Dog and Cat Experiments at UCSF

September 5, 2004

DOG AND CAT EXPERIMENTS AT UCSF – For the Year 2003-2004 (FUNDED BY OUR TAX

DOLLARS) – MORE CRUEL AND UNSCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS DISGUISED AS BENEFICIAL –

INSANE “RESEARCHERS " PROTECTED BY CORRUPT UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO HARM

ANIMALS TO PRODUCE FLAWED/USELESS DATA FOR PERSONAL GAIN:

DOG EXPERIMENTS:

Project #03022783 Title: Remodeling in Atrial Fibrillation.

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey E. Olgin. (550 dogs to be used in a three-year

study.)

Purpose: “To develop new therapies that may prevent cardiac arrhythmias from

leading to irreversible heart damage and chronic disease. "

Procedures: 150 dogs would be surgically implanted with one pacemaker. Another

150

dogs will be implanted with two pacemakers. Yet another 150 dogs would be

subjected to

“mitral valve avulsion, " a surgical procedure that tears a portion of the mitral

valve of the

dog's heart in order to cause “mitral regurgitation, " or the blood to flow

backwards.

Another 100 dogs will be used as controls. The 450 dogs who undergo surgery are

expected to survive 4 weeks to 6 months. However, “the only animals that would

survive for up to 6 months are the RAP (rapid atrial pacing) dogs, and this is

very rare. " The dogs “will be monitored weekly, and daily if problems arise. "

Problems may be “infection in pacemaker pocket, signs of heart failure (i.e.,

ascites, lethargy), appearance of continued pain such as crying, flinching from

touch, limping or in any way favoring incision area, or weight loss. " Some dogs

will be given “experimental drugs " ; i.e., Ace inhibitor, PAI-1 inhibitor, TFG-B

antagonist, and Pirfenidone. Thirty percent of the surgically impaired dogs are

expected to die before the project ends. All 550 dogs, if they survive, will

eventually undergo a terminal 8-hour-long electrophysiological study. While the

dogs are under general anesthesia, their chests are cut open. “To support the

heart, a pericardial cradle is made by suturing

each corner of the cut pericardium to the skin. Recordings of the heart's

internal blood pressure, EKG, PQRST intervals, and heart rates are taken for

later analysis. Finally, the dogs will be euthanized and their hearts removed

for optical mapping, cellular electrophysiology and histology analysis. "

Project #03022715 Title: Effects of Congestive Heart Failure on

Electrophysiology and Remodeling.

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey E. Olgin. (200 dogs to be used.)

Purpose: “To understand the mechanism by which heart failure causes atrial

fibrillation [arrhythmia]. "

Procedures: Experimenters plan to implant pacemakers in 160 dogs. 40 dogs will

be used as controls. Three to five days after surgery, the pacemakers will be

programmed to rapidly pace at 200 to 250 beats per minute for 2-6 weeks and/or

until the dogs show symptoms of heart failure. There is the potential for severe

pain as " adverse effects " include " abdominal bloating from heart failure,

pulmonary edema and coughing " and infection from the implantation of the

pacemakers. The dogs will receive analgesics “on an as needed basis. " Pain will

be assessed by “whether the dog flinches when touched, cries out when touched or

in any way favors the incision [from the surgery], or fails to eat and drink. "

It is planned for the dogs to live from 2-7 weeks after surgery. Five percent of

dogs are expected to die due to heart failure during the course of the

experiment. The dogs will undergo weekly EKG's “to assess the degree of heart

failure and/or mitral regurgitation. " All dogs, including

those in the control group, will be euthanized in the end and their hearts cut

out for “optical mapping, cellular electrophysiology and histology analysis " or

autoradiography.

Project #10000961 Title: Noninvasive Assessment of Cardiac Adrenergic Function.

Principal Investigator: Michael W. Dae. (64 dogs/puppies, 75 mice, 64 pigs, 218

rabbits and 80 rats used.)

Purpose: “To better understand the mechanisms leading to sudden [cardiac] death,

to detect patients at increased risk, and to develop improved therapy. "

Procedures: German shepherd/mongrel puppies, one to three days old, undergo

surgical removal of the right or left stellate ganglion (a mass of nerve cells

located in the region between the neck and upper chest). Two weeks later, the

puppies undergo general anesthesia to have their hearts cut out and " processed

for autoradiography and in vitro studies. " Other puppies will be injected with

drugs to cause their nerves to malfunction. The puppies used as controls will

also be killed and have their hearts taken out. Aside from the 64 German

shepherd/mongrel pups, 64 pigs, 218 rabbits and 75 mice and 80 rats meet similar

fates in related experiments.

CAT EXPERIMENTS:

Project #10000833 Title: Development and Connections of the Cochlear Spiral

Ganglion.

Principal Investigator: Patricia A. Leake (47 cats used.)

