Beagle Research Protested

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Beagle research protested

Tumors injected into puppies' brains

 

Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic

 

Researcher Mike Berens

 

By Kerry Fehr-Snyder

The Arizona Republic

Sept. 27, 2000

 

 

Animal-rights activists are demanding that a

researcher at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix

stop injecting tumors into the brains of beagle

puppies, calling the practice outrageous and inhumane.

 

And Arizona State University, which had housed the

dogs up until a year ago, expressed serious concerns

about the project, prompting researcher Mike Berens to

move the animals elsewhere or face the prospect of

having the university cancel its involvement.

 

" This is outrageous animal cruelty, " said Elliot Katz,

a veterinarian and founder of In Defense of Animals.

" There has to be an endpoint to something like this. "

 

The group is planning a demonstration today in front

of the research center to bring attention to the

plight of more than 100 beagles that have died in

Berens' largely unsuccessful effort to create a model

for how brain cancer grows in humans.

 

Berens defended his work as necessary in the fight to

find a cure for malignant gliomas, the most lethal

form of brain cancer.

 

" I'm protesting brain cancer, " he said. " I do that 10

to 12 hours every day. I think brain cancer should

stop. "

 

Activists believe Berens should find an alternative to

using animals, especially beagles, in his research.

 

" I'm most concerned about these dogs, " said Pat

Haight, who has a master's degree in animal learning

and behavior. " I just want the research stopped;

research supported by taxes I pay and my husband

pays. "

 

The National Institutes of Health have awarded Berens

about $600,000 over the past three years to support

his K-9 Brain Tumor Research project. His research has

the approval of both the national agency and Barrow

Neurological Institute, a division of St. Joseph's

Hospital and Medical Center.

 

ASU also had signed off on the research. But that

changed last year when the university's Institutional

Animal Care and Use Committee became frustrated by the

large number of puppies that died or had to be

euthanized.

 

" The survival rates were very low, " said Eddie

Castañeda, chairman of the eight-member committee.

 

The university also was concerned that it was not

allowed to oversee surgeries on the animals, which had

been kept in kennels at the ASU Research Park in south

Tempe, until taken to Barrow for the experiments.

 

Although ASU agreed to house the animals for eight

years, the committee began to look more closely into

Berens' work during the past three years.

 

" There were a lot of discussions about the pace at

which his research was progressing, " Casteñeda said.

" It didn't seem like he was getting any closer to

producing an animal that was a suitable model. "

 

Berens, a cancer researcher for 24 years, patented a

procedure whereby he injects gliomas, cancerous cells,

while beagles are still in utero.

 

His patented technique prevents the fetal puppies from

rejecting the foreign body or being aborted.

 

After the puppies are born, the tumors are removed

from their skin and implanted into their heads by

drilling a small hole into their brains.

 

Berens said all 120 dogs that had the procedure died.

 

" Boy, I would love to say yes, " he said, in answer to

whether any have lived long enough to serve as a model

to study the dreaded disease.

 

" I have to think about the child or the grandmother or

the mother with three children who have this, " he

said.

 

Berens, who owns a sheltie and considers himself a dog

lover, said he understands why animal-rights activists

are upset by his research.

 

" But there has to be some short-term losers here, " he

said. " It's part of the price we have to pay as a

society. "

 

Most cancer researchers use mice.

 

But Berens said that, although a federal project using

mice models for human cancer is showing promise, he

doesn't believe mice are good substitutes for

brain-cancer research because their brains are too

small.

 

 

 

 

 

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