PETITION TO STOP THESE CRUEL TESTS

[Guest guest]

Dogs burned alive in Chinese labs- detailed information and petition

 

Animal Defenders International (ADI) and our sister group The National

Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) are launching a campaign to shame the Chinese

Government into halting cruel tests involving burning of dogs. The NAVS and ADI

are calling on supporters to send a special postcard to the Chinese Embassy. Tim

Phillips, Campaigns Director for ADI says: " These are perhaps the cruelest

experiments we have ever uncovered, these dogs must have been in almost

unimaginable agony. Worse still, these animals suffered and died in vain, there

are ways of conducting this research without animals, and dogs are simply a bad

research model for human beings. "

 

 

Summary:

 

The horrific series of experiments in which dogs are being burned alive took

place at the Third Military Medical University at Chongqing, China. The

experiments appeared in the Chinese scientific journal: OZhonghua Shao Shang Za

Zhi. NAVS and ADI have uncovered three experiments published since 1999 and

believe the programme of research continues. The 3 experiments involved:-

 

a.. 37 dogs burned with napalm

b.. 26 dogs were burned so severely that their brains swelled

c.. 24 dogs were deliberately scalded and suffered steam inhalation injuries

 

Experiment 1: Dogs burned with napalm

 

The backs of 37 mongrel dogs were burned for 30 seconds with napalm, it is not

known if any anaesthetic was used during this process (none is mentioned) but

the animals were left with third degree burns (7 other dogs were not burned but

used as a control, and killed at the end of the experiment).

 

The pain of napalm is so excruciating that people have died from the pain alone.

The pain felt by the dogs would have been unbearable. The dogs were then kept

alive with their agonising burns for three days. 72 hours of hell.

 

Then all 44 dogs were killed so that their organs could be examined. The

researchers claimed to be examining the effects of resuscitation fluid on

internal organs. It is known that napalm victims suffer from secondary effects

such as blood and internal organs being affected. The research therefore would

be unlikely to be able to differentiate between the effects on tissue of

infusion of resuscitation fluid and the napalm itself.

 

Experiment 2: Dogs burned whilst their brains swelled

 

In order to determine the value of scanning equipment in diagnosing brain

swelling due to excess water (oedema) following burns, dogs were inflicted with

third degree skin burns, over half of their bodies. The researchers described

this as " 50% TBSA of third degree skin burns " - TBSA means Total Body Surface

Area.

 

The dogs, covered in burns, underwent brain scanning at various time-points for

up to 24 hours ­ described coldly by the researchers as " PBHs - Post Burn Hours "

 

As an indicator of how severe these injuries were, 1 in 10 children suffering

50% TBSA burn with inhalational injury would die.

 

Yet, scanning techniques such as MRI cause little or no suffering to people so

it is difficult to understand why the information could not have been derived

from studies of burns patients.

 

Experiment 3: Dogs scalded

 

24 mongrel dogs were used in an experiment in which 40% of their total body

surface area was deliberately scalded, giving them third degree burns, and they

were left alive for up to two days. Some of the dogs died from shock within 36

hours.

 

THIRD DEGREE BURNS

 

Third degree burns are the most serious burn injuries because they destroy all

the layers of the skin; they are so deep that only the edges will heal, the rest

being covered with scars unless skin grafts are performed.

 

WHY THE CHINESE BURN HORROR IS BAD SCIENCE

 

Species differences - burns and wound healing

 

Animals are known to be poor models for humans in studies of burns and wound

healing because of species differences. For example:

 

a.. Attempts to evaluate burn therapy in animals are affected by many

variables, some of which are unresolvable. The most difficult problem is to

produce an experimental burn that is related to human burns. The type and

thickness of skin, type of burn, species variability, environment, possibility

of significantly elevating the core temperature in small animals and the

postburn course all introduce potential sources of error when extrapolating

results of animal studies to human burns. " (Wilson, ID. (1965) Journal of

Surgical Research 5:443-447).

b.. Wound contraction and epithelialization occur much faster in animals than

in humans. " (Abstract: Mtsumara H et al. (1997) A burn wound healing model in

the hairless descendant of the Mexican hairless dog. J. Burn Care Rehabil. 18:

306-12).

c.. When human skin contracts during healing there is greater constriction and

distortion due to a comparative lack of elasticity in human skin. (Jahoda CA &

Reynolds AJ. (2001) Hair follicle dermal sheath cells: unsung participants in

wound healing. The Lancet 358: 1445-1448).

