Being of a somewhat sensitive nature, I generally avoid reading about stories like this, but once I got sucked in I couldn’t stop reading until I was downright livid.  I have never been a fan of using animals for research.   For the most part, I think animals are of a higher moral capacity than their human counterparts, and this story of Queenie the Dalmatian mix is just another testament to the truth in that way of thinking.

Queenie was placed in an animal shelter that carries a contract with R & R Research, a company who has been the recipient of complaints for USDA regulation violations.  The contract allows R & R Research to take unwanted animals for research in exchange for disposing of animal carcasses for the shelter.R & R Research sold Queenie to a doctor doing cardiovascular research.  As a result of these painful experiments, Queenie was injured when a device that was implanted in her body broke, requiring her to be put to sleep.

Using animals for research is bad enough and completely intolerable, but at least animals bred for that purpose know no other way of life.  What of Queenie, and other dogs like her, who ended up in shelters and were sent to be used in research?  Can you imagine the absolute depth of misery they must experience?  Not only are they locked up in cages, they are used in painful experiments, treated as machines, and doomed to never know the loving touch of a human again.

At least for Queenie, the story is over.  She no longer has to suffer at the hands of sadists posing as researchers.  Hopefully soon we will find a way to stop this torture and rely on research methods that don’t involve innocent participants.

On behalf of people with consciences everywhere, I am so sorry, Queenie.