Wayne State Violated State Law by Killing “Healthy and Adoptable” Dog, Groups Claim

LANSING, Mich.—Wayne State University violated state law when it killed a dog in 2024 instead of offering him for adoption, a medical ethics group and Ann Arbor animal shelter claim in a complaint filed today with the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Humane Society of Huron Valley point to recently obtained documents from the university regarding dog 3002, a brown and white hound who spent 14 months in a “windowless basement cage” before employees “suddenly killed him.” The groups are asking MDARD to investigate the incident as a violation of Teddy’s Law, legislation that took effect in 2023 and requires the adoption of dogs and cats used in laboratory experiments.

Consulting veterinarian Robin Chadwin, DVM, who reviewed dog 3002’s records, concluded, “I do not believe that euthanasia was the appropriate outcome.” Those records reveal Wayne State employees killed him because he would not run on a treadmill as needed for the university’s heart failure experiments, because of a small cut on his paw that was improperly treated, and because the employees misdiagnosed and overstated the importance of bacteria found in a skin culture.

“Wayne State did everything in its power to keep dog 3002 from a loving home,” said Ryan Merkley, director of research advocacy for the Physicians Committee. “The university fabricated reasons to kill him, just like it has fabricated reasons to kill hundreds of dogs in dead-end heart failure experiments.”

HSHV President and CEO Tanya Hilgendorf added, “We would have been happy to work with Wayne State to find a home for this dog. The university never gave us a chance.”

Dog 3002 was purchased for use in experiments conducted by Wayne State since 1991, but he never underwent surgery. Typically, university employees conduct multiple surgeries on each dog in which they cut open the animals’ chest cavities, insert devices in and around major blood vessels, stab catheters into their hearts, insert catheters between the dogs’ spines and the surrounding membranes, and “tunnel” cables and wires under their skin and out between their shoulder blades. The employees also feed the dogs a “high fat diet,” which increases the animals’ risk of stroke. The dogs who survive the intensive surgeries are forced to run on treadmills while experimenters drastically raise their heart rates using implanted devices. This is repeated for days, weeks, or even months.

The experiments are purposely designed to kill the dogs. Public records reveal that dogs at Wayne State routinely suffer infections and severe internal bleeding before they are killed. In some cases, dogs have struggled to breathe as their chest cavities painfully fill with blood. Several dogs have been found dead in their cages.

The experiments are also the target of pending bipartisan Michigan House and Senate bills—HB 4254 and SB 127—known as Queenie’s Law. Rep. Joe Aragona (R-Clinton Township) and Sen. Paul Wojno (D-Warren) introduced the bills, which would prohibit painful dog experiments at publicly funded institutions.

To speak with Mr. Merkley or see the MDARD complaint, please contact Reina Pohl at 202-527-7326 or rpohl [at] pcrm.org (rpohl[at]pcrm[dot]org).