Death Threat Halts Seminar’s Surgery on Dogs

The chief surgeon for the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine has canceled a seminar to demonstrate surgical techniques on anesthetized dogs after receiving an anonymous death threat earlier this week, school officials said Wednesday.

The cancellation was believed to be the first time any experiment or demonstration was called off in a California state school because of complaints of animal abuse in scientific work.

Dr. A. R. Moossa, chairman of the university’s department of surgery, was scheduled to teach a seminar later this month to show practicing doctors how to save time by using staples during operations. The two-day seminar required 36 dogs, which would have been anesthetized during the sessions and ultimately put to death, said university spokesman Paul West.

But Moossa canceled the course after a man called his office and threatened to put a “bullet in his (Moossa’s) head” if he did not “stop the thing with the dogs,” said Sharon Gillespie, the surgeon’s assistant who took the call.

Until Monday, Gillespie said, Moossa had had no “threats to create bodily harm. We have gotten about half a dozen letters protesting using animals in surgery.”

She said the caller did not identify himself or name any animal rights group.

San Diego police Wednesday said they are investigating the death threat.

According to Sandra Bressler, executive director of the California Biomedical Research Assn., a Berkeley-based group, Moossa’s cancellation was the first time any research or demonstration had been halted because of threats about animal research, although others in medical circles are unnerved by the growing militancy of animal rights activists.

“I certainly hope that it is not encouraging to the people who do this sort of thing, because this fellow did cancel his course,” Bressler said. “I can’t say that I blame him. . . . Researchers don’t want to be martyrs.”

The dogs to be used by Moossa were unclaimed in the San Diego County animal shelter and were scheduled to be destroyed anyway, university spokesman West said. Moossa’s demonstration, part of a “postgraduate assembly” sponsored by the school’s department of continuing education, was approved by a special university committee established to monitor the use of animals, West said.

Local animal rights advocates said they were pleased with the decision to halt the demonstration, although they did not condone the death threat that caused the cancellation.

“We’re sorry the reason for cancellation was what it was,” said Susan Mackler, an official of the San Diego chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.