Stop of Live Pig Labs NOW

meehan(at)harthosp.org, epellet(at)harthosp.org, lbow(at)harthosp.org, ljacobs(at)harthosp.org

Hartford Hospital
80 Seymour Street
Hartford, CT 06102

Dr. John Meehan, President and CEO
Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, Director, Trauma Program/ATOM
Liz Pelletier, Animal Research Facility Manager/IACUC member
Dr. Laurine Bow, Director, Research Program

Dear Drs. Meehan, Bow, Jacobs and Ms. Pelletier:

I am dismayed to learn Hartford Hospital incorporates live pig labs for
surgery trainees and practitioners in its monthly Advanced Trauma Operative
Management (ATOM) program. I understand animals undergo 14 artificially
induced injuries, including traumatic puncture wounds to the bowel, bladder, kidney, ureter, pancreas, duodenum, stomach, diaphragm, liver, inferior vena cava, spleen and heart.

The five pigs utilized in each 3-hour lab either die during the drills or
are destroyed upon conclusion. U.S. Department of Agriculture documents show Hartford Hospital routinely constrains more than 100 pigs for ATOM
exercises, along with mice, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits and sheep for use in
other experiments.

I respectfully ask you to join over 95% of American medical schools that no
longer use animals in surgical training. Most Advanced Trauma Life support
courses have discarded live animal labs and the American College of Surgeons has removed animal experimentation from its surgery curriculum.

Surgery upon distressed animals delays knowledge pertinent to human health.
While pigs and people share similar organs, each species is so diverse in
terms of its anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and genetics -- animal
studies have endangered public safety with misleading data.

Moreover, researchers cannot separate the effects of stress hormones from
the process under analysis. Findings published in Contemporary Topics in
Laboratory Animal Science (Autumn 2004) reveal animals display quantifiable
stress reactions to routine laboratory practices. These stress effects can
influence the researcher's understanding of scientific discovery.

It is unethical to rely upon old-fashioned animal research when so many
human-applicable, non-animal methods are now available. Research from U.S.
and U.K. universities reveals a pig's intelligence level as above a
three-year-old child. Certainly, these bright, sentient creatures experience great pain and suffering as surgical "models" confined in laboratories.

Please terminate the use of live animals in surgical courses at Hartford
Hospital. Thank you for your valuable time and consideration.

Sincerely yours,