t was to be expected that there would be a deluge of mail upon the desks of city officials following introduction of an ordinance before the council to make impounded dogs available for medical research.
This isn't the first time this controversial subject has been laid before the city government. A similar measure was shelved last year after anti-vivisectionist elements -waged a deliberate fight to defeat that ordinance.
Basically, the current measure stipulates that "dogs not claimed by their owners and unwanted as pets by other persons shall be made available for scientific studies in universities, hospitals and other scientific institutions designated by the New Orleans board of health."
A public hearing is scheduled Wednesday and a vote is expected the following day at the council's regular meeting.
Briefly, the facts are these:
Some 1200 dogs must be purchased each year by the LSU medical school at a cost of some $5000. THe Tulane medical school has a similar need. And experimental animals are not always available.
At the same time, more than 20,-000 dogs are destroyed in New Orleans annually as a means of ridding the streets of unwanted strays.
Dogs are needed in medical research to help find cures for major diseases and in perfecting new and difficult surgical techniques.
The medical profession has been convincingly outspoken in advancing its plea for a level-headed approach to the inconsistency which finds research institutions going begging for subjects on the one hand, while potential experimental animals are being uselessly de-stroved on the other.
