250 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
about them, if they have water or food or any care after experiments, or if they 
are kept clean. When the head guys tell you they always use anesthetics, they 
lie. At night I keep thinking about the dogs. I wish you could come out and visit 
here or have one of your reporters visit. Sometimes I have to walk away, I 
feel so sick about the dogs. But my mother says I have to stick it out. 
Trying to produce convulsions in dogs is terrible. I know they wouldn’t let 
you see that, though. Shock experiments, removal of organs, blocking intes- 
tines, or the urine outlet so the bladder ruptures are only run of the mill these 
days. You’d be surprised to hear what professors and some students can think 
up. 
No student would write to any newspaper no matter how he felt about what he 
saw. Even students are getting afraid to talk to each other. 
LETTER FROM LOS ANGELES (PERHAPS UCLA) 
November 1961 
Someone brought the August issue of Popular Dogs to school for the medical 
students to see. Nearly everyone read it, and most of them laughed. Some said 
you must have been hiding behind the walls here. You should get plenty of let- 
ters from them on that, but maybe not. Our professor said for us not to answer 
you, or our letter would be published. 
I would like to subscribe to Popular Dogs for my aunt. I will send a check at 
the end of the month. Do you want me to write about some things that happen 
here? Some of the experiments are OK, but I think you have the right idea about 
inspectors. I know banks are run better, because they don’t know when an exam- 
iner will walk in the door. I know the animal lab would be better all around, 
cleaner and better care given everything that is alive if an examiner or inspector 
might walk in at any time. Some students will take better care of a big animal, 
but the smaller the animal, the less they think it feels pain. Boy, how stupid 
can some kids be? 
My aunt shows shepherds, and I used to help her. She never knew about Popu- 
lar Dogs. Now she’s switching from Dog W orld. 
Letters From Medical Students — Names Withheld by the Editor 
MAILED FROM PHILADELPHIA 
April 1960 
The article by Margo Nesselrod is an understatement if there ever was one 
about the housing and care of dogs. No one — but no one — ever sees the dirty 
cages or how dogs are kept in most labs if he or she is in charge. They leave 
the care and cleaning to the cleanup boys who complain that they cannot do a 
decent job with the stuff they have to work with, wood that is wet so much of 
the time it is rotting and cement that stinks so it never could be cleaned right. 
MAILED FROM EAST CHICAGO, IND. 
April 1960 
We have subscribed to Popular Dogs for a long time and I used to show in 
the children’s handling classes. I took Margo Nesselrod’s article to school and 
many of the students agreed with her. I have clipped dogs’ nails here, but no 
one ever asked me to. Right now I am starting an article for Popular Dogs on the 
care of dogs after major surgery. Imagine, after you have major surgery and you 
are between life and death (and sick as a dog — and I do not mean this as a pun) , 
your little square of cold, drafty cement flooring is cleaned by having a hose 
of cold water squirted over you. The dogs are soaked by this cold water — dogs 
right after and recovering from surgery. No wonder most of the dogs die. But 
no one cares. If they live, within a couple of days or a week, they are used for 
a different experiment. One dog survived seven experiments. 
You should get some pictures of dogs jammed in cages too small. Or dogs 
on cement chained to the walls, both in acute, short- and long-term experiments. 
I’ll give you details on this. 
Tell Margo I read her junior columns and expect to finish another English 
Setter bitch * * * 
( This promised article never arrived. ) 
