It's an ethical failure I can't undo, Taxpayer.
You probably wouldn't wish it on the worst human criminal…
I participated in taxpayer-funded experiments on dogs.
But before you hate me or judge me, let me explain myself. My name is Dr. Larry Hansen.
I'm a physician and board-certified pathologist. I'm involved with treating patients suffering from brain tumors, Parkinson's, and severe neurologic diseases.
I'm also ranked as one of the top 100 Alzheimer's disease researchers worldwide with over 160 publications in the last 30 years.
Back in medical school, I was instructed to vivisect (from the Latin, "vivi" - meaning, alive, and "scare" - i.e. to cut) and then kill friendly dogs, including a Golden Retriever and a black Labrador Retriever.
The Golden was the "lucky” one. We only cut her open, observed some basic physiologic functions, and killed her.
But Taxpayer, the black Labrador Retriever had it FAR worse...
Then we stuck a needle in her, killed her, and dumped her body in a garbage bag—like trash.
I did it, qualms of conscience notwithstanding, because I was told it was “necessary.”
Well, it turns out this wasn’t true. It has never been the case that doctors could better serve our patients if we had killed more dogs.
In my specialty, Alzheimer’s disease, the drug failure rate is actually 99.6 percent, and the use of animals has recently been referred to as “a cliff over which people push bales of money.”
Taxpayer, dogs aren't trash. Although I wish more than anything that I could, it is not possible to change the past.
But I can do something now... and that’s exactly why I’ve written you this urgent note.
The victims of my ethical failings were a Labrador and a Golden Retriever. That is unusual.
The canine of choice for the animal experimentation industry is usually the beagle.
Have you ever held a beagle puppy in your arms, Taxpayer? I have. They are sweet, trusting, docile, and so eager to please.
They look at you with those big brown eyes, and all they want you to do is love them.
And that’s exactly why experimenters take advantage of beagles. These qualities make it quite easy for professors and bureaucrats in white lab coats to torture them.
It's a shameful betrayal of a 10,000-year-old bond built upon mutual love and loyalty!
Now we have a golden opportunity—but an extremely short deadline—to help save the sweet beagles known as the “Pentagon Puppies”.
Taxpayer, by now, you know all about the torture the Pentagon Puppies may endure:
These tests typically involve thrusting a tube down dogs’ throats to pump the drugs directly into their stomachs. The procedure, which amounts to poisoning, often causes the dogs to vomit, convulse and bleed.
In some cases, puppies as young as one week old have been abused in drug safety tests. Some dogs have their mouths taped shut so they can’t regurgitate the drugs, and some have their vocal cords cut so they can’t bark or cry out in the lab.
At the end of testing, these hapless dogs are killed and dissected.
So, when my friend Anthony Bellotti, President and Founder of the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), invited me to join his Board of Advisors, it felt like I was being given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to right the wrongs of my past.
The WCW team has done more for dogs in labs than just about any other group out there.
We have close ties to Republican and Democratic members of Congress. We work with both sides to cut wasteful spending on the DOD’s dog experiments.
It’s compassionate. It's savvy. It's effective.
It’s how we ended ALL painful dog testing at the Department of Veterans Affairs. That's the first time in American history that dog testing has been shuttered across an entire federal agency.
It's how we de-funded ALL NIH experiments in Russia. Not just Putin’s infamous kitten experiments. But every red cent for every single animal test… across the entire country.
It's how we stopped ALL five of Dr. Fauci's cruel and wasteful hay fever drug experiments on dogs… and saved the lives of six-month-old beagle puppies.
Taxpayer, I know we can do it again for the Pentagon Puppies.
Taxpayer, I can never repay the karmic debt I incurred by needlessly killing those dogs. But I can work with the WCW team to save the Pentagon Puppies and every other dog from the clutches of our own government.
It's past time we end flawed research and mad “science” that betrays creatures hopelessly hard-wired to depend upon human kindness and mercy.
What say you, Taxpayer?
Lawrence Hansen, M.D.
Board of Advisors
White Coat Waste Project
P.S. I love beagles and I loathe government waste. So, I'm repenting past taxpayer-funded dog torture with a secure donation to WCW. And you should too! Taxpayer, will you join me?
Thanks – Dr. Hansen