Urge Liverpool University to stop killing greyhounds for dissection

Britain's largest breeder of greyhounds for racing is offering to sell healthy but slow dogs for medical research because the dogs are a financial burden on his business. He already gives about 30 dogs to Liverpool University every year for use in dissection. The university claims such killing is "ethical" because they "only carry out research on tissues of dogs and cats that have died or been euthanised and with the full consent of the animal's owner." Please Take Action to urge the university to set an official policy forbidding researchers from accepting healthy greyhounds for dissection.

I am appalled to learn that the University of Liverpool kills healthy greyhounds for medical research and dissection. I urge the university to immediately formalize a policy forbidding researchers from accepting healthy dogs for dissection.

Charles Pickerling, Britain's largest breeder of greyhounds for racing, gives about 30 greyhounds to Liverpool University every year because dogs who are too slow to race are a financial burden on his business. Raising dogs specifically for the racing industry is bad enough, but then killing and experimenting upon healthy animals simply because they are not fast runners is unethical.

Meanwhile, the statement from Liverpool University that "We only carry out research on tissues of dogs and cats that have died or been euthanised and with the full consent of the animal's owner" implies that animals' lives are of no value except as the property of their "owner." In this case, these dogs are "owned" by a man who brings them into the world specifically for his own profit. If supporting the greyhound racing industry by killing healthy animals (no matter how "humanely" it is done) meets Liverpool University's "highest ethical standard," then the university seriously needs to reevaluate and elevate its standards.

Please end the use of greyhounds in research and dissection at Liverpool University now.