The city council today
by a 6-1 vote passed the controversial ordinance allowing the use of impounded stray dogs for medical research.
With little debate, council-men okayed the ordinance with cheers from a crowded council chamber. Schiro Lone Opponent
Only councilman Victor H. Schiro voted against the new law. He called it ''not practical and unworkable."
Councilman Fred J. Cassi-bry served notice he would obtain information from time to time to see whether dogs given to medical schools are properly treated or being abused as charged in a public hearing yesterday.
The council turned down a request from Roy Guste, attorney for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, for a delay until the SPCA could have a meeting.
Schiro yesterday at the hearing in the council chamber raised the question of whether the Louisiana SPCA would co-operate in giving the dogs to laboratories as required by the ordinance.
A procession of physicians from the Tulane and LSU medical schools spoke on major medical advances which have been made through research with animals. They stressed the need for a larger supply of dogs and said the dogs are given the best possible care. Projects Delayed
Dr. Isidore Cohen Jr^ of the LSU departme^ToTsurgery, said several important research projects have been delayed or called off for lack of animals.
"As the work of medical schools increase, the lack will become acute," he said.
Answering charges that dogs .used in research are not given proper care, Dr. Cohen said he had spent entire nights at the hospital to care for dogs on which he had operated in a research project.
Backers of the ordinance did not, however, reply directly to Myers' charges that he has documented evidence of cruel treatment of dogs at Tulane medical school.
Myers said his society's agents reported cases in which dogs which had undergone chest and brain operations had been left unattended in their cages to die. 'Don't Recognize Cruelty*
Dr. Michael Moukhanoff, Avon, N. Y., president of the International Conference Against Vivisection, also spoke against the ordinance. He charged that "vivisectors have become so blunted that they do not recognize cruelty when they see it."
Backers of the ordinance presented five persons, including three children, whose lives had been saved through use of the artificial heart-lung and the artificial kidney. Both instruments were developed through research with dogs.
