Springborn/Charles River, providers of beagles to Ohio State University. In 2002 & 2003, to date, 54 dogs have been supplied to OSU researchers, the majority going to Robert Hamlin’s lab. Since Springborn is a testing facility, our assumption is that these dogs were probably the control animals. Being a private laboratory, its animal records are closed to activists.

Protocol 02A0166 is hoping to develop a model of asthma (bronchoconstriction) in dogs. Hamlin is looking at 3 drugs (theophylline, terbutaline, atropine) used to treat asthma and hopes to determine which is most effective and at what dose. The 48 dogs are killed at the end of the study. Results will allow Hamlin to proceed with clinical trials using dogs with naturally-occurring asthma (in the Springborn dogs, asthma is artificially induced).

Protocol 02A0095 (Cynthia Carnes/Hamlin) will study oxidants in the heart on heart function, specifically
how the change contributes to atrial fibrillation. The 50 dogs are killed at the end of the study. It is hoped the information learned will lead to “new therapies for man and dog.” While OSU continues to use dogs, other researchers are developing mathematical models for atrial action.


Protocol 97A0207 - Medical Training Wet Lab - A variety of animals are used in this teaching protocol. The primates sections (heart-lung transplant surgery) were moved to another protocol. The rationale states dogs will be used “to practice techniques learned in the classroom setting (because it) is critical to their ability to be able to perform the same technique on a human patient.”


Protocol 01A0037 - Local Delivery of Drugs to the Bladder or Prostate of Dogs - Wientjes
Dogs arrive to this protocol from a variety of sources, but Springborn dogs have been used as recently as October 2002. The use of 246 dogs was approved by ILACUC in March 2001. This research began in 1989 and is funded by NIH. The research is investigating methods of delivery of drugs to the bladder and prostate. The bladder protocol is basically a tissue harvest, while in the prostate protocol the dogs will wear a jacket which delivers a drug solution. The dogs are killed after 4 days.