On Oct. 3, Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidate for Senate John Fetterman accused his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz of animal abuse linked to his past medical research at Columbia University between 1989 and 2010.
This claim was initially published on the website Jezebel in an article titled “Dr. Oz’s Scientific Experiments Killed Over 300 Dogs, Entire Litter of Puppies.”
“Oz’s team conducted experiments on at least 1,027 live animal subjects that included dogs, pigs, calves, rabbits, and small rodents,” contributor Kylie Cheung wrote. “Thirty-four of these experiments resulted in the deaths of at least 329 dogs, while two of his experiments killed 31 pigs, and 38 experiments killed 661 rabbits and rodents.”
After the release of the article, Fetterman tweeted, “BREAKING: Dr. Oz is a puppy killer” and linked the piece for his followers to read.
Veterinarian Catherine Dell’Orto was a post-doctoral fellow in Columbia’s research labs in 2001. She told People Magazine that the dogs and other animals were subject to inhumane treatment. However, Oz did not personally perform experiments on them; he was solely the “principal investigator,” ensuring that there is safety and compliance in the lab.
In March of 2004, when these experiments were occurring, the UDSA ordered Columbia University to pay $2,000 in penalties relating to violations of the Animal Welfare Act. However, Oz was not mentioned in this settlement.
Dell’Orto continued by explaining that she personally witnessed about 30 dogs utilized for the research in which Oz was a principal investigator. She described that the animals’ chests were opened to insert pacemakers in order to prompt heart failure.
“I didn’t think it was good science,” she stated. “I didn’t think the results that came from such experiments were worthy of adding to the scientific database. It was so poorly done.”
In an email sent to People, Oz’s campaign spokesperson Brittany Yannick responded to these claims.
“Dr. Oz was not in the operating room when the operations were done, he wasn’t present during the post-op treatments, no one alerted him of the problem until after the cases were finished and he does not condone the mistreatment of animals,” she said.
Since the publication of the story, Fetterman has repeatedly posted pictures of his dogs on social media and asked supporters to donate to his campaign.
“Hugging them extra tight tonight,” Fetterman wrote in a Tweet. “It would be *so* nice if everyone replied to this thread with pictures of their pups.”
He even released stickers saying, “Dog lovers for Fetterman” to highlight that Oz is an alleged “puppy killer.”
This news was strategically released by the media and Fetterman’s team, as the polls for the PA Senate seat have increasingly grown tighter. As of Oct. 4, Fetterman leads Oz by 6% with a 9-point margin of error. Polls also show that Fetterman has obtained 7% of the Republican vote, and Oz has 3% of the Democratic vote. However, Oz’s suspected involvement in the animal abuse at Columbia may harm his momentum as he attempts to close the gap.
