It's one of those stories that sounds made up at first: puppies being snuck into a major Canadian hospital where they are subject to induced heart attacks lasting up to three hours as part of scientific research into human heart failure. 

Once analyzed with the same imaging machines the hospital uses on human patients, the puppies' hearts are removed for further study and their bodies discarded. 

Over the past two months, the Investigative Journalism Bureau has uncovered a dog testing program at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ont., that was kept hidden from the public by design.  

Until now.  

Using internal documents, images, and interviews with two staff members, we traced the puppies' journeys from U.S. breeders to the hospital's back doors and into caged areas where they await procedures that end their lives.  

The puppy experimentation at St. Joseph's is approved and publicly funded, and the hospital says the animals are treated ethically in the service of scientific advancements to reduce long term-harms of cardiac injury. 

But leading experts we interviewed say the use of dogs in such research is no longer necessary or reliable and, some believe, unethical. 

That tension presents a rare opportunity for meaningful public debate about the ethical and scientific role of dogs in research today. It is a rare discussion, in part, because of the secrecy shrouding the kinds of activities happening at St. Joseph's. Research staff say they have to blast music to conceal the sound of barking from patients and hospital staff, and that they are warned not to speak about their work to anyone outside the lab. 

We hope this story helps move the issue beyond scientific conferences and academic journal articles to engage the public.  

It's also worth noting that this story is part of a novel new approach to conducting investigative reporting in Canada.  

The Investigative Journalism Bureau (IJB) and Postmedia entered into a partnership three months ago designed to bring impactful public interest journalism to a national audience.  

The IJB, a non-profit investigative journalism newsroom based at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, uses a collaborative model bringing together senior journalists, academics and researchers to dig deep into high-impact issues while training the next generation of investigative reporters.  

The partnership means you will see the IJB's work regularly across Postmedia’s national network of newspapers, including the London Free Press. We've already published stories together on sexual offences by lawyers, lead in school drinking water, illegal immigration threats at the border and challenges facing mental health care workers in Ontario.
 
There is much more to come.  

Rob Cribb 
Director, Investigative Journalism Bureau 

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