Royal’s Story
Laurie Bishop tells the heartbreaking story of her dog, named Royal, who wandered off his property and ended up at her local pound.
Instead of being reunited with Laurie, the local pound keeper sold Royal to the University of Guelph for research. The pound keeper did not hold Royal for the minimum 72 hours required by Ontario legislation and did not contact Laurie, even though Royal was well groomed and wearing tags. Click here to read the chronology of events.
Animal Alliance filed a Freedom of Information to find out how many animals were sent to research prior to the required 72-hour redemption period. The Ontario Ministry responsible refused to give us the requested pound records except the two on the day Royal was sold to the University of Guelph. Click here for our submission to the Information and Privacy Commission, the response by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the response from the University of Guelph.
In 2003, CBC’s investigative journalism TV series “Disclosure” produced an episode about Royal, entitled No Safe Place. All these years later, it is still relevant. Click here to read the transcript.
How Do Pets End up in Research?
In Ontario the acquisition of pet dogs and cats for research is governed by the Animals for Research Act.
How a research facility acquires pet dogs and cats is complex and murky. Pet dogs and cats may be sold to research if:
- the animal is impounded pursuant to a bylaw;
- the animal is held for the required length of time; and
- the animal matches a research facility’s request.
Researchers can even acquire stray animals that are picked up in communities without a bylaw governing stray dogs or cats. It’s no wonder that people are faced with few options to find their pets if they go missing.
As we know from Laurie’s story, her diligence in trying to find Royal did not save him from death at a research facility. She simply could not navigate all the barriers that protected the pound keepers and the researchers and not Royal.
It doesn’t have to be this way
There are municipalities in Ontario that have figured out ways around the legislation, because they are aware of the serious problems caused by selling or donating pets to research. Many municipalities, like Toronto, Brampton, Oshawa, Clarington, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary do not release animals to researchers.
Based on its years of working closely with people staffing pounds and shelters, AAC can testify that shelter personnel are deeply troubled by sending animals to research. Certainly the same would be true of humane society workers and rescue groups.
When animals are sold to research facilities, they are abandoned with no advocate to speak on their behalf. They are destined to an undeserved and cruel fate. Shelter workers and those who advocate for pets know there is no guarantee that the animals will not suffer in cruel experiments – an act of ultimate betrayal.
The sale also undermines municipal efforts to provide effective animal service programmes to their communities, and when the practice is stopped, the improvement in animal services is evident.
Despite community concerns and municipal resistance, Canadian research facilities still want pets from shelters. According to the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) in 2023, 10,075 “random sourced” dogs and cats were used in labs across Canada. The CCAC defines random sourced dogs and cats as “animals [that] are generally obtained from pounds or humane societies, or are the animals of students or clients.”
Many researchers, prestigious research facilities, and medical schools in North America and Europe do not experiment on random sourced animals. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stopped funding research using random cats in 2012 and random dogs in 2014. The decision was based on a 103-page National Academy of Science (NAS) expert report from 2009, commissioned by U.S. Congress entitled, “Scientific and Humane Issues in the Use of Random Source Dogs and Cats in Research“. The report concluded that random sourced cats and dogs were not critical for biomedical research and that using them could damage the reputation of the research enterprise with the public.
The World Health Organization, the Council of Europe and the International Council of Organizations for Medical Sciences all advise against using pets in experimentation.
Countries such as Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have banned the use of lost and homeless pets in research. The European Union passed a Directive 2010/63 that states that “stray and feral animals of domestic species shall not be used in procedures”. Eighteen U.S. States and Washington, D.C. have banned the use of lost and homeless pets in research.
Political silence on the sale of pets to research is an abrogation of the responsibilities that provincial and municipal politicians have to their voters who share their homes with animal companions. Because researchers can exploit the availability of animals in pounds, humane societies, rescue groups, communities without stray dog and cat bylaws, and even breeders and pet stores, the only way to protect pet dogs and cats in Ontario is for the Ontario government to ban the sale of pets to research.
According to the available figures, Ontario is one of the largest users of pet dogs and cats in research.
How You Can Help
- To find out about animals in your area, you can mail your municipality a Freedom of Information request – a sample letter is available by clicking here.
- Support Animal Alliance’s “Project Jessie” programme. Each year we make common cause with rescue groups working to protect dogs and cats, many of whom could be at risk of being sold to research.
Ontario is one of the largest users of pet dogs and cats for research. Please help us modernize the Animals for Research Act to ban the acquisition of pets in research. Speak out to end this practice.
We’ve prepared a sample template for you to use when reaching out to your MPP, however, we encourage you to write in your own, respectful words.