Samir Hussein/WireImagePaul McCartney has lent his support to a campaign launched by PETA, calling for Texas A&M University to end a scientific program that breeds seriously ill golden retrievers so they can be experimented on in an attempt to find a cure.
The dogs in the program are bred to have a severe form of muscular dystrophy, and according to PETA, they struggle to walk, swallow and even breathe. PETA also maintains that the program, which has been in operation for 40 years, has yet to come up with any effective way to reverse the symptoms.
The organization also has released footage that purports to show the inhumane conditions in which the dogs are forced to live.
In a letter he wrote Wednesday to Texas A&M University president Michael K. Young, McCartney reveals that he learned about the canine experiments earlier this month while on tour in Texas, and appealed to Young to “stop allowing this cruelty and to release the animals for adoption into loving homes.”
He continues, “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 [Beatles] song ‘Martha My Dear.'”
McCartney ends his letter by imploring Young to “[p]lease do the right thing by ending the suffering of dogs in TAMU’s muscular dystrophy laboratory and switching to modern research methods instead.”
The rock legend continues the current U.S. leg of his Freshen Up Tour with a show tonight on Phoenix, Arizona.
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