Sir Paul McCartney Seeks ‘Help!’ for Dogs at Texas A&M

Rock Icon Urges University to Close Canine Muscular Dystrophy Laboratory

For Immediate Release:
June 26, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Hot on the heels of his tour stop in Texas, Sir Paul McCartney is urging Texas A&M University (TAMU) President Michael K. Young to end TAMU’s muscular dystrophy experiments on dogs, for which golden retrievers are deliberately bred to have a crippling form of muscular dystrophy that leaves them struggling to walk, swallow, and even breathe. PETA has released video footage taken inside the laboratory and, along with muscular dystrophy patients, has pointed out that nearly 40 years of these experiments haven’t yielded a treatment that reverses symptoms of the disease.

“The video footage of golden retrievers in your university’s dog laboratory is heartbreaking,” writes McCartney in a letter sent today. “I have had dogs since I was a boy and loved them all dearly, including Martha, who was my companion for about 15 years and about whom I wrote the song ‘Martha My Dear.’ Please do the right thing by ending the suffering of dogs in TAMU’s muscular dystrophy laboratory and switching to modern research methods instead.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—is opposed to speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

McCartney’s letter to Young follows.

Michael K Young
President
Texas A&M University

June 26, 2019

Dear President Young,

When I was on tour in Texas this month, I was shocked to learn about muscular dystrophy experiments on dogs at TAMU’s campus. I appeal to you to stop allowing this cruelty and to release the animals for adoption into loving homes. My friends at PETA are standing by to help.

The video footage of golden retrievers in your university’s dog laboratory is heartbreaking. I have had dogs since I was a boy and loved them all dearly, including Martha, who was my companion for about 15 years and about whom I wrote the song “Martha My Dear”.

Please do the right thing by ending the suffering of dogs in TAMU’s muscular dystrophy laboratory and switching to modern research methods instead.

Sincerely,

Sir Paul McCartney