Photo taken by a whistleblower inside a dog experimentation laboratory at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center
A brave Iraq war veteran who works at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Richmond, Virginia has come forward with disturbing new details about the facility where more than 100 dogs are “set to die” in abusive and wasteful forced heart attack experiments and other painful cardiac studies first exposed by WCW and called “torture” by Richmond-area Congressman Dave Brat.
As reported by Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC, the veteran–Todd Woessner–filed complaints and went public after seeing one of the dogs covered in bloody lacerations. He explained:
The one dog had recently had some sort of procedure done where you could see the incisions and the shaved part, and that dog was very distraught
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I have seen a bowl with water and a dog heart in it
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You can tell they are like scared of you, very nervous, distraught, uncomfortable
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I can’t see how anybody who see those dogs, the look in their eyes, and they don’t know what is going on, they’re innocent, God’s creatures
He took a photograph to document the alarming image:
Photo taken by a whistleblower inside a dog experimentation laboratory at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center
He explained,
I don’t think it’s the VA’s job to be doing this to dog’s…I think they should be focusing on taking care of veterans.
Woessner also refused WCW’s whistleblower reward, stating that he wanted to avoid any perceived conflicts of interest and that came forward because it was the right thing to do, not to receive accolades or compensation.
The whistleblower’s union representative also reported that several other employees have expressed “concerns about the animals conditions” and that “they were seeing them in pain, distress.”
The union rep also echoed concerns that the dog laboratories are wasting resources needed to improve veterans’ care,
I have nurse practitioners that don’t have an office space…I have social workers that are tripping over each over.
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They could take the entire third floor, which is huge square footage, get research out of there and utilize that for patient care….The mission of our medical center is to provide care for veterans
Watch the full WRIC exposé below: