Medical professionals weigh in as Londoners react to secret dog study at St. Joseph's hospital

As animal-loving Londoners express "horror" at a local hospital's use of dogs in scientific studies, medical professionals say there are ethical ways to reduce harm and death in animal-based research.

A story published Wednesday by the Investigative Journalism Bureau, in partnership with Postmedia, found that dogs are being used in a heart study at St. Joseph's Health Care's Lawson Research Institute.

Researchers are secretly inducing three-hour heart attacks in dogs and puppies, the investigative report said, before euthanizing them and removing their hearts for further study. The hospital has kept the research under wraps, wheeling in the animals in blanket-covered crates and playing loud music to drown out the barking, according to the report.

"I was absolutely horrified and I was really, really angry," said longtime Londoner Orreanna Douglas. "The sting of this shock is basically like the stun these poor, suffering dogs are getting. I'm livid that this is going on here.

Douglas, whose children were born at St. Joseph's and who has been getting physiotherapy at the hospital for the last four months, said she cancelled her latest appointment at the hospital due to her frustrations.

"I can't go back now, nor will I until the situation is rectified," she said.

St. Joseph's has refused interview requests. In a statement to CBC News, officials confirmed that dogs, rodents, fruit flies and other large mammals are used in research.

Other Londoners have taken to social media to express their outrage and non-profit organization Animal Justice Canada is planning a Saturday vigil for the dogs outside of the hospital.

Meanwhile, medical experts have differing opinions on the use of animals in scientific study and the ethics that surround the practice.

"[Animals] are needed because they're complex systems," said Pierre Verreault, the executive director of the Canadian Council of Animal Care (CCAC), which develops standards for the ethical use and care of animals in science.

Different types of animals are used to try new medical treatments, ensure medical products are safe to sell, and teach veterinarians different procedures, Verreault said, adding that dogs are often used for regulatory testing purposes.

Research projects must be approved by a panel before being granted funding, Verreault said, and part of that includes presenting a protocol to an animal care committee which conducts an ethical review.

The core of animal research ethics is referred to as the Three Rs: Replacement, reduction and refinement. "Is there an alternative method? If yes, you shouldn't use an animal. Reduction is, 'Do you need to use that amount of animals to conduct research?" Verreault said. The principle, refinement, aims to minimize pain and distress by using pain medication if possible and giving the animal comfort.

St. Joseph's officials have been on the defensive since the report came out. In a note sent to staff and volunteers on Thursday, obtained by CBC News, officials said they "acknowledge how difficult this story is" and that it "evokes strong feelings," but that hospital is "committed to ethical research at every stage of the discovery and innovation process."

"The care, treatment and welfare of animals involved in Lawson research is taken extremely seriously and every possible step is taken to ensure their comfort and minimize suffering," the note to staff said.

However, other experts say there are no ethical methods to animal testing.

"There are [ethics] that are written on paper and there are ones that are actually practiced in a laboratory," said Charu Chandrasekera, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, who previously worked in a lab that studied heart failure using animals.

"The three R's have become rather unjustified. They've become a box-ticking formality in a system more focused on paperwork than real accountability," she said.

"Humans are not 60 kilogram mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs or monkeys. We are not equivalent biologically…The differences are immutable," she said, adding that scientific facilities should look at alternatives to animal testing now that technology has developed.

"Justifying the use of animals because it has worked in the past at a time when new technologies weren't available is like praising the telegraph in the age of Zoom," Chandrasekera said.

In a statement, St. Joseph's said the purpose of its dog research is to look at post-heart attack injury and healing, which cannot be done using other methods.

"These techniques are essential for providing clinical teams with tools that permit proper diagnosis and treatment for heart attacks and heart failure, one of the leading causes of death in Canada," the statement said.

Both experts say there are ways to reduce or rid animal testing in a scientific setting, and the technology is developing daily.

Chandrasekera recommends creating human tissue in a petri dish and creating chemical reactions in test tubes. Verreault's suggestions include developing cells to do research experiments, simulating experiments on chips, or reusing tissue from animals who were used in previous experiments.

"Sometimes it can completely replace the animals in certain types of research, but sometimes it may only replace a certain part of it because an animal is like a human being. It's a very complex system that's still hard to replace," Verreault said.