Purpose: To “improve our understanding of…normal development of the auditory

system and will help to define the critical and sensitive periods of postnatal

maturation in mammals. "

Procedures: Kittens removed via Caesarian sections from their mothers at 58 days

of gestation are injected with tracers immediately or 1-3 days later. Kittens

removed via C-sections at 60 days of gestation have part of their hearing nerves

destroyed using laser or micropipette, and then are killed at 12 weeks in

terminal procedures described below. The mothers will be “retired " as breeders

and/or used in subsequent terminal experiments.

One-day to one-month-old kittens are deafened by 16-25 daily injections of the

antibiotic neomycin sulfate. The deafened kittens will be studied at various

ages up to 12 months to “evaluate the effect on the central projections of the

auditory nerve. " They will undergo terminal surgery when both ears will be cut

open and tracers injected into the inner ears. They are maintained under “light

anesthesia” with sodium pentobarbital for another 4-10 hours to allow the tracer

to work through the nerves. After another round of injections into the inner

ears, they are euthanized.

Another group of deafened kittens, 6-7 weeks old, will receive a cochlear

prosthetic device implant for later chronic electrical stimulation. To prevent

the kittens from scratching and damaging their implants, their hind feet are

declawed. Chronic electrical stimulation is administered 4 hours per day, 5 days

per week for 12-45 weeks. They will then undergo terminal surgery. The outer

part of their brains will be suctioned away to expose the inside. Electrical

responses to stimulation are then recorded within the brain continuously for a

period of 2-3 days, with a team of experimenters working in shifts around the

clock. Finally, a tracer is injected and they are euthanized.

Project # 96013273 Title: Studies of Cortical and Lateral Geniculate Response

Properties and Circuitry Using Simultaneous Many-Cellular Recording.

Principal Investigator: Kenneth D. Miller (26 cats and 24 rats used.)

Purpose: “To understand the functional organization of the visual cortex and

more generally of the cerebral cortex…Simultaneous observation of multiple cells

allows inference of intracellular relationships and circuitry not possible

through observations of single cells.”

Procedures: The cats are anesthetized, placed in a restraining device and hung

by the lower spine with a wire. Muscles around the lower spine are cut away

where the wire enters the body. This is to minimize breathing movements while

recording brain activity. The scalp is cut open, an opening made on the skull

and recording devices inserted. Then the cat is paralyzed with a neuromuscular

blocking drug, which makes it essentially impossible to determine whether the

cat is in pain or not. Furthermore, the lower the anesthetics used, the better

the brain electrical recordings will be. To ensure absolutely no eye movement,

the eyeballs are glued to metal pads that are attached to posts. For the glue

to work, the outermost layer of the eyeball is removed. The cat’s brain is

further cut open to expose the “visual cortex and subcortical structures

(including lateral geniculate nucleus, superior colliculus, and optic nerves,

tracts, and radiations)” into which electrodes would be inserted.

Project # 97014043. Title: Plasticity in the Auditory Nervous System

Principal Investigator: Russell L. Snyder (8 cats, 8 kittens, and 18 guinea pigs

used.)

Purpose: To “examine physiological and anatomical consequences” of destroying

parts of the cats’ spiral ganglion (hearing nerves).

Procedures: In a nutshell, the cats’ (and guinea pigs’) heads are cut open and

their brains mapped invasively by removing parts of the brain and by destroying

nerves. All subjects are eventually euthanized.

Project # 97014344 Title: The Role of Sleep in Developmental Plasticity (36

kittens, 64 ferrets, and 20 mice used.)

Project #10000395 Title: Development and Plasticity of the Visual System (116

cats and 152 ferrets used.)

Principal Investigator: Michael P. Stryker

(Stryker has been torturing animals for more than 27 years. No useful

information has ever been obtained that would help humans by depriving animals

of sight and sleep, then cutting their brains open to look at so-called

“re-wiring. " The experimenters were only able to brag of one conclusion from

their work: sleep and sight deprivation affects brain development – which anyone

with common sense should already know.)

To learn about the details of Stryker's barbaric experiments, please visit:

In Defense of Animals’ web site on Stryker:

http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/vivcampaigns/stryker.html

2001 UCSF News article about Stryker:

http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/2003123026

September 5, 2004

Unless I'm mistaken, the list administrators and the posting rules ask

us not to post the same

item more than once. This is the second time I've seen this posted to

the list. What I really want to

ask, though, is that if you're going to post this to the list, please

do so, by all means, but

provided that you also give information on what people can do about it.

If you don't have information

or a plan to share with the rest of us what to do about it, please ask

people to get involved and help

come up with a plan. Just posting this with no comment is exasperating

and discouraging. At least

mention the monthly vigils that IDA holds at UCSF. As a UCSF employee,

it sickens me that I'm working

for an institution that does this. I've talked with the head of IDA,

and since I'm a UCSF employee, I'm in

a sticky spot as far as being able to get involved directly. Last time

I went to an IDA vigil, security people

on roofs were videotaping and/or photographing all of us. (So please no

flaming about what I could or

should be doing, I do what I can elsewhere). Please read the IDA

literature and website, and go to the

vigils, write to the papers, talk with Matt Gonzalez, and work with

others on this.

