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ARCHIVED - Six Beagle puppies to be adopted following animal drug trial in Madrid
The remaining 32 pups will be sacrificed as part of a liver fibrosis drug study in Spain
The Barcelona Science Park and the University of Barcelona sparked huge controversy last month when they announced that 38 Beagle puppies would be slaughtered in the name of medical research. The project will involve subjecting the dogs to drugs before sacrificing them and carrying out post mortems on their bodies in order to develop a new medication to treat liver fibrosis and myelofibrosis.
Now, a tiny minority has been given a reprieve as the researchers have confirmed that the first six puppies treated with the drug will not be subsequently killed, but will be given up for adoption. However, the remaining 32 dogs are not so lucky, as the scientists claim in the second part of the study, it will be “imperative” to carry out post mortems to study how their tissues react before a trial with people can be considered.
“These are diseases with an increasing incidence – in Europe, liver fibrosis affects approximately 2.1% of the population and myelofibrosos, between one and nine in every 100,000 inhabitants - for which no data or efficient treatment is currently available,” the Science Park has argued. In addition, European regulations dictate that a toxicity study must be carried out on two species of mammals before a drug is tested on humans, and only one of the two animals can be a rodent.
The animal testing is scheduled to be carried out at the Vivotecnia headquarters in Madrid in March, but the plans have resulted in huge protests by animal rights groups across Spain. Not to be deterred, those running the study have "exhaustively" reviewed all the documentation related to the project "to guarantee strict compliance with the regulations at all times".
“Currently there is no known alternative method to the use of these animals that can replace the methodology of this type of research,” the university scientists have insisted.
Image 1: PETA
Image 2: Cruelty Free International
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