COLLEGE STATION, Texas ? A colony of golden retrievers and Labrador mixes lives in an unmarked building at Texas A&M. Few Aggies will ever see them, and many of the dogs will never know another home.
The building looks like a pristine dog pound, with aisles of bare metal kennels and slatted floors. The healthy dogs jump and bark loudly, pushing their cold, wet noses between the bars of their cages in sterile, white rooms. The sick dogs are quiet.
Their location is a secret. University officials say the strict confidentiality shields the dogs and their caretakers from overzealous activists.
But animal welfare groups say the dogs are the ones who need protection from the university.
The dogs live on campus because researchers at Texas A&M use them to study Duchenne muscular dystrophy ? a degenerative disease that?s terminal for mostly young boys. University scientists are seeking a cure, or at least a meaningful treatment to lengthen lives.
A similar version of the disease naturally occurs in golden retrievers, one of America?s most beloved breeds. Since 2012, Texas A&M has quietly become a world leader on Duchenne animal research. But it?s required the university to breed sick dogs ? and sometimes euthanize them ? in the name of science.
It?s a controversial means to an end at a time when medical research on dogs and cats is declining. The laboratory attracts a steady stream of protests, harassment and the occasional death threat from activists desperate to shut it down.
But Texas A&M officials are undeterred, motivated by their mission to save human lives.
?What this is is a philosophical divide among those who do not believe in any animal research and those of us who devote our lives to animals, and realize that at this point animal research is still necessary,? said Dr. Eleanor Green, dean of the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. ?One day, maybe we won?t need it. And it?s becoming less and less, but until that day comes, we believe it?s necessary.?
FOR SEVEN years, the university has cloaked the laboratory in secrecy, denying visitors, rejecting media interview requests, and in some cases, misrepresenting how researchers obtained the dogs for their studies.
Officials last month granted The Dallas Morning News limited access to the dog colony and lab, but banned a reporter from taking any photos or video.
Most important, researchers and vet school officials want the public to know the dogs are treated with great care.
?These animals are loved from the minute they enter this world to the minute they leave it,? Green said.
School officials also want people to know they?re doing the work with human lives in mind ? like Kyle Cox, a 23-year-old graduate student with Duchenne.
