Lily Tomlin Calls on University to End 'Dead Dog Experiments'

Lily Tomlin has written a letter asking Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson to immediately halt research trials the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has been trying to shut down since 2011. (Photo via Pinterest)

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Lily Tomlin knows how to make people laugh.

But the Detroit-born comedian, actor and author isn’t laughing about research at her alma mater, Wayne State University, that results in the death of dogs.

Tomlin has written a letter to university president M. Roy Wilson asking for an immediate suspension of the controversial cardiology research trials. The statement will be delivered as part of a planned protest at the school beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

A copy of the letter provided to the Detroit Free Press states:

“I understand that Wayne State is spending millions of taxpayer dollars using dogs in heart failure experiments that have not benefited human health in any way. I urge you to end these senseless experiments as soon as possible.

“Wayne State says that it complies with the Animal Welfare Act and that these dogs are treated ‘humanely.’ But the Animal Welfare Act does not prohibit experiments, no matter how useless, painful, or wasteful.

“The experiments have shown no potential for saving human lives.”

Tomlin is the third actor in a year to use star power to try to convince the university to stop the National institutes of Health-funded cardiovascular experiments on dogs that the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has dismissed as cruel and lacking scientific validity.

Last summer, “Laverne & Shirley” star Penny Marshall added hers to the chorus of voices criticizing the research. “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Walking Dead” actor Jon Bernthal has also decried the practice in a letter to the university last fall.

Related:

• ‘Laverne & Shirley’ Fights to Shut Down Research on Dogs at Wayne State

In a news release, cardiologist John Pippin of the Physicians Committee said the experiments have failed to yield treatments for human patients.

“Doctors and Detroiters can agree it’s time to halt the dead-end dog experiments and switch to research that will benefit people,” he said.

Neither Wayne State nor Tomlin responded when the Free Press asked for comment. But the newspaper said the university has in the past defended the research, saying the animals are treated humanely, and Wayne State’s record in that respect is exemplary.

Opponents to the research have filed complaints with the USDA, which has regulatory authority over the research program, and dusted WSU’s 2014 spring commencement exercises with leaflets criticizing the experiments.

Surprise inspections conducted by the USDA in 2011 and 2013 found no violations of federal standards, WSU university administrators have said in the past.

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On its web site, the Physicians Committee says the experiments are scientifically flawed and, after two decades, have failed to produce any medical advances offering hope to millions of Americans with heart disease. Despite that, the researchers continue to collect almost $400,000 a year in NIH funding.

The research involves multiple surgeries, artificially induced heart failure and forced runs on treadmills, the group says, adding:

“The surgeries are so invasive and dangerous that as many as 25 percent of the dogs die during or after surgery, before the experiments are completed. All the dogs who make it through the experiments are then killed.”