{"id":97084,"date":"2025-08-26T00:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97084\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T00:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:22:08","slug":"premier-ford-plans-ontario-legislation-banning-scientific-testing-on-pets-after-issuing-harsh-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97084\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier Ford plans Ontario legislation banning scientific testing on ‘pets’ after issuing harsh warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has reiterated he plans to introduce legislation banning medical testing on cats and dogs, expanding on that Monday by adding it would focus on\u00a0experimentation on animals he considers “pets.”<\/p>\n

Ford first mentioned banning scientific research on dogs and cats two weeks ago,<\/a>\u00a0when he vowed to start “hunting down” anyone doing such work after learning of a report citing canine research\u00a0at London’s Lawson Research Institute and St. Joseph’s Health Care London.<\/p>\n

The report by the\u00a0Investigative Journalism Bureau<\/a> (IJB) at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health revealed researchers were inducing three-hour heart attacks in dogs before euthanizing them.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Ford was at a news conference\u00a0in London to make a housing announcement<\/a> when asked by CBC\u00a0about his plans to crack down on using dogs and cats in medical testing.<\/p>\n

He said criteria around the new legislation will be short and simple.<\/p>\n

“You aren’t going to use pets \u2014\u00a0cats or dogs \u2014\u00a0to experiment any longer. Simple as that. We just don’t do that. It’s cruel and it’s not acceptable.<\/p>\n

“They’re part of our families \u2026 Go with the mice, go with the rats, no problem\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but these are pets,” Ford said, adding he’s an “animal lover.”<\/p>\n

\"Beagles,Beagles, as seen in this file photo, were being used by medical researchers in London for a study that saw heart attacks being induced for up to three hours at a time. (PETA)<\/p>\n

CBC\u00a0reached out to the premier’s office to ask if there is a timeline for the new legislation and was told the office is still “looking at what the options are.”<\/p>\n

Days after the IJB report came to light, St. Joseph’s said it would immediately end research involving dogs<\/a>\u00a0“following consultations with the province.”<\/p>\n

Ford did not answer CBC’s question Monday about whether he directly ordered the testing to end, but said he “discouraged it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe they got away with that this long.”<\/p>\n

St. Joseph’s has not responded to several\u00a0CBC\u00a0requests asking for clarification on why the cardiac testing ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The premier also reiterated he plans to hunt down any other scientists doing research on animals going forward.<\/p>\n

“If there’s anyone else out there that’s doing this to animals, come clean because we’re going to catch you,” Ford said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whistleblower out of a job, premier says<\/p>\n

Two whistleblowers who work at St. Joseph’s came forward in the IJB’s report about canine testing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"StSt. Joseph’s Hospital in London has ended all medical testing involving dogs. (St. Joseph’s Healthcare London)<\/p>\n

The premier said he has been texting a whistleblower, who sent him photos of the animals, and has since learned they lost their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That person is a champion. Unfortunately, she’s lost her job and not because [St. Joseph’s] knows who it is,” Ford said, without elaborating further. “It’s frustrating. We’ve got to find her a job.”<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether this is the same whistleblower who spoke with the IJB.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement to CBC, an unidentified spokesperson with St. Joseph’s hospital said it is not investigating who first raised concerns, but ending research involving dogs has meant that employees are being impacted.<\/p>\n

“Although we are working to minimize the impact on staff wherever possible, the cessation of research involving dogs at Lawson Research Institute means both the work and the human resources needs are changing,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The CurrentShould Canada end animal testing in medical research?<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he\u2019ll crack down on labs using cats and dogs in experiments after revelations that beagles were subjected to heart attack studies at St. Joseph\u2019s Health Care in London, Ontario.\u00a0The case has ignited debate over the role of animals in science. We hear from animal bioethicist Andrew Fenton, Western University researcher Arthur Brown, and Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, Charu Chandrasekera, who advocates for replacing animal testing with new technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ontario Premier Doug Ford has reiterated he plans to introduce legislation banning medical testing on cats and dogs,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-97084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}