Researchers Defend Use of Pounds' Dogs

Citing the need for dogs in research, several Medical School professors last week testified before the state legislature in an attempt to stop the repeal of the state's controversial dog pound seizure law, which allows laboratories to requisition about 2500 dogs from pounds each year.

Opposition to the 25-year-old law has grown over the last few years as groups such as the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) and the New England Antivivisection Society have generated strong public support for the law's repeal, Mariana R. Burt, the MSPCA's director of ethical studies, said last week.

Pets

"People are afraid that if their dog gets lost and shows up in a pound, it could end up in a Harvard laboratory," she added.

But Dr. A. Clifford Barger '39, pfeiffer Professor of Physiology, said last week that no pets were involved in research. Any lost pet placed in a pound would be safe, he added, because pounds must hold their dogs for at least 10 days, and the University still usually holds the animals for about a month before any research begins.

Strays

"These dogs are just stray animals that nobody wants and would be put to death by the pound anyway," said Barger, who played an important role in the law's passage in 1956. More than 250,000 dogs are destroyed by the state each year, so doctors use only about one percent for research, he added.

If the law is repealed, researchers would be forced to rely on preconditioned dogs bought from dealers or on breeding dogs themselves. This would be more humane, the law's opponents say because dogs raised in a clinical environment would suffer less stress than dogs that had once been domesticated as pets.

Dr. Anthony P. Monaco, professor of surgery, disagreed, saying that it would be significantly more expensive for researchers to breed dogs, while doctors often consider dealers a questionable source because the dogs' origins are unclear.

Kepeal Bill

Last year, the repeal bill passed both the state House and the state Senate but a technicality returned it to the floor until the session ended. This year, both sides claim increased support, but Monaco added that the legislature probably will not reach a final decision before the end of April.