As a physician and a native of Rhode Island who has been practicing medicine for more than 30 years, I care deeply about the heart health of the people of this state. That’s why I take real issue with the cruel and medically unnecessary use of piglets in experiments conducted at Rhode Island Hospital by a Brown University faculty member. 

The experimenters, led by Frank Sellke, M.D., first operate on the piglets, surgically reducing blood flow within the animals’ coronary arteries in an attempt to simulate heart disease. The animals are cut open to expose their hearts and take measurements.

Published studies show that several piglets died due to cardiac events, such as lethal abnormal heart rhythms or bleeding following surgery. The survivors are then fed either sucrose or what Dr. Sellke deemed to be a "moderate" quantity of alcohol—approximately five shots of vodka or three glasses of wine per day. At the end of the study, all of the animals are killed.

These experiments are supposedly aimed at understanding the role of moderate alcohol consumption in preventing heart disease. But the relationship between alcohol intake and the heart is complex, and it has been described in numerous human studies.

Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University should terminate these experiments in favor of a more human-based approach. 

Please join me in urging Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University to end these experiments now.

-Albert Puerini, Jr., M.D.