Tag: animals
Blog Posts (16)
June 3, 2009
Swine Reputation To Be Saved! Pig Stem Cells On The Way!
Just as swine flu is about to reach pandemic proportions according to the WHO, pigs are about to have their reputations saved by a recent discovery by Chinese researchers who say that cells from adult pigs have the ability to be coaxed into any type of cell in the body, just like embryonic stem cells.…
April 24, 2009
Moooove Over Elsie. We Know Your Entire Genome Now.
The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says that the sequencing of the cow genome is going to lead to more milk and better beef, but all I can say for sure is that it certainly is an interesting step forward in the world of genomics.…
February 9, 2009
Goats: Not Just for Making Feta Cheese and For Petting Zoos Anymore
Researchers have finally done it. Engineered a goat to save lives. On Friday, the FDA approved a genetically engineered goat that is able to produce in its milk (not for feta cheese making, mind you) a drug that will save the lives of patients born with a rare hereditary deficiency of antithrombin in their blood.…
January 29, 2009
With 47 Million Humans Uninsured, Can We Really Ask About Health Insurance for Dogs?
Well, the Houston Chronicle did today in the article, “Should You Get Health Insurance For Your Dog?” The justification: “Dog owners can expect to pay a few hundred dollars a year for routine veterinary care, but a serious illness could send the bills soaring into the thousands.”
According to the article, fewer than 1% of pets are covered by health insurance in the US and of the 13 pet insurance plans available in the United States, not one of them will cover a pre-existing condition.…
November 26, 2008
Stick with the Turkey, Stay Away from the Chicken
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have reported that those giant trucks flying down the highway with chickens stacked many crates high are actually a hazard to our health.…
October 9, 2008
PA Pooches Get Health Care, But Their Human Counterparts? No Way!
While lawmakers in Pennsylvania are cracking down on “puppy mills” and other unhealthy conditions for the care and raising of dogs in the Quaker State, it seems that these same legislators just couldn’t find it in them to forge a consensus about how to provide care for 20,000 or more uninsured Pennsylvanian people.…
August 7, 2008
You Read It Here First...Booger's Back!
Last week on our website, you saw the news story from the Baltimore Sun about the woman, Bernann McKinney, who cloned her dog, Booger, to the tune of $50,000.…
May 22, 2008
Woof!
You couldn’t make a story like this up. Lou Hawthorne, the guy who was previously involved with an operation called Genetic Savings and Clone (that’s him on the right with cloned dogs), teams up with Hwang Wook Suk — the central figure in one of modern science’s epic frauds — to auction off dog cloning services.…
May 15, 2008
"Victimless" leather, and yet, there's still regret
Here’s something you don’t see every day — or, you know, ever: a living coat made out of mouse stem cells.…
May 2, 2008
Toward test tube meat
PETA recently announced it would award $1 million to the first person who develops commercially viable in vitro chicken meat during the next four years.…
Resources (16)
Committee on Animal Research Ethics
Site of the American Psychological Association Board of Scientific Affairs. Provides information and guidelines about nonhuman animal research.
Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
Site provides information related to the ethical issues in the area of animal testing, as well as arguments for and research on alternatives.
Canadian Council on Animal Care
Website of the organization responsible for determining standards of animal care and use for scientific purposes in Canada. Contains information and links related to animal testing ethics.
The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique
The entire contents of a book by W.M.S. Russell and R.L. Burch, originally published in 1959. Though somewhat dated, this book laid much of the groundwork for the modern animal testing debate.
The ethics of research involving animals
A report published in 2005 by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which seeks to debunk simple "for" or "against" stances on animal testing, instead taking a more nuanced approach.
Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare
From the US Department of Health and Human Services, this is the go-to source for information on the legality of various laboratory animal practices in the United States.
USDA - Government and Professional Resources
Provides an overview of several laws protecting the welfare of animals.
Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics
The Society for Veterinary Medical Ethics was founded in 1994 by a group of veterinarians, biomedical researchers, and academics to promote discussion and debate about ethical issues arising in and relevant to veterinary practice.
