Animal Shelter Allows Drug Research

One of the country’s oldest Humane Society chapters allowed veterinary students to conduct drug experiments on shelter cats and dogs before they were put to death.

The Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley, chartered in 1885, stands behind the sedative experiments on 107 animals that left some of them vomiting, drooling and, in one case, caused a seizure.

So does Dr. Edward Ramsay, the University of Tennessee professor who oversaw the work in 1996 and 1998 and published the results in the prestigious Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn.

Even the outspoken People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals supports the intent--find a sedative to calm aggressive, anxious or feral animals so they don’t harm themselves or their handlers.

Vickie Crosetti, executive director of the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley, said she knows some people wouldn’t approve of the experiments.

Count among them the Humane Society of the United States, the related national organization.

“We don’t think it is something that a Humane Society should be doing,” said John Snyder, companion animal program director at the national headquarters. “It undermines the whole theory of sanctuary, safety, shelter.”

Crosetti said her shelter takes in 14,000 animals annually, most of them dogs and cats. Some are wild and unadoptable. As many as 10,000 are euthanized annually.

The shelter has told county and city governments that it is getting out of the killing business Dec. 31. But until then, Crosetti said, “We are forced to euthanize thousands of animals. And if we can find a kinder, gentler way to do this, then I feel that we should.”

The experiments were conducted in three sessions--36 cats and 37 dogs in 1996 and 34 cats in 1998. The animals were randomly picked among those already scheduled to die. They were euthanized immediately after the experiments.

The object was to find a drug to substitute for the nets, traps and nooses commonly used to catch and control wild animals.

The tests also were to find a sedative combination that could be administered in food or sprayed in the mouth instead of by an injection by dart or syringe.

Ramsay, who doctors animals at the Knoxville Zoo, was looking for subjects for his research into sedatives that could replace the steel-jawed traps used to capture wolves. “I approached the Humane Society and said this is what I am interested in; maybe we can do something that would be mutually beneficial.”

The Humane Society agreed to let him experiment on dogs, but said feral cats were its biggest problem. So Ramsay and his veterinary students did studies on both.

They eventually found a mixture that proved effective, as reported June 18 in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Assn. It combined ketamine, a sedative commonly used on cats, and a horse tranquilizer, detomidine.

But there were side effects. Several of the 34 cats vomited and salivated excessively before they became unconscious, though they had gone 10 to 12 hours without food or water. A few had an unusually slow heartbeat.

Researchers wrote that if the sedatives were used “in a clinical setting with non-terminal patients” other drugs might be used to minimize vomiting.

In this case, the cats were monitored for an hour, then euthanized.

Veterinarians say such side effects are common when an animal is drugged. Vomiting before an operation is even preferred by some vets to reduce the chances of choking while unconscious.

The earlier studies, designed specifically to control animals just before they were killed, had more severe reactions. Besides vomiting, three dogs given a pentobarbital sodium combination experienced high anxiety, pacing and barking; three struggled to stand; and one thrashed in a seizure.

“Our first concern is always, Is it going to cause any kind of mental or physical suffering to the animals?” said Dr. Patrick Hackett, a practicing veterinarian and vice president of the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley.

“And looking at what the research project suggested, we found it was not going to cause any mental or physical suffering and it was going to provide us, hopefully, with some information that would be beneficial to animals in the future.”

But Ramsay said lethal doses had not been established for the combinations of drugs he and his students administered. That’s why shelter animals were selected.

“If this was something that was unsafe and the animal died because of the dosage, which did not happen, it [already] was scheduled for euthanasia,” Ramsay said. “That would not be inappropriate.”

Michael Walters, spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Assn., said the three articles Ramsay and his students published passed peer review for the “humane treatment of animals.”

Ali Morris, cruelty caseworker at PETA, said, “Homeless animals should never be used for experimentation for human medicine or when it involves creating illness in otherwise healthy animals.”

But she said “we understand where the researchers and the shelter were coming from in trying to alleviate suffering in animals during euthanasia.”

Snyder agreed the research had merit, but said live-animal experiments at a shelter threaten its credibility with the public.

“If these things are going to happen, let them happen at the vet school,” he said. “They shouldn’t be happening in a Humane Society.”

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The Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley: https://www.hstv.org

The Humane Society of the United States: https://www.hsus.org