National Antivisection Society
Differences between dogs and humans
. Updated: 14 April 2011
Almost all dog experiments are performed on beagles - they are medium sized, easily handled, good natured. They live in concrete pens, with just a scattering of sawdust.
The largest user of dogs is the pharmaceutical industry. A compound for alleviating dementia in humans, and known to cause vomiting shortly after dosing, was tested on beagles by a UK drug company: the dose was given by a rubber tube forced directly into the dogs’ stomachs. One day a dog, already extremely nervous, resisted and struggled. The doser kept trying to force the tube down, but each time it got stuck. The dog became more and more distressed and another technician joined in to restrain the dog. Finally, they succeeded, and the dog was returned to its pen to begin the vomiting cycle.
What a Waste
- The blood clotting mechanisms of dogs are different from those of humans.
- A dog’s reaction to shock is different.
- 6-azauridine (a cancer drug) can be used in people for long periods, but in dogs small doses produce potentially lethal results in a few days.
- Dogs are not prone to developing atheroma (’furring of the arteries’), unlike people. The coronary arteries of dogs are different from humans’ - the arterial connections are smaller.
- Phenylbutazone is metabolised slowly in humans, but in dogs disappears in hours; oxyphenylbutazone has a half life of 30 minutes in dogs, but 72 hours in humans.
- The structure and function of the uterus, and its response to hormones, differs between dogs and humans.
- Gastric dilation problem in dogs has no comparable disease in humans.
- The drug phenacetin is metabolised much more rapidly in humans than in dogs.
- The main blood vessels supplying the dog’s brain are different from those in humans.
