Animals: Use of Pigs for Medical Research

In the Westside Letters of Feb. 5, Margot Lowe (in reference to the picture in a Jan. 15 Westside report on an animal rights group) implies that I (veterinarian John Young of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) am likely to do something painful to a “pet pig” without anesthesia. Margot asks, “Why don’t you tell the real story?”

The real story is that as a veterinarian, I am employed to ensure the health and welfare of all animals used for biomedical research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The pig was bred specifically for research and was no one’s “pet.” It was anesthetized by veterinary professionals, during which an experimental device for heart disease treatment was surgically placed into its heart through a small incision in its neck by human cardiologists.

The photograph in the Jan. 15 report was taken several weeks after the surgery was performed. Several weeks after the photograph was taken, the pig was given an overdose of anesthesia which resulted in a painless death. The pig’s heart was removed and examined microscopically to detect any detrimental effects the device might have caused.

This is the only way currently available to doctors to evaluate experimental treatments and devices for safety prior to using them in humans. Similar types of animal experimentation have yielded medical treatments and devices which currently save hundreds of thousands of human lives each year.

JOHN D. YOUNG, V.M.D., M.S.

Director, Department of

Comparative Medicine

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center