A military research project that involved the shooting of hundreds of cats in the head in hopes of learning more effective treatment of human brain wounds has been suspended, doctors at the Louisiana State University Medical Center said Friday.
The program, carried out under a $2.1 million contract with the Army, has been denounced by animal rights groups and some physicians as inhumane and useless.The suspension announcement followed reports from Washington that a General Accounting Office review of the program raised questions about its validity. Since 1983, about 700 cats have been anesthetized and shot with pellet guns in furtherance of the research. If the contract were carried to its completion, another estimated 300 cats would be killed by 1991.
While defending the research headed by Dr. Michael Carey, a professor of neurosurgery, the LSU officials said the suspension was "the best institutional stance to take at this time."
"We're not stopping because of animal rights (groups) or their pressures," Dr. Perry Rigby, chancellor of the LSU Medical Center, told a news conference.
Carey chose not to attend the conference, said Rigby who was joined by Dr. Robert Daniels, dean of the School of Medicine.
"We think Dr. Rigby has conducted himself well," Rigby said. "His research has passed all the usual activities well."
Some of the findings of the research will be published in a journal of neurology within the next few months, Rigby said.