A new round of billboards in Lansing and Detroit is calling on Michigan lawmakers to outlaw painful dog experiments at Wayne State University and pass legislation known as Queenie’s Law.
The campaign, funded by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, includes five billboards near the state capital and one on I-75 in Detroit. Each features a beagle next to the message: “$15 Million Wasted on Wayne State’s Dog Experiments? ENOUGH. Pass Queenie’s Law!”
The ads refer to bipartisan legislation introduced last month by Rep. Joe Aragona, R-Clinton Township, and Sen. Paul Wojno, D-Warren, that would ban painful experiments on dogs at publicly funded institutions in Michigan.
The package of bills — HB 4254 and SB 127 — is named after Queenie, a stray dog from Gratiot County who was subjected to seven months of heart failure experiments before being killed at Wayne State.
The billboards will remain up through April 27, with three staying in place until May 25.
Since 1991, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent about $15 million on the university’s canine research that has produced no usable results, according to the Physicians Committee.
“Republicans and Democrats agree we should not be wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to inflict pain on dogs,” Ryan Merkley, director of research advocacy for the group, tells Metro Times. “This is a political no-brainer.”
Merkley says the legislation taps into growing concerns about federal research funding and waste.
“We are currently at a time when people are more skeptical than ever about how the NIH is funding research and the kind of research it is funding,” Merkley said. “This is a perfect case study of research funded by NIH that is demonstrably cruel and clearly unproductive. Wherever you are in the political spectrum, whether you care about dogs or cutting government waste, everybody should get on board with ending these federal experiments.”
Public records obtained by the Physicians Committee describe invasive procedures in which dogs’ chest cavities are surgically opened and wires and catheters are inserted into their hearts. Implanted devices induce heart failure, and surviving dogs are forced to run on treadmills while researchers monitor their conditions. Wayne State has also begun feeding dogs high-fat diets to simulate metabolic disorders that can lead to strokes, according to the committee.
All of the dogs eventually die, either from the experiments or related complications. Some have been found dead in their cages; others have died from internal bleeding or were euthanized due to infections.
In August 2023, the Physicians Committee delivered 104,243 petition signatures to Wayne State’s new president, Kimberly Andrews Espy, urging her to end the dog experiments.
“I hope you can make good use of these,” Merkley told a receptionist at Espy’s office after a campus rally.
At the time, Merkley told Metro Times, “They artificially create heart failure in dogs. Over the course of two to four surgeries, they place numerous devices in and around the heart, around major arteries, and those devices, put next to delicate blood vessels, often cause internal bleeding. We have 15,000 pages of public records showing numerous dogs dying from those devices nicking an aorta, and the dog's chest cavity fills with blood. They find dogs dead in their cages from these experiments.”
Over the past decade, the group has repeatedly called on the university to stop the research, saying the experiments are cruel and haven’t produced meaningful results.
Wayne State, however, has defended the research in multiple statements, saying it is federally approved and aimed at improving treatments for cardiovascular disease.
“Heart disease is the number one killer in America, so the odds are the research is going to benefit your health or the lives of your loved ones,” the university said in a previous written statement. It added that the research is supported by the National Institutes of Health and aims to develop “new strategies for the treatment of congestive heart failure and hypertension.”
The university said it “is committed to the responsible and ethical use of animals in research” and “maintains the highest professional standards in conducting biomedical research, as well as the highest level of care for animals used in the research.”
Still, critics say the experiments have persisted for more than three decades without any clear evidence of clinical breakthroughs. In August 2021, Metro Times reported on billboards installed near campus that featured dogs who had died in the experiments, including Dog #2002, who was euthanized after her chest filled with blood following a second surgery.
“There is a clear pattern of dogs suffering and dying in troubling ways at Wayne State,” 11 state lawmakers wrote in a 2021 letter to then-President M. Roy Wilson. “We are also alarmed that these experiments have been conducted for 30 years without any evidence that they have benefited patients.”
The Physicians Committee and several lawmakers have pointed to viable alternatives to dog testing, including a functioning human heart model developed at Michigan State University, as well as research using donated and diseased human hearts. The Texas Heart Institute ended its use of dogs in 2015, citing physiological differences that made canine research ineffective for human cardiovascular treatment.
“Wayne State has an opportunity to finally end these fruitless experiments and instead focus on research that is human-relevant and that benefits the people of Michigan,” lawmakers wrote.
