Press agreed not to name them because they fear legal repercussions for speaking publicly.
The whistleblower, who worked at the facility, said they reached out to the premier over an unrelated issue and he called back right away.
When the conversation turned to their work, they explained to Ford how puppies as young as eight months old would be brought to London from the U.S. for experimentation, the whistleblower recounted.
They said they told him how researchers would induce hours-long heart attacks as part of efforts to improve medical imaging processes for humans.
“I didn’t think we could expect somebody so high up to be on our side with this,” the whistleblower said.
“I’m very, very thankful for him, for speaking out on behalf of the animals. Because now that he’s involved, I actually, I really feel like we’re going to make a lot of changes.”
Animal Justice welcomed news of the upcoming legislation.
“Ontarians love our pets like family, and they should never be made to suffer in cruel experiments,” said Camille Labchuk, executive director of the organization.
“But we hope this is just the beginning. Ontario currently allows lost and abandoned cats and dogs in shelters to be sold to experimenters. It’s important to close that loophole, and to pass laws making sure animals get a second chance and can be adopted after experiments.”
