News ISSUES AFFECTING ANIMALS
“Dog Dealers’ Days May Be Numbered” The February 26, 2010 issue of Science discusses the controversy surrounding random source class B dealers and the federal legislation aimed at putting them out of business. Such coverage in the nation’s leading scientific journal is notable, because it is a possible indicator that the research community is willing to accept Congress’s proposed ban on animal dealers
that obtain dogs and cats from shelters and sell them to research facilities. Today, 11 random source class B dealers are operating in the U.S., and the article reports that more than half “are under intense USDA scrutiny.” Furthermore, it states that class B dealers “supply about 3,000 dogs and cats— about 3% of the 90,000 or so used in U.S. research.” While opponents of the ban claim that these dealers provide a valuable service to the research community, critics say that their history of misconduct, including dealing stolen pets and violations to animal welfare laws, has made them a worthy target. “By using these animals, we risk losing our credibility with the public,” says Robert Whitney, a former National Institutes of Health (NIH) official. This echoes the report released last year by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) that concluded, “Class B dealers are not necessary for supplying dogs and cats for NIH-funded research.” The NAS report has given new life to the Pets Safety and Protection Act, legislation that bans these animal dealers. Referencing the report, the bill’s sponsor, Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA), said, “we’re in a better position to pass this bill than we’ve ever been.” Perhaps most telling, the article included an acknowledgement from the owner of Hodgkins Kennels, a class B dealer based in Michigan, who says that they will be shutting down because their business has suffered from the ongoing controversy with class B dealers. She commented, “I feel like we’re on the losing end of this now.”
create a lung culture to study other ailments like lung disease, Scientists in Texas are developing a new way to produce human for example, by exposing the ball of cells to air and fluid. tissue to study cancer in the lab, and they are using magnets to The key to the method, say scientists, is its speed, as the do it. At Nano3D Biosciences, Glauco Souza and his colleagues magnets bring cells together are infecting human cells from brain tumors with in just days. “If you are testing iron oxide, making them magnetic. The cells are This method has the potential 100,000 drugs for toxicity on then placed in a petri dish covered with a magnetic lid, which prompts them to clump together to replace animal tests, includ- 100,000 tissue samples, saving time can really be important,” says and levitate. After just 72 hours, a one millimeter Tom Killian of Rice University in ball of cells is formed, making a three-dimensional ing the use of mice whose cellular cancer culture that more closely mimics brains are infected with human Houston, Texas. Unfortunately, researchers will cancer in humans compared to more traditional cancer cells to study a particu- have to overcome one key problem. two-dimensional cell cultures. three-dimensional tissue cultures, It is believed that this method has the potential larly lethal type of brain tumor. In the cells on the inside of the culture to replace animal tests, including the use of mice become starved of nutrients and whose brains are infected with human cancer oxygen, causing them to die. However, the Nano3D team says it cells to study a particularly lethal type of brain tumor. And scienhas honed in on a possible solution to combat this dilemma. tists are also hopeful that the magnetic method could be used to
2 2010 COMPASSION INTO ACTION
PHOTOS BY VEER
Cancer Study is Magnetic