| It is very interesting to read the knee jerk reactions to this research paper. Of particular interest is the first paragraph of the report which says that "greyhounds underwent invasive and distressing surgery without general anaesthetic or any form of sedative" There is nothing in the study whatever to suggest that the greyhounds underwent invasive or distressing surgery without General Anaesthetic. The first part of the study, which was the invasive part WAS carried out under general Anaesthesia. The second part which involved the placement of monitoring catheters into the heart and the jugular vein under local anaesthetic. This is standard practice in most cardiology procedures in humans and does not require General Anaesthesia as it is a NON INVASIVE PROCEDURE, ie there is no cutting of the heart or jugular vein to place the catheter probe which is fed along a special introducing wire from the blood vessels in the groin. Not only were the animals not distressed by the procedure as is hypothesised by the opponents of the experiment but they the dogs appeared unaware of the balloon inflation/deflation process during experiments." The opponents then add a paragraph which states, "Furthermore, in six of the dogs, the same process was conducted after they were given particular chemicals in order to induce dilation of blood vessels, and therefore slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure" as if there was something sinister about this when it was , in fact the core purpose of the study. Why are studies like these carried out. Because unfortunately people like you and me, our parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, teenage children , young children and often babies develop diseases of the heart and lungs which are severely debilitating and sometimes life threatening or fatal. The only way to trial new drugs or operative procedures that mimic ,as closely as possible, the procedures required for humans is to experiment on animals. That does not mean that the researchers do not respect animals but that they consider that human life is more important. Obviously not everyone agrees with this view. I would ask you, however, to reflect the next time that you, a family member or a loved one finds themselves in the very difficult position of needing a Cardiac Bypass operation or a Heart Valve replacement or an operation for Lung Cancer or even a Heart Lung Transplant or you hear of a child who needs major surgery. Do you think that you would ask them not to have the procedure or indeed not have the procedure or the medication yourself, because the knowledge of how to successfully perform this type of work and save your life has been achieved in some way by Animal Experimentation? It is very easy to make glib comments about how awful this is but unfortunately difficult choices are being made every day by people who are trying to do their best to improve the treatment of illness and disease in you and in me David
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