Thank you,

Janice

> Message: 7

> Sat, 4 Sep 2004 21:33:30 -0700 (PDT)

> Michelle Tsai <michsai

> Dog and Cat Experiments at UCSF

>

> DOG AND CAT EXPERIMENTS AT UCSF – For the Year 2003-2004 (FUNDED BY

> OUR TAX DOLLARS) – MORE CRUEL AND UNSCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS DISGUISED

> AS BENEFICIAL – INSANE “RESEARCHERS " PROTECTED BY CORRUPT UNIVERSITY

> OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO HARM ANIMALS TO PRODUCE FLAWED/USELESS DATA FOR

> PERSONAL GAIN:

>

September 5, 2004

Hi Janice,

I did not post the same item twice. The second one was different. The first one was on monkeys and the second one was on dogs and cats. From reading your email below, I take it that you are essentially pleased that we were able to report our findings. Thanks for sharing the ideas of action. We definitely need people to write to legislators, the press, etc., as well as tell their friends and relatives about what's happening in their backyards. If anyone has time to do this, please do!

As you said, Vigil for Animals is making plans for upcoming protests. We will endeavor to keep you all posted! Thank you for all your word for the animals!

Best wishes,

michelleJanice Rothstein <gata wrote:

Unless I'm mistaken, the list administrators and the posting rules ask us not to post the sameitem more than once. This is the second time I've seen this posted to the list. What I really want toask, though, is that if you're going to post this to the list, please do so, by all means, butprovided that you also give information on what people can do about it. If you don't have informationor a plan to share with the rest of us what to do about it, please ask people to get involved and helpcome up with a plan. Just posting this with no comment is exasperating and discouraging. At leastmention the monthly vigils that IDA holds at UCSF. As a UCSF employee, it sickens me that I'm workingfor an institution that does this. I've talked with the head of IDA, and since I'm a UCSF employee, I'm ina sticky spot as far as

being able to get involved directly. Last time I went to an IDA vigil, security peopleon roofs were videotaping and/or photographing all of us. (So please no flaming about what I could orshould be doing, I do what I can elsewhere). Please read the IDA literature and website, and go to thevigils, write to the papers, talk with Matt Gonzalez, and work with others on this.Thank you,Janice> Message: 7> Sat, 4 Sep 2004 21:33:30 -0700 (PDT)> Michelle Tsai <michsai> Dog and Cat Experiments at UCSF>>> DOG AND CAT EXPERIMENTS AT UCSF – For the Year 2003-2004 (FUNDED BY > OUR TAX DOLLARS) – MORE CRUEL AND UNSCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS DISGUISED > AS BENEFICIAL – INSANE “RESEARCHERS" PROTECTED BY CORRUPT UNIVERSITY > OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO HARM ANIMALS TO PRODUCE FLAWED/USELESS DATA FOR > PERSONAL

GAIN:>>BAY AREA VEGETARIANS (BAV) is a community group for veggies to network & find support. Event Calendar, Charter, FAQ and More!http://www.bayareaveg.org/Bookmark this page! Don't miss local events!http://www.bayareaveg.org/events.php

September 6, 2004

" This is the second time I've seen this posted to the list. "

" What I really want to ask, though, is that if you're going to post this to the list, please do so, by all means, but provided that you also give information on what people can do about it. If you don't have information or a plan to share with the rest of us what to do about it, please ask people to get involved and help come up with a plan. Just posting this with no comment is exasperating and discouraging. "

Hi folks,

Janice, thanks for taking the words right out of my mouth :-) While last week's post was on monkeys, and this week on dog and cats, at first glance, it did appear to be the very same post since they were both very similar unless you read the details.

So, for anyone who is interested in this issue, Vigil for Animals is one of the groups actively working on this. You've probably seen the posts to the list about this.... I would suggest everyone interested in getting involved in this issue contact him or Michelle, as they can most likely give you some guidance on action for this issue.

From Bob's last post, here's a couple of ways to get involved:

VIGIL FOR ANIMALS MEETING - September 12, Sunday, 11 AM, Downtown, San Francisco, 218 - 9th Street. Please let me know (by e-mail or phone call to 415-751-3756) in advance if you plan to come to the meeting.

NEXT VIGIL AT UCSF - September 16, Thursday, 5 - 7 PM - Canine Companions Welcome (for information re public transportation to UCSF, see below)

As a general rule, for any issues, I think when something distressing to animals is posted, it's best to include info for action that people can take, or ask for advice from others. Otherwise, it's like getting only half the story and only half as effective.

Cheers,

Tammy