LONDON—Animal Justice is elated to learn that St. Joseph’s Hospital is shutting down its cruel experiments on dogs. The secret laboratory tests came to light after a pair of whistleblowers contacted Animal Justice earlier this year to share details of a secret lab at the hospital where dogs were subjected to agonizing experiments.
After extensive discussions with these courageous individuals, Animal Justice went public with St. Joseph’s secret experiments by working with the Investigative Journalism Bureau, whose impactful reporting shone a light on the secretive and cruel experiments.
According to interviews and evidence from whistleblowers shared with Animal Justice, the dogs were surgically fitted with snares to induce prolonged heart attacks lasting up to three hours by choking off blood flow. Some dogs did not survive the procedure and those who did faced prolonged suffering afterward.
“Ending St. Joseph’s cruel and outdated dog research program is a major victory for the innocent dogs who were forced to endure invasive, painful experiments and death behind closed doors,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice.
“These experiments should never have happened in the first place. Animal Justice is now urgently calling on St. Joseph’s to publicly commit to rehoming the dogs who are still alive and still living in cages in the lab. After enduring so much suffering, they deserve a second chance at life. We urge St. Joseph’s and all other institutions to end the use of animals in experiments and embrace modern, humane science,” Ms. Labchuk said.
While the hospital’s decision stops experiments on dogs, other animals—including pigs and rodents—remain confined and continue to suffer in the facility’s laboratories. Animal Justice is calling for an immediate end to all experiments on animals at St. Joseph’s.
Animal Justice and the Beagle Alliance remain ready to help rehome any dogs still at the hospital so they can live out their lives in loving, caring homes—a standing offer we have maintained since earlier this year. Farmed animal sanctuaries also remain available to provide safe, permanent homes for pigs, ensuring they too can spend the rest of their lives free from harm.
“Ending the use of dogs in this research is not the end of cardiac innovation—it’s the beginning of science that advances medical progress, upholds ethics, and delivers results that truly benefit human patients. Cardiac MRI and PET imaging have advanced so dramatically that we can now observe molecular interactions in real time—to track cardiac injury, inflammation, drug responses, and healing as they occur in heart failure patients,” said Dr. Charu Chandrasekera, founder and executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods.
“Around the world, research teams are working with consenting human participants and combining innovative animal-free technologies to explore human biology in unprecedented detail — driving groundbreaking discoveries that directly advance human health,” Dr. Chandrasekera said.
Since Animal Justice launched its exposé, countless Canadians have expressed their outrage over the cruelty of experimenting on animals in these outdated tests. St. Joseph’s is not the only hospital or other public institution in Canada conducting horrific experiments on animals—with public institutions experimenting on tens of thousands of dogs per year.
Until they are stopped, Animal Justice will continue to expose and shut down these experiments wherever they are taking place and has launched a new whistleblower tipline.
Contact:
Josh Lynn
Public Relations Manager
[email protected]
Camille Labchuk
Executive Director
[email protected]