Institute for Laboratory Animal Research
ILAR's mission is to evaluate and disseminate information on issues related to the scientific, technological, and ethical use of animals and related biological resources in research, testing, and education.
Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing
Provides news, information, discussion, and resources from the field of alternatives to animal testing. The site was developed by the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University in collaboration with the Altweb Project Team.
News (8)
July 2, 2012 3:59 pm
Firms developing stem cell therapy for ailing pets (The Boston Globe)
Danny Klein, bassist for the J. Geils Band, paid $5 to an animal shelter for an abandoned 2-year-old German shepherd. Two years later, he paid about $3,000 for stem cell injections to treat the dog for severe arthritis. “Any expense is worth the expense when my dogs are involved. They’re like my children,” said Klein, 66, speaking from his Hyde Park home. His dog, Harlow, has come a long way since her previous owner tossed her out of a moving car. Banking on devoted pet owners such as Klein, entrepreneurs have built a flourishing market of veterinary treatments that include pet massage, acupuncture, and pricey stem cell treatments. Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have recently formed a company to break into the small but growing pet stem cell market.
July 2, 2012 3:16 pm
Peter Singer: Menace or moral Hero? (The Jerusalem Post)
Welcome to the contradictory world that surrounds Peter Singer, the Australia-born moral philosopher who has been a professor of bioethics at Princeton University in New Jersey since 1999. Loved and loathed, one thing cannot be refuted: Singer, 65, has provoked debate about controversial issues such as infanticide, euthanasia, eugenics and animal rights.
May 29, 2012 10:44 am
To Save Some Species, Zoos Must Let Others Die (New York Times)
As the number of species at risk of extinction soars, zoos are increasingly being called upon to rescue and sustain animals, and not just for marquee breeds like pandas and rhinos but also for all manner of mammals, frogs, birds and insects whose populations are suddenly crashing. To conserve animals effectively, however, zoo officials have concluded that they must winnow species in their care and devote more resources to a chosen few.
April 15, 2012 11:30 am
As Beef Cattle Become Behemoths, Who Are Animal Scientists Serving? (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Scores of animal scientists employed by public universities have helped pharmaceutical companies persuade farmers and ranchers to use antibiotics, hormones, and drugs like Zilmax to make their cattle grow bigger ever faster. But at what cost?
April 9, 2012 9:42 pm
One Sick Dog, One Steep Bill: It is Ethical to Spend $25000 to Save a Pet? (New York Times)
Is it ethical to spend $25,000 to save a pet? Multiple commentators weigh in on this debate. Our take: pets are loved and valuable parts of the family with whom we share special bonds. But it is not the best use of scarce health resources, for pets or humans, even when the likelihood of success is high.
April 9, 2012 1:09 pm
New Treatments to Save a Pet, but Questions About the Costs (NY Times)
The Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, which performed 34 stent procedures on dogs and cats in 2005, usually to open up clogged passages in the bladder or kidney, created a clinic about two years ago to accommodate rising demand for minimally invasive surgery. Last year, it performed 630 stent procedures. Dr. Suter, at North Carolina State, has performed bone-marrow transplants on 65 dogs, with 10 more now on the waiting list. Many veterinarians offer hospice care, too, mapping out a treatment plan that lets a pet spend the remainder of its life at home, its pain eased through a program of palliative care.
March 26, 2012 1:34 pm
FDA Told to Act on Farm Antibiotics (Wall Street Journal)
A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to restart a process that could limit the use of two types of antibiotics in cattle, pigs and poultry, amid concerns such use leads to antibiotic-resistant infections in humans.
March 18, 2012 3:33 pm
Cloning A Woolly Mammoth – Jurassic Park In South Korea (The Urban Twist)
Professor Hwang Woo Suk from South Korea’s Sooam Biotech Research, once a national hero until his creation of human stem cells was found fake, signed on Tuesday a very ambitious deal with the North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic in Russia. Stem cell scientists are focusing on the extinct woolly mammoth.