Editor’s note: The following is an opinion piece. The writer is not employed by Military Times and the views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Military Times or its editorial staff. Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin shared his thoughts on this issue here.

Controversial dog experiments at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia — where I have worked for more than 37 years and serve as president of the employees’ union (American Federation of Government Employees Local 2145) — have rightly attracted criticism from state and federal lawmakers, veterans, service members and other citizens across the country.

The cost of this research to the hapless dogs involved — pain, distress and death — are obvious. But I recently spoke out because these experiments also come at a huge cost to our veterans, wasting limited resources that prevent them from receiving the timely and quality care that the VA, Congress and Americans have promised them for their sacrifice.

McGuire is one of the only VA facilities in the country still performing harmful research on dozens of dogs each year. Some of McGuire’s experiments involve giving puppies heart attacks. Photos taken of these dogs by an Iraq War veteran and colleague of mine at McGuire are haunting.

I’m not a scientist, but disabled veterans’ advocates and other experts say this research has highly questionable benefits for veterans, and polls show it is opposed by most veterans and their families.

Yet, it continues to indefensibly occupy 60,000 square feet of space here at McGuire.

Anyone who follows issues related to the VA knows that one of the biggest issues facing the agency is access to care. Although VA Secretary David Shulkin has stated publicly that the biggest problem impacting access to care is the federal hiring system, as is often the case when dealing with the VA, its officials in D.C. only tell half the story.

Hiring additional medical professionals makes no difference if there is no office or clinical space for them to occupy. In fact, an October 2015 Government Accountability Office report noted that, in addition to lack of staff, VA suffers from “a lack of sufficient space” that prevents care from being provided. Nowhere is this problem more pronounced than at McGuire.

We have approximately 1,000 additional practitioners at McGuire who lack appropriate space to treat patients. Medical professionals are being forced by VA management to see patients in ad-hoc treatment spaces that don’t afford appropriate privacy. This means doctors and other practitioners often cannot ask veterans sensitive questions about their physical and mental health that are needed to guide medical decisions.

These makeshift arrangements put practitioners at risk of violating patient privacy laws. The lack of space also means fewer patients can be seen, which translates into longer wait times for veterans seeking treatment.

Nurses and others don’t have enough space to see veterans, but McGuire’s dog experimenters have their own exclusive elevator that takes them directly into the lab so that no one can see what they are doing. They have their own delivery entrance so that employees, visitors and patients cannot see dogs being taken in or out of the facility.

Since this issue has been in the news, management has gone to great lengths to keep employees from knowing what is going on by blacking out windows, installing cameras at the doors and restricting access to areas where there are dogs.

The VA bends over backwards to accommodate entrenched dog researchers and leaves veterans and those who care for them hanging out to dry.

VA has no problem opening its doors to the public and the press when it is proud of an accomplishment. Based on the shroud of secrecy it places over our dog research facility, it is clear that what is being done here simply isn’t the ethical and life-saving research VA claims to be conducting.

The House of Representatives has passed legislation to cut funding for the VA’s dog testing, but remedying this problem ultimately doesn’t require a new law, just some moving boxes and a U-Haul. VA leadership can demonstrate its commitment to veterans by evicting this unnecessary dog research, adopting out the dogs to veterans, and creating space for more staff to provide timely care for the American heroes they are paid to serve.

Jennifer Marshall (Courtesy photo)

Jennifer Marshall has worked at the McGuire VA Medical Center for 37 years. She has 27 years of litigation as a union official, including 17 years as president of AFGE Local 2145.

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