Animal deaths in Vet School experiment ignite debate

The Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine is facing controversy after euthanizing five dogs earlier this month. Five test dogs were put to sleep on New Year's Day after their legs had been purposefully broken and re-healed using different techniques.

After the dogs were put down, their bodies were tested to determine the strength of the healed bones.

The killings were defended by the doctors and veterinarians at the Veterinary School. The doctors explained that these test dogs were not suitable to have as pets and had been bred for research purposes, following the rules of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

The dogs were given lethal injections, complying with AVMA standards, and were euthanized in a humane manner that would have occurred in any veterinary clinic, Veterinary School public relations manager Barbara Donato said.

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), a federally-mandated board at the Vet School, gave the final approval for the research.

Now is not a good time for the Vet School to face a public controversy as it is fighting to keep its state funding which has been under fire over the last few years.

Vet school students received a letter stating that Tufts, in conjunction with an orthopedic organization and pet-food company Hills, would be providing the majority of the funding, Vet School masters student Tara Turner said. The majority of the protesting students are in the Master of Science and Animals in Public Policy program, which does not commonly work with animals and instead focuses on policy issues.

Several Masters students were outraged when they learned that the school was to conduct this experiment, and many of these students conducted their own research to find non-lethal methods that the veterinarians could use in lieu of euthanasia.

Tara Turner is a student in the Masters program at the Vet School and has been active in this research process. But she is hearing both support and criticism for her efforts.

"We've received support from the public, but mostly we have received angry e-mails from students, telling us that we're making a big deal out of this, and that this story is making us look bad - which I understand - but I don't think they understand the process we went through," Turner said.

Currently, nothing has happened at the School since earlier in January, when a principal investigator was sent to answer students' questions.

"The meeting ended up being the faculty asking questions to the students," said Turner. Turner and a group of peers also tried to talk to Dean Philip Kosch, but due to scheduling conflicts, the meeting has been postponed to the end of the month.

The overwhelming amount of attention and press received in Grafton has been enough to upset local residents as well.

Lifelong Grafton resident John LaPoint was concerned with the speed and pervasiveness that the news spread and how the town was associated with the killings. "I personally feel that this public relations blunder and the continuing backlash against the Vet School does not play well in terms of the town and Tufts trying to recruit new businesses," he said.

Residents have been writing letters to the editor in the local paper, The GraftonNews, voicing their opinions, but as far as LaPoint is aware, that is the extent of the residents' actions against the research.

"I don't think anyone in this community is so na??ve as to not understand that this is both a research and teaching facility, but I am not aware of any news such as this getting out to the general community and news media," said LaPoint. "It has generally been 'happy news' any time there has been a mention of the Tufts Vet School. There have generally been good media relations, in a pro-active way."

Examples of the healing methods used in the dogs' legs were the common "pins and rods" treatment, and the newly developed flexible bone brace. The School's researchers claim that this research has the potential to yield incredible results and is a vital experiment for the animal medical field. If the research is successful, it has the potential to give dogs with tibia fractures a newer and faster healing system.

High-tech bone scanners were proposed, but the veterinarians found this and other non-lethal methods to be insufficient for attaining the results they needed. The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had also called upon the Veterinary School to find more humane treatments.

When Turner and her group approached the veterinarians and administration with non-lethal methods, they were told "it's not that [the non-lethal methods] wouldn't work, but that [the doctors'] method was superior," said Turner. "The doctors didn't give us any scientific reasoning, which was very frustrating."

This experiment at the Vet School has been more or less the last straw for LaPoint and other Grafton residents. While they are pleased to have the Vet School in their town, there has been a gradual build-up of feelings of "isolation" - the Tufts community failing to interact with the Grafton community - on a variety of issues.