Subject: Stop Funding Cruel, Wasteful Experiments on Dogs
Dear [Decisionmaker],
I just watched disturbing video footage of dogs who are being used in muscular dystrophy (MD) experiments suffering behind closed doors at your university.
It was distressing to see these animals, all part of Dr. Joseph Kornegay's golden retriever MD colony, struggling to walk and even eat. Drool dripped from the mouths of dogs whose jaw muscles had weakened. Other dogs were seen struggling to consume the thin gruel that they had to subsist on because of their atrophied esophageal muscles and enlarged tongues.
These animals waste away on uncomfortable slatted floors without so much as a blanket. Non-affected dogs used for breeding frantically pace and bite at the cage bars.
I understand that the MD dogs who survive long enough will develop heart problems as the disease finally attacks the cardiac muscle.
I applaud Texas A&M's goal of helping to find a cure for MD in humans. But funding studies in dogs is a misguided effort that wastes precious time and money. Despite decades of testing, these studies have failed to produce a cure or even an effective intervention for MD in humans.
There are far better ways to help MD patients.
I strongly urge Texas A&M to stop MD experiments on dogs, stop breeding dogs, release them for adoption into good homes, and in the future, support only promising, modern, non-animal therapies, such as transplantation of healthy muscle cells into patients with MD.
[Your comments here]
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
[Your name]