IN FOCUS: With your consent, pets can be used as guinea pigs
Researchers at the animal hospital Kawasaki will be experimenting drugs and treatments on pets with the owners' approval. Use of drugs which are not yet sanctioned for human use have sparked a debate in the veterinary circles.
"It is true we need a hospital that offers specialized medical services, but there should be another way of doing it," says Katsunori Matsuo, director of Setagaya Dobutsu Iryo Center, an animal hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
Pets being an important part of a family, more and more owners are looking for advanced medical surgeries and treatments for their best friends if the need arises. The advancement in medical technology has also morphed the scenario. The new Kawasaki hospital aims at boosting veterinary services in the country.
The initiative is thwarted by the ridiculous idea of transforming pets as lab test animals. Though animals are being used as "testing fleshes" all over the world and the trauma they face inside the "secret cells" is never highlighted. The illogical excuse given by the hospital authorities of taking pet owners permission before trapping them is a 'same bitter pill with a different coat'. The issue must be targeted seriously and researchers should come out with a different method to test drugs instead of exposing the helpless and mum animals to the slow and horrendous killing.
Will you approve your pet to be given that medicine no one is sure of?