Dogs are not people

 

a.. Many features of anatomy and physiology are different in dogs and humans:

for example, the vagus nerve, the carotid arterial tree, the intestinal

circulation the muscles and the intestines.

b.. If a dog suffers a major hypotensive episode, it dies of toxaemia, whereas

a normal person would not.

c.. The blood clotting mechanism of dogs are different from those of humans. A

dog's reaction to shock is different.

d.. The main blood vessels supplying the dog's brain are different from those

in humans.

e.. 6-azauridine (a cancer drug) can be used in people for long periods, but

in dogs small doses produce potentially lethal results in a few days. (All ref:

Animal Experiments: unreliable, unethical, unnecessary. NAVS 2001).

ANIMALS DO NOT NEED TO SUFFER ­ MODERN NON-ANIMAL METHODS ARE AVAILABLE

 

a.. Using both cloned and bioengineered tissues, living human skin has been

created for use as an experimental model for burns research. Not only does it

replace animal models but it is superior because chemicals, probes and therapies

used on actual burns patients would give immediate and relevant results. (Good

Medicine, Spring/Summer 1998: 14)

b.. The in vitro skin model can be used to study better methods to counter

immune rejection of skin grafts. This is done by burning the engineered skin and

then adding human white blood cells involved in the rejection process to the

culture. (Abstract: Doolin EJ et al. (1999) The effect of leukocyte infiltration

on apoptosis in an in vitro thermal injury bioartificial living skin equivalent

model. J Burn Care Rehabil. 20 (5): 374-6).

c.. In vitro skin models can be used to study the nature of problem of

contraction of skin grafts in burns injuries and how to prevent them. (Abstract:

Chakrabarty KH et al. (2001) Keratinocyte-driven contraction of reconstructed

human skin. Wound Repair Regen. 2: 95-106).

d.. Studies of the cytotoxic effects of chemicals on wound healing have been

carried out on keratinocytes and fibroblasts grown in tissue culture. Also, the

potential of chemicals to cause cell damage beneath the skin surface layer can

be tested on fibroblasts and keratinocytes seeded onto a collagen matrix. For

example, by the use of this test, capsaicin was determined to be unsuitable for

topical application to burns. (Abstract: Ko F et al. (1998) Toxic effects of

capsaicin on keratinocytes and fibroblasts. J Burn Rehabil. 19 (5) 409-13).

e.. The healing of incisional wounds as well as burns can be studied without

the use of animals. Normal human skin biopsies in which either burn or

incisional wounds have been created are incubated in vitro. The skin renewal

process (re-epithelialisation) can be studied at different time points and with

different potential healing agents. (Abstract: Kratz G (1998) Modeling of wound

healing processes in human skin using tissue culture. Micrsc. Res. Tech. 42 (5):

345-50).

f.. Endothelialised skin equivalent (ESE): Several in vitro angiogenesis

(formation of new blood vessels) models have been developed. Of particular

interest with regard to the study of burns and wound healing is a human skin

model which reproduces conditions found in angiogenesis in vivo. The model

consists of endothelial and cutaneous skin cells grown on a scaffold (chitosan

cross-linked collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffold). Other cells, keratinocytes

and fibroblasts, associated with skin and its connective tissue form an

extracellular matrix. Capillary-like structures develop, simulating the

characteristics of angiogenesis in vivo. (Black AF et al. (1999) A novel

approach for studying angiogenesis: A human skin equivalent with a

capillary-like network. Cell Biology and Toxicology 15: 81-90).

 

 

PETITION TO STOP THESE CRUEL TESTS:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/454118246/sign

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have signed the petition and forward to several animal rights

organizations.

 

Is there something else that can we can do to help stop these cruel tests?

 

Thanks