Dog Testing
It’s one of those stories that sounds made up at first: puppies being snuck into a major Canadian hospital where they are subject to induced heart attacks lasting up to three hours as part of scientific research into human cardiac injury.
Once analyzed with the same imaging machines the hospital uses on human patients, the puppies’ hearts are removed for further study and their bodies discarded, often hidden by staff in garbage bags.
The Investigative Journalism Bureau has uncovered a dog testing program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ont., that was kept hidden from the public by design.
Until now.
Using internal documents, images, and interviews with two staff members, we traced the puppies’ journeys from U.S. breeders to the hospital’s back doors and into caged areas where they await procedures that end their lives.
Photo of puppies in a cage that a whistleblower says was taken at the Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph's Health Care in London. (Contributed)
Ontario unveils legislation to restrict invasive medical research on dogs and cats
The Ontario government has introduced draft legislation that aims to restrict invasive medical research on dogs and cats. If passed, the proposed legislation would restrict the practice of invasive experimentation on dogs and cats, except for specified purposes such as veterinary research. The bill also prohibits breeding cats or dogs in Ontario for research purposes.
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In this image a whistleblower says was taken in 2023 at Nucro-Technics, a beagle from Ridglan Farms is examined by lab technicians.
Surgeries without anesthesia, severed vocal cords: The dog farm supplying an Ontario lab
For more than a decade a massive Ontario research lab has been importing dogs for scientific experimentation from a U.S. breeder with a history of serious animal cruelty allegations.
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Nucro-Technics, a private medical research lab in Scarborough, Ont. The lab has used numerous dogs as test subjects. (Robert Cribb/IJB)
Numerous dogs ‘humanely sacrificed’ as test subjects at private lab in Toronto area
The vast majority of Canada’s leading university research labs have stopped using dogs as test subjects in scientific research — a practice that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised to ban with forthcoming legislation. But pharmaceutical testing on dogs continues in lesser-known, often private research firms, including a large Scarborough research facility where the animals undergo sometimes invasive — and fatal — experimentation.
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Puppies at the Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, On. (Contributed by a whistleblower)
Hospital announces end to “inhumane” dog research after IJB investigation
After decades of secretly inducing heart attacks in dogs as part of cardiac research, St. Joseph’s Hospital ended the practice on Monday in the aftermath of an Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) investigation. In a public statement, the Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph’s announced it will “immediately cease research studies involving dogs” following consultation with the province.
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Behind the Reporting: Jenna Olsen on exposing an Ontario hospital’s dog testing secrets
It’s not every day that you get to do your dream job before you graduate university. It’s not every day that you have a hand in exposing clandestine research performed on puppies, and it’s not every day that Ontario’s Premier shuts down the program and vows to end all dog testing because of your work.
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St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ont. (Jenna Olsen/IJB)
Head of secret research lab that used dogs in tests no longer at the Ontario hospital
The head of a research lab that induced heart attacks in dogs as part of human heart research is no longer with St. Joseph’s Hospital where she oversaw the animal experimentation. A week after an IJB investigation into the clandestine dog testing program at St. Joseph’s triggered widespread public and political outrage, the hospital, which shut down the animal testing program Monday on orders from the premier of Ontario, announced Dr. Lisa Porter is gone.
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Photo of puppies in a cage a whistleblower says was taken at the Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph’s Health Care in London. (Contributed)
Puppies secretly tested and killed at Ontario hospital for human heart research
London, Ont. — Surrounded by security staff, an unmarked white van pulls up to a receiving door behind St. Joseph’s Hospital. Scrub-clad staff quickly remove large boxes covered with blankets from the van and slide them into the building. Hidden beneath those blankets are puppies in cages headed for the hospital’s sixth-floor research lab, according to two staffers. Their way out will most likely be in garbage bags.
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