Great article from USA Weekend
Dogs help people in countless ways — from teaming with the visually impaired to sniffing out explosives. Dogs also are serving as models for medical research (much like lab rats), which is good news for people and even better news for dogs. That’s because research dollars to study diseases in animals are more available if the research also benefits people.
Dogs are far better subjects to understand human disease because dogs naturally get many of the same diseases people do, according to veterinary oncologist Stephen Withrow, a specialist within the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. They also make good research subjects because they are more genetically diverse than most lab animals.
And dog research can be quickly translated into human disease treatment. Cancer is a great example: It’s naturally occurring at nearly the same rate in pets as it is in people. The non-profit Morris Animal Foundation, for which I volunteer, is working with the National Cancer Institute’s Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium to come up with cures. Read the full article.
