Cleveland Clinic Doctor Kills Dog in Sales Training Session

PETA received a whistleblower call from a neurosurgeon about a dog who was to be used in a training session at the Cleveland Clinic later that day. The whistleblower reported that medical-devicemaker Micrus Corporation (maker of aneurysm coils) was requiring its salespeople to attend the dog lab. We quickly validated the whistleblower’s claims, easily identified a silicone model that could have replaced the scheduled aneurysm coil procedure, and immediately faxed a letter to Micrus and the Cleveland Clinic, calling on them to halt the terminal lab session.

News reports appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Associated Press. The Cleveland Clinic issued a statement admitting that the procedure was unauthorized and would have been rejected because the clinic does not allow doctors to use animals for the sole purpose of sales training:

It is our policy to carefully evaluate non-animal alternatives and the minimal use of animals. As an academic medical center, Cleveland Clinic does not allow procedures with animals for the sole purpose of sales training. The situation that occurred yesterday was unauthorized and not in compliance with our policy. Cleveland Clinic officials today notified the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) of the incident. Further, we are conducting an internal review of the matter. We will also be providing physician training and education to prevent this from happening in the future.

But admitting wrongdoing is not enough. We are calling on the following:

• The American Board of Neurological Surgeons and the State Medical Board of Ohio to discipline the neurosurgeon who conducted the dog lab
• The chief of the Cleveland Animal Protective League, an agency that prosecutes cruelty cases, to upgrade his inquiry to a full-fledged investigation
• The Cleveland Clinic to make a substantial financial commitment to the development of non-animal training alternatives
• Micrus to establish a written policy whereby all training sessions will be conducted without the use of animals

What You Can Do
Immediately e-mail (please don’t call—it’s also a busy shelter) and very politely ask for a full investigation into this needless killing of a dog:

Cleveland Animal Protective League
1729 Willey Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44113
contact@clevelandapl.org

Please also e-mail the director of the Cleveland Clinic and ask that he publicly post the results of his internal investigation and work with PETA to fund the development of non-animal training models:

Paul Murray, Director
Animal Research Committee
Cleveland Clinic
9500 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44195
216-444-0543
216-445-4658 (fax)
murrayp@ccf.org

Please e-mail Micrus officials and demand that they institute a formal policy and provide PETA with written assurance that the company will not use animals in future training sessions:

Robert Stern
Executive Vice President
Micrus Endovascular Corp.
821 Fox Ln.
San Jose, CA 95131
408-433-1400
ras@micruscorp.com

Whistleblowers are crucial to helping PETA take action for animals! Don’t hesitate to blow the whistle on cruelty in laboratories